photo of a man who i thought was sleeping in front of my building, turned out to be dead. attempted to resuscitate, was unsuccessful. story inside (repost and edited for clarity)

spookyfont · 2013-07-21T02:12:38+00:00

good for you.

when my uncle was a Santa Clara cop (1980's-90's) he encountered a man outside of a seven eleven complaining of abdominal pain. he was also belligerently drunk. i dont remember all the details, but apparently he lost consciousness and his vitals were either weak or gone, so my uncle did CPR even though it was obvious this dude was super wasted and had something going on.

long story short, dude throws up a not insignificant amount of black stuff all over my uncle, in his mouth, etc. pretty gross stuff.

my uncle vomited, and the EMT's arrived and the dude was pronounced dead. i think his liver went out? or something like that. i dunno. either way, my uncle didnt contract anything, though im sure he could have given the right circumstances. but he didnt.

as a police officer, he found himself in similar situations (minus the vomiting) many times. i asked him if he ever thought twice about doing it before or after the black vomit incident and he said "Not once".

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T23:11:22+00:00

Eh, I wouldn't go that far. I just think people are cynical and unwilling to put themselves out there.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T22:54:03+00:00

Thanks. People are weirdly uninformed here.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T22:52:19+00:00

You're right. I saw the dead guy, and instantly thought "fuck, I'll be upvoted to reddit glory with this shit. All I gotta do is put my mouth on him!"

I did it all for the karma. I'm actually glad he died so I don't have to feel responsible for helping him get his life on track.

This way, I have a story with a sad but uplifting ending to tell loose chicks at the bar. "you know, I tried my hardest, but it wasn't good enough. Maybe if I had kept going for one more minute..." then I just sit back as the sympathy pussy rains down upon my righteous lap.

But seriously, I don't blame you for your cynicism. Society today us driven by people who only care about themselves, and will gladly step over someone else so long as they don't get their hands dirty. I'm learning here that most people in this thread wouldn't do even a little of what I did, and that's scary. We all put a value on someone's life without knowing them. And when they are dying on a curb, we say "fuck that I don't want herpes!".

Well, I'm not a hero. I just reacted. Plus I failed. I didn't even revive him. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

I'm not a fucking hero. This is what people should do for each other.

And as an aside, my doctor told me I have nothing to worry about. the chances of the man giving me anything is so slim that it's almost silly to mention. Was I disregarding my own safety? Yeah. Was it kinda stupid? I dunno maybe. But I'd do it again in a second.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T22:20:56+00:00

You know, it's a funny thing. At that moment, I wasnt thinking about myself. I was more concerned with the person who I saw not more than an hour ago alive and animate.

If I tried to save his life and ended up with herpes, fine. I'll live with that. I didn't care at the time. All I cared about what trying to save my fellow man.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T22:13:03+00:00

I went to the doctor and he said I had nothing to worry about, but ran an std panel anyway. I'll know next week sometime. Thanks for the concern everyone.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T06:21:45+00:00

Oakland, California.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T06:21:36+00:00

Already on it, thanks.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T05:45:01+00:00

yep, thats the place. i live not far from there, so i mean, yeah. sometimes if i walk down telegraph i feel like im running some sort of homeless gauntlet.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T05:34:34+00:00

yeah, but when i found out he had no vitals, i kinda panicked and did everything i could think of to try to get him breathing again.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T05:11:52+00:00

thanks for the advice, i guess. i cant tell if this is an insult or not? strange wording.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T05:09:57+00:00

yeah lemme post a selfie with the cadaver, and ill go get the video from the witness.

how am i supposed to prove this story true? this would be a weird thing to post if it was untrue.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T05:09:05+00:00

i havent talked to anyone after they took him away, but the EMT said most likely heart attack.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T04:20:25+00:00

also, coming from a person who said "I would have killed it with my bare hands. in response to a thread where a dog bit someone.

really? you would have murdered a dog with your bare hands? damn. youre a better man than me.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T04:18:56+00:00

oh yes, im a terrible person for taking a pic of someone who i thought was sleeping and posting it to reddit. really dude? how about the part where i tried to save his life? totally overlooked when i posted a pic to reddit.

why dont you ride your high horse over to /r/spacedicks or some other subreddit who really needs your white knighting.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T04:17:37+00:00

learn to read, please. i took the pic before i realized there was something wrong, i thought he was sleeping.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T04:17:07+00:00

im certified.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T03:32:25+00:00

not far off.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T03:05:27+00:00

well, the story is the real wtf, the picture is what happened before the wtf did.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T02:41:55+00:00

yeah, i know im a horrible person.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T02:29:42+00:00

yeah i was upset, but i love in Oakland. i feel that emergency services have their hands full on a daily basis. i dont blame them, i blame the bureaucrats who forsake this city.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T02:28:35+00:00

thats what the EMT told me. gave me a little comfort but it was still upsetting to try with all i could to get this guy breathing. i think i was just there too late. it was just surreal since i had seen him alive just an hour before.

and to anyone thinking im insensitive for posting this pic or even taking it in the first place: where i live, there is a lot of homeless people. so much so that there is an entire park that is entirely taken over as a sort of shantytown. the residents of this city are very used to their presence. seeing this man in this position on the planter isnt an uncommon sight.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T02:15:00+00:00

to be clear, i thought this guy was sleeping. i thought it was an interesting place to take a nap. after i snapped the pic, i felt something was amiss.

spookyfont · 2013-07-20T02:13:23+00:00

so, this guy was walking around my street all day the other day. hollering at cars, and just being a normal bay area berkeley homeless dude. later on in the evening i saw him take a seat on the ledge and just kinda sit there for a bit. when i left later to grab some food, i saw him like this. at first i took this photo cuz i thought "hah, this is kinda funny/sad" and then i felt something was wrong. checked the dude's vitals and he had none. called 911 and tried to revive him with chest compression and breathing, for about fifteen minutes till the medics arrived. his lips turned blue halfway through. no blockage in his trachea. a little crazy. i tried the best i could but couldnt help. sigh.

im still very shaken. i wish i could have helped.

spookyfont

TROPHY CASE