WTF Stories of the Week

[Betty]

What if he was normally a great guy - but stopped taking his medication - and this was the result? If only any one of those people would have done something... they managed to get him out after he died after all.

What would have happend if a bunch of people jumped in to rescue him and were then in trouble. Would the "rescuers" have just sat back and continued to watch?

What was the point of them even being there anyway if they weren't going to do anything? Isn't that a waste of resources?

[alphabassettgrrl]

If they had had equipment, they could go after him once he goes unconscious. An unconscious person cannot give/refuse consent to treat, and the assumption is that the person would want to be treated/revived.

As far as I understand it, anyway.

[Kevy Baby]

For those who did not read the entire article:

Interim Alameda Fire Chief Mike D'Orazi said that due to 2009 budget cuts his crews did not have the training or cold-water gear to go into the water.

<snip>

The Coast Guard was called to the scene, but the water was too shallow for its boat. A Coast Guard helicopter arrived more than an hour later because it had been on another call and had to refuel.

As for police, they didn't have the gear for the cold water and couldn't risk being pulled under.

"Certainly this was tragic, but police officers are tasked with ensuring public safety, including the safety of personnel who are sent to try to resolve these kinds of situations," Alameda police Lt. Sean Lynch said.

"He was engaged in a deliberate act of taking his own life," Lynch told the Mercury News. "We did not know whether he was violent, whether drugs were involved. It's not a situation of a typical rescue."

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Betty

What if he was normally a great guy - but stopped taking his medication - and this was the result? If only any one of those people would have done something... they managed to get him out after he died after all.

What if they tried to rescue him and one of the rescuers died in the process because this other guy was off his meds?

[Ghoulish Delight]

As if spelling bee contestants didn't already have enough of a stigma to overcome, this is the new venue this year.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

As if spelling bee contestants didn't already have enough of a stigma to overcome, this is the new venue this year.

Oh lord, that is so gay

[Capt Jack]

its inappropriate to laugh...
its inappropriate to laugh...
its inappropriate to laugh...

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Betty

What if he was normally a great guy - but stopped taking his medication - and this was the result?

Doesn't change my view. Just because you can be medicated out of a choice doesn't make the choice unacceptable. But if the state is willing to say pre-emptively (not just because of the choice made) that you're so incapable of making personal decisions that we will deprive you of personhood and dictate your life to you then opens a different can of worms.

Though it would be nice if there was a place people could go and say "I'm ready to die" and they're asked if they'd like to talk to someone about it, encouraged to fill out some forms that will make things easier afterward, and then given a pill and a quiet room. But all of that requires getting rid of the notion that deciding on suicide is prima facie evidence that one is crazy, or that even if one is crazy, one is not allowed to be so.

What was the point of them even being there anyway if they weren't going to do anything? Isn't that a waste of resources?

If nothing else to make sure nobody else got themselves killed doing something stupid in response.

[Morrigoon]

That chopper was on the call we witnessed, over by the Cliff House. We still don't know if they ever found the "surfer in distress" they were looking for.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Capt Jack

its inappropriate to laugh...
its inappropriate to laugh...
its inappropriate to laugh...

...out loud
...out loud
...out loud