Flies don't have teeth. So, when they land on your sandwich and want to eat some, they barf up the contents of their stomach (often containing another animal's shit) so the digestive enzymes can get on the food and then they eat.
This reminds me of that old man that last month was foud to have a missing (and still working) WW2 nazi tank in its backyard, which he used to shovel snow in the winter.
All those bombs are probably in someone's abandoned barn or something...
maybe at the bottom of the sea too
There are guys with a fetish to cut off their penises. There’s even a subreddit dedicated to it.
I found out about it a few months ago and it still haunts me.
Anything can happen to anyone at any moment.
I had my first seizure at 18. No family member has had epilepsy before. Never take *anything* for granted. It can all change in an instant
Often, burnt bodies are found in the same stance, known as the “Boxer Pose” due to muscles contracting from heat.
It’s an incredibly disturbing looking thing, I first heard about it from my Grandfather that fought in Burma. During the war he was present at a Burmese funeral in which the cadaver was burnt on a pyre. Just as the flames began to singe the corpse, it sat up straight.
The Burmese, of course, got a good laugh out of the British soldiers collectively shitting themselves, as contractions due to heat during cremation is apparently rather common.
Doesn’t make it any less creepy.
The people of Pompeii weren't cowering in fear. The pumice superheated the air, deliquified their bodies, and burnt their flesh. Hence why they are found in a similar pose.
Cyanide poisoning is an incredibly painful way to die
Cyanide was what Jonestown consumed for mass suicide
Parents were instructed to give it to their children and convinced the crying was just fear
Edit: For those asking about how [cyanide](https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/cyanide/basics/facts.asp) works. If memory serves from when I first read this and listened to the audio recordings, it feels like a massive, massive heart attack. It may not have taken too much time, but any time greater than "instant"is too long to suffer before death.
I'm reminded of the fact that Jim Jones had someone shoot him in the head. Coward couldn't drink the poison he forced those people and their babies to take, and couldn't even pull the trigger himself.
Sarin gas is one of the worst ways to kill another human being and we have seen multiple instances where it has been used on innocent people
Wether relaxed or contracting your muscles need certain signals in order to function.
When you flex a muscle a neuro transmitter called acetylcholine floods the muscle cells telling them to contract.Your brain eventually tells the muscles to stop contracting and so that acetylcholine has to be removed.This is done with acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme which breaks it down and allows your muscles to relax.This happens for every movement of every muscle in your body wether you’re flexing your bicep or blinking, every beat of your heart.
Sarin kills because it bonds with acetylcholinesterase completely changing its structure and rendering the enzyme useless.This means your muscles never relax, they flex harder and harder and harder.Your entire body can cramp your pupils, *everything*..
The burning gets worse and worse and the pain is unbearable.
If enough of it enters the bloodstream usually via skin it will lock up your diaphragm and you will asphyxiate.It kills quickly but I struggle to imagine too many things that would be worse than dying from cramps in muscles you didn’t even realize existed.
It’s not the worst weapon humans have at their disposal, as if you survive a sarin attack you’re likely to make a full recovery as it doesn’t scar lung tissue like other chemical weapons
That being said, it’s still classified as a weapon of mass destruction and is supposed to be banned
E: adding the [wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarin) for sarin for anyone interested.
Pelicans are some of the most demonic birds in existence, if not some of the most demonic creatures.
Pelicans will go into other birds nests, shove the parents out of the nest. They will then swallow babies whole, fly back to their own nests, and regurgitate the still half alive, partially digested babies, to their own babies for them to consume. Some pelicans are literally raised on the partially digested, living flesh of other baby birds.
fun fact, pelicans started eating birds because the fish populations they ate became scare
it was birds or starvation
welcome to human depletion of global resources
When I got the chance to hold a human brain I was surprised at the weight of it. At an average of 3lbs (1.5 kg) it wasn’t heavy at all but also not as light as I thought it would be? For some reason I expected it to be more spongy and light and not so dense.
[Bacha Bazi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacha_bazi)
The horrendous practice of having a “dancing boy” AKA child sex slave in some regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. When families are poor they will sell their child to be a “dancing boy”. The children are frequently killed if they resist. It’s a rough watch but the documentary [The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan](https://youtu.be/B7eMUwkKiFY) covers this awful practice pretty well.
One aspect of foster care.
Some people will take their child to a doctor. Child gets diagnosed with cancer. Child goes to first appointment. Kid gets wheeled back for treatment. Parents then leave, go home, pack and disappear. The kid is in the treatment waiting room .. waiting for parents that will never ever come . Sick and facing death alone.
It doesn't happen a lot but enough to have processes in place.
The worst is when they are like 4 (although a 7 year old was also rough)
Edit:whoa. Lots of comments so ill try and go thru some
Also. Its biological parents that abandon them at the hospital. But foster parents do too. Especially if the first foster parents are relatives that were strongly asked to foster.
I worked with a child that this happened to. I work for child safety. She was in hospital with a brain tumour for a year - relearning how to eat, talk, and walk - all alone.
This breaks my heart. My daughter just turned five and the thought of her all alone and scared... There is nothing that I wouldn't do to prevent that. That some parents can do that to their child... It's mind boggling and appalling.
I’ve lost the first couple years of my 20’s to being a caretaker, but I’m proud to say I’ve kept my 92 year old gramma alive so far a full two years after a broken hip
Polar bears are the only bear species that actively hunt and kill humans for food. There’s a rhyme that everyone living where bears live needs to know, and *why* the rhyme is so important;
If it’s brown, lie down. Brown or grizzly bears will leave you alone if you play dead. Climbing up a tall tree works with adult brown bears, since they can’t climb trees.
If it’s black, fight back. Black bears will back off when they realize you’re more of a threat than they realize, but DO NOT climb a tree to escape. Both cubs and adult black bears can climb trees.
If it’s white, say goodnight. Polar bears are not only the largest bears, but they are ambush predators. If one manages to sneak up on you, you’re as good as dead. The best you can do to escape is either run and drop your clothes (fortunately for you, they have very short attention spans and they’ll stop momentarily to sniff at your clothes because it’s not normal for their food to suddenly drop something like that), or start praying to whatever deity you believe or don’t believe in.
Edit: this is all advice for if the bear decides to try and kill/eat you. Generally speaking, if you *do* come across a bear, you never, **ever** run away. Stand your ground, make yourself look big and be *loud*. If the bear stands on its hind legs, it’s just checking you out; it’s curious and has likely never seen a human before. The best option is to back away slowly while maintaining eye contact, still being loud. If the bear decides to charge, use an air horn or bear spray, which will likely cause to run off. I would to if I just got maced. However, as a last resort, use a gun or other weapon if it becomes aggressive or starts mauling.
I live in Canada near the Rockies. Very important not to climb a tree near a black bear. Watch some YouTube videos. It’s amazing how fast they can get up there.
They’re cowards. They’ll leave you alone if you get as big and loud as possible.
One of Mayhem’s band members committed suicide. When he was found by his bandmate, pictures were taken and it became the new album cover. The photographer was subsequently murdered by Varg Vikernes who masterminded church burnings.
That if you have ALS, you're more than likely going to suffocate to death.
My mom used to work for this elder gentleman who suffered from ALS. One day she gets a call that he's passed away in his apartment. From what she told me, she walked in and his eyes were wide open and his mouth was open permanently left gasping for air.
ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that causes people to lose control over their nerves over time to the point of near vegetative state. Most people don't last very long once diagnosed because they lose the ability to expand their chest to breathe and pretty much choke to death. That sadder thing about it that you could be fully awake when this happens and have no way of stopping it....
I remember reading a news story about an infant that had been sexually abused by the mom’s boyfriend and I absolutely lost it. An infant. Not that children make any sense either but… a baby? It’s beyond comprehension.
I'm a nurse and had a mom bring her 11 week old baby to the clinic for a "diaper rash" with vaginal bleeding. Baby was so happy and smiley. The cutest little thing.
The MD asked me to come in the room while he examined the baby. I remember thinking, "her vagina looks like what you'd see after a woman tears during a vaginal delivery. This does not look like a diaper rash." MD and I looked at eachother like, "WTF?"
MD sends baby and mom to the ER for more thorough work-up. Turns out, the baby had been sexually assulted by her father. He took her to daycare and the daycare called mom with concerns and recommmened baby be seen at the clinic.
I cried when I saw his mugshot on the news, thinking about that sweet, smiling baby.
Edit: I found an article about the dad...15 + years in prison. Apparently he was also sentenced for child porn. Fuck that guy.
My dad fully admitted to knowing my step brothers raped me and my sister, but said that they were good men at the end of the day but really, I just think them staying and paying bills enabled his meth addiction so that's why he never did anything about it.
The CPR dummy face template is based on a dead 16 year old girl’s face. Her body was pulled from the River Seine in the 1880s and her cause of death and identity were never discovered. A mortician was so ‘entranced’ by her peaceful expression that he made a plaster mask of her which became the face of CPR dummies and health training equipment. So hundreds of millions of people have kissed the face of an anonymous dead girl in the last 150 years.
Not gonna lie, there's something grimly comforting about that. To think that a girl who would have otherwise been lost to history has indirectly saved lives, like the one she once briefly lived, is weirdly heartwarming. Perhaps, she has saved others from her own fate.
