B

When I was nine, my best friend nearly choked to death on a gobstopper, a type of hard candy. After several attempts, she coughed up the candy. I haven't had a gobstopper since and I have carried with me a fear of seeing that scene again. Sadly, as I discovered this week, lightning can strike twice.

I was getting off a tube train in London when I noticed a woman coughing. I slowed down,

watching her carefully. I had learned that coughing is rarely a sign that something is terribly wrong. Suddenly, the woman stopped coughing, her eyes widened and she bent over.

When I went over to ask if she was OK, she looked up at me, panicked, and pointed to her back. I started hitting her back and screaming for help. Despite having watched a few videos, I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to correctly perform the Heimlich, a first-aid method, and that I would have to walk away with guilt for her death. But it was just the two of us, alone at an underground station; if I didn't try to help, no one would. Thankfully, much like with my friend, after a few sharp hits, whatever had been stuck in her throat came loose. She thanked me, almost embarrassed, and walked up to the lift. I followed behind her, shaking, with tears in my eyes.

By the time we reached the lift, we had both calmed down. She took my hands and thanked me again, before disappearing. She might have been fine without my hurried hits on her back-I may not have actually saved her life-but at least she knew that someone, a stranger whom she would never see again, cared.

This experience also taught me about the bystander effect, where people assume others will help, leading to inaction. I get it: the fear of making things worse, especially if you have no medical training, is real. Research suggests that when a "medically competent" person is assumed to be available during an emergency, direct help from others is far less likely to occur. Sometimes, though, regardless of who else could be nearby, it may be useful to get involved. So it was with the coughing woman on the tube.