Witnessing death.

Xeros

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Aug 13, 2008
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Simple question: Have you ever seen someone die with your own eyes? How did you react?

While walking to my friend's house yesterday morning, I watched a woman get hit by car, fly 10 feet in the air, and slam into the ground. This happened not even 5 feet in front of me, and the piece of her skill with her hair attached to it landed even closer. My friend's and I have made countless jokes, and mockeries on the subject of death. In fact, it was one of the ways I'd coped with the death of my best friend. However, until now, I'd never witnessed death with my own eyes. Surprisingly, and even somewhat worryingly, it didn't phase me one damn bit.
 

L3m0n_L1m3

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Jul 27, 2009
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I don't think I've ever seen anyone die.

I don't think I've even seen a pet die.

All of my family is alive,

No one I know well has ever died in my life time.
 

Dirzzit

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Apr 16, 2009
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She was outside your monkey sphere, don't worry about it. Your not a monster for feeling nothing, now if she was your mother and you feel fine then I'd start worrying.
 

Dwarfman

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Oct 11, 2009
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Xeros said:
Simple question: Have you ever seen someone die with your own eyes? How did you react?

While walking to my friend's house yesterday morning, I watched a woman get hit by car, fly 10 feet in the air, and slam into the ground. This happened not even 5 feet in front of me, and the piece of her skill with her hair attached to it landed even closer. My friend's and I have made countless jokes, and mockeries on the subject of death. In fact, it was one of the ways I'd coped with the death of my best friend. However, until now, I'd never witnessed death with my own eyes. Surprisingly, and even somewhat worryingly, it didn't phase me one damn bit.
I have not witnessed an actual death however I have seen dead bodies - notably my Uncle before his cremation. The only thing I was thinking was how peaceful he looked and well 'goodbye'.

I don't think you should be worried about not being phased by a death. Shock affects people in different ways. Some people wail and scream, others such as yourself detach themselves from a situation.
 

Jordi

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Jun 6, 2009
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I never saw anyone die, but I think that if someone would get hit by a car very near to me, I would be startled at least, and probably more careful in the future. The image of the scene might also stay with me for a while. But a while after the accident, I don't believe I would feel especially bad for the victim.

I did once see a kid almost die in a swimming pool (he was reanimated), and it made a very big impression on me. Or actually, the mother's reaction did. I could really feel her pain, and later relief.
 

Pandaman1911

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Jan 3, 2011
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Yeah. I was skiing at Sugarloaf Ski Resort up in Franklin county (I'm a Maine-ah), and all of a sudden, the ski lift stops, and I had boarded the lift not ten seconds ago. I look back at the loading station, and I see a handicapped skier fall out of his ski chair. (It's like a chair with skis on it, and somebody helps them ski, it's for paraplegics, and it's totally legit and totally awesome.) Turns out, he had a heart attack and died on the spot. Only found that out afterward, though. I was coming down the slope, and I saw the paramedics just standing around, and I'm like "Well that either means he's fine, or he's dead." Turns out he was dead. And I saw it happen. A little creepy...
 

Extraintrovert

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Jul 28, 2010
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It wasn't a human, but there was an animal dying that burned itself into my memory, and I think it qualifies. During the brief period of my life where I actually gave a fuck about anything other than myself, I was walking home when I saw a bird on the ground, flailing its wings and desperately attempting to fly. I had no idea what was wrong, so I brought the bird home and asked my mother to drive me to a veterinarian. The thing was flapping around hysterically, so once we got there I grabbed hold of it in an attempt to keep it still and prevent it from hurting itself. While the receptionist was explaining that it most probably fell and injured its brain, judging by what appeared to be seizures, and she and my mother were discussing what to do with it, the bird suddenly went completely still and died right there in my hands. Of course, I was too stupid to realise what had happened so I kept holding it until I was told.

Long story short, I have no idea why I'm posting this.
 
Apr 21, 2011
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No... The closest thing I've gotten to witnessing death is a dead fox on the sidewalk. Which was out of nowhere will I was walking along.
 

MasterOfWorlds

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I watched my mom pass away a few months ago. It didn't bother me much at the time, as I was more concerned about dad doing something stupid, so I was keeping an eye on him and making the phonecalls that needed to be made in order for her remains to get to the crematorium and things of that nature.

It wasn't a shock though, like most people think such a thing would be. I actually did a thread on here probably a week or so before she passed as a way for me to sort of vent about it. It wasn't really a venting, so much as somewhere where I could sort of let out some of my feelings on the issue. She had cancer, and we were told roughly the timeframe that she was going to pass.