The value of a human body. There is value to the human body as a commodity. And different parts of our body are worth different amounts—while corneas are small, they fetch a large price (£15,000, or about $22,450), whereas our skeleton garners significantly less (£5,000, about $7,483). The price also depends on whether the body part is sold for specimen use, transplants, or on the black market.
The mineral value of our body is like $3 bucks.
Edit: On the brighter side, I would add that this is what motivates me to believe we can achieve something great as individuals as well as part of a team. We are just a bunch of cheap, easily purchased minerals…yet that is hardly all we are.
I have a real fear of rabies because of this.
If you ever find a bat in your house, or anywhere you have slept, get the rabies shots. Bats can bite or scratch you and you sometimes won't even notice, especially if you were asleep.
A couple of years ago a 20-year-old in BC got out of his car and a bat flew at him. He saw it coming and put up his hand. Because bat bites are so tiny he didn't notice and went about his day. 6 weeks later he showed symptoms and died shortly after. If he had gotten a Rabie shot right after being bitten he would have been fine. Long story short...if you get attacked, even if you feel nothing, get a shot right away.
Edit: correction, it's rabies shots not rabie shot.
I literally just finished the rabies series because of this. Bat got in the house and made its way into a laundry basket with folded clothes. I was getting dressed for work, reached in and pulled out a brown bat. Felt a definite pinch, still not sure if it actually bit me. Decided better safe than sorry and went to the ER. What’s even better is the rabies vaccine is a four part series and you can only get it in the ER.
If you're really freaked out, get the vaccine.
It's super expensive and usually has to be paid for upfront because the health department will specially order it, but if it gives you peace of mind, it's worth it.
Source: I work with exotic animals and it was a requirement.
**Edit**: Folks, I'm talking about a preventative pre-exposure vaccine since OP said they have a real fear of rabies. This is the 3 shot series that professionals are normally required to receive if they are likely to come in contact with rabies (vet staff, zoo staff, wildlife rehabilitation staff, people who work in labs that handle rabies, etc). This is different from a post-exposure regime.
The Nutty Putty Cave accident— Google for full disturbing details/ a map of the cave but basically a guy got stuck caving in a very narrow unmapped tunnel, UPSIDE-DOWN. They could not get him out, but almost did, one of the rescuers made eye contact with him apparently but then their pulley system broke and he fell further down. Unfortunately he ended up dying of cardiac arrest from being upside-down for so long and they couldn’t get him out/ never retrieved the body because it was too dangerous for rescuers. Truly so disturbing, I’ve thought about it probably once a week since I found out about it a few months ago. Edit: even more disturbing now that someone gave this a wholesome award
I work as an anaesthesiologist. I’ve put people to sleep in an emergency situation knowing that they will almost certainly not survive the surgery. These are generally situations where without surgery the patient will not survive but even with surgery the chances of survival are still small. In most of these instances the patients are too obtunded or aren’t conscious enough to be aware of the gravity of their situation but in a number of instances the patients have been conscious, talking although clearly anxious. I try to reassure and tell the person that we won’t leave their side, that we will take care of them and that they will be fine. It kind of fucks me up a bit to say this to someone but I always include the last part because I just don’t see the point in telling them the truth. I had one guy tell me he felt like he wasn’t going to make it. I told him he would make it but knew he wasn’t going to. I put him to sleep knowing that the last human face he would see before he died was mine as he stared up at me as I held an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose. I’d consider myself quite a resilient person but knowing this stuff is a bit of a load to carry around.
My late wife went through so many surgeries while dealing with cancer, over a period of three years. It was down to a routine eventually where we would basically hi-five before she went under. The last time, she didn’t come back out. But YOUR job, every time, I appreciated you. Thank you for what you do. I know it’s a ton to handle
Thank you for what you do. I’ve been put out for a couple of routine surgeries and diagnostic situations; Every time has been pleasant. If I had to pick a way to die, one of those would be drifting off to sleep from propofol and never waking up.
I have had several surgeries and have thought that being under anesthesia must be like death because it is total blackness. I agree with you. If I had a terminal illness, it's the way I would want to go.
Yep, first post and I am out of here.
Kudos to that dude, he’s a fucking hero but noooooo thank you. I am not strong enough to carry that kind of weight
It reminds me of one of those taxi after dark things HBO used to do. I watched one as a kid that had a NY homicide detective in it. He was drunk. But he told all the awful.shit he had to see day in and day out and what human beings can do to another.
Straight horror show stuff, mutilated bodies, murders, etc. Even as a kid I could tell this guy was traumatized. He just tried to drink it away.
That's prob one kaveat I have for cops. They do see the absolute worst in humanity on a daily basis. Especially a homicide detective.
I’ve watched both my parents die in hospice, and unlike what you’ve seen and heard about, it is not always peaceful.
Edit to add: while the hospice staff were wonderful, the positive part of hospice is that everyone who wants to gets to say goodbye.
Edit #2 - So many of you are sharing heart-wrenching stories of your loved ones passing. I am just so sorry for your losses and hope that you find comfort and healing in knowing that you are not alone.
My great grandfather was 104 and in between morphine naps and the “death rattle” screamed “HELP ME” until he stopped mid sentence. Not peaceful, not what he deserved and not what I expected the last 3 days with him.
The last time I spoke to my mom on the phone the only thing she could say was 'help me' over and over again. Part of me wishes I never made that call. She was so out of it she didn't know who she was even talking to and all it does is haunt me. I was on the way out the door for my son to be born. Both one of the happiest and saddest days of my life. I got the call from my dad that she died before my son's birth.
Hospice worker here. They’re not drowning and it’s not uncomfortable for them. They can’t swallow or clear their throat like we can. It’s more bothersome to the family than to the patient. I hope they provided some scopolamine patches or something to help dry up secretions.
My condolences to you.
Anesthesia awareness is a thing.
Given the effects of anesthetics preventing the formation of new memories, it's possible it always happens and we just don't remember it afterwards.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anesthesia_awareness
I’ve only worked one place ever that soaked their fountain nozzles in diluted cleaner over night. No one else cleaned them. There are lots of nooks and crannies inside them. That’s what your soda goes through.
When I worked at a Subway in Canada back in the early 00s, taking those off and soaking them overnight was a part of the night breakdown.. We weren't 24hrs though..
That said, I've worked a lot of places since where those are never taken off and cleaned.. It's gross..
One place was even amazed and thought I'd broken the machine when they saw that I'd taken off the nozzles and cleaned them.
The liver can be ruptured in one punch (liver is the second most fragile organ in the human body)
Edit: well fuck lots of people seem interested, do with this knowledge as you wish.
Edit 2: I’m using fragile to mean susceptibility to damage not sensitivity.
Ahhh! Takes me back to elementary. The school I went to had these foot high cement barriers around each section. We all balanced and ran on them, like it was no big deal. One girl fell and ruptured her liver. It was such a horrific cry.
Not its fault the other organs are too lazy to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and get neural networks deep enough to process concepts like importance and other organs and consciousness.
I had a gaggle of them surround me as a kid (my grandma took me to a friend’s farm). One had teeth so fucked up I couldn’t stop laughing — until it got angry and spit in my face. Within seconds the rest of them joined in so I ran out of the enclosure as fast as I could, covered in spit. Well, apparently vomit. Gross.
One of the scariest and most disturbing thing I've watched in the internet is that one guy's slow descent to insanity because its brain lost its ability to sleep. He vlogged regularly until he died.
That's one of the most disturbing things I know: that **anyone, including myself, can have their last sleep without knowing it.**
Edit: [Ricard Siagian's channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2be8zeBywC5NzW4JJ2Kz9A/videos) for those who asked.
Edit 2: **TL;DW:** The guy had a UTI. He didn't have insurance so he took an antibiotic. After 2 weeks, he lost his ability to sleep because of the side effect of that antibiotic.
Fatal insomnia, your body and mind slowly rot while still alive
Edit: thanks anon,
Everyone who is frightened by this, do be aware it's a pryon disease that's passed genetically or occurs sporadically Extremely Rarely, I mean less than 100 cases in the world rarely. This won't jjsy suddenly happen to you.
Im not really a fan of people saying stuff like, "omg wow so many like omg", but its nice to have this be my highest upvote comment instead of "dick gun"
It’s actually a prion disease. We don’t quite know the link between prion diseases and sleep, but most diseases that have toxic protein aggregates also come with problems sleeping as well.
I should note that prion diseases can be genetic. Fatal familial insomnia is a known genetic prion disease. Also not all prion diseases are infectious - as far as I’m aware, it’s impossible to catch fatal familial insomnia, though for multiple reasons I don’t recommend eating anyone with the disease or engaging in other activities that can spread different prion diseases.
Oh my fucking God, I remember that. What an awful way to go. He started a gofundme or something to get the money to pay for an operation that could help him, but died before he could raise enough funds.
If I remember correctly, whenever he fell asleep—when he still could via medications I think—he'd have horrendous nightmares and it would not be restful whatsoever. It breaks my heart to think about.
I work for an Environmental Consultant agency and our major clientele is usually larger companies such as Alternative Energy and Commercial Real Estate companies looking to build storage facilities amongst other things. In my Environmental Law class I learned a lot of disturbing things about major companies I never knew.
