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Have you ever seen someone die in real life? I mean die as you watched, not dead already. I've seen plenty of dead people before.

I haven't and I hope I will never ever. Even that time when those terrorist beheading videos were spreading around on the net, I couldn't bear to watch it. It's like... I dunno. One moment someone was alive and the next... meh. I wouldn't ever touch a snuff film or footages with real people dying in them. (Even the WTC towers footages were horrific to me)

Several people I know have. One is a female friend of mine, it happened when we were still in freshmen college. She was riding on a jeepney (a public transportation vehicle unique to the Philippines similar to a bus) and they stopped to unload some passengers beside a dump truck. The... umm... what do you call it? The back of the dump truck was raised and the driver was underneath it fixing something. Then as she and several other passengers watched the back suddenly plunged down. Probably the hydraulics failed or something, but yeah, it literally squished the driver underneath it. Several people tried to extricate him but it was too late.

My brother in law also has. He was driving on a very busy eight lane highway along one of the coastal cities here when he saw a Jeepney slow down in front of his car. A passenger jumped out, and ignoring the thousands of signs that are posted along the freeways here ("crossing the road kills - use the overpass"), he blithely walked towards the roadside two lanes away. He barely got five steps or something when a car slammed into him. Yech. I can only imagine what it was like.

My other classmates, most of them already working/interning as nurses, medical technicians, and doctors-to-be in hospitals see people die a lot. They've become a bit jaded about it. One more reason to thank my parents for not forcing me to pursue a medical career. LOL. One recounted her first incident where she was watching a Manny Pacquiao boxing match with an elderly patient and were joking about it. Minutes after the match ended, she was preparing to do her rounds (or whatever you call it when they check their patients) when the man suddenly had a cardiac arrest. She says she was sobbing all throughout the resuscitation attempts. It was her 'first death', as they call it, after all.

Have you ever had experiences like these? How has it affected you? No nightmares, 'misplaced guilt', stuff?

I have not had the experience of seeing a human die, in-person.

I have seen it via video, specifically the execution of the Ceauşescus following the Romanian coup d'etat. I believe we also saw death-on-tape during my class on comparative genocide. I have not watched any terrorism execution videos.

To see death is, for me, disturbing and it highlights how quickly and easily a life can end. It also makes me aware of my own physical vulnerability.

I saw my Mom pass away a few years ago. She had been very ill for about a week leading up to it.

I stayed up with her all night on what I thought might be her last night. She was heavily drugged, but also a little agitated as she had breast cancer as well as some cancer that had spread to her spine.

When she finally passed away the next day, my four sisters and I were all around her. My brother and his wife were out with my Dad, who strangely enough, didn't want to be anywhere near her on her final day. I guess we all have our different ways of dealing with this passage.

One thing that made this transition so much easier for all of us was the amazing Pallative Care department at DePaul Medical Center in Maryland Heights, MO (Saint Louis). A counselor met with our family several times and explained what might happen to my Mom as she passed away, what to look for, and how we could help her emotionally, even though she was heavily sedated (i.e., the right things to say and do).

When my Mom finally passed away, there was no big drama, no big last breath. We just noticed that her breaths were coming farther and farther apart. It was honestly hard to tell when she took her last breath. But suddenly, we all had the same realization -- she was gone.

At that point, we had all been crying so much over the past few days that a lot more crying seemed pointless. In fact, my Mom had been so ill, it was almost a relief that she wasn't suffering anymore.

There are a few things I remember so clearly about her passing and then shortly afterwards.

One was that as sson as we all realized she was gone, we really felt like she had left the room. Her body was still there, but her presence was no longer there. There were only five people in the room, not six.

Another was that I volunteered to go out and tell the nurses that she had passed away. It was just so odd to leave that room and see the rest of the world going on, phones ringing, people typing, even people laughing down the hall.

Stranger still was leaving the hospital an hour or so later. I was sorely in need of a Diet Pepsi (okay, my third 24oz Diet Pepsi, I had been up all night) so we stopped at a Walgreen's on the way back to my parents' house (now instantly renamed "my Dad's house").

It was so jarring to see normal life continuing on an even bigger scale. Kids getting out of school. An old lady like my Mom holding up the line looking in her purse for coupons. A teenage clerk with really bad B.O.

One more thing ... as we drove back to my Dad's, I was also suddenly aware that my Mom knew everything about me, everything I had ever done. All the times I had fibbed to her as a child and all the other questionable things I had done.

