A woman who helped an injured man in Elgin has spoken of her need to offer words of reassurance throughout the distressing incident.
Last Thursday afternoon, a male pedestrian was struck by falling debris from a building in the centre of Elgin.
An investigation has now been launched into the incident by the building’s owners along with Moray Council’s Building Standards division.
The incident occurred near the Cancer Research shop on the High Street at around 3pm, with onlookers quick to spring into action after the man collapsed onto the ground.
Neem Forder was among those to offer assistance to the injured man.
The 44-year-old spiritual life coach from Glenlivet had just parked her car nearby in the 30-minute zone when she came across the scene.
The man was lying on the ground with a tea towel on the back of his head, with three people already attending to him.
While some people may have continued about their day, Ms Forder felt “compelled” to help drawing on her experience with meditation and relaxation techniques.
She said: “I just felt really compelled to go over and help him and give him some healing as it is the nature of the work I do.
“There were a couple of people around, one was on the phone to the ambulance, and another was crouched down talking to him. A motorcyclist also stopped and came over to help.
“You stop and think ‘Good, there people with him’, but then I was like hang on, he hasn’t got a blanket or anything, so I thought I could help here.
“We went into the charity shop to grab some blankets because I could see he was cold, it was a cold day.
“The charity shop was brilliant, they said just take what you need. I just didn’t want him going into shock, so I checked, and he allowed me to hug him.”
‘Hope he got some comfort from us being there’ says Neem Forder
Ms Forder also helped keep the man calm by gently rubbing his back and telling him he wasn’t alone. She explained she would want that if she was in a similar situation.
While preoccupied with assisting the man, she asked one of the onlookers to watch for more falling debris as the group had not moved the injured man.
The man was conscious and was chatting but failed to mention what actually had happened, but likely a piece of roughcasting had struck him on the head.
The paramedics took around 15 minutes to arrive, but Ms Forder didn’t want to crowd the man, so once he was in the care of the paramedics, she wished him well and headed back to her car.
She wanted to reach out to the man, who she says is doing well following the incident.
She added: “I hope he is recovering quickly and that he got some comfort from us being there.”
“Everyone was dealing with the practical stuff like calling the ambulance.
“I wanted to make sure he was being cared for.”
Probe on Elgin building incident
Moray Council confirmed that the building’s owners are carrying out an investigation into the incident along with Building Standards.
A spokesperson said: “Building owners are responsible for preventing their buildings falling into a dangerous condition.
“Moray Council’s Building Standards team has been liaising with the building owners in this case.
“The owners are currently carrying out investigation works with a view to making the building safe.
“Building standards will be liaising with the owner until this process is complete.”
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