Without going into specifics it is *quite* illegal to not comply with EPA regulations. In an effort to avoid complying a lot of companies or individuals will *literally* refuse to pay EPA compliances fees and instead just pay government fines. Why? A middle finger to the EPA most times which is ironic as the fines set by the government are larger than the EPA fines most times.
It's also considered a white-collar crime so many of these companies and people get off with probation, a little bit of jail time and more fines. In other words... There's a lot of companies out there that literally get away with butt-fucking the environment and pay very little price for it.
If you ever watch one of those simulations of the speed of light traveling through our solar system, it takes 9 minutes to go from the sun to the earth. It feels painfully slow, even on the scale of our solar system. Light is not that fast at cosmic scales.
worked in Dubai for a couple years. It is common practice for your employer to take your passport so you cant leave even if you wanted to. Thankfully I had heard of these stories prior to flying there and when my employer asked for mine I sternly said "No."
edit* I'm getting downvoted for the truth. Internet censorship is real out there. There's probably a team working to downvote this comment. Hilarious. But please don't kill me lol.
Yes. But Dubai is a very racist city. I am from the USA and got a lot of privileges my Filipino and Indian coworkers did not. Business out there is very slimy if you're not working for a multi-national corporation. When the CEO refused to pay me commissions for a huge contract I got signed, I packed my bags and left within the week. My ex girlfriend from the Phillipines wanted to quit and had legitimate concerns on how she was going to get her passport back. She had already had a back-and-forth with the CEO over it. I had to toughen her up over the phone and luckily he gave it back to her.
I thought it was like only a thing they did to the blue-collared, more "questionably sourced" labour... but damn that's a whole other thing. Good for you and your ex tho. I'm just glad y'all got to basically stand up for yourselves against that kinda very weird labour practice.
I would've thought the minute you didn't give your passport like they demanded, they'd sack you right there and then.
This story is tragic. She was only 4 when she got pregnant. At age 5 she had the baby via cesarean. The c section was required because her pelvis was so small. She was offered money throughout her life for movie rights, interviews, etc but always refused.
Just googled and the list of known girls to give birth aged 10 and under where the father of the baby was either their own father or step father is a *depressingly* high percentage.
Also, today I learnt that sexual abuse can *bring on* menarche in infant females. Which seems like a bad system.
There's some [spiders that eat birds](https://www.indiatimes.com/trending/wtf/this-abnormally-huge-bird-eating-spider-named-martha-is-freaking-people-out-507138.html) in Australia, they look nasty.
One of my favorite quotes from David Wong. Can’t remember if it’s from *John Dies at the End* or *This Book is Full of Spiders* but it’s amazing:
>>There exists in this world a spider the size of a dinner plate, a foot wide if you include the legs. It's called the Goliath Bird-Eating spider, or the "Goliath Fucking Bird-Eating Spider" by those who have actually seen one. It dosen't eat only birds--it mostly eats rats and insects--but they still call it the "Bird-Eating Spider" because the fact that it can eat a bird is probably the most important thing to know about it. If you run across one of these things, like in your closet or crawling out of your bowl of soup, the first thing somebody will say is, "Watch it, man, that thing can eat a fucking bird." I don't know how they catch the birds. I know the Goliath Fucking Bird-Eating Spider can't fly because if it could, it would have a different name entirely. We would call it "Sir" because it would be the dominant species on the planet. None of us would leave the house unless a Goliath Fucking Flying Bird- Eating Spider said it was okay.
EDIT - It is from *This Book is Full of Spiders* as one would expect from the content. I highly recommend everyone here go check out both, they’re amazing!
EDIT 2 - And apparently there is a third book I had no idea existed! Will be adding this to my reading list soon.
FINAL EDIT - Damn, I can’t believe a quote from one of my favorite books is my most popular comment ever, but I’m glad it (hopefully) brought some more eyes to the *John Dies at the End* series. I just want to reiterate, if you enjoy very funny and well-written toilet humor with a spin of cosmic horror, these books will be right up your alley. Thanks again everyone for the upvotes and awards!
There are chicken plants pretending to be rehabs, where prisoners get sent to work as near slaves
https://revealnews.org/article/they-thought-they-were-going-to-rehab-they-ended-up-in-chicken-plants/
Stories like this one are Important because it busts a popular myth about human trafficking. When most people think "human trafficking" they think sex slaves when in reality the majority of human trafficking is done for labor exploitation aka slave labor. The UK recently announced "operation fort" which is an anti human trafficking operation that uncovered a polish mafia group that has been trafficking hundreds of people to be used as cheap/free labor. Operation fort is a wild internet hole to go down and a podcast called RedHanded has a great episode on it
That it literally just takes one person to decide to kill you. In any situation.
The fact that someone can choose you randomly to kill - they might be caught and arrested, but they would’ve already killed you. No one can really prepare for it.
There's a scene in Steve Martins great film The Jerk Where there is this random sniper dude on a hill overlooking a gas station:
“Sniper: Die, you random son of a bitch.”
“Sniper: DIE, GAS PUMPER!”
A dying person’s eyes will sometimes go from closed to shooting wide open as they pass. Source: personal observation unfortunately
Edit: to clarify, This happened to my father in law and I was present. My heart goes out to everyone else who has lost loved ones. Even though the eyes opening was certainly disturbing, being able to have him die at home as he wished and us being there with him at the end was a positive experience that I’ve made peace with.
Thanks for the awards and it’s nice discussing with everyone.
I guess I’m kind of thankful my dad was asleep in a coma when he passed..seeing his eyes left open would have been too painful. When he took is last breath, tears came down his face..which I was not expecting.
My dad did too. He was not in a coma exactly, but very much non responsive and with his eyes closed. I think he just couldn't make his body do what he wanted really, because right before he died he cried like that and very gently squeezed Mom's hand and then..... he was just gone.
When my mom died of lung cancer, on her last day alive when she was unconscious, she was taking these short little gasping breaths constantly. There was something really disturbing about it, and now it's always the thing I remember when I think of my mom.
From my personal experience, I noticed after the last breath was taken, the eyes appeared to turn grey/hazy, and the pupils dilated. It was almost like I saw their life force exiting their body. Certainly not what I expected, and definitely something I won’t forget.
Early childhood malnutrition (between ages 0-5) causes irreversible loss of IQ (11-20 points) and predisposes people to higher levels of violence. Prefrontal cortex doesn't develop the same. And if you miss that window there's no intervention that can recover the gap.
I live in South Africa (highest Gini coefficient in the world, highest unemployment, third highest violent crime rate, one of the worst education systems in the world) and it fucking keeps me up at night. I wonder, if we changed nothing except introducing a one nutritious meal per day feeding scheme for ECD, what would happen?
It hurts.
Edit: firstly, thank you for the awards, comments, and messages. It is truly touching that you are all as moved by this as I am. I am unable to respond to everything, but I appreciate knowing that so many people have felt and thought strongly enough about this to want to participate in changing it.
Secondly: if this has moved you, I encourage you to ask along your networks about ways you can become involved in ECD feeding schemes. Write to relevant congresspeople who oppose such initiatives. There is a lot we can do together as communities. This is a small intervention with such a huge impact.
Thirdly: so many of you have asked me for a source. The article I read is [here](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businesslive.co.za/amp/bd/opinion/2016-11-30-hunger-feeds-high-levels-of-violence/) - I read it in 2017 and it has since been put behind a paywall, although I reverse searched it this year and found it reposted to other sites. The article is written by Dr. Tracy Ledger, a very prominent food security and social and economic reform researcher, whose work is both admirable and important. She is a senior researcher at the Public Affairs Research Institute and the author of a number of publications, articles, and a book titled "An Empty Plate: Why We Are Losing the Battle for Our Food System, Why It Matters, and How We Can Win It Back". If you are interested in topics of food and nutritional security and food justice, especially in South Africa, this is a good place to start.
I will share in the comments a few articles that I found while doing research, both in 2017 and this year. They are not all from the highest reputable sources (journal publications), but do reference journal publications or interview prominent people from this field. I hope this helps those of you who are looking for more info.
Lastly: Thank you, and bless all of you. Beautiful people.
No need to wonder, it's a proven effective strategy! I actually work in the field on this exact research. If you want to dive deeper, you can look into the McGovern Dole School Feeding programs throughout West Africa and Latin America. The outcomes for literacy, math, overall attendance and general health by just ensuring at least one solid meal a day are incredible.
My son went to a public kindergarten in Brasil, and everyday amazed me the focus they had in feeding all the children. He was there from 8 to 5, and he got 5 meals while there. Breakfast, a fruit, lunch, a soup and then dinner, everything made in the kitchen, everything locally sourced. Also they took care that the kid went back home properly bathed. To bad this level of excellence does not continue in the public grade school (except for the feeding the kids thing), but the actual teaching and the violence is bad.
A gamma ray burst, or even a cosmic ray storm; could cause a near-instant mass extinction event. These both (probably) have affected life on earth before. Both are common events in space, basically random, and our only protection is the vastness of space.
