When someone faints

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I have been at a Mass where someone died before. The priest then, paused Mass, as CPR was being performed as so the man could be moved to another place and receive medical attention. When you have medical/emergency people in the middle of the aisle performing CPR, it would be hard to continue Mass. It isn’t that the priest was inattentive, nor insensitive, but that he had to finish Mass. He did rush to anoint him afterwards.
 
Obviously, situations differ. If nobody else had looked after the kid, it would have been the priest’s job. But in general, if an emergency occurs in any public place, whoever is speaking or doing something is supposed to keep going, in order to prevent public panic and rumors. “The show must go on” is not a selfish thing to say; it’s responsible.

(Oh, and reading the Word of God at Mass doesn’t cease to be important if nobody is listening. If that were the case, every lector would have to be a telepath, and stop every five seconds as somebody’s attention wandered.)

But in general, if someone gets sick, it’s the ushers’ job to deal with it. They are the ones who are mobile, they are the ones who can direct emergency personnel and do crowd control. They can also pass messages to Father or the deacon or the servers.

Re: the situation with Mass continuing during treatment of heart attack victim – That’s totally normal. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen stretchers in church. But normally, if it gets to be close to Communion time, the ushers tell Father and they have people pause and pray longer than normal before Communion starts. That also allows Father to receive Communion himself, do some anointing of the sick and bring viaticum, and so forth.

(Of course, if you have more than one priest in the parish, Father up on the altar doesn’t have to do that, because the other priest has already been summoned from the rectory to take care of things.)

If it’s a weekday Mass and Father doesn’t have any servers or deacon to delegate, usually some of the men in the weekday Mass crowd take care of this sort of thing. (And very often, they are men who did their time as servers or ushers, and thus know the emergency procedures that the parish follows.)

Every parish should have emergency procedures and people who know what to do. It shouldn’t all rest on the priest’s shoulders, although obviously he should make sure the parish is set up for emergencies.
 
Seriously… I’d prefer the world NOT stop just because I’m having a medical emergency.
I know this is gross, but what if I have diarrhea? Should the priest stop mass and point me out? I mean it’s a MEDICAL EMERGENCY. I could DIE.
 
I have also been at a Mass where the elderly priest passed out while saying the Mass. We attended to him and he recovered enough to finish the Mass and be taken away by ambulance for a full check up! There was a while I had anxiety when I went to Mass but then I thought, what a beautiful place to die! During Mass. 🙂
 
I know this is gross, but what if I have diarrhea? Should the priest stop mass and point me out? I mean it’s a MEDICAL EMERGENCY. I could DIE.
My roommate had this medical emergency as well and I am MORE then relieved nobody seemed to care that she kept popping in and out of the nave.
 
I have also been at a Mass where the elderly priest passed out while saying the Mass. We attended to him and he recovered enough to finish the Mass and be taken away by ambulance for a full check up! There was a while I had anxiety when I went to Mass but then I thought, what a beautiful place to die! During Mass. 🙂
Did he mandate prayers after mass against the devil afterward? (stjosephschurch.net/leoxiii.htm)
 
My roommate had this medical emergency as well and I am MORE then relieved nobody seemed to care that she kept popping in and out of the nave.
Just goes to show you that the right thing to do is better discerned by someone with practical life experience rather than by someone who merely knows what to do.
 
Just goes to show you that the right thing to do is better discerned by someone with practical life experience rather than by someone who merely knows what to do.
It’s really hard to judge what to do. Especially if it’s not something you’ve experienced before.

I agree with the poster who said emergency protocols should be in place. That is absolutely necessary.

Someone fainting. Having a seizure… things of that nature are not EMERGENCIES! In most cases the faintee or person who had the seizure will recover without any medical assistance. In that case the last thing they need is attention being focused on them. Especially in the case of those who’ve had a seizure - that is an EMBARRASSING thing to do in public. Holy cripes… it’s like a faint x 500.

Heart attack. More serious events that require emergency crews and stretchers? That requires a different approach and perhaps longer prayers and pauses are necessary…

We have to keep things in perspective. If nothing else I hope this post has inspired people to talk about emergency protocols with those who can encourage such things( pastoral council, whatever).
 
Strangely enough an elderly lady passed out during our Good Friday Liturgy. She was sitting in the front pew. Our Priest had just left the altar and walked to the back of the Church to begin the procession before the veneration of the cross and he waited at the back while medical personnel attended to her and our assistant priest anointed her. Once it was clear that she did not need paramedics the priest continued with the veneration of the cross. Minimum disruption occured and thankfully she was back in Church and looking much better on Easter Sunday
 
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