Like I said, it didn't bother my much at the time because I was taking care of the things that needed to be taken care of. I actually called my gf and told her that mom had passed, and then proceeded to ask how her day was. My gf was really shocked and asked if I was OK. I told her that it probably wouldn't hit me until a few days later.

My mom passed away on March 19th, 2011 at 5:48 PM. Even now, just over three months later, I don't think it's really hit me. It's still sort of surreal waking up in the morning and expecting her to be in the living room drinking her morning coffee and yelling at dad to get up. I get teary eyed from time to time about it, and I miss her terribly, especially at breakfast, because we'd usually go to a local place to have breakfast and catch up about what was going on in college for me and work for her. The hardest times for me are just before I go to sleep, when I have nothing else to occupy my mind.

I know that I couldn't have done anything else to help her, and I took the term off to be able to be with her in the hospital so that dad could work and not lose his new job. I was there for her in the beginning of her treatment, and spent many nights with her in the hospital. Thankfully, my gf was really supportive and understanding through the whole thing. I think that it's largely because of her that I was able to deal with it as well as I did. I think that the main reason for my not dealing with it right away is because it hit my dad so hard. I couldn't fall apart too. I had to make sure that he got his head back on straight before I dealt with it in my own way. I think that once things really get back to normal and dad's head in back on his shoulders, it'll hit me pretty hard.
 

Ghengis John

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Dec 16, 2007
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Xeros said:
Simple question: Have you ever seen someone die with your own eyes? How did you react?

While walking to my friend's house yesterday morning, I watched a woman get hit by car, fly 10 feet in the air, and slam into the ground. This happened not even 5 feet in front of me, and the piece of her skill with her hair attached to it landed even closer. My friend's and I have made countless jokes, and mockeries on the subject of death. In fact, it was one of the ways I'd coped with the death of my best friend. However, until now, I'd never witnessed death with my own eyes. Surprisingly, and even somewhat worryingly, it didn't phase me one damn bit.
Meh. It strikes me that you're probably a good person anyways for feeling that you should be more effected. You didn't know the woman, there was nothing you could do and you weren't responsible. It doesn't sound like you're joking about this either. As somebody else said it's entirely possible you simply detached yourself to deal with the shock. But even if you didn't, you're not a horrible person. Sounds like a horrible, horrible scene though. I'd personally be a little bothered at least by how it could have been me if it was another pedestrian at that distance. How old was the woman?

Extraintrovert said:
Long story short, I have no idea why I'm posting this.
It's quite possible you still care for things other than yourself but your experiences, including the one with the bird, make it harder to express that. Maybe even to yourself.
 

Yassen

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Apr 5, 2008
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I've never seen anyone else die but I do know what it feels like personally. I almost died when I was 14, I could have very easily not ended up sitting here typing this. But for the OP, its okay to not feel anything from that event. You didn't know the person nor were you expecting it. You were simply in shock.

Besides, better you be able to stand on your feet in that situation than break down when it happened.
 

TheAceTheOne

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Jul 27, 2010
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Jordi said:
...I did once see a kid almost die in a swimming pool (he was reanimated)...
Reanimated like a zombie? XD Sorry, just kind of a funny image to me. Kid gets pulled out of pool, CPR is performed, then suddenly, he's a zombie.

On topic: I've never seen anyone die outside of video games. I'm a bit of a people person, so I'd probably end up feeling bad at some point. I deal with shock by either going off alone or seeking immediate help from friends, so I'd do one of those two. Plus, I almost died about 3 times, and I wouldn't wish the experience of even "almost" dying on anyone else. It's terrifying.

Random, trivial question to the OP: Did you do anything to help the woman?
 

WolfThomas

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Dec 21, 2007
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Seen a lot of dead bodies and a lot of dying people, though I'm can't think of actually seeing someone die. I've seen a code blue where the person probably died soon after, but I'd left by that point.
 

Brandon237

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Mar 10, 2010
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No person, but I have seen my pets being euthanized, most of them actually, it is horrible :( The cat I had known my entire life, there on the cold table, horrible. I kept thinking that the cat was still in the house for almost 2 years afterwards, it was upsetting to realise I was wrong ever time :(
 

Erana

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Feb 28, 2008
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I was in the lobby of my mother's workplace, and the siren for one of the machines went off, and I looked through the door (open for some odd reason, 'can't remember why) and they were about to do emergency what-nots on a very old woman, then one nurse came closer to her, gave the others a look, and they stopped and discretely covered the corpse.

She wasn't moving while alive, and looked as though she had been suffering from whatever got her. I wasn't really phased by it all that much, honestly, but for someone in her position, getting a break from pain couldn't have been so bad.