I knew she'd be waiting for me somewhere when I passed away ... waiting for answers

Yeah, I used to work in the ER. I've watched people die from gunshots wounds, stabbing, and car accidents. It was always very surreal to me because I usually allowed myself a moment to take in what just happened. It's easy to let the significance of it slip away when you and the people around you are trying to save them.

I really can't describe what it feels like to watch the life fade out of someone. It's the strangest shift that occurs...almost imperceptible in some ways and still so tangible in other ways.

I always found myself thinking more about the people this person was leaving behind. I was always very sad for them. I know the pain they're going to be going through. I don't know what if anything lies ahead for the person that just died so I really never felt anything more than regret for them and an odd curiosity. They finally knew the answer to life's big question, and I wondered what was that answer.

Yes.

If you have never held a close friend or loved one in your arms as they were dying, and you could do nothing, count yourself fortunate.

If you have never had to kill someone face to face, and felt the life draining out of them, count yourself as extremely blessed.

The nightmares do not go away; and the counseling is very expensive, and so far worthless.

OOF, Bwg77, I hope I could be fortunate enough to see a hunk like you right before I take my final breath. Uuuuugh, death never sounded so good.

When i was young my cousin and me were playing i our pool. He asked me to go out farther with him, i refused. The next things were just flashes since we were so young. I saw him at th bottom of the pool, my aunt jumped in to the bottom. The next flash was him on a table, he threw up, and then my memory is cut. Its about the time I developed a weird thing, when I eat I start gagging and sometimes I throw up, I cant control it but it just happens.....such is life.

ITJock saidYes.

If you have never held a close friend or loved one in your arms as they were dying, and you could do nothing, count yourself fortunate.

If you have never had to kill someone face to face, and felt the life draining out of them, count yourself as extremely blessed.

The nightmares do not go away; and the counseling is very expensive, and so far worthless.

Wow Itjock...sorry you had to go through such trauma. Does it make life all the more sacred for you?

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. James 4:14

I have been lucky enough not to witness someone dying myself, but this past year 3 of my friends lost their fathers. I can't say I know how they felt or are feeling now but the expressions on their faces hurt me enough.

When I was six years old I supposedly saw three people die in a head-on collision with a bus. I don't remember it (only the aftermath) but it must be true because when they tried to get me on a bus later in the trip I went into hysterics and had to be dragged on. My older sister whom I was close to managed to calm me down.

I did see one of our family's German Shephard dogs get put to sleep. Kind of gruesome, especially the "death rattle" they give (central nervous system?).

I was not with my Dad when he died, my brother (an ER doctor) suggested it is not usually a very pretty or peaceful event. I did see him earlier in the day when he was in a coma, at that time his breath was becomining more and more laboured.

I was with my mother when they "turned off the machines", as they say. She had been brain dead (from lack of oxygen during a cardiac event) for a week. I remember the smell of the room, the look on everyone's faces, and the look on hers. The nurses turned off the infernal beeping of the heart monitor, which made it seems less like a movie, I guess. I remember it took 8 minutes from the moment the respirator was turned off until she took her last breath. There was a brief struggle as she tried to inhale and couldn't. I remember thinking "SHE'S TRYING TO BREATH! PLUG HER BACK IN! PLUG HER BACK IN!!!!!", but I kept that to myself.

It was the worst 8 minutes of my life thus far.

My Beloved Mother but she is always with me still!

I was with my father when he died. He had lung cancer. My grandfather and all of my uncles had died of cancer and they went quietly and peacefully as they each slipped into comas. However, my father had lung cancer, which inhibits breathing and kept him fighting for every breath, so he couldn't slip into a coma like that. He had breathing spasms and he had one final spasm and that sent him into cardiac arrest. It was a panicky moment of my brother, mother and I trying to help him, all of us screaming and crying and trying to save him (he was at home, not a hospice or hospital) and then he died in our arms. It was the most shattering moment of my life and it has pretty much steeled my resolve to deal with anything, so I guess there was some benefit to the shattering nature of the moment.

I was with my ex-wife when she died in the hospital. My children, her girlfriend, and I all knew it was coming, so we stayed with her that final awful night until the end came at 4 a.m.

bwg77I really can't describe what it feels like to watch the life fade out of someone. It's the strangest shift that occurs...so imperceptible in some ways and still so tangible in other ways.

Exactly.

