re: Have you ever seen someone die?

My mother. The last few hours were relatively peaceful. The days leading up to it were anything but. Protip: be very skeptical of hospice and the promises they make about what they can or will do. Medicare pays them a flat rate so they try to do as little as possible in order to maximize their revenue.

Be that as it may, I miss her every day, but she was sick for a long time. She was tired and ready to go. She's at peace now. Death is a tragedy when it comes too soon (and I've seen that side of it too). But it can come as a friend when it relieves suffering.

Saw a man have a heart attack and die, while paramedics worked on him. I was seven rows back in left center field at Arlington Stadium during a Ranger game. The paramedics worked on him in the stands for 10-15 minutes. They even used the defibrillator paddles on him. His wife and two kids were there. The paramedics talked to the family, the family all got up and left crying. The paramedics gave a great effort to try to not ruin everyone's day After they got the family out of the stands, they yelled, "He's going to be alright," as they carried him out of the stadium. A few people that hadn't paid attention stood up and clapped. The next day there was a note in the Dallas Morning News about a man having a heart attack and dying at the game.

The craziest thing about it for me was the friend that went with me to the game that night was drunk before the game started. When he saw the paramedics working on the guy, he blurted out, "Some people will do anything for attention at a ballgame."

He was an alcoholic and he poured a whole pint of bourbon in a 32 oz. Coke as soon as we got to our seats. Not long after the paramedics took the dead guy out to partial applause, I had to take him home because he fell asleep and was drooling on himself. I took him to my condo, where he continued to sleep. I woke him up around 11 pm, but he wouldn't get up. I went to bed with him asleep on a sofa. He woke me up before he left to go home at six am and made me promise I wouldn't tell his wife he was drinking. I asked him if it was better for her to think we spent the night with topless dancers, and he answered yes.

Poor guy ended up sleeping on my sofa for a couple of weeks because she knew he was drinking. He had a real drinking problem. Anyone who puts a pint into one drink does. I found out a month or so before the night I dealt with him drunk, he didn't pick his eight year-old son up after school. After waiting a hour, the boy finally walked home, and found dad pasted out on the kitchen floor as food was burning on the stove. I'd known him for 10 to12 years and never knew drinking was that big a problem for him.

I was with my mom and my husband when they passed. My mom had a massive stroke & lived 10 days after we removed her from life support. Her wishes were very clear, and I’m so grateful. Although being with my husband when he passed a year ago has been a lot to overcome, watching him suffer during the last month or so of his life was worse. Counseling has helped, but there’s no question that it changed me.

quote:

---

patient with throat cancer was choking on a ham sammy. He was concious when we got there and abdominal thrust artially cleared his airway but he wasnt moving air and coded right before got him loaded in the ambulance. I pulled chunks of ham out that guys throat for two intubation attempts before we just decided to do a blind insert. Total time coded was between 3-5 minutes. He converted right after we got an airway in, walked out of the hospital a couple days later with not neuro deficits.

---

Hard to kill bad grass

4.
Was 20' away from a sign company truck and a guy in a bucket changing bulbs in a sign, approximately 50' or more high. Bucket cotter pin, or whatever was holding the bucket broke free and the man and bucket came down. The trajectory made the bucket tip in an unfavorable way.

Old man apparently had a massive heart attack while driving and blew the intersection at Williams and Vets in Kenner and hit a telephone pole. Head went through the windshield and I was in the parking lot where he hit the pole.

The other two were peaceful, my mom at 84 and my dad at 96.

Many...I ran a hospice and am a Nurse.

quote:

---

She said that telling the person that it is OK to pass often helps them pass away more quickly.

---

This^ is 100% true...

quote:

---

She said that telling the person that it is OK to pass often helps them pass away more quickly.

---

I couldn't do that with my mother. I knew we weren't going to be okay and I couldn't lie to her.

Tons of times

I had to try and resuscitate a guy who got Swiss cheesed up on Claiborne avenue one time.

We found a baggie of crack and some miscellaneous pills and hundreds shoved up his arse

I was doing CPR and with each compression bits of his brain would spill out onto my shoes

The only one that really ever fricked me up was the kid.

Dad was driving. Fell asleep at the wheel. Car ran off the ramp and just crashed into the ground. EMS got the 9 year old girl. She was conscious and responding to questions but suddenly started to lose pulses. Huge seatbelt sign. Massive internal bleeding. Lucas device was on her and luckily I was able to intubate her small trachea with all the movement. Tried CPR for like 30 minutes. Pupils were fixed and dilated. She was gone. Having to tell the family … that one was the worst. Stuck with me a while.

Had a woman found down in the back of a restaurant. Nobody knew how long. Started CPR and she started vomiting like coffee ground emesis (honestly looked like chewed up chocolate cake). We lost the airway. Couldn’t intubate though all that mess. Eventually lost pulses. Probably mesenteric ischemia.

I saw an 80 year old man choke to death on his nursing home dinner. The dumb nurse who got to the code before me started bagging him with oxygen before checking to clear his airway. Shoved all that food so far down his trachea I was trying to suction out a full Golden Corral buffet in his wind pipe. Ended up shoving my entire hand down his throat trying to get all the food out. There was so much. Couldn’t get it. He started turning blue and I couldn’t get him back. Always check the airway first. Please.

Right before my dad took his last breath, he suddenly opened his eyes and looked directly at me. It has been several years and I still haven't processed it. I don't think I ever will. My mom is the only other person that knows about it because she was in the room with us, but it haunts me in ways that she doesn't know. As hard as it was, I'm still glad I was there with him. I know when he opened his eyes, his son was by his side

quote:

---

I was the only one with my Grandfather when he passed, it was an honor to be by his side.

---

Same situation same feeling - he was really struggling and then went peacefully. Family was in next room and knew it was coming / making arrangements.