I saw a man die.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

The 911 thread got me thinking about emergencies and the like, and I realized that I have only once ever seen someone die, and it happened fairly recently.

We were on a dive boat off the east coast of Florida. We had completed the first dive (about 75 feet for 50 minutes), and surfaced right near the divemaster and another diver from our boat. We exchanged a few words on the surface, and a few minutes later the boat picked us up (it was a drift dive). We all got back on the boat uneventfully, and my wife and I started changing out our tanks for the next dive.

Within five minutes of getting back on the boat, I heard the DM send the deck hand for the oxygen kit. I turned toward the stern, and the DM was asking the diver we surfaced with if he was OK - could he hear her, that sort of thing. Next thing I know he’s on the deck and the DM is starting compressions. The captain opened up the throttles and we started hauling ass back to port. Even so, it was almost an hour between surfacing and getting to a dock, and the diver was never responsive during the trip back in. TowBoat hauled a couple of sets of emergency responders out to meet us on the way in, so by the time we got to dock, there were a couple of county lifeguards aboard with a rudimentary AED, and then a couple of paramedics with a more sophisticated AED. I was the fouth or fifth person to do compressions, and I think we all knew by that time that he wasn’t coming back, but you keep on trying, right?

I didn’t know the man at all, although we had a number of mutual acquaintances, so I didn’t feel anything other than the same regret I would feel for any human being who died. I was impressed by the speed with which the boat crew responded, and I honestly can’t think of anything more they could have done for the guy. I’m a bit disappointed in myself for not doing some things that maybe I should have. Nothing life-saving related; there were plenty of CPR-trained people aboard the boat. However, I am Rescue Diver trained, and there is a lot of stuff we went over in class that I just didn’t think to do until after the fact. Nobody sequestered the diver’s gear to make sure it could be turned over to authorities untampered-with, and no one person wrote down all the vital information about the diver to hand over to the authorities. Those were all things I could have (and should have) done. Well, it was my first emergency, and I’m certain I’ll do better should the occasion ever arise again.

I suppose it was somewhat inevitable. We dive as often as we can, and we’re experienced enough that we often dive places and conditions more challenging than the normal once- or twice-a-year diver sees. Still it was sobering experience. I’m not a doctor, or emergency responder at all, and it never occurred to me I might see someone die suddenly.

2

A couple of years ago I see a car rapidly approaching a truck. I expected someone to honk, one or both vehicles to swerve, and everything to be fine.

Instead what I see is a collision so hard that parts of the bumper of the car go flying into the street. The truck does a u-turn and parks on the other side of the road. The car slows down and stops in the middle of the street.

To make a long story short, I was in so much shock that I
[ul]
[li]Sat on the side of the road for a few minutes before figuring out that maybe something happened to the driver of the car and that’s why it was in the middle of the road.[/li][li]I had to be told to call 911, otherwise it might never have occurred to me :smack:.[/li][li]Even though I saw the crash and it appeared in slow motion to me, when I first discussed it with people before the police came I remembered it wrong. I had to go over it again and again to jog my memory of what happened just moments ago.[/li][/ul]

The truck driver suffered from a broken arm, and the car driver died. He was 81 and for a while I thought he was the only one in the car. Then I see something to the side of him. His wife, 89, had been knocked out and was coming to. Poor thing kept looking around asking what happened, totally oblivious to her dead husband :(.

3

Damn carlb, that sounds horrible - 60 minutes on the boat trying to revive him? Did you ever find out the cause of death?

4

Well done carlb, for doing the compressions.

One time I was behind a (very large) woman on a bike with one kid on the front and one on the back. She fell and landed on top of the kid on the front. This other man and I ran over to help, I tried to hold her up while he struggled to get the kid out from under her. The child was no more than 2 and she didn’t look right. She wasn’t moving and… well, I don’t know but it didn’t look right. The guy looked after her while another woman and I first got the other kid out (who was screaming, so fine) and then I tried to help the woman.

The ambulance came and took them all, including the kid. I rang all emergency rooms, but they wouldn’t tell me. I think the child died, but I’ll never know. It was just…not right to look at. She was all in the wrong angles, and completely floppy. So maybe I saw a child die, but I’ll never know :frowning: I just hope I was overreacting and she was just unconscious.

5

No, and I don’t even know if an autopsy was done. I assume it was, but even if it was, I don’t know that we’ll ever know for sure. There a host of things that can happen when diving (although they usually don’t). My best guess is an Arterial Gas Embolism based on the suddenness of the onset of symptoms and the speed with which things progressed, but there are plenty of other things it could have been. The diver in question reportedly had a lot of things going on with his health and physical conditioning which could contribute to an adverse outcome.

6

The last time I did CPR on a total stranger, I count it as a win - he was ticking when they loaded him into the ambulance. No idea what happened later.

I’ve lost two people that I’ve done CPR on. Both of them were pretty much hopeless, but you gotta give them the chance to survive.

7

I have seen 2 people die up close and personal, I can see their last moments clearly, I will never forget
First one, I was on my way to college and came to a red light where another car was backing up so I stopped. About 100ft from me was a 80’s Monte Carlo smoking under the hood, I could see a man in the car doing who knows what. The engine burst into flames and I guess the guy just panicked, he struggled with his seat belt and didn’t get it undone in time, he just burned inside the car. This was August of 90 I can still smell the burnt flesh

Number two I witnessed a robber being shot after a gas station robbery, I was sitting on a bar patio directly adjacent to the gas station. After he was shot the robber dove into his car and fell unconscious, a friend and I(with help) pulled him out and started CPR, he started to breathe again but took only a few shallow breaths and died, I don’t know how to say it but he was obviously dead, his eyes went kinda glassy grey. The oddest thing about it, single 9mm GWS to the chest, was how little blood there was a small pool about 3 inches around

No I will remember these incidents til I shuffle off this mortal coil myself

8

As one of my CPR instructors pointed out, when there’s no pulse you’re essentially dealing with a corpse — there’s not much chance you’re going to make things worse