I've seen my cousin die right in front of me. It was something very different, he used to get ill before but that was different. I knew instantly what happened to him, even though he lasted another day. We had just brought him home from the hospital, made him comfy in the bed when he shook his head and muttered "Oh" and he started gasping for air.

Before that, I saw an old man die at the hospital ER beside my cousin's bed. He was staring right at me when he died. That creeped me out and I couldn't sleep for two days.

Yep.

Usually, a last gasp, and the chest comes up, and then it's all over.

Saw my Grandmother pass a few year ago...very peaceful and surreal experience.
One of my best friends is about to pass, obviously I have know idea if I will be there at the moment....I am kinda hoping not...It's tough enough to see him this way as it is......

My aunt passed a few months ago of breast cancer, she died peacefully and out of pain, finally. My own brushes with death on too many occasions. And before that- Iraq. Too much to describe.

Yeah....i've seen people die...the first one kinda sticks with you but after a while you realize that its one of those things that comes with the Medical field....the one thing that still bothers me is seeing a child pass away...its one of the reasons why i don't want to go into pediatrics...i dont have the heart to watch a child suffer...that and the fact the EVERY examination on a child/baby is extra difficult because they're so small and refuse to stay put in one place. The wild screaming at the sight of the white coat and steth doesn't help much either.

I was on a street car one winter in Toronto. It was a very cold snowy and there was a very dapper elderly gentleman seated in front of me. I remember thinking how elegant he looked in a dark top coat and stetson hat. I watched him as he got up slowly to get off the car, he took one step down on the stair, and then collapsed. He landed on the snow covered street. The driver got off, passengers got off and tryed to help him, some people where crying, we all watched quietly but it was too late. It was like time stopped for a moment. Eventually an ambulance came and I had to leave because I was late for work, but it made me think, what if this had been my dad?

Yea, I've seen a few people die. First time was when I lived in Washington.. me and my friend were driving home from school.. he was driving.. well some old lady ran a stop sign, and we T-boned her.. she died before the ambulance got there.. it was terrible. Second time was when I lived at the beach, bike week '05, I saw 2 motorcycle accidents, neither were wearing helmets.. they both died at the scene, both went flying through the air and one was nearly decapitated. Then, last year, this is the toughest I had to see, we had to take my granny off life support... was the hardest thing watching her go..

How did it affect me? It's hard to say, it's a weird thing to see death. It really makes you open your eyes to life, and how precious it is. Nightmares.. oh yes. Guilt, there was nothing I could do for the bikers.. the old lady.. I felt it was our fault, but I know it wasn't. And I really really hate that we had to take my granny off life support, had it been my decision, I don't think I would have been able to take her off. But I know she was suffering, and she's in a better place now.

lilmaninsc saidYea, I've seen a few people die. First time was when I lived in Washington.. me and my friend were driving home from school.. he was driving.. well some old lady ran a stop sign, and we T-boned her.. she died before the ambulance got there.. it was terrible.

Does that mean he was charged with a felony or misdemeanor?

He didn't get charged with anything, there were witnesses and it really wasn't his fault.. not to say it didn't feel like it, but like I said.. nothing we could do.. I just wish she didn't run the stop sign.. I still see her in my dreams sometimes.. it wasn't a pretty sight.

i held my father in my arms when he died. he had cancer, and was obviously suffering at the end. the only thing i knew to do was to get in been with him and hold him. i didn't realize at the time he took his last breath. got up to clean his face, and realized he had just passed. i am really glad i was there doing what i could for him.

I'm an intern in the ER at the hospital where I live. After a while you kind of become numb. It was funny watching doctors and nurses trying to save a persons life one minute and talking about who's leading in the election polls the next.

I have seen two people die and more dead bodies than I can count. I did work as an EMT basic and saw some dead people. I also did doctor shadowing and saw an elderly lady die of gangrene. I have spent endless hours in the operating room and have seen a variety of surgeries too! I even spent some time in the morgue and watched autopsies. It was all really gory and intriguing.

I went to my baby 2 years old cousin funeral once in the occupied Palestine. I don't know if that count? I saw him dead in the coffin at the Church. He was killed by Israeli soldier. I couldn't believe my own eyes when I get closer look at him. I did kiss him on his forehead and God bless him.