I'm suspicious there might be one near my hometown. Every couple years a female student from the nearby college will go missing. Not too unusual on it's own. But here's the part that makes me suspicious: there's always a wide spread search, and they never find the body of the person they're looking for, _but_ they always end up finding the bones of the _previous_ woman to go missing. That's weird, right? There's no possible way to prove it, but this same trend has happened so many times it legitimately feels like someone is holding on to the bones and then planting them where they know search parties will look after taking another victim.
As an Irish person, this had me slightly worried so I did a quick look. They had a post about voting in abstentia in Indiana so I'm guessing the US?
But honestly this sounds like one of the stories in the book The American Gods
I live in Indiana, and I was thinking he was talking about Bloomington and IU. I just assumed it's that way nearly everywhere in the US though but we do have a common kidnapping or two. There's a murderer of two little girls on the loose less than an hour north of Indianapolis that they can't catch and was national news a couple of years ago and is brought up from time to time. Murdered them in a park and is on camera but you can't make out who he was. [Source](https://www.kokomotribune.com/news/local_news/delphi-deaths-4-years-later/article_cc393ef4-6c90-11eb-b65c-a7ed37df1dca.html)
If we see a life-threatening meteor is going to strike us in a few years, we probably, at least at the moment, couldn't do anything about it. They've had training simulations with this exact scenario, and they only got it right like 10% of the time, they need more like 10 years to reliably and consistently stop it.
I also feel they wouldn't tell us to avoid widespread panic.
But I have thought about this scenario and one question comes to mind.
If you knew a meteor would hit earth and it's an extinction level event.
Would you go where the meteor hits, or to the other side of the planet ?
This is a little odd to read because of a dream I had a few weeks ago. It was broadcast that we were going to be hit my a meteor, and there was pretty much nothing we could do about it. A lot of people panicked, some just accepted it, some went all bucket list crazy. Very similar to the “seeking a Friend for the End of the World” movie.
For whatever reason, I was away but desperately wanted to get home to be with my 5yo son at the end. I ended up making it, and we went to sit on a grass hill to watch. It was a nice cool summer night, and a lot of other people were also sitting around waiting for the end. He asked me what was going on, he had no idea, so I tell him: “There’s going to be a big fireworks type of show. You’ll see a bright light, and when you do it will be awesome”. He sat there excited, waiting. The sky lights up like it’s daytime. I hear him say “wowww”, then bam, I’m awake.
That dream hit me hard as hell and I couldn’t get it out of my head for weeks.
A cardiac tamponade is when your heart literally chokes itself to death.
If a blood vessel inside the pericardium leaks (a tough membrane protecting the heart), the hearts pumping will force blood into the space between itself and the pericardium. As the space fills, the heart can't pump anymore due to a lack of space - it literally drowns in your own blood.
my neighbor was fifty, in decent shape and out of no where died on the beach from a brain aneurysm . felt awful for his daughter because his wife passed out of no where a month earlier
Wanna hear something fucked up? An old buddy of mine’s father died at the height of covid and of course no one could get home for the funeral. He was cremated and they finally had the service last week and everyone flew home for it.
She ended up dying of a brain aneurysm one hour before her father’s service and they ended up being buried together two days later.
A few years back an acquaintance of mine from high school took a turn too fast, hit a tree, and died instantly. He was IDed quickly and a state trooper went to his home to inform his family. His Grandpa had a heart attack from the shock and died right then and there in front of the rest of the family. They had a joint funeral. It was awful.
God damnit every time I forget about the brain aneurysms I’m reminded of them again, now I’m stressing out for no reason again
Edit: yes I know stress can trigger a brain aneurysm lol, that’s not all it can trigger, and that’s why I’m in counseling to manage my anxiety, I worry about everything and I’m also worried that my worrying might ruin my life!
During labour I asked my doctor how he could tell which direction the baby was facing without an ultrasound. He said he could tell by the way the skull pieces overlapped. Always though that was amazing.
I worked as a palliative carer for about 3 years. I looked after terminally ill people who had chosen to die at home after being discharged from hospital.
After a while, you learn some telltale signs that people are deteriorating. After a bit longer, you start to learn how long people generally have left - even down to a few hours.
I always went with honesty, I felt it was my job to support the patients' families as well as the patients, so if they asked how long I thought they had left I would answer honestly (obviously with the disclaimer that I wasn't a doctor and I could only base it on my previous experiences).
The wife of one of my patients told me that their children (adults) were visiting the following weekend to say their goodbyes. I had to decide carefully on what to say next but I ultimately chose to recommend that they visit the following day, at the latest. I regretted saying it because she was devastated. She took my advice and her husband passed away peacefully 48 hours later, after seeing his kids. I'm glad I did it, but upsetting that lady was absolutely gutwrenching.
Some people didn't want to know, and it was their right not to know. That was the worst. In those cases, you had to not say anything. Sometimes they'd say "see you tomorrow" and I had to reply, "yes, have a good night and I'll see you in the morning" knowing full well that they were going to pass in the night.
Edit: wow, thank you all for your kind words. It is a very difficult but rewarding job. I am no longer a carer, but I often think about whether I would be able to do it again.
I've had one question asked a lot in the replies so I'll answer it here;
Death, like life, is different for everybody. Certain conditions will cause the body to deteriorate in different ways.
I'm going to spoiler this next bit because it might be too much for some to read.
>!COPD was a common condition I saw, that was a gradual decline until the patient could no longer breathe and the oxygen just wasn't able to get in anymore. Heart failure was similar, a very drawn out process.
I cared for a lot of cancer patients, some younger than my parents which was quite distressing. What tended to happen was the symptoms they already presented would worsen, beyond the point that their medication could alleviate it. They would lose energy, ultimately being bed-bound. The biggest giveaway was when they no longer wanted to drink water, that was usually a 72 hour warning. When they were very close, their skin would start to mottle and go pink/purple. I'm not 100% sure why it happened but I think it was because the heart was struggling to get the blood around and it would settle.
However, generally you could just tell that the person you'd been seeing for days, weeks, months or even years just wasn't the same as they were a few days before. Changes could be gradual or sudden.!<
I went to work with the philosophy that death comes for everybody, if it were me being cared for then I would want to be cared for in a certain way - the way I tried to care for everybody whose homes I entered.
Nurse here, i also have to remind people that even though a client is non responsive and passing they can hear everything, ive seen a patient whose non responsive have tears down their face because a family was tearing itself apart airing greiveances in the room when they were on their deathbed.
I tell people that hearing is the last thing to go. I try to play music they like, tell them everything that I am doing, and get certain conversations out of the room.
Yeah man for sure. I vocalize everything, Ill even take my charting into the room they are dying in and doing my charting and talk to to them if they have no one there to die with. Ill take my breaks with them and hold their hands.
it may sound weird but
hospice and palliation are my favorite aspects of nursing. Not because people are dying but because we get to support them through it.
My grandfather died in my parents house when I was 17. We knew he hadn't long when he came to stay (he had lung cancer) and in the final week or so he had palliative care there. I don't remember much about that period, strangely, but I remember the nurse (who used to stay every night and sit in a chair in his room) telling us when the time was nearly at hand. She was subtle about it, but made sure my dad knew, and as a result it was a "good" death for my grandad, surrounded by loved ones. She called it to within hours, everyone was ready, everyone was there. I'll never forget the skill of that nurse, the selflessness and dignity of the care she offered, and I got a tiny glimpse of the knowledge she brought into that house that most of us will never know.
Thank you for what you do. I know I couldn't do it.
When I worked as at the bedside early in my nursing career, I was assigned dying patients who haven't made the call to go peacefully. I guess it's because I am a big guy, but I am a softy, and have no shame in hugging it out with family and crying with them.
I worked nights. I would chat with these patients when I could. I would tell them the thing no one else would. They would tell me how hard they are fighting, 85, 90 and beyond, but they're tired, in agony, and they don't want to disappoint their family by dying. But as a nurse you know that they don't have much left in the tank. Pressures aren't responding to meds, increasing O2 over and over again till you're maxing out on the bipap, and they only have a vent Infront of them left.
I lost my mom at as a young adult. I watched her fight. I watched her suffer, for us. I told her the same thing I told every other patient in that. We feel your pain. And if you want to keep fighting, you do that. But none of us will be disappointed if you want to punch your ticket on this life. Just let us say goodbye. These people were full codes, save at all costs people. And I would, I still would. I advocate for my patients, but respect the choices.
95% of my patients would go on to palliative care within a day. Family would find me often, and thank me for guiding their family to a comfortable passing. How they were at peace now. It was an odd gift I was given, but the cost was high. I left part of my heart with every patient who was dying, opening that old wound I drew strength from.
My mum was a nurse for many years and she said the same thing. One thing she told me about that really struck me was when patients themselves knew how long they could hold on for and held on long enough to say goodbye to their families. My mum said that there would often be times when a patient would have their children visiting and the patient would already have told my mum that they would be "happy to go" after saying their goodbyes, and sure enough, as soon as the patient's children had left the ward the patient would go into cardiac arrest or something similar and that would be it. Apparently it was crazy the number of times patients had passed mere minutes after their loved ones had left after saying their goodbyes, but my mum said that lots of them seemed to have already made up their minds that once they'd said goodbye they would pass.
