# How Horrible is the most Horrible Thing You've Ever Seen? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 24, 2013, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272 "2013-05-24T23:01:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/21 "2013-05-25T03:33:44Z")
> [@Poysyn](#): > > I’ve told this, I think a few times here - a good friend hit and killed by a car. We were crossing the street together and two guys were drag racing. She just didn’t run as fast as I did when we realized they were going much faster than first thought. There was blood, and catastrophic injury. Myself and a passerby got her heart beating again, they took her off the machines the ext morning. Yeah, I remember this **Poysyn**. You responded to a thread I started a few years back. It’s kinda haunted me since then actually. I have no idea how I would cope with this scenario. I couldn’t recall your username. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/22 "2013-05-25T03:43:27Z")
I was about 18. I was unemployed and found myself at the “poor” mall in town on a weekday morning. I passed a woman walking towards me. She was about 60 or more. Her face and neck were covered with tumors or growths of some sort, like flesh colored grapes and they actually hung in clumps like grapes from her jaw line. What it must have been like, to deal with that for a lifetime… Made quite an impression on me. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/23 "2013-05-25T04:12:49Z")
> [@River\_Hippie](#): > > . . . Her face and neck were covered with tumors or growths of some sort, like flesh colored grapes and they actually hung in clumps like grapes from her jaw line. . . . I once saw something very similar: flesh-colored growths, grape-sized – they were sprouting from a lady’s neck, shoulders, upper arms, and upper back. Yet…this was at Disneyland, and she seemed to be having a good time! I can only guess that this kind of growth doesn’t actually hurt (much?) But very odd, and definitely horrible! ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/24 "2013-05-25T04:29:01Z")
I’m not going to rate this sort of thing on a scale of 1 to 10. I was in the Army and was in Nam. Later, I was in the Coast Guard. I helped recover a “Floater”. I also “recovered” a boat that had an encounter with modern pirates in the Caribbean. None of those things were pleasant. ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/25 "2013-05-25T04:57:26Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I once saw something very similar: flesh-colored growths, grape-sized – they were sprouting from a lady’s neck, shoulders, upper arms, and upper back. Yet…this was at Disneyland, and she seemed to be having a good time! I can only guess that this kind of growth doesn’t actually hurt (much?) But very odd, and definitely horrible! I would guess that those of you who saw people with lots of growths on their body probably saw someone with [Neurofibromatosis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurofibromatosis). Many people with NF do not have any pain at all from it, though it’s obviously a socially stigmatizing illness. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Hen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/26 "2013-05-25T05:29:16Z")
There are so many different kinds of horrible. I’ve seen people die, both suddenly and expectantly, though never very violently. Family reaction, when they’re informed, is sometimes pretty bad. One deceased patient’s daughter, I recall, let out a shrieking wail that echoed down the hall and set my hair on end. I’d rate that moment at a 6 or so. ---
**Author:** ![Obnoxious\_Hood\_Ornament](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3be4f8/32.png) [@Obnoxious\_Hood\_Ornament](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obnoxious_Hood_Ornament)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/27 "2013-05-25T05:34:07Z")
Hmmm… horrible. Well, if the words “Bring back W.T. Snacks!” mean anything to you, then it’s safe to assume you’ve already seen the most horrible things mankind has to offer. You probably loved it, too. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/28 "2013-05-25T05:39:38Z")
I witnessed my drunken father beating our family dog, kicking him, telling my sister and me that we had to hang him because we were worthless pet owners who couldn’t take good care of him. That was horrible. I also got thrown down onto the ground, helped back up, then thrown down again for not being ready to leave somewhere (even though I was ready). That was child abuse carried out on me by my dad, pretty horrible. I would rank these events at about a 5 or 6. ---
**Author:** ![scootergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@scootergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scootergirl)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/29 "2013-05-25T05:52:23Z")
Bogotá, Colombia 1975. There was so much poverty, so many homeless adults and kids. I usually always took the same route to get to my home. For about 3 weeks I had seen a woman with her very young boy, maybe 18 months old, begging on a street corner leaning against the wall of a building. She had boxes beside her filled with newspaper - I believe that’s where they slept. The child was usually in her arms and looked sickly and hungry. The last time I saw her she was crying hysterically rocking her son. I knew by the way she was clutching him and his color that he was dead. I felt like I was walking in slow motion as I was taking in what I was seeing. It was utterly sad and scary. I was eleven years old. On the scale from 1-10 – at the time and considering my age, it was an 8. A squirrel would be a zero then and now. ---
**Author:** ![Lucretia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@Lucretia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucretia)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/30 "2013-05-25T06:54:00Z")
I’m a USAF operating room nurse. I’ve been to Afghanistan twice, and Honduras once, working with the hospitals there, which are very, very third world. After a while, it’s hard to rank the horrible, honestly. ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/31 "2013-05-25T06:58:30Z")
