re: Most disturbing way someone you know died

Paramedic here- I have a few:

I saw a young guy at a construction site get his head crushed in an elevator shaft. He had an open head fracture (brains exposed) and he was breathing when I got to him. He died.

Someone was driving too fast off of the Convention St. exit, lost control and hit one of the pillars at the bottom at high speed and caught fire. I was there within 2 minutes, Fire dept, 2 minutes later, and 2 minutes to put it out. As the smoke settled, we found someone upright in the seat, burned beyond recognition- I couldn't tell gender, race or estimate an age. The red paint from the car and black char marks are still there, I think.

Pediatric cardiac arrests are tough, I remember each minute of each one I've worked. They all died. I can't imagine how parents cope with this sort of loss.

Years ago, I responded to a 4 year old that was said to have been playing then fell off of a table and hit his head. When I got there, he was unresponsive, had unequal pupils, and breathing irregularly (obvious signs of a severe head injury.) We acted quickly, spinally immobilized him, intubated him and so forth. After that, but wile still en route to the hospital, I started a detailed exam, I found he had bruises on his chest, legs and groin that were in various stages of healing. My suspicion was confirmed 2 days later when the news reported that the father was arrested for first degree murder. He sat next to me on the ride to the hospital while I treated his dying child.

Shotgun suicides are violent. They usually completely remove the face and head, or some complete/ incomplete variation thereof. I responded to one that put the gun in his mouth and took off everything except the jaw, tongue, base of his head and part of one ear. He was still breathing about once every 10 seconds. Of course he didn't live, but his brain stem was still neurologically intact enough to make his diaphragm still move. That only lasted about 1 minute. The sound and sight was something you might see in a horror movie. One of the PD officers stepped into the bathroom and vomited.

21 year old who recently got breast implants called for difficulty breathing. At first, she would only have to take a deep breath every 4 breaths or so, but otherwise was breathing normally. We took her to the hospital. She stopped breathing about 5 minutes later and I was doing cpr by myself until we got there. She died of a pulmonary embolism, which is sometimes a side effect of surgery. At least she left with a nice rack.