The day a person died right in front of me: True story but a bit graphic
I have witnessed exactly 2 people take their last breath in front of me in my life. One of them was a family member whose illnesses had been a long time coming and while of course it was tragic, it wasn't exactly a surprise. We had known this day was going to arrive, it was just a question of when. The other one was a shock moment out of the blue, and this one haunts me significantly more than the other; especially since the entire thing could have been prevented if the person involved hadn't been an idiot.
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Although i don't recall exactly when this happened I can remember the events very vividly. I can still hear the sounds, i can still see the people involved, and I can still even remember things like the smells. It is not a pleasant memory and the only reason why I was involved at all is because I just happened to be nearby.
A few friends of mine and myself were sitting at the cafe that I owned at the time when we heard a sound like an explosion followed very quickly by a tremendous amount of water being dropped from a great height. It was early evening, and while we didn't know exactly where it came from we went around the corner to investigate.
There was no explosion nor was there any water, but the situation was not a good one regardless.
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Most buildings in Thailand have some sort of security bars on the windows and this building was not an exception. The bars were mangled and all the glass behind it was shattered (that was the sound of "water" that I had heard before.) The sound of an explosion was a person flying into those security bars after having been launched from his motorbike and briefly obtaining a high speed flight to his ultimate doom. He was currently lying very nearby.
The bike he was riding was back at the curb where the driver had hit the embankment, presumably at high speed, and ended up flying full-speed into the side of this building and hit with enough force to completely crumble the steel bars on the windows as well as bounce back several meters.
We were the first people on the scene and it quickly eroded into chaos. The person was non responsive, and there was a lot of blood. I had been an Emergency Medical Technician in the States and while this isn't a doctor or nurse, it is exactly the sort of training that a person needs in order to keep someone alive while waiting for more well-equipped and knowledgeable medical staff to turn up.
There was just one problem though.
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The problem was that I could tell, with my very limited medical training, that there was no chance this guy was going to survive. He still had a pulse and was breathing when we got to him and others were really concerned about "securing his neck" and what not but I knew that all of this was for naught, his head injuries were too extreme.
We didn't move him, we took off our shirts to try to stop the bleeding but even though we arrived at the scene MAYBE 45 seconds after impact there was already so much blood on the ground.
I took control because I am not scared of blood and I had responded to accidents in the past as an E.M.T., but this person (I never did find out who he was) was not shaking, was not going into shock - I was surprised he wasn't already dead.
His eyes were closed and he was just a lump on the ground with a very weak pulse yet he was still breathing. I don't mean to be overly graphic but this is the truth, he didn't just have head injuries, parts of his skull had collapsed inside his head and I could see his brain. You can't exactly just put a cloth on top of that and have it coagulate if you apply enough pressure.
While I was holding the increasingly saturated shirts on this guy's head, i felt his pulse get ever weaker and he actually made a slight movement and one last exhalation that was actually stronger than the others...... then he was gone.
By the time the ambulance arrived there wasn't really much for them to do. The young man had been dead for up to 10 minutes or so. There would be no attempt at reviving him as far as I could tell. Again, i don't mean to be terribly graphic but he was missing large portions of his skull and that simply isn't something you can just patch up.
The reason why I say this guy was an idiot is because of this very obvious thing.
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This young man had no visible injuries to any other part of his body. If he had simply been wearing a helmet there is a very good chance that he would have an amazing story to tell his family and friends right now, but because he was "too cool" to wear one, he died less than a couple minutes after flying into that building.
Your body can take a tremendous amount of damage. You can break almost every bone that you have at once (ask Evel Knievel) and still not only live to tell the tale, but live to ride again. This guy, who died right in front of me didn't need to die but he did because despite knowing that Thailand has a bit of a reputation for having dangerous roads he thought (perhaps, again i didn't know him) "it won't happen to me."
These days when I see my friends riding without helmets on I get upset with them because they are operating the same way that whoever this person was... "It wont happen to me... I am skilled driver!" "I'm driving slow" or "my house is just over there." I wonder how many people are dead that said exactly the same dumb shit.
My own head met the pavement that resulted in me getting knocked unconscious one night but I didn't die or even get hurt very bad.... wanna know why? Because i was wearing a friggin helmet!
I would be willing to bet that the guy who died right in front of me on a street corner in Krabi thought exactly the same thing... "it won't ever be me." But it was you pal, and it totally could have been prevented.
If you ride a bike, I certainly hope you have the sense to protect the thing that is enabling you to read this right now. Helmets cost a lot less than a new head - and it is by far the most important part of any motorbike ride.
Lesson learned the hard way... This one gets no second chance...unfortunately...
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Ugh.. graphic description.. I hope I never see anything like this.
I feel tuk-tuk's are incredibly dangerous too... 50mph and little to hold you in if they crash. Bet there has been some bad accidents in those things.
Oh man it might not have felt like your were a hero for the outcome. Your actions were heroic and I am proud to know you.
You ever see those memes that tell you never to ask a paramedic about the worst thing they have seen. Those haunting images like you are describing all comecroght back to them in a mess when they have been trying to block them out.
Too cool for a helmet is some sort of natural selection but it doesn’t make it any easier. They are law here as we have our idiots too.