Wow thanks for all the replies. It gives me a lot to think about. Even though I rated my own experiences fairly high, to my mind anything above 8 or so would be reserved for military combat or investigators of heinous crimes and such. I saw gruesome injuries and mortal illnesses almost daily for years when I was in medicine. I must have had some way to cope with that, or I couldn’t have done it. I did save people’s lives on several occasions, and eased the disease of many more, so it wasn’t all doom and gloom. And yep, my suspicions were confirmed that my friend has led and extraordinarily charmed life. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/32 "2013-05-25T08:23:10Z")
I think it’s more likely she 1. Is prone to exaggeration 2. Can’t recall more horrible things. ---
**Author:** ![ThisSpaceForRent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisspaceforrent/32/345_2.png) [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/33 "2013-05-25T09:04:48Z")
> [@AaronX](#): > > I think it’s more likely she 1. Is prone to exaggeration 2. Can’t recall more horrible things. hearsay… check yourself. //mini mod hat off try beginning nice! ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/34 "2013-05-25T10:06:23Z")
> [@ThisSpaceForRent](#): > > hearsay… check yourself. > > //mini mod hat off > > try beginning nice! I can’t understand any of that. ---
**Author:** ![Rowanchilde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a698b9/32.png) [@Rowanchilde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rowanchilde)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/35 "2013-05-25T10:47:07Z")
> [@IaMoDiNaRy](#): > > Just what we needed … another “new” member posting crap … your attitude isn’t appreciated, dearie … Crap is in the eye of the beholder, “dearie”. An animal death is every bit as horrible as a human tragedy. I thought Arrendajo downplaying it made him sound arrogant; and last I checked I was allowed to voice my opinion… > [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > Let’s see. I’ve seen my own mother die, young and in incredible pain. I’ve seen three people killed, messily, in a car crash, while a fourth passenger bled out, screaming in terror. I saw a young, gorgeous woman lawyer utterly humiliate an elderly woman, a total stranger, just because she could, and she was cranky that day. Abuses of power are horrible to witness. > > So for me, a stunned squirrel wouldn’t really register on the scale of horrible things. I mean, not at all. Not a blip. Nor would a dead squirrel. > > So am I egocentric? Do I demonstrate an **all-powerful lack of human compassion**? > > Everything else I have to say about this is fit only for the Pit. Read that again. I didn’t say either of you demonstrated a lack of human compassion. I said that he lacked a \*\*\*universal \*\*\*compassion. You can learn a lot about people from the way they view their relationships to the world around them. Not just the world of humans… ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/36 "2013-05-25T11:08:07Z")
When I was young I witnessed the immediate aftermath of a biker vs lorry collision. The poor guy was split in two, his legs and most of the bike at the front of the lorry, his torso and the rest of the bike further down the road at the back. His head was still in his helmet, off to the side. The thing is, my visual memories of this have always been very cartoonish, it was so far beyond my normal experience that I don’t think I processed it properly. My wee brother who was there with me doesn’t remember it very much at all, apart from… We both clearly remember the screams of a driver who witnessed the collision. I hope she has found a good way to forget what she saw. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/37 "2013-05-25T11:55:04Z")
> [@Rowanchilde](#): > > Crap is in the eye of the beholder, “dearie”. An animal death is every bit as horrible as a human tragedy. I thought Arrendajo downplaying it made him sound arrogant; and last I checked I was allowed to voice my opinion… Welcome to the Dope, **Rowanchilde**. I look forward to your future contributions. I’m sure they will stimulate discussion. ETA my contribution: [My Day Was Like A Horror Movie](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=477963). I’d give it a four, maybe less. Not sure if it’s the worst thing, but it was memorable enough to post. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/38 "2013-05-25T12:12:44Z")
I’m a cop and a combat vet. Mine goes up to 11. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/39 "2013-05-25T12:29:18Z")
> [@lavenderviolet](#): > > I would guess that those of you who saw people with lots of growths on their body probably saw someone with [Neurofibromatosis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurofibromatosis). > Many people with NF do not have any pain at all from it, though it’s obviously a socially stigmatizing illness. Not to hijack, but I’m so glad you posted this. I saw two people last weekend who clearly had this condition. At the time, I wondered if it was possible they were related (they were not together when I saw them – it was at an outdoor art show and they were part of the crowd). It seems likely they were. Anyhoo, I, too, have lived a charmed life. I can’t think of anything I’ve witnessed that would even register as horrible. Perhaps seeing my nephew, who as an EMT killed in the line of duty, in his coffin, and noticing that the mortuary make-up didn’t really cover the bruises on his hands. It made me wonder what kind of damage to his body I wasn’t seeing. Even then, that was more sad than horrifying. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2013, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272/40 "2013-05-25T12:41:59Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I’m a cop and a combat vet. Mine goes up to 11. Yeah, the ex-wife has got me ranked pretty high up there too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-horrible-is-the-most-horrible-thing-youve-ever-seen/659272.md?page=3)