i don't have nor want children, but if it were me and my gf or wife, i'd seal the tube, go in the corridor and we'd die together.
Your forgetting the problem was also technical, not emotional, which began the doctors headache anyway. The doctor defaulted to a technical malady since everything on that floor was to be incinerated, blown out into space, etc. If he kept the door open everybody in the tube, including he, was left to the same fate. The only reason the tube remained stable was the magnetic force of the closed door.
If this were "you", what were you doing evacuating the deck and ready to enter the Jeffries tube without knowing where your child was? You didn't know he/she was on that deck? He had 5 minutes to figure out what was going on. And what the hell sort of best friend doesn't get your child out of there quicker for you? When the main computer went offline, and presumably took all of Voyager's transporters with it, all transporter operators should have been reassigned to the Shuttlebay. Deck 5 should have been completely evacuated of all living material in 20 seconds using shuttle craft transporters. The remaining 4 and a half minutes could have been the EMH deciding what of his equipment would be needed for a triage center and what new recreational algorithm he would be adding to his program as soon as the current predicament was over.
And if every thing wasn't broken they might have been able to use them. (I'm assuming that this happened after everything went to hell.)
I said they were both ensigns. You need to be over 18 to be an ensign. As for the main computer, this show rarely used real problem solving tactics. They're just writers. This reminds me of the person who ripped Magneto for using terrible war strategy on his assault of that island in X-Man: the Last Stand. I suppose the writers could consult a real general about these things, but I suspect that would give away army secrets.
I'd save em then casually stroll around the ship, safe in the knowledge that everything will probably get reset anyway
If it's my child? I'd like to think I was strong enough to shut the door and save everybody, dooming my already doomed child. Am I? No idea. I wouldn't know if I was strong enough to make that decision until I was put in the position myself.
I figure either: 1) The GoF planet was destroyed. 2) The Feds told everyone that it was just a viewer and no one has ever thought to step through it. Maybe the Feds even set up a force-field to protect 'the viewer'. After all, I've never tried to step through my TV. That "Imzadi" stuff about it being the most defended planet in the galaxy...well, obviously it wasn't good enough.
A similar scenario happens to 1st responders in disaster situations--and to parents. Just recently, there was a news report of a house in flames into which the father ran to try and save his kids. He got 2 out. His bare back was on fire & bystanders threw him into the snow to put it out. The bystanders restrained him from returning to try and get the other two kids. They died. Back home, a first responder had to stand and watch an elderly woman get swept away by flood waters. He couldn't get to her. Are these events & choices these folks will live with for the rest of their lives? Absolutely. Do you have any right to judge them for their actions or inactions? No, you don't. Truth is, none of us know how we'd respond until we are faced with life-and-death situations. But if you are trained to do a job, your training is exactly what kicks in when put in these situations.