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Lessons for us
Dang, that is horrible. I can't even imagine being in that situation. I hit a kid on a bike yesterday with my car. Does that count? He ended up on the hood of our car. It was pretty scary. He wasn't hurt thankfully. He was riding down the sidewalk and tried to beat two cars across a crosswalk. I never even saw him because the other car was blocking him. We made him call his mom. She was more worried about our car than she was her kid. It sounds like you handled this situation about as well as you possibly could. It still had to have been horrible!
WOAH That must have been intense!!!!! And so unnecessarily tragic. I actually just cannot even PROCESS why ANYONE on a bike would not wear a helmet... that is just sheer stupidity! I have never witnessed someone actually die in front of me, but years ago, my best friends mom attempted suicide. She slit her wrists in the bath tub and had drugged herself. We had been out and when we got home, I found her and I did not want my friend to see her mom like that, so I pretty much had to deal with the whole thing, which if I am honest still haunts me to this day. I was only about 13 at the time... and as many years have passed, I know I will never get that image out of my head.
there is also a problem of really cheap helmets made from thin plastic and while it's better than nothing it doesn't really protect the sides or face.
A really good friend of mine was hit by car while wearing one of these. She didn't die, but there are a lot of people that probably feel it may have been better if she did. She was in a coma for 2 months and when she came to she had severe brain damage, she can't do anything for herself and hasn't even spoken in a year... can't walk, cant eat, cant use the toilet, she's basically a vegetable ( i dunno if we are allowed to say that word anymore, but i don't mean it in a not nice way).
It is a shame when this happens to anyone but she was a great friend, always so alive and boisterous, the life of the party and super loving person.
It inspired me to revisit my will after this incident and put a do not resuscitate and a time limit on machines keeping me alive as well.
Shame that is truly tragic :( I had a friend who was in a car accident on the way back from a river rafting adventure. He was not wearing his safety belt and was thrown out of the car. He was paralysed from the waist down, but he was determined that he would walk again. He pushed himself hectically for over a year and was able to walk again but then he got some spinal infection and that all went down the tubes and he went back into a wheel chair. So very sad, because after that... he lost all hope and motivation.
Good idea re. the will. I don't even have one... oops :D
I was absolutely amazed when I saw motor cyclists in Thailand not wearing helmets. I mean in Taiwan some motor cyclists drive stupidly crazy squeezing in between vehicles, going through red lights, and zooming ahead when the car on the left signal to turn right. Many don't wear a helmet when driving in the rural areas and villages (why????) but at least when they're in the city they put a helmet on. I was gobsmacked to see people in Bangkok city not wearing a helmet.
The "It won't happen to me" mentaility is what gets people killed sadly
Absolutely!
every now and then the city or the country will have new 'sweeping helmet regulations" and crack down on use but it all dies out after a bit. Massive advert campaigns showing heinous accidents and what not aren't enough. Then there are the people that carry the helmet on the bike, in the basket, and pop it on thier heads if they see a police checkpoint.
I even know people who had friends who died specifically because they weren't wearing a helmet and they STILL don't wear one.
I just don't get it... but then again, if you can't be trusted to look after your own well-being, i suppose you get what you deserve.
yeah dude...what to say about this.... I work in surgery and you are right about one thing: the head cant take anything, so not protecting it...what to say
the only thing out of this is that YOU were there, someone with experience who was able to make a call realizing that this dude was beyond gone, so someone else without experience doesn't have nightmares about it.
that said....this is sucks more than in one way...I hope it didnt haunt you too much!
well i still have dreams about it from time to time, but it isn't something traumatizing where i need psychological help or anything.
I would imagine the EMT's that they have here in Thailand have seen some pretty gruesome stuff on the roads here. The country has a serious "we don't wanna wear a helmet" problem.
Quite a story. I simply avoid motorcycles all together. If i see anyone in my family thinking of driving one i shut them down imminently. That might come of as motophobic (lol) but cars arent "really safe" and they drive on 4 wheels, while getting just nicked by a car while youre on a motorcycle can lead to serious injury.
But sure, him wearing a helmet would have probably saved his life, im saying probably since in your description you did say he was launched in the air and bounced off a wall with his head.
These things live with you forever and have no idea why people are drawn to looking at road accidents. I have witnessed far too many and in the army had to clean up some bodies as well. If I see an accident today I don't goose neck out the window trying to spot a body as it scars you.
road accidents are so common here (number 2 or 3 in the world for road death percentage, every year) that i don't look at them anymore either. Big problem with people refusing to wear seatbelts over here as well.
We should learn from this lesso.....
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thanks for that, i will go have a look now.
That's tragic! Such incidents proves the importance of the helmet for a bike rider. I really liked the way you depicted the incident with less exaggeration and more facts. and that helmet part, when you showed the picture instead of just writing helmet, I was like speaking inside my mind oh yes helmet! It could be the savior for that guy.
Anyways, keep flourishing.
owhhhhhhhh. such a horrific thing to witness and yes I am sure it will stay with you for every. I feel for ya. as for the biker, what a twat.
Wow, that was traumatic and what a shame. It's amazing his whole body wasn't messed up. I hope your friends listen to you when you tell them to wear a helmet!