Amanda Vaughn
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, September 5, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Imagine collapsing on the street in unimaginable pain, and crying out for help, only to have people drive and walk right past you, as though you were not even there.

Chris Hammerberg rests in Stanton Hospital after receiving surgery on his stomach ulcer. - Amanda Vaughan/NNSL photo

It sounds like something from a nightmare or on the mean streets of a faceless metropolis, not something that could happen right here in Yellowknife, but that's exactly what happened to Chris Hammerberg.

"It's made me disgusted to say I am a Yellowknifer," Hammerberg said in an interview last Thursday.

The clean-cut 19-year-old looked frail as he slowly shuffled to a sitting room in Stanton Hospital, towing an IV tower that anchored the many tubes and needles connected to him.

However, he had fierce words for the people who had driven past him on Tuesday evening, when he collapsed on Borden Drive after an ulcer burst in his stomach.

"I can't believe that the drugs and alcohol have gotten so bad in this town that people can't tell a medical emergency from a drunken bum," Hammerberg said, adding, "and it's no excuse for not stopping. If I had been an elderly person having a heart attack, I wouldn't have made it."

Hammerberg said he was walking to his friend's house around 8 p.m. on Tuesday evening when he suddenly collapsed on Borden Drive, right near the bus shelter behind the Wal-Mart.

At the time, he had no idea what had gone wrong, only that he was in blinding pain. He said he tried to get back up, and managed to crawl half into the bus shelter, but went down again very quickly.

He was lying half in and half out of the shelter, calling out to passersby for help, and watching them ignore him.

"It was about 20 minutes," he said.

According to Hammerberg, the traffic was fairly busy, and he figures about 15 or so cars drove by him.

"One person even gave me the finger," he said. "What kind of person gives the finger to someone who is on the ground and calling out for help?"

It was still fairly light out at the time, he said, adding that he would have been plenty visible where he was.

"People could see me. They just weren't stopping," he said.

After the many cars, and Hammerberg is pretty sure a pedestrian as well, had gone by, two younger men on bikes stopped to help him.

"They were going to get help, but then a car finally stopped, and took me to the hospital," he said.

Hammerberg, losing consciousness by that point, did not discover the identity of his saviours, but he is tremendously grateful, he said.

When asked if he had a message for the people who helped him, he replied, "I just want to say thank you, your help was so much appreciated. Good things come to those who are good to other people."

And for those who passed by, a warning: "Someone is going to die this way," Hammerberg said, shaking his head.

Having lived in Yellowknife for six and a half years, he was still "very surprised" at the incident, despite being aware of similar things happening in town.

"It's not the first time it's happened here, sadly," said Hammerberg, before relaying a story about a friend who helped an elderly man that had fallen from his walker in the street, only to have cars rushing past him.

"There's this whole concept here that anyone who is on the ground is a drunken hobo," Hammerberg said.

"I was lucky. If it had been the dead of winter, or later in the night, it could have been a lot worse," he said.

"This town needs to be reminded to stand up for each other, and take care of their fellow citizens."