Dropping Dead!

[DarkElfa]

So, its another rainy day in Cincinnati, I'm sitting at the Dermatologist's office preparing to start my first round of photo therapy to help with my psoriasis when this older couple came in. It was obvious that they were in the 60ish range of age and the older man looked like he was in the last days of sickness from some cause unknown to me. His wife and I started to talk, she was a lovely woman, very friendly and kind, like one of those older women who like to shove cookies down your throat and feed you till you burst before hugging you to death. She was sitting across from me and her husband was sitting next to me looking all the more sickly. He was there for photo therapy as well. The woman and I had just started to talk about the price of prescription drugs when the old man suddenly fell forward out of his seat, hit the floor and died. Just like that, no warning, no waiting, he was dead before he hit the floor I imagine and his wife screamed in a way I've never experienced anywhere outside of a horror film. I knelt down to see if there was anything I could do, though I knew deep inside there wasn't. Then the stream of doctors rushed in and I took the opportunity to rush out. To say it was unsettling would be the least I could say about it. I've never had someone buy the farm right next to me and it makes you face your own mortality when it happens. Has anything similar to this happened to any of you? BTW, this happened yesterday morning.

 

[LV Solace]

I've seen someone get shot while I was riding back from work with my mom. it was unnerving and we gunned it out of there. But nothing like your situation, that has to be unnerving, I would be really freaked out after that.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

actually i have, not next to me but pretty close

i was at my cousin's wedding, her grandfather (mother's brother-in-law's father) had flown out against doctor's orders to see the wedding, the doctor told him to just sit there and rest if he did go

well reception came along and after dinner they started the dancing. they did the tradional dances, he danced once with my cousin and then he was dancing more with his wife, i watched him shake a bit, grabbed his chest and feel down

there was 3 ppl doing cpr (which doesn't work very often believe it or not and won't restart the heart) and when the emt's arrived they turned off the audio on the defib

he did end up dying but i have two observations on this

1. he died a very happy man, around family, dancing with his wife and seeing his granddaughter getting married

2. they got to combine the 2 largest drinking customs in irish culture a wedding and a wake

i personally don't find death all that bad, i know i'm going to die at one point and i'd rather have ppl laugh and joke and have a good time after i die rather than cry and be upset. i was at a friend's funeral recently and his daughter said he would be the first one to crack a joke and get ppl laughing especially at his funeral

 

[DarkElfa]

Well, it did freak me out for sure, I've never seen anyone die in person and to have it happen so suddenly and right next to me almost made me wet myself.

 

[Ultrajoe]

I've seen a guy jump off a building, that was just disgusting.

I shoot a lot of rabbits, he sort of exploded like they do... now that was conflicting, and it took me about a month to start shooting rabbits again when i realized the reason i had been shooting them in the first place, they rip up the countryside.

 

[wilsonscrazybed]

I used to live in logging camps in Alaska, and it is a fairly dangerous job. I remember seeing the bodybag of someone who had been crushed by a tree. Being only 13 at the time it was more than a little disturbing, though I didn't feel that "mortality" that you're describing until my close friend of mine was stabbed to death by a prostitute.

I had to identify the body the same day, and the woman whom had killed him. At the time it was hard. I remember feeling overwhelmed by emotion. But, the worst part of the whole ordeal was having to tell other people what had happened. For a week every encounter with one of his friends was an epic ordeal.

There is also a sort of mortality you feel when you walk away from a bad car crash. I've been in three, and sworn never to take another taxi.

 

[Dealin Burgers]

I can't imagine what that would have been like. Though i do agree with Cleverlymadeup.

 

[John Galt]

Being in driver's ed., they're constantly showing us horrific and brutal crash scenes. It seems strange that so much of the curriculum is based on scaring us. While it does wonders to conquer teenage senses of invulnerability, it's also very unnerving to watch. I think it might even have a desensitizing effect on teens when it comes to death. I can't help but wonder what the side effects from being exposed to this sort of thing will manifest themselves as on the students.

As for my own personal experience, I've stayed in a hotel in a "less-than-wholesome" section of New Orleans while on a school trip and during one particular night I was awoken by gunshots in an alley behind my room. This was probably one of the strangest things I've experienced. While the sound of guns is constantly played in movies and games, there's something weird about hearing them in real life in a situation in which you know someone is trying to kill.

 

[stompy]

I'm sorry, but I've never been in a situation like that. I mean, I've heard of stuff like this, but being the sheltered suburban guy I am, I really don't expect myself to enter these kinds of situations anytime soon. Though, I have family that can drop down dead at any minute, so, well, I'll see...

 

[x434343]

My uncle almost died of not having a liver. Now he needs a kidney...

Heh, I think playing vidjagames has dulled me to this ALOT. I don't really care. Sorry to hear you freaked out, but in the end, that guy didn't affect me.

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

That must have been very unnerving for you. I think I might have freaked out in your position, if only for the suddenness of it, though generally death does not bother me much--suffering bothers me tremendously, but not death. I feel sorry for the guy's wife, but honestly, I hope I go as quickly, and in such mild and commonplace circumstances, and with the person I love there in the same room.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

I would have been more shocked at the randomness of it than the "seeing a man die" factor, from the way you typed it, it literally sounded like he just died and fell over...like his clock stopped ticking.

Hell with a situation THAT random the only thing you could really do is attempt CPR, or call an ambulance.

 

[Larenxis]

Unfortunately I've never witnessed a human-being drop dead on the spot.

Uh...

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

Unfortunately I've never witnessed a human-being drop dead on the spot.

Uh...

Well you obviously didn't read the last sentence because that one is also weird.

Get over it, it's Necroswanson and text is a ****y way to communicate so we can't detect if someone is being sarcastic, serious, morbid...whatever - chances are, it's "dark humor."

 

[PurpleRain]

Unfortunately I've never witnessed a human-being drop dead on the spot.

Uh...

Well he is the Necro here. Crap, I think I killed the mood here.

I've never seen a person die before but I've watched my dog die which is just as scary. Other then that I've also seen my cat bleed outout of her mouth and nose, and I mean gushing. She's still alive thankfully.