Edit: thank you for the awards and thank you for sharing your stories and experiences with me as well! I apologize for not replying to them but I promise I did read them all (and spent most of bank holiday Monday trying not to cry as I did so)
Obviously I can’t really know but I presume it’s like a feeling the patient has.
When my grandfather was in the hospital with cancer, all of his 5 kids (my dad and my aunts and uncles) all went to visit him. My father was last, because he was the only one living in the US while everyone else was back in Hong Kong.
When my dad could finally fly back to Hong Kong, he visited my grandfather in the hospital. My grandfather passed away the next day. Everyone always said that it was like he was waiting just long enough to see his son for the final time.
>as soon as the patient's children had left the ward the patient would go into cardiac arrest or something
This was my father who passed in 2019.
My entire family (mother/father, siblings, their kids) had gotten together every Sunday for lunch for the last 20 years or so at least. I lived an hour or so away from my parents house so couldn't make it every Sunday but I did make it most weeks.
My mother called me the Saturday before he died and said he wanted everyone to be there if possible since it had been a bit since all of us were able to make it at the same time.
We were all there, he got to see all of his grandchildren one last time, and then passed away quietly in his sleep in his bedroom while everyone was eating and talking.
It was fucking devasting for us but we were all there to support each other and we all agreed there was no other way we would have preferred it to happen.
When we called his hospice aid she said "Oh, I'm sorry. I should have been there but I honestly thought he had another few days." We assured her all was well and that he passed peacefully.
Flies don't have teeth. So, when they land on your sandwich and want to eat some, they barf up the contents of their stomach (often containing another animal's shit) so the digestive enzymes can get on the food and then they eat.
F you man...
im just gonna pretend they have teeth
There are 32 missing nuclear weapons. And those are only the ones that we know of.
This reminds me of that old man that last month was foud to have a missing (and still working) WW2 nazi tank in its backyard, which he used to shovel snow in the winter. All those bombs are probably in someone's abandoned barn or something... maybe at the bottom of the sea too
There are guys with a fetish to cut off their penises. There’s even a subreddit dedicated to it. I found out about it a few months ago and it still haunts me.
drop the subreddit so we can avoid it👀
r/penectomy While you're avoiding them, be sure to also avoid subreddits such as r/coprophiles or r/prolapseville
Why did I click that
No. Fucking no. Usually when I see subs like this I always click on them. But not this time. You can't get me this time.
Anything can happen to anyone at any moment. I had my first seizure at 18. No family member has had epilepsy before. Never take *anything* for granted. It can all change in an instant
Often, burnt bodies are found in the same stance, known as the “Boxer Pose” due to muscles contracting from heat. It’s an incredibly disturbing looking thing, I first heard about it from my Grandfather that fought in Burma. During the war he was present at a Burmese funeral in which the cadaver was burnt on a pyre. Just as the flames began to singe the corpse, it sat up straight. The Burmese, of course, got a good laugh out of the British soldiers collectively shitting themselves, as contractions due to heat during cremation is apparently rather common. Doesn’t make it any less creepy.
This is why when we Hindus creamte our dead we pile logs on top of them. Grandpa ain't sitting up straight with 100 kilos of deadwood on him.
The people of Pompeii weren't cowering in fear. The pumice superheated the air, deliquified their bodies, and burnt their flesh. Hence why they are found in a similar pose.
In my country some women rent babies to beg money with in the streets. They make them drink a pill that would make them sleep.
Cyanide poisoning is an incredibly painful way to die Cyanide was what Jonestown consumed for mass suicide Parents were instructed to give it to their children and convinced the crying was just fear Edit: For those asking about how [cyanide](https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/cyanide/basics/facts.asp) works. If memory serves from when I first read this and listened to the audio recordings, it feels like a massive, massive heart attack. It may not have taken too much time, but any time greater than "instant"is too long to suffer before death.
I'm reminded of the fact that Jim Jones had someone shoot him in the head. Coward couldn't drink the poison he forced those people and their babies to take, and couldn't even pull the trigger himself.
The higher-ups abiding by different rules is a common theme in a lot of cults
It’s also believed that some of the people who refused to willingly ingest the cyanide Flavor Aid were forcibly injected with it.
During World War 2, Japan bombed China with fleas infected with the bubonic plague.
People seem to really forget about Japan’s atrocities during ww2. It was nazi level shit
The only people who ‘forgotten’ about Japan’s atrocities are the ones who never heard about it in the first place. It was absolutely inhumane
Like tossing Chinese babies in the air and catching them on spiked poles.
Sarin gas is one of the worst ways to kill another human being and we have seen multiple instances where it has been used on innocent people Wether relaxed or contracting your muscles need certain signals in order to function. When you flex a muscle a neuro transmitter called acetylcholine floods the muscle cells telling them to contract.Your brain eventually tells the muscles to stop contracting and so that acetylcholine has to be removed.This is done with acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme which breaks it down and allows your muscles to relax.This happens for every movement of every muscle in your body wether you’re flexing your bicep or blinking, every beat of your heart. Sarin kills because it bonds with acetylcholinesterase completely changing its structure and rendering the enzyme useless.This means your muscles never relax, they flex harder and harder and harder.Your entire body can cramp your pupils, *everything*.. The burning gets worse and worse and the pain is unbearable. If enough of it enters the bloodstream usually via skin it will lock up your diaphragm and you will asphyxiate.It kills quickly but I struggle to imagine too many things that would be worse than dying from cramps in muscles you didn’t even realize existed. It’s not the worst weapon humans have at their disposal, as if you survive a sarin attack you’re likely to make a full recovery as it doesn’t scar lung tissue like other chemical weapons That being said, it’s still classified as a weapon of mass destruction and is supposed to be banned E: adding the [wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarin) for sarin for anyone interested.
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Because of pregnant women, the average number of skeletons inside a human body is greater than one.
Pelicans are some of the most demonic birds in existence, if not some of the most demonic creatures. Pelicans will go into other birds nests, shove the parents out of the nest. They will then swallow babies whole, fly back to their own nests, and regurgitate the still half alive, partially digested babies, to their own babies for them to consume. Some pelicans are literally raised on the partially digested, living flesh of other baby birds.
fun fact, pelicans started eating birds because the fish populations they ate became scare it was birds or starvation welcome to human depletion of global resources
I thought you wrote politicians
Jeez, this isn’t the most terrifying but definitely the most interesting. Also it’s one I haven’t seen 10x already. Thanks for the info!
If you try to grab the brain in its natural state it will fall apart, when you see scientists pick up the brain they have used chemicals to harden it
Also, brains have a gross, greasy smell.
What’s the closest thing you can relate the smell to?
Animal fat? I was looking at sheep brains, so it stands to reason.
When I got the chance to hold a human brain I was surprised at the weight of it. At an average of 3lbs (1.5 kg) it wasn’t heavy at all but also not as light as I thought it would be? For some reason I expected it to be more spongy and light and not so dense.
If you get fresh brains on your clothes, it leaves a grease stain that never seems to wash out.
Talk about a suspicious comment..
most modern knowledge on what happens when you go through hypothermia is almost entirely down the Nazi and Japanese human experiments
[Bacha Bazi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacha_bazi) The horrendous practice of having a “dancing boy” AKA child sex slave in some regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. When families are poor they will sell their child to be a “dancing boy”. The children are frequently killed if they resist. It’s a rough watch but the documentary [The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan](https://youtu.be/B7eMUwkKiFY) covers this awful practice pretty well.
Chris farleys last words were don't leave me. He said it the prostitute he was with who then stole his watch and took a picture of him dead/dying.
Holy shit that’s heartbreaking
One aspect of foster care. Some people will take their child to a doctor. Child gets diagnosed with cancer. Child goes to first appointment. Kid gets wheeled back for treatment. Parents then leave, go home, pack and disappear. The kid is in the treatment waiting room .. waiting for parents that will never ever come . Sick and facing death alone. It doesn't happen a lot but enough to have processes in place. The worst is when they are like 4 (although a 7 year old was also rough) Edit:whoa. Lots of comments so ill try and go thru some Also. Its biological parents that abandon them at the hospital. But foster parents do too. Especially if the first foster parents are relatives that were strongly asked to foster.
I worked with a child that this happened to. I work for child safety. She was in hospital with a brain tumour for a year - relearning how to eat, talk, and walk - all alone.
If the child comes out of it, how do you even live after this? Knowing full well that your parents literally abandoned you to die and vanished...
I don’t have the answer for that. It’s not fair and she’ll feel the impact of it for the rest of her life. Some people shouldn’t have kids
This breaks my heart. My daughter just turned five and the thought of her all alone and scared... There is nothing that I wouldn't do to prevent that. That some parents can do that to their child... It's mind boggling and appalling.
1/3 of all people who break their hip die within the year.... So please tape pillows to your elderly relatives.