I've seen quite a few accidents happen in front of me, and I drove past this accident right after it happened:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/18/BAGDCONHHK4.DTL

I saw the body crushed under the vehicle, and knew that there was no way he could have survived. It really affected me, and made me think about how fragile life is...driving under the influence or while sleepy is so irresponsible.

nwphx1972 saidI've seen quite a few accidents happen in front of me, and I drove past this accident right after it happened:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/18/BAGDCONHHK4.DTL

I saw the body crushed under the vehicle, and knew that there was no way he could have survived. It really affected me, and made me think about how fragile life is...driving under the influence or while sleepy is so irresponsible.

Ahhh that is scary... I saw one dead body was laying on the freeway (loop 101) and the guy face was rip off and the children was crying. This is so sad.

PhxAriz08 saidI saw one dead body was laying on the freeway (loop 101) and the guy face was rip off and the children was crying. This is so sad.

I can't imagine...

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=8417815&blogID=335467310&Mytoken=64467023-F0CD-479D-B749D94B2C29888938991380

I blogged about this in December, so you can read what I witnessed at the IDS Center in Minneapolis.

I was talking to my Mom around the holidays about Christmas and what not. I heard a crash and then I heard a scream and saw a cleaning man fall about 6 stories to his death inside the IDS Center.

He landed on his back and since I was standing in the Skyway, I could look below and his his facial features.

I was stunned and I left work early.

I watched my partner die in hospital after he'd been in a house fire. He had 60 per cent burns and they kept him alive for four days after the fire brigade pulled him out of the flat.

Once they took away all the monitors and his life support his death was actually quite peaceful and I don't think he was in any pain.

Death holds no fear for me now. And it made me realise that truly, without our personalities and minds we are nothing but empty vessels.

we had a school shooting when i was in 10th grade. 4 football players had been picking on this little freshman. he brought a gun to school one day and killed 3 of them right there in the middle of lunch. not cool. not cool at all.

Another reason to prevent bullying...

I've had a similar experience to a lot of guys on here it seems, My Dad passed away two weeks ago.. he had renal cancer that had been spreading for several years.
We had him under Hospice care at home, and we all made him as comfortable as we could, My mom and my sisters my partner and I were all there around him when he passed.
It was very sad to see him go , but we were all glad he wasn't in pain anymore.

I'm lucky so far...no, whenever my cat get's sick though i worry that i will and someday hopefully not soon that day will come.

I was with my dad when he died. I was the last person he spoke to several days before.

I may be more attuned to this than others, but I seem to be able to sense the change when people die especially if I am close to them.

When I was a young teenager, my mom got a phone call and went into another room through glass door to take the call. Before she picked up the phone I knew my grandmother had died (there had been no warning) I watched her collapse on the floor when she got the news on the phone.

In my 20s I bolted out of bed from a sound sleep and somehow knew my cousin had passed.... she was only 10 and had battled with Leukemia.

A few years ago, my then Lover's mentor and boss at his agency was in a coma (from Aids --- he was straight got it from prostitutes) We and his ex wife and 13 year old son were in the room when he died. He was still breathing heavily but the doctor said he wouldn't last much longer. I was sitting quietly with my partner when I felt a cold wind move through me and could almost "see" a mist rise up from the man's body. The doctor confirmed the next day that the brainwaves stopped at the exact time I felt the wind and saw the mist or cloud or SOMEthing rise from his body.

A few years back, I was coming home from a New Years Eve party alone and depressed in the rain, when I saw a VW bug on the freeway stopped facing the wrong way with both doors open. after look more I saw a young guy naked face down on the road... I tried to pick him up off the freeway, but his body was like jello... I assume many of his bones were broken... I dragged him to the edge of road but before I could find a phone to call the police, I saw another car up ahead with two girls sitting beside it covered in blood... they were alive but injured and in shock. I tried to get them to come to side out of the freeway, but fortunately the cops arrived and took care of them.
They told me later the boy hit the girls car and he was thrown out and killed instantly. The girls survived. What I got from that night I will never forget; no matter how bad it seems, at least you have LIFE....I saw it snatched away in an instant, I am more grateful now.

Yes. This was probably in my late teens, mabye as late as when I was 20, but every July 4th my father and I would take a fishing trip for Salmon to a place called Shelter Cove, along the Northern California coast. A seven hour drive from the San Jose area, where I grew up. There was a commercial fishermen fleet right there in the cove, but recreational fishermen came there too. We'd come back from fishing one afternoon, when I heard the sound of sirens. It was a pretty remote area, so that wasn't a sound you heard often. I went out to explore, since the sirens stopped close, and I found a crowd over by where the fish were all weighed in. On the ground was an EMT giving CPR to this overweight man on the ground. He must have suffered a heart attack. I don't know if he was dead before the EMT got there, or he died as the EMT was working on him, but the body seemed lifeless as the EMT performed CPR. He might well have been giving CPR to a waterbed. I don't know how long I stood there transfixed. It seemed morbid to me even at the time, but I couldn't move. It was probably only a few minutes. Finally, the man lost control of his bowells. The sight of that sort of shook me out of my shock. I became aware that this man was probably dead at this point, I didn't want to rob the man of any more of his dignity by hovering. I walked away, passing more people coming to see what was going on.

