I watched a guy dying today

Warbie

Warbie

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I was walking about Brighton at lunch time today, oblivous to the world and listening to my mp3 player real loud, and noticed that everyone in the near vicinity was standing still and seemed to be looking at me. I stopped, looked around, and to my right about 3 feet away on the same pavement I was walking on was a fat guy getting cpr. There was blood on the pavement all around his head and the chest compressions he was receiving looked so violent I expected to hear bones cracking. His body responded to each compression like it was a rubber suit filled with jelly and the blood looked like unconvincing film blood - strawberry coloured. His shirt was open and after each compression his belly rose about a foot higher than his chest and his feet jerked about. About 10-20 seconds later I realised I was standing on the same spot and just staring at this guy in morbid fascination and listening to The Cure.

So I walked a polite distance and joined the crowd and watched for a bit more as his feet wiggled around, hypnotised by his belly and trying to shake off this weird detached feeling. I found it odd that I hadn't mustered some kind of sympathetic connection with this bloke and watching for the sake of watching felt wrong, so I went into the shopping center and into HMV to check out Blu-rays (this was about 100m from the front of Churchill Square mall, for those who know Brighton. Just over the road as you go to the clock tower). Then I went into Game and had a chat with the guy who works there. 10 mins or so later I walked back out onto the street and he was still there receiving cpr. There were a few ambulances now and the same plain clothed guy - who must have been a passing doctor - was still frantically trying to keep this poor chap alive. There were people everywhere just watching. I sent a token 'good luck mate' via telepathy and went back to work.
 
im sorry about that.

you win. you know why? listenin to the cure.

serious though im sorry about tht mate. ****in horrible thing to see
 
It's interesting; when you view people around you that you don't know dying, you tend to stand around watching their plight. It's almost ironic that you first posted this in Film, because it is kind of like watching a film--you're there as a spectator watching this drama unfold.

At least you were a nice guy about it wishing him a silent "good luck," rather than "Aww, he isn't dead yet."
 
Well hopefully he ended up being okay.

Do you know why he was on the ground with blood everywhere? Did he get hit by a car? Get in a fight or something?
 
wow. this is a story. sorry you had to see that.
 
Raziaar said:
Well hopefully he ended up being okay.

Do you know why he was on the ground with blood everywhere? Did he get hit by a car? Get in a fight or something?
Click to expand...

Haven't clue. There were four foot high railings between him and the road so, unless he was knocked over the railings by a car, I guess he either fell - which I doubt would result in that much blood? - or was attacked.
 
wpjiscool said:
wow. this is a story. sorry you had to see that.
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That is messed up man. Either it is sad that it happened, or it is interesting to watch, or it's sad that nobody cares, but it shouldn't be a bad thing that he witnessed it. Seeing the truth is never something to be sorry about. If you go around trying to hide yourself from witnessing anything bad, you are just trying to hide from reality. You might as well go play video games.
 
PvtRyan said:
So you don't know whether he made it?
Click to expand...

Nope. He didn't die during the 10 mins I was shopping, which must be encouraging. He really did look ****ed though.

Other than surprise at the lack of a more personal reaction I don't actually feel any different at all after seeing this, which is pretty much why I posted in the first place. tbh I think i'd have had a more emotional response if I saw someone kicking a dog, which is kind of ****ed up.

Reginald said:
What song?
Click to expand...

Not sure - it was mid way through the Mixed Up album. I'll have a listen and see if it comes back.
 
Warbie said:
Nope. He didn't die during the 10 mins I was shopping, which must be encouraging. He really did look ****ed though.

Other than the lack of a more personal reaction I don't actually feel any different at all after seeing this, which is pretty much why I posted in the first place. tbh I think i'd have had a more emotional response if I saw someone kicking a dog, which is kind of ****ed up.
Click to expand...

yeah sorry my last post didn't really make...sense.
its good you feel that way. and i would probably feel the same with that dog comparison thing. i'm glad i wasn't there though.
 
fascination street perhaps,

sry bad joke

probably feel the same.

"holy shit that guys dying, ooohhh Game"
 
Nope. He didn't die during the 10 mins I was shopping, which must be encouraging. He really did look ****ed though.

Other than surprise at the lack of a more personal reaction I don't actually feel any different at all after seeing this, which is pretty much why I posted in the first place. tbh I think i'd have had a more emotional response if I saw someone kicking a dog, which is kind of ****ed up.
Click to expand...

Maybe its something to with how modern mediums have desensitized us to dead bodys and other horrible sights yet there aren't many films and games about kicking dogs

Or maybe I'm just chatting bull
 
I would have felt awkward to be that close and not even ask the guy if he needed any help. Not saying your a bad person or anything.
 
That never occurred to me. There was someone else kneeling down by the fat guy, obscuring my view of his face from the nose up, but I don't know what he was doing. Maybe i'd have felt more if I had seen the whole face, but tbh I couldn't look at anything other than way his belly and feet were moving. I could also hear sirens.
 
Ah well maybe thats alittle different, but I've seen vids of people being viciously attacked...screaming for help as people just sit and watch wondering what to do. Everyone is too busy lookin at everyone else for what to do, rather than acting..
 
Sounds like strange circumstances. Maybe the guy had a seizure and hit his head on the ground.