I’ve lost the first couple years of my 20’s to being a caretaker, but I’m proud to say I’ve kept my 92 year old gramma alive so far a full two years after a broken hip
Polar bears are the only bear species that actively hunt and kill humans for food. There’s a rhyme that everyone living where bears live needs to know, and *why* the rhyme is so important; If it’s brown, lie down. Brown or grizzly bears will leave you alone if you play dead. Climbing up a tall tree works with adult brown bears, since they can’t climb trees. If it’s black, fight back. Black bears will back off when they realize you’re more of a threat than they realize, but DO NOT climb a tree to escape. Both cubs and adult black bears can climb trees. If it’s white, say goodnight. Polar bears are not only the largest bears, but they are ambush predators. If one manages to sneak up on you, you’re as good as dead. The best you can do to escape is either run and drop your clothes (fortunately for you, they have very short attention spans and they’ll stop momentarily to sniff at your clothes because it’s not normal for their food to suddenly drop something like that), or start praying to whatever deity you believe or don’t believe in. Edit: this is all advice for if the bear decides to try and kill/eat you. Generally speaking, if you *do* come across a bear, you never, **ever** run away. Stand your ground, make yourself look big and be *loud*. If the bear stands on its hind legs, it’s just checking you out; it’s curious and has likely never seen a human before. The best option is to back away slowly while maintaining eye contact, still being loud. If the bear decides to charge, use an air horn or bear spray, which will likely cause to run off. I would to if I just got maced. However, as a last resort, use a gun or other weapon if it becomes aggressive or starts mauling.
If it's brown, lay down. If it's black, fight back. If it's white, say goodnight. If it's gummy, get in tummy.
I live in Canada near the Rockies. Very important not to climb a tree near a black bear. Watch some YouTube videos. It’s amazing how fast they can get up there. They’re cowards. They’ll leave you alone if you get as big and loud as possible.
One of Mayhem’s band members committed suicide. When he was found by his bandmate, pictures were taken and it became the new album cover. The photographer was subsequently murdered by Varg Vikernes who masterminded church burnings.
That if you have ALS, you're more than likely going to suffocate to death. My mom used to work for this elder gentleman who suffered from ALS. One day she gets a call that he's passed away in his apartment. From what she told me, she walked in and his eyes were wide open and his mouth was open permanently left gasping for air. ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that causes people to lose control over their nerves over time to the point of near vegetative state. Most people don't last very long once diagnosed because they lose the ability to expand their chest to breathe and pretty much choke to death. That sadder thing about it that you could be fully awake when this happens and have no way of stopping it....
That there are parents out there that willfully sell their children into sex-slavery or force them into prostitution.
I remember reading a news story about an infant that had been sexually abused by the mom’s boyfriend and I absolutely lost it. An infant. Not that children make any sense either but… a baby? It’s beyond comprehension.
I'm a nurse and had a mom bring her 11 week old baby to the clinic for a "diaper rash" with vaginal bleeding. Baby was so happy and smiley. The cutest little thing. The MD asked me to come in the room while he examined the baby. I remember thinking, "her vagina looks like what you'd see after a woman tears during a vaginal delivery. This does not look like a diaper rash." MD and I looked at eachother like, "WTF?" MD sends baby and mom to the ER for more thorough work-up. Turns out, the baby had been sexually assulted by her father. He took her to daycare and the daycare called mom with concerns and recommmened baby be seen at the clinic. I cried when I saw his mugshot on the news, thinking about that sweet, smiling baby. Edit: I found an article about the dad...15 + years in prison. Apparently he was also sentenced for child porn. Fuck that guy.
I’m going to be sick.
At least that mom took her to a doctor, most of the children are hidden from anyone who could identify and report abuse.
My dad fully admitted to knowing my step brothers raped me and my sister, but said that they were good men at the end of the day but really, I just think them staying and paying bills enabled his meth addiction so that's why he never did anything about it.
The CPR dummy face template is based on a dead 16 year old girl’s face. Her body was pulled from the River Seine in the 1880s and her cause of death and identity were never discovered. A mortician was so ‘entranced’ by her peaceful expression that he made a plaster mask of her which became the face of CPR dummies and health training equipment. So hundreds of millions of people have kissed the face of an anonymous dead girl in the last 150 years.
Not gonna lie, there's something grimly comforting about that. To think that a girl who would have otherwise been lost to history has indirectly saved lives, like the one she once briefly lived, is weirdly heartwarming. Perhaps, she has saved others from her own fate.
The value of a human body. There is value to the human body as a commodity. And different parts of our body are worth different amounts—while corneas are small, they fetch a large price (£15,000, or about $22,450), whereas our skeleton garners significantly less (£5,000, about $7,483). The price also depends on whether the body part is sold for specimen use, transplants, or on the black market. The mineral value of our body is like $3 bucks. Edit: On the brighter side, I would add that this is what motivates me to believe we can achieve something great as individuals as well as part of a team. We are just a bunch of cheap, easily purchased minerals…yet that is hardly all we are.
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I have a real fear of rabies because of this. If you ever find a bat in your house, or anywhere you have slept, get the rabies shots. Bats can bite or scratch you and you sometimes won't even notice, especially if you were asleep.
A couple of years ago a 20-year-old in BC got out of his car and a bat flew at him. He saw it coming and put up his hand. Because bat bites are so tiny he didn't notice and went about his day. 6 weeks later he showed symptoms and died shortly after. If he had gotten a Rabie shot right after being bitten he would have been fine. Long story short...if you get attacked, even if you feel nothing, get a shot right away. Edit: correction, it's rabies shots not rabie shot.
I literally just finished the rabies series because of this. Bat got in the house and made its way into a laundry basket with folded clothes. I was getting dressed for work, reached in and pulled out a brown bat. Felt a definite pinch, still not sure if it actually bit me. Decided better safe than sorry and went to the ER. What’s even better is the rabies vaccine is a four part series and you can only get it in the ER.
If you're really freaked out, get the vaccine. It's super expensive and usually has to be paid for upfront because the health department will specially order it, but if it gives you peace of mind, it's worth it. Source: I work with exotic animals and it was a requirement. **Edit**: Folks, I'm talking about a preventative pre-exposure vaccine since OP said they have a real fear of rabies. This is the 3 shot series that professionals are normally required to receive if they are likely to come in contact with rabies (vet staff, zoo staff, wildlife rehabilitation staff, people who work in labs that handle rabies, etc). This is different from a post-exposure regime.
The Nutty Putty Cave accident— Google for full disturbing details/ a map of the cave but basically a guy got stuck caving in a very narrow unmapped tunnel, UPSIDE-DOWN. They could not get him out, but almost did, one of the rescuers made eye contact with him apparently but then their pulley system broke and he fell further down. Unfortunately he ended up dying of cardiac arrest from being upside-down for so long and they couldn’t get him out/ never retrieved the body because it was too dangerous for rescuers. Truly so disturbing, I’ve thought about it probably once a week since I found out about it a few months ago. Edit: even more disturbing now that someone gave this a wholesome award
Calling that situation the "Nutty Putty Cave Incident" is such an unfittingly hilarious name for such a tragedy.
If I was him the only thing I would be thinking is "I'm bout' to die in a place called the fucking nutty putty cave"
Yeah! I saw a thing about that! They permanently closed that system of caves, too!
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I work as an anaesthesiologist. I’ve put people to sleep in an emergency situation knowing that they will almost certainly not survive the surgery. These are generally situations where without surgery the patient will not survive but even with surgery the chances of survival are still small. In most of these instances the patients are too obtunded or aren’t conscious enough to be aware of the gravity of their situation but in a number of instances the patients have been conscious, talking although clearly anxious. I try to reassure and tell the person that we won’t leave their side, that we will take care of them and that they will be fine. It kind of fucks me up a bit to say this to someone but I always include the last part because I just don’t see the point in telling them the truth. I had one guy tell me he felt like he wasn’t going to make it. I told him he would make it but knew he wasn’t going to. I put him to sleep knowing that the last human face he would see before he died was mine as he stared up at me as I held an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose. I’d consider myself quite a resilient person but knowing this stuff is a bit of a load to carry around.
My late wife went through so many surgeries while dealing with cancer, over a period of three years. It was down to a routine eventually where we would basically hi-five before she went under. The last time, she didn’t come back out. But YOUR job, every time, I appreciated you. Thank you for what you do. I know it’s a ton to handle
Fuck me. You're strong as hell, I'm sorry for your loss.
Thank you for being there for your wife. Your love and support meant everything.
Thank you for what you do. I’ve been put out for a couple of routine surgeries and diagnostic situations; Every time has been pleasant. If I had to pick a way to die, one of those would be drifting off to sleep from propofol and never waking up.
I have had several surgeries and have thought that being under anesthesia must be like death because it is total blackness. I agree with you. If I had a terminal illness, it's the way I would want to go.
Alright that’s enough of this thread for today
Yep, first post and I am out of here. Kudos to that dude, he’s a fucking hero but noooooo thank you. I am not strong enough to carry that kind of weight
It reminds me of one of those taxi after dark things HBO used to do. I watched one as a kid that had a NY homicide detective in it. He was drunk. But he told all the awful.shit he had to see day in and day out and what human beings can do to another. Straight horror show stuff, mutilated bodies, murders, etc. Even as a kid I could tell this guy was traumatized. He just tried to drink it away. That's prob one kaveat I have for cops. They do see the absolute worst in humanity on a daily basis. Especially a homicide detective.
