Saving Someone from Themselves

Saving someone from themselves is a risky business.

I just returned from grocery shopping.  As I pushed my cart through the parking lot to my car, I noticed a van which seemed to be circling the parking lot.  I decided the driver must be looking for a spot near the entrance of the grocery store in an effort to minimize walking distance.

The driver, who was the lone occupant of the car, was a heavy set, gray-haired lady.  I have no idea of her exact age….she could be older or younger than me.  She had an oxygen cannula in her nose AND she was holding a cigarette.  Now maybe, the valve on the oxygen tank was closed.  I hope it was.  But having the window cracked open a bit was not going to protect her from the dangerous combination of oxygen and a smoldering cigarette.

I considered approaching the car and saying something like:  “I am really concerned about you.  I am a nurse and have a degree in chemistry, so I understand the danger of smoking around oxygen.  Please don’t run this risk for yourself.”

BUT

I know from difficult experience that not everyone appreciates being saved from their own questionable behaviors.  MYOB, said with anger is sometimes the result of what is meant as helpful, concerned intervention.

When my kids were in town for our anniversary, I happened to be standing close enough to hear someone say to two of them, “I love your mother….she has saved me from myself.”  The person, although younger than me, could be viewed as an authority figure over me.  When I approached him about something he had said which I believed was unwise, I did so somewhat fearfully.  I have had situations like this blow up in my face.  Men in authority are especially likely to resent a woman intervening.  Of course, so are people who already know that what they are doing is not in their best interest.  I suspect the lady in the van has heard it all before.

In any event, I did not approach the woman in the car, and I sincerely hope that the cigarette/oxygen combination won’t blow up in her face…literally!

Addendum:

OK...OK....If I am going to be "literal," oxygen would not "blow up" in this situation.  (Hydrogen would, but not oxygen.)What it would do is support combustion.  So if a very small fire began, it would erupt into a larger one.  The extent of the problem would also depend on the fabric content of the woman's clothing.  So it might give the appearance of blowing up given the right/wrong set of circumstances, but not be a blow up in the strictest definition of that term.  Now I feel better.