How do you ask people to help if you see somebody feeling sick?

Question

I'm translating a manual for doctors concerning cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The original text is in Russian. There are 2 phrases I'm confused about:

"Человеку плохо" - it means that a person has suddenly become very ill, maybe unconscious, but not necessarily. For example, you see a man in the street suddenly falling down and you say this.

The text goes something like this:
Step 3. Call for help: "Help, ...!"

I'm thinking about "a person is sick" or "a person in distress", but are they appropriate in this case? If there is no one general phrase for that, then what would you say about an unconscious person? I need something that would look appropriate in a manual.

Please note that all the details are given later, here I need only a very short "general" phrase.

"Жест безопасности" - a gesture of safety or something like that. As far as I understand, it's a gesture a doctor makes before starting CPR: hands stretched in front of the body and then moved to the sides. Is there a standard English equivalent?

Centaurus · Answer

When somebody suddenly falls down and looks unconscious, "call for help" usually means "dial 911 for immediate medical help" (an ambulance and a trained medical team). You are supposed to describe the situation ...

a young/an old man/woman seems to have suffered an attack¹ and passed out²)
"seems to have collapsed³"

...and follow any instructions you receive. "Call for help" doesn't usually mean you're supposed to shout out "help", though it may be the case if you don't have a mobile with you and there are people withing hearing distance.

Assuming you have to start CPR in an out-of-hospital scenario and you are the only provider, you'll have to apply closed chest compression and mouth-to-mouth ventilation if the patient is not breathing. In order to do that safely, the provider kneels down on the right side of the patient, and positions the heels of their both hands, one on top of the other, on the lower third of the sternum just above the xiphoid process. Their arms must be stretched and locked into that position during chest compressions.  That would be called "safe hand and arms position" and it's the only "gesture" I can think of.

1 - "to be stricken by a sudden or acute onset of some kind of illness or its symptoms"

2 - "to fall asleep, faint, or lose consciousness"

3 "if you collapse, you suddenly faint or fall down because you are very ill or weak"

Richard Kayser · Answer

An alternative to collapsed worth considering for your first phrase is incapacitated. From M-W:

incapacitated: deprived of capacity or natural power : made incapable of or unfit for normal functioning

Your example:

"Help, a person has become incapacitated."

drdaanger · Answer

This person

needs medical attention

or

needs medical assistance

or

needs help.

How do you ask people to help if you see somebody feeling sick?

3 Answers

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question