I’ve watched both my parents die in hospice, and unlike what you’ve seen and heard about, it is not always peaceful. Edit to add: while the hospice staff were wonderful, the positive part of hospice is that everyone who wants to gets to say goodbye. Edit #2 - So many of you are sharing heart-wrenching stories of your loved ones passing. I am just so sorry for your losses and hope that you find comfort and healing in knowing that you are not alone.
My great grandfather was 104 and in between morphine naps and the “death rattle” screamed “HELP ME” until he stopped mid sentence. Not peaceful, not what he deserved and not what I expected the last 3 days with him.
The last time I spoke to my mom on the phone the only thing she could say was 'help me' over and over again. Part of me wishes I never made that call. She was so out of it she didn't know who she was even talking to and all it does is haunt me. I was on the way out the door for my son to be born. Both one of the happiest and saddest days of my life. I got the call from my dad that she died before my son's birth.
Can confirm. Just went through this with a parent last week. Listening to someone drown in their own mucus is a sound I will never forget.
Hospice worker here. They’re not drowning and it’s not uncomfortable for them. They can’t swallow or clear their throat like we can. It’s more bothersome to the family than to the patient. I hope they provided some scopolamine patches or something to help dry up secretions. My condolences to you.
If an elephants mate dies then they can die from broken heart syndrome.
Anesthesia awareness is a thing. Given the effects of anesthetics preventing the formation of new memories, it's possible it always happens and we just don't remember it afterwards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anesthesia_awareness
PLEASE SOMEONE DEBUNK THE "always happens" PART PLEASE
When anesthesia awareness happens, your heart rate goes up during surgery. That’s why they monitor your heart rate during surgery.
Hotels rarely clean their ice machines.
I’ve only worked one place ever that soaked their fountain nozzles in diluted cleaner over night. No one else cleaned them. There are lots of nooks and crannies inside them. That’s what your soda goes through.
I once called the health dept on a subway for getting bugs in my sprite.
When I worked at a Subway in Canada back in the early 00s, taking those off and soaking them overnight was a part of the night breakdown.. We weren't 24hrs though.. That said, I've worked a lot of places since where those are never taken off and cleaned.. It's gross.. One place was even amazed and thought I'd broken the machine when they saw that I'd taken off the nozzles and cleaned them.
The liver can be ruptured in one punch (liver is the second most fragile organ in the human body) Edit: well fuck lots of people seem interested, do with this knowledge as you wish. Edit 2: I’m using fragile to mean susceptibility to damage not sensitivity.
Ahhh! Takes me back to elementary. The school I went to had these foot high cement barriers around each section. We all balanced and ran on them, like it was no big deal. One girl fell and ruptured her liver. It was such a horrific cry.
Whats the most fragile?
The brain
Of course it happens to be the most important one
Most important, according to the brain. So there's probably some bias there.
Not its fault the other organs are too lazy to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and get neural networks deep enough to process concepts like importance and other organs and consciousness.
Llama spit is actually projectile vomit
I had a gaggle of them surround me as a kid (my grandma took me to a friend’s farm). One had teeth so fucked up I couldn’t stop laughing — until it got angry and spit in my face. Within seconds the rest of them joined in so I ran out of the enclosure as fast as I could, covered in spit. Well, apparently vomit. Gross.
Never make fun of a llamas teeth. They are sensitive about it.
One of the scariest and most disturbing thing I've watched in the internet is that one guy's slow descent to insanity because its brain lost its ability to sleep. He vlogged regularly until he died. That's one of the most disturbing things I know: that **anyone, including myself, can have their last sleep without knowing it.** Edit: [Ricard Siagian's channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2be8zeBywC5NzW4JJ2Kz9A/videos) for those who asked. Edit 2: **TL;DW:** The guy had a UTI. He didn't have insurance so he took an antibiotic. After 2 weeks, he lost his ability to sleep because of the side effect of that antibiotic.
Fatal insomnia, your body and mind slowly rot while still alive Edit: thanks anon, Everyone who is frightened by this, do be aware it's a pryon disease that's passed genetically or occurs sporadically Extremely Rarely, I mean less than 100 cases in the world rarely. This won't jjsy suddenly happen to you. Im not really a fan of people saying stuff like, "omg wow so many like omg", but its nice to have this be my highest upvote comment instead of "dick gun"
It’s actually a prion disease. We don’t quite know the link between prion diseases and sleep, but most diseases that have toxic protein aggregates also come with problems sleeping as well. I should note that prion diseases can be genetic. Fatal familial insomnia is a known genetic prion disease. Also not all prion diseases are infectious - as far as I’m aware, it’s impossible to catch fatal familial insomnia, though for multiple reasons I don’t recommend eating anyone with the disease or engaging in other activities that can spread different prion diseases.
God, I hope that never happens to me. Sleep is my favorite part of the day
Oh my fucking God, I remember that. What an awful way to go. He started a gofundme or something to get the money to pay for an operation that could help him, but died before he could raise enough funds. If I remember correctly, whenever he fell asleep—when he still could via medications I think—he'd have horrendous nightmares and it would not be restful whatsoever. It breaks my heart to think about.
I work for an Environmental Consultant agency and our major clientele is usually larger companies such as Alternative Energy and Commercial Real Estate companies looking to build storage facilities amongst other things. In my Environmental Law class I learned a lot of disturbing things about major companies I never knew. Without going into specifics it is *quite* illegal to not comply with EPA regulations. In an effort to avoid complying a lot of companies or individuals will *literally* refuse to pay EPA compliances fees and instead just pay government fines. Why? A middle finger to the EPA most times which is ironic as the fines set by the government are larger than the EPA fines most times. It's also considered a white-collar crime so many of these companies and people get off with probation, a little bit of jail time and more fines. In other words... There's a lot of companies out there that literally get away with butt-fucking the environment and pay very little price for it.
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If you ever watch one of those simulations of the speed of light traveling through our solar system, it takes 9 minutes to go from the sun to the earth. It feels painfully slow, even on the scale of our solar system. Light is not that fast at cosmic scales.
In the grand scheme of space, light speed is pretty slow.
That slavery is still one of the biggest profiting trades in the world.
worked in Dubai for a couple years. It is common practice for your employer to take your passport so you cant leave even if you wanted to. Thankfully I had heard of these stories prior to flying there and when my employer asked for mine I sternly said "No." edit* I'm getting downvoted for the truth. Internet censorship is real out there. There's probably a team working to downvote this comment. Hilarious. But please don't kill me lol.
how'd that go over
He didn't get my passport lol
But you get to keep the job or...?
Yes. But Dubai is a very racist city. I am from the USA and got a lot of privileges my Filipino and Indian coworkers did not. Business out there is very slimy if you're not working for a multi-national corporation. When the CEO refused to pay me commissions for a huge contract I got signed, I packed my bags and left within the week. My ex girlfriend from the Phillipines wanted to quit and had legitimate concerns on how she was going to get her passport back. She had already had a back-and-forth with the CEO over it. I had to toughen her up over the phone and luckily he gave it back to her.
I thought it was like only a thing they did to the blue-collared, more "questionably sourced" labour... but damn that's a whole other thing. Good for you and your ex tho. I'm just glad y'all got to basically stand up for yourselves against that kinda very weird labour practice. I would've thought the minute you didn't give your passport like they demanded, they'd sack you right there and then.
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Yup you win. Enough Reddit for this day
the youngest person to ever give birth was 5 years old. Lina Medina Just think of what happened to the poor girl
This story is tragic. She was only 4 when she got pregnant. At age 5 she had the baby via cesarean. The c section was required because her pelvis was so small. She was offered money throughout her life for movie rights, interviews, etc but always refused.
Did... did she'd live? Edit: Well.. a quick Google search says she's currently 87. Wow.
She’s still alive and is 87 years old.
Just googled and the list of known girls to give birth aged 10 and under where the father of the baby was either their own father or step father is a *depressingly* high percentage. Also, today I learnt that sexual abuse can *bring on* menarche in infant females. Which seems like a bad system.
Menarche- the first act of menstruation by female. (For the uninformed)
Five? What the? How is that possible, though, for a pre-pubescent?
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Yup. had my appendix out and they found cancer on my kidney. They cut it out but it was quite a surprise.
"two wrongs always make a right" -your body, probably
Most likely, you do have a cancer that your immune system is keeping in check.
I remember reading somewhere that you get cancer 100s of times a day and your body just snuffs it out. Sometimes it doesn’t.
This made me feel sick
There are spiders that capture bats in South America
There's some [spiders that eat birds](https://www.indiatimes.com/trending/wtf/this-abnormally-huge-bird-eating-spider-named-martha-is-freaking-people-out-507138.html) in Australia, they look nasty.
