For Ailing Man, Kindness Rides the Blue Line

Passengers on Blue Line trains are mostly anonymous: They get on, they get off, and in between they mostly keep their faces in a book or newspaper, or gaze out the window, avoiding eye contact.

But among them are those who pay attention, the good Samaritans. Often their acts of humanity develop so quietly, so spontaneously, that if you aren’t paying attention, too, you may miss them.

Take, for example, the events on one Blue Line train Tuesday morning.

An African American man was slumped over a seat and looked at first like he might have been exhausted. Or drunk. His eyes were closed, as though he had passed out, and in one hand he clutched a newspaper, most of which was crumpled at his feet.

That sight alone was not surprising on the Blue Line. Street people and the homeless mix on the train with mothers pushing strollers, students on their way to Los Angeles Trade-Technical College and office workers traveling between Long Beach and Los Angeles on one of the nation’s busiest light rail lines. People doze all the time.

But it suddenly became apparent that something was terribly wrong when the man, who wore a medical wrist bracelet that identified him as Michael Rosborough, 43, went into violent convulsions. Spittle drained from his mouth, and his whole body shook uncontrollably for what seemed like long moments.

Riders on the packed train who had been reading books or newspapers, taking a catnap or gazing out the window suddenly became aware that the man was in terrible danger.

Most were shocked by what they were seeing, staring at the man with wide-eyed horror, though not moving to help.

But then a 20-year-old woman from Mexico, wearing jeans and with a pink backpack strapped over her shoulders, sprang into action. She jumped from her seat to assist the stricken man, grasping his head with both hands, holding it upright.

Reynalda Soto later told passengers in halting English that she had worked in a hospital back home in Mexico and knew that it was important to keep someone’s head up when they are having a seizure so they wouldn’t gag and choke to death.

Until the man went into convulsions, Soto said her thoughts had been on her children, ages 2 and 3. She was on her way to a social services office in downtown Los Angeles for financial assistance. “I need help for my babies,” she said.

She was not alone in going to Rosborough’s aid. Moments after Soto began working on the stricken man, Katrina Long, a legal secretary with the county counsel’s office, moved in to lend a hand. As Soto held the man’s head upright, Long wiped and cleaned up his face with napkins.

Long, an African American, praised Soto. “It’s good to see that I live in a place where people, regardless of race, are willing to help other people,” the legal secretary said. As for her own role, she said, “I always hope that if I am ever in the same situation someone will help me.”

Within minutes of going to Rosborough’s aid, Soto and Long had calmed the man, and the convulsions stopped.

The incident occurred just after the train left the Washington Boulevard Station, heading for the San Pedro Street Station in downtown Los Angeles.

A passenger alerted the train operator, who in turn put out an emergency call. Within moments of stopping at the San Pedro Station, city paramedics arrived and the man was wheeled off the train on a gurney to a waiting ambulance, where he was whisked off to County-USC Medical Center.

Paramedics thanked the women. At the County-USC emergency room, physicians said their patient was in fair condition. It wasn’t immediately known where he had come from.

As for passengers on the train, the incident was over almost as quickly as it began.

As the train got underway, the two women who had spent long, agonizing minutes comforting a desperately ill man neither had seen before, went back to their seats without exchanging names.

They disappeared into the crowd when the train reached its last stop at the Metro station at 7th Street and Grand Avenue.