Watched a man die today...

[SuperSneak]

Well, I saw my person die when I was about 8...we had just gotten back from salmon fishing and he was remarking on what a nice fish I had caught when he had a heart attack and practically fell on me. Two of my parent's friends rushed over and immediately performed CPR. Eventually, someone sent me off to look for an oxygen tank, but I think it was more to get rid of me than anything else. I remember asking his wife "has he had a heart attack this bad before?"...though the answer became rather obviously "no" not long after.
He turned about 8 shades of blue and purple, foamed at the mouth and flopped around a bunch...not pretty at all.
I think the natural reaction by people is "damn, that sucks" followed almost instantly by the "better him than me" vibe, which probably makes everyone feel a little guilty and stupid--hence the odd behavior.

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by SuperSneak

he was remarking on what a nice fish I had caught when he had a heart attack and practically fell on me.

Must have been a whopper

[Fidel]

Originally posted by paiktis22


there were 7 of us when we went to Ios.

Noone knew eachother very much except that we all knew one guy who was sort of the connective link.

3 girls 4 guys.

by the time thge holidays were over there were 3 couples and the guy who organized it all was left with his d!ick in his hand (no it wasnt me )

Which made for the classic line that we said to him: make sure you organize more holidays and that you then leave us to enjoy them (he was pissed he was left alone )

hahahahaha
i hope you pulled some blonde girls as well. we all know that a second date with a greek girl is a lunch with her family

[Bereta_Eder]

Originally posted by LaRusso


hahahahaha
i hope you pulled some blonde girls as well. we all know that a second date with a greek girl is a lunch with her family

ain't that the truth!

and it was a greek girl, and it was "oriented" towards marriage

although I first I had no idea about any of this

[WhiteElephants]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov


Well, in my situation, considering it was a confined room, the people just could have left. Or they could have at least stopped. It would have been respectful for the man's friend, who was right there helping the doctor with CPR. What would you think if a friend of yours was on the floor dying, and 5 feet away some woman is still chugging away on her stairmaster?

Yet, you didn't leave and stood around rubber necking and then went on to complain about the people who didn't leave saying they just couldn't come to grips with death and what not, yet from another perspective you could argue it was the people standing around gawking and getting their death jollies that are the ones who need counceling.

As for what I would think about a woman chugging away on her stairmaster while my friend was kicking the bucket, I most likely wouldn't think of her at all. I'd be thinking of my friend who's kicking the bucket, not the proper ambience of his death scene.

And what if she was 10 feet away instead of 5 would that be ok? What about 20? What about in the building next door?

What I'm driving at is that it's rediculous of you, or anyone else, to assume their reaction to someone's death is somehow more proper that someone else's. I think you're deluding yourself into thinking you did the "right" thing, when in fact there was no "right" thing to do, because there was nothing you could do.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by WhiteElephants

Yet, you didn't leave and stood around rubber necking and then went on to complain about the people who didn't leave saying they just couldn't come to grips with death and what not, yet from another perspective you could argue it was the people standing around gawking and getting their death jollies that are the ones who need counceling.

As for what I would think about a woman chugging away on her stairmaster while my friend was kicking the bucket, I most likely wouldn't think of her at all. I'd be thinking of my friend who's kicking the bucket, not the proper ambience of his death scene.

And what if she was 10 feet away instead of 5 would that be ok? What about 20? What about in the building next door?

What I'm driving at is that it's rediculous of you, or anyone else, to assume their reaction to someone's death is somehow more proper that someone else's. I think you're deluding yourself into thinking you did the "right" thing, when in fact there was no "right" thing to do, because there was nothing you could do.

I disagree. Even if we assume that the man was doomed there are still people around him who are under an immense amount of stress, his friend, the staff of the fitness club and the emergency personnel as well as anyone else (like Boris) who was merely upset by the proceedings. People under stress need to have an environment which is as quiet as possible, with as little unnecessary movement as possible. This is just a courtesy for those who are merely shocked observers, but for those who are trying like hell to save this man's life it is critically important to keep them from being distracted by excess movement or noise. Even if they fail to save the man, they stand a good chance of not making any errors which might come back to haunt their conscience later.

I work in a hospital and have seen the difference a calm environment can make to all concerned vs a chaotic scene which tends to unpleasantly stay with both medical personnel and friends / relatives alike. While the scene described by Boris pales in comparison to some of the things I have seen in the ER (serious hysteria including fights between patients / relatives etc.), it lies somewhere along the continuum away from optimum.

[Faboba]

****! I knew exercise was a killer!

[Alexander's Horse]

I just hope I've got clean underwear on.

[Faboba]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
I just hope I've got clean underwear on.

Why. If you smell foul people are less likely to loot your corpse.

Seriously though - don't give yourself any daft ideas about dying. Death can often be psychosomatic you know...