Comments on: Some stories have no simple happy endings

By: OVGuillermo

OVGuillermo — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 03:59:24 +0000

Thank you for your site. I have found here much useful information.
Good site ! ;)

By: D Bunny

D Bunny — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 02:17:52 +0000

Just another example how mean people never die.

Do I feel sorry for truly suicidal people? Yes.

Do I feel sorry for people who do it out of hate, revenge, and anger? No.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 23:40:06 +0000

You did the best you knew how, in accordance with your training and experience. We cannot play God; it’s not our right. Long ago, I happened on a single car MVA; it was cold, dark and I found the car in drive. The only thing stopping it from going into an 8 foot deep pond was a single fence post jammed into the frame of the car. The older woman behind the wheel was apneic, but had a pulse. I directed the next (only) person to stop to go get help and stayed with my patient. I opened her airway and covered her with a blanket until EMS got there a few minutes later. For all my efforts, her family was rewarded with a 67 year old mother who remained in a persistant vegatative state for the next three years until she threw a clot and died. It took me a long time to get over what I had caused by my actions, i.e; another 2 minutes and she would have arrested, thus saving her family considerable emotional and financial pain. Would I do the same thing again if the identical situation presented itself? Absolutely and without a doubt; to do less would compromise everything we (as providers) stand for. Sometimes we don’t get rewarded with those simple happy endings, but the fact remains that your actions saved a life; his issues and actions are not your responsibility to determine, but doing the best you can in all situations as you trained for and performed certainly is.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 00:26:29 +0000

I knew someone from high school who did almost the same thing; he recovered also. He’s doing well these days, and owes his life to people like you. :)

By: Jodie

Jodie — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 16:07:08 +0000

I once knew a woman who tried to commit suicide with pills in her garage. She was in her 60s, lonely, had a job in which she traveled constantly, her kid was living in a foreign country, and she just felt lost.

She had been unconcious for two days when she was found; she’d been lying in such a way that circulation had been cut off to one foot.

She lost part of her foot and spent many weeks in the hospital.

Later? She was glad to have survived it, even with the huge medical bills, but wished, instead, that since she owed all that anyway, that she’d spent the money on plastic surgery or a year in Europe instead of the suicide attempt.

By: beatmom

beatmom — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 21:53:06 +0000

When I was a teenager my brother was in a serious car accident and I spent a good deal of time in the ICU supporting him. There was a guy there in a situation almost identical to this — had shot his face off instead of making a fatal wound…

By: DisappearingJohn

DisappearingJohn — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 14:13:27 +0000

I still vividly remember seeing a man who did in essence the same thing when I was a volunteer at a hospital in high school (and that was 22 years ago). Sadly, (or luckily) this guy didn’t live through the night, and I can still remember the screams of pain until they managed to knock him out…

I too, wonder what effect that experience must have jad on the family…

By: Delia

Delia — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 20:12:03 +0000

When I was teaching first responders, I would show a training film of a attempted suicide very similar to this one. I wanted to show them that simply looking terrible and horrific doesn’t necessarily mean it’s hopeless, and to know the anatomy. I often wondered what happened to the man in that film, because I understand he too made a full recovery, even though he had no face.

The things we have to see in this job….