I was with my grandfather when he died of complication from his emphysema(sp?) and his heart failure, when I was 18.
I saw my best friend in high school die in a car accident. He had just let me out of the car, which was a brand new, BLUE 1980 Camero Z-28, and he was showing off and took off fast. He apparently didn't see the metal poles and I-beam hanging off the back of a flatbed truck. He was impaled on the poles and beheadded(sp?) by the metal I-beam and dead on the spot. He was 19.
I was with my grandmother when she passed away after an extended illness. The entire family had been in to visit her regularly, like always..She was asleep and just drifted away....no drama, no fight and by her own choice, no heroic efforts to revive her. My grandma...here it is 4 years later, as of Leap Day, and I miss her even more. It is still like she is on a long vacation and is just out of cell phone range....
I saw a man in a car on I-70 east bound in central Illinois, die. A servere thunderstorm had produced a tornado that parrallelled the interstate and was putting down huge hailstones and very high winds, The winds blasted the hailstone through the sunroof of his saab and knocked him out. With him unconscious, his car swerved into the median ditch, which was flooded and deep. His car sank and he drowned in his car...it was very wild and almost surreal...The most unsettling thing I saw was the body of a girl that a group of us found in the woods of an outdoor concert venue, that I worked at as a "parker"(traffic control). I still have nightmares about this and in the summer, on super warm nights, the smell of a "grease dump/pit" at a fast food place reminds me of the stench that started the whole thing. The therapy never touched this "trigger".....I still get nausea....and it happened almost 25 years ago....

The first time I saw someone die was back in '85 when one of my best friends died of AIDS-related pneumonia. His partner and I were sitting on either side of the bed, holding his hands, when he took his last breath.

There were others after that... too many others.

The last time I saw someone die was a little over 11 years ago, when my partner died in my arms.

I watched a man die last night. They were doing CPR when I got there and were talking about epinepherine and his hearth rythm and all the other things that go with saving a life.

All I could do was stand there and hope his condition improved, or at least stabilized. It only took a couple of minutes, but he didn't make it. I had to tell his boyfriend and then his sister.

His passing was peaceful (despite the efforts and comotion of EMS) and unfortunately preventable. Don't be afraid of your doctor. No one likes to hear bad news, but better to hear it than never see it coming.

I lived in lower manhattan on 9/11, a few blocks from ground zero, and seeing all the people jumping from the WTC was the first time I watched someone die. It was pretty horrific.

i haven't seen anyone die though there was this one situation, maybe last year, where this old guy (80's i guess) fell head first down some steps in front of me and i half caught him and he hit his head on the tile floor which scared me and shook me up.

blood poured out everywhere and he kept insisting he was fine and tried to just go on as if nothing happened but i stopped him from moving around so much and some other people got a medic and it really shook me up for some reason. the sound of his head when it hit the floor was something i never heard before and i was in shock afterwards. when he thanked me for waiting with him it was like he knew he was hurt but he kept trying to get on a bus and saying he was fine.....really scared me

I watched my mom die from complications with her brain tumor this September. It was so quick and subtle it took me few moments to realize she was gone and I still wasn't sure. I checked her pulse, but my heart was pounding pretty hard so I could feel my own pulse in my fingertips. I called the hospice nurse into the room and she confirmed it. It was a surreal mixture of anguish and relief. When I left the facility, I almost drove off the road a few times because it would hit me in uncontrollable waves.

Aside from watching my grandfather and best friend die, a man jumped off the 14-story building and hit the ground in front of me, it was shock, especially because his eyes were still open and there was blood coming out of his head. Couldn't sleep for months after that.

I made the HUGE mistake of watching the beheading of Daniel Pearl when it was shown on the internet. The site (and sound) of him dying still haunts me to this day. I couldn't go see the Angelina Jolie movie about this for this reason. I honestly don't think I will ever forget the sound of his screams or the site of some butcher of a human being sawing his head off.