Leaving the Y, an older woman came running through the parking lot and did a faceplant right in the middle of the entrance traffic lane, though I don't think she actually hit her head. Didn't even manage to throw her hands up to catch her fall, feet just sorta went behind her and boom. When I saw her running, it seemed panicky and I was veering toward her to see if she needed help before she fell. Ran for the security guard and then ran back to wave off cars.
Another woman, who clearly had emergency training came right behind me and stuffed a sweatshirt under her face and was checking her out. She was conscious, but making no attempt to get up. She was in fleece pajama pants and inside slippers, thank god she had a good coat. Y called an ambulance, brought out coats to cover her. And basically blocked off traffic.
Quickly became apparent that she wasn't mentally tracking well, unrelated to the fall. She just seemed sort of ...lost. She had a hell of a time with the year.
Anyway, before the ambulance got there, she insisted on getting up and we got her into the Y.
They were trying to figure out if she was meeting people at the Y, or what. She did name one of the Y senior outreach folk (who unfortunately wasn't there tonight, because getting her name was a little difficult.) My guess is memory/medical issues, got on a bus or possibly wandered from the senior apartments -she gave 2 different addresses, said she'd gotten on a bus, then just had gone for a walk- and got a little lost and saw the familiar Y and bolted for it.
They sent us all off, EMTs took over.
She looked familiar. If she's a client/member, I hope they were able to figure that out and contact her people.
I'm so grateful to that other woman. Whereas my usefulness extended only as far as coat, traffic-blocker, security guard hailer and order-follower, she quickly assessed her, kept her as focused as possible, figured out what things we could do that she needed *now* and basically was able to give the EMTs a good mental-vitals rundown. Which might not have made a big difference one way or the other, but it calmed everyone down.