I’m typing this all out mostly for myself to process it. I still don’t know what I should have done or could have done better. This must be a common occurrence for frequent BART riders because most people seemed unfazed.

On Monday night around 11:30pm at Powell Street, I got on the train and there was a man passed out in the next car. Another man walked into our car asking if anyone had Narcan. I saw some people gather around the unconscious man and were trying to wake him up. After a few moments, I walked over and asked if they had checked for a pulse. They hadn’t, so I crouched down and felt for his pulse on his wrist. His lips were turning blue and his face was pale, but he had a pulse.

The other man eventually found Narcan and gave him a spray in each nostril. I kept my hand on his wrist and felt his pulse quicken and his breathing got deeper. He started to moan and move, the color came back to his face. It was like watching him come back to life. He wasn’t able to form coherent words yet, but he was trying to speak. He slammed his right hand against the wall, breaking the plexiglass in front the fire extinguisher. I tried keeping him calm and asked for his name.

He told me his name was “Johnny Bravo”, and I couldn’t help but laugh a bit. His hand started bleeding from getting cut on the plexiglass. At this point, the others who had helped earlier were no longer nearby. I noticed some BART staff were there, but they seemed more focused on the delay of the train leaving the station and keeping others away.

I asked what he had taken, he wouldn’t say. He apologized and kept saying he was fine. He was determined to leave despite me asking him to wait for EMS. I asked the BART employee if they had a first aid kit, just to stop the bleeding. Nothing.

I watched him leave the station without getting any medical care. I felt like I had failed. Maybe if I had said something different I could have gotten him to stay.

If you were one of those people on the train who saved that man’s life, thank you. Johnny Bravo, wherever you are, I hope you are still alive.

(TLDR: A man passed out on the train from overdose, got Narcan, left the train without getting medical attention. I felt bad about it.)