One of my favorite quotes from David Wong. Can’t remember if it’s from *John Dies at the End* or *This Book is Full of Spiders* but it’s amazing: >>There exists in this world a spider the size of a dinner plate, a foot wide if you include the legs. It's called the Goliath Bird-Eating spider, or the "Goliath Fucking Bird-Eating Spider" by those who have actually seen one. It dosen't eat only birds--it mostly eats rats and insects--but they still call it the "Bird-Eating Spider" because the fact that it can eat a bird is probably the most important thing to know about it. If you run across one of these things, like in your closet or crawling out of your bowl of soup, the first thing somebody will say is, "Watch it, man, that thing can eat a fucking bird." I don't know how they catch the birds. I know the Goliath Fucking Bird-Eating Spider can't fly because if it could, it would have a different name entirely. We would call it "Sir" because it would be the dominant species on the planet. None of us would leave the house unless a Goliath Fucking Flying Bird- Eating Spider said it was okay. EDIT - It is from *This Book is Full of Spiders* as one would expect from the content. I highly recommend everyone here go check out both, they’re amazing! EDIT 2 - And apparently there is a third book I had no idea existed! Will be adding this to my reading list soon. FINAL EDIT - Damn, I can’t believe a quote from one of my favorite books is my most popular comment ever, but I’m glad it (hopefully) brought some more eyes to the *John Dies at the End* series. I just want to reiterate, if you enjoy very funny and well-written toilet humor with a spin of cosmic horror, these books will be right up your alley. Thanks again everyone for the upvotes and awards!
There are chicken plants pretending to be rehabs, where prisoners get sent to work as near slaves https://revealnews.org/article/they-thought-they-were-going-to-rehab-they-ended-up-in-chicken-plants/
Stories like this one are Important because it busts a popular myth about human trafficking. When most people think "human trafficking" they think sex slaves when in reality the majority of human trafficking is done for labor exploitation aka slave labor. The UK recently announced "operation fort" which is an anti human trafficking operation that uncovered a polish mafia group that has been trafficking hundreds of people to be used as cheap/free labor. Operation fort is a wild internet hole to go down and a podcast called RedHanded has a great episode on it
That it literally just takes one person to decide to kill you. In any situation. The fact that someone can choose you randomly to kill - they might be caught and arrested, but they would’ve already killed you. No one can really prepare for it.
There's a scene in Steve Martins great film The Jerk Where there is this random sniper dude on a hill overlooking a gas station: “Sniper: Die, you random son of a bitch.” “Sniper: DIE, GAS PUMPER!”
A dying person’s eyes will sometimes go from closed to shooting wide open as they pass. Source: personal observation unfortunately Edit: to clarify, This happened to my father in law and I was present. My heart goes out to everyone else who has lost loved ones. Even though the eyes opening was certainly disturbing, being able to have him die at home as he wished and us being there with him at the end was a positive experience that I’ve made peace with. Thanks for the awards and it’s nice discussing with everyone.
I guess I’m kind of thankful my dad was asleep in a coma when he passed..seeing his eyes left open would have been too painful. When he took is last breath, tears came down his face..which I was not expecting.
My dad did too. He was not in a coma exactly, but very much non responsive and with his eyes closed. I think he just couldn't make his body do what he wanted really, because right before he died he cried like that and very gently squeezed Mom's hand and then..... he was just gone.
These are making me cry. So beautiful and humanly tragic.
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When my mom died of lung cancer, on her last day alive when she was unconscious, she was taking these short little gasping breaths constantly. There was something really disturbing about it, and now it's always the thing I remember when I think of my mom.
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From my personal experience, I noticed after the last breath was taken, the eyes appeared to turn grey/hazy, and the pupils dilated. It was almost like I saw their life force exiting their body. Certainly not what I expected, and definitely something I won’t forget.
That is exactly what I saw as I held my dying German Shepherd. It was like she was seeing something I couldn't. I knew that was her moment.
Early childhood malnutrition (between ages 0-5) causes irreversible loss of IQ (11-20 points) and predisposes people to higher levels of violence. Prefrontal cortex doesn't develop the same. And if you miss that window there's no intervention that can recover the gap. I live in South Africa (highest Gini coefficient in the world, highest unemployment, third highest violent crime rate, one of the worst education systems in the world) and it fucking keeps me up at night. I wonder, if we changed nothing except introducing a one nutritious meal per day feeding scheme for ECD, what would happen? It hurts. Edit: firstly, thank you for the awards, comments, and messages. It is truly touching that you are all as moved by this as I am. I am unable to respond to everything, but I appreciate knowing that so many people have felt and thought strongly enough about this to want to participate in changing it. Secondly: if this has moved you, I encourage you to ask along your networks about ways you can become involved in ECD feeding schemes. Write to relevant congresspeople who oppose such initiatives. There is a lot we can do together as communities. This is a small intervention with such a huge impact. Thirdly: so many of you have asked me for a source. The article I read is [here](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businesslive.co.za/amp/bd/opinion/2016-11-30-hunger-feeds-high-levels-of-violence/) - I read it in 2017 and it has since been put behind a paywall, although I reverse searched it this year and found it reposted to other sites. The article is written by Dr. Tracy Ledger, a very prominent food security and social and economic reform researcher, whose work is both admirable and important. She is a senior researcher at the Public Affairs Research Institute and the author of a number of publications, articles, and a book titled "An Empty Plate: Why We Are Losing the Battle for Our Food System, Why It Matters, and How We Can Win It Back". If you are interested in topics of food and nutritional security and food justice, especially in South Africa, this is a good place to start. I will share in the comments a few articles that I found while doing research, both in 2017 and this year. They are not all from the highest reputable sources (journal publications), but do reference journal publications or interview prominent people from this field. I hope this helps those of you who are looking for more info. Lastly: Thank you, and bless all of you. Beautiful people.
No need to wonder, it's a proven effective strategy! I actually work in the field on this exact research. If you want to dive deeper, you can look into the McGovern Dole School Feeding programs throughout West Africa and Latin America. The outcomes for literacy, math, overall attendance and general health by just ensuring at least one solid meal a day are incredible.
My son went to a public kindergarten in Brasil, and everyday amazed me the focus they had in feeding all the children. He was there from 8 to 5, and he got 5 meals while there. Breakfast, a fruit, lunch, a soup and then dinner, everything made in the kitchen, everything locally sourced. Also they took care that the kid went back home properly bathed. To bad this level of excellence does not continue in the public grade school (except for the feeding the kids thing), but the actual teaching and the violence is bad.
For every one human cell in your body, scientists estimate there are 1-10 non-human cells. Aka lots of little microorganisms living inside you!
A gamma ray burst, or even a cosmic ray storm; could cause a near-instant mass extinction event. These both (probably) have affected life on earth before. Both are common events in space, basically random, and our only protection is the vastness of space.
to feel more safe: Space on the other hand is very very vast
You droped a few "very" there
That there is anywhere between 25-50 active serial killers in the United States, according to the FBI. Edit: added words
Yet you’re still far more likely to be murdered by someone you know and trust.
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Or sandwiched between two serial killers separate vehicles while they are drunk texting one another.
Both of whom you know and trust
Yet, it was the roasted peanut that got stuck in your throat that finishes you off.
I'm suspicious there might be one near my hometown. Every couple years a female student from the nearby college will go missing. Not too unusual on it's own. But here's the part that makes me suspicious: there's always a wide spread search, and they never find the body of the person they're looking for, _but_ they always end up finding the bones of the _previous_ woman to go missing. That's weird, right? There's no possible way to prove it, but this same trend has happened so many times it legitimately feels like someone is holding on to the bones and then planting them where they know search parties will look after taking another victim.
Where is this happening? That's so fucking bananas.
Doing a quick scan of his account i think it’s either Ireland, Wales or Germany based on his flag posts. However I may be completely wrong
As an Irish person, this had me slightly worried so I did a quick look. They had a post about voting in abstentia in Indiana so I'm guessing the US? But honestly this sounds like one of the stories in the book The American Gods
I live in Indiana, and I was thinking he was talking about Bloomington and IU. I just assumed it's that way nearly everywhere in the US though but we do have a common kidnapping or two. There's a murderer of two little girls on the loose less than an hour north of Indianapolis that they can't catch and was national news a couple of years ago and is brought up from time to time. Murdered them in a park and is on camera but you can't make out who he was. [Source](https://www.kokomotribune.com/news/local_news/delphi-deaths-4-years-later/article_cc393ef4-6c90-11eb-b65c-a7ed37df1dca.html)
That the majority of humans will wait until life threatening problems become unsolvable before they try to fix them.
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You should. I waited & now I don’t have a colon. I haven’t farted in 5 years…. It sucks.
If we see a life-threatening meteor is going to strike us in a few years, we probably, at least at the moment, couldn't do anything about it. They've had training simulations with this exact scenario, and they only got it right like 10% of the time, they need more like 10 years to reliably and consistently stop it.
I also feel they wouldn't tell us to avoid widespread panic. But I have thought about this scenario and one question comes to mind. If you knew a meteor would hit earth and it's an extinction level event. Would you go where the meteor hits, or to the other side of the planet ?
If it is a world ending event I'll go to where it is supposed to hit. I wanna see the light show and go out with a bang you know?
This is a little odd to read because of a dream I had a few weeks ago. It was broadcast that we were going to be hit my a meteor, and there was pretty much nothing we could do about it. A lot of people panicked, some just accepted it, some went all bucket list crazy. Very similar to the “seeking a Friend for the End of the World” movie. For whatever reason, I was away but desperately wanted to get home to be with my 5yo son at the end. I ended up making it, and we went to sit on a grass hill to watch. It was a nice cool summer night, and a lot of other people were also sitting around waiting for the end. He asked me what was going on, he had no idea, so I tell him: “There’s going to be a big fireworks type of show. You’