It hurts to see

(Trigger warning: suggested domestic abuse)

I saw a woman around 22-27 years old crossing the street and limping. She was walking away from her (apparent) boyfriend who was angrily screaming and punching bushes. As I was driving by with a client of mine in the backs seat (i'm a social worker), I was concerned and kept my eyes in the rear view. She collapsed to the sidewalk and started convulsing so I immediately turned around and drove to check up.

There were two older gentleman that were there first, and the boyfriend fled the scene. She had a heart issue and was having a ptsd triggered panic attack from the (nearly physical) argument she just had with her boyfriend.

As i'm there, I coached her through some breathing exercises. I noticed she had 999 tattooed with a halo above it so I complimented it, knowing that it had some kind of spiritual/numerological significance to her. She was able to calm down but I swear, the guys that intervened first had no clue what they were doing. They kept pressing her for information and I was like "let her breathe and relax!" My client offered her towel she was going to use for water therapy and I placed it under her head. She was able to calm down after they stopped pressing her so much, which was relieving. When the cops and ambulance arrived, they focused on the older gentleman and ignored me, like bruv, i'm a social worker here and I saw the whole thing go down... whatever though, as long as she got the help she needed.

I work with the elderly so I don't see this often. I hear about it all the time, but seeing it is a different experience. All I could think of was "is her so called boyfriend going to be an issue in the future?" There honestly isn't much I could do other than offer my help in the moment... I genuinely wish I had more of a capability to help her...

I hope she gets any help she needs... from the guy that is, and any others like him. Health wise I trust she'll be fine, though. Panic attacks are terrifying but not usually life-threatening.

In the end, the ambulance took her away to take care of her. Fuck, though... what a fucking world we live in.