That's a horrible thing to see and it IS sad that Warbie had to see it (that is, it would be sad if Warbie felt at all traumatised, which I gather you're not, so... no great shakes). But people get minced by heavy machinery and swisscheesed by exploding shrapnel every day in the world, yet if we exposed ourselves to it on a daily basis we wouldn't be able to function as humans. That's part of why so many soldiers come back from conflict and find it so hard to attribute meaning to their lives afterward. Perfectly reasonable sentiment to wish that someone should be sheltered from it.

That kind of thing can be traumatic for an onlooker, I know well... Last year, here in town, I was walking back from the shops when I heard a screeching, scraping noise from the road. Looking over I saw what at first looked like a tractor running over a sack of turf. About half a second later I realised the 'sack' was an old woman :( I was among the first people on the scene and was treated to the sight of blood starting to pour out of a wound on her head. She was very much alive, though, and started to moan slightly while a few of us were standing there cluelessly. I don't carry a cellphone so I was utterly at a loose end; I ended up being designated to run over to a house where her relatives lived and let them know.

She was waiting something like 40 minutes for an ambulance because I'm in a small town which is serviced by the next town over. I heard that she survived in the end but had all sorts of bones broken: hip, wrists, ribs... Took a long time before I could walk down the high street without having it at the front of my mind.
 
yeah that pisses me off, not helping someone in a situation like that.

but when faced with something you cannot possibly do anything about( in Warbie's case) all you can do is watch.
 
I've never seen somebody die. I've killed a rat before. I took to it with a compact bike pump and heard it's pitiful screeches for mercy. Thank god that's over with.

But seeing a grown man die? Seeing anyone die? It's hard, and it's...morbid.
 
SimpleAssassin said:
yeah that pisses me off, not helping someone in a situation like that.

but when faced with something you cannot possibly do anything about( in Warbie's case) all you can do is watch.
Click to expand...

Well, yeah. I would have still felt awkward though. Being that close and having that many people looking in my direction.
 
This is why you learn first-aid.

Sorry you had to see that man.
 
I once saw a guy get hit in a parking lot by some bimbo driving a jeep way too fast. I just laughed and drove past them.
 
It's good to lack social skills including empathy.
 
I love how you keep calling him fat and are hypnotized by his belly lol.
 
Being apart of a Rescue Squad, I see a a code every once in awhile. I ride in the back of the ambulance, and every time it happens, it doesn't seem to affect me much. It's just to the point where training takes over and you don't attach emotion to the patient. It's more like clock-work now, even when I have not even encountered that many.
 
Any news on what happened to him in the end and why?
 
Warbie said:
I was walking about Brighton at lunch time today, oblivous to the world and listening to my mp3 player real loud, and noticed that everyone in the near vicinity was standing still and seemed to be looking at me. I stopped, looked around, and to my right about 3 feet away on the same pavement I was walking on was a fat guy getting cpr. There was blood on the pavement all around his head and the chest compressions he was receiving looked so violent I expected to hear bones cracking. His body responded to each compression like it was a rubber suit filled with jelly and the blood looked like unconvincing film blood - strawberry coloured. His shirt was open and after each compression his belly rose about a foot higher than his chest and his feet jerked about. About 10-20 seconds later I realised I was standing on the same spot and just staring at this guy in morbid fascination and listening to The Cure.

So I walked a polite distance and joined the crowd and watched for a bit more as his feet wiggled around, hypnotised by his belly and trying to shake off this weird detached feeling. I found it odd that I hadn't mustered some kind of sympathetic connection with this bloke and watching for the sake of watching felt wrong, so I went into the shopping center and into HMV to check out Blu-rays (this was about 100m from the front of Churchill Square mall, for those who know Brighton. Just over the road as you go to the clock tower). Then I went into Game and had a chat with the guy who works there. 10 mins or so later I walked back out onto the street and he was still there receiving cpr. There were a few ambulances now and the same plain clothed guy - who must have been a passing doctor - was still frantically trying to keep this poor chap alive. There were people everywhere just watching. I sent a token 'good luck mate' via telepathy and went back to work.
Click to expand...

Thats pretty mental, what time was that? I was around the marks and sparks accross the road on my lunch break around 1-2. That would of freaked me out a bit.
 
I've never seen a dead body, I don't wish to either.

Must be weird not really caring for a person just as they die infront of you.
 
Nicky 0123 said:
Must be weird not really caring for a person just as they die infront of you.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's a matter of caring, but rather, feeling like there's nothing you can do to help (especially when he's already receiving help) and accepting that as a fact. I think it's better to react this way, because it's emotionally inexpensive, and otherwise you'd be mortified about something you really have no control over (it'd be hard to not feel any sympathy, though).

People do it all the time. When there's an accident on the road lots of wondering eyes focus on the scene of the accident to reduce uncertainty - usually in fascination like the OP. How many people rush in to help immediately though?
 
It's not the sort of thing you see every day, so it can be quite a shock when you stumble across it. Hope the bloke made it, but 10 minutes is a long time to be under tbh.

As a side note, there does seem to be an odd propensity for a number of HL2.netters to have some relationship to Brighton (I was born there and then ended up studying there later on in life). It's rather uncanny to read your description and know exactly where you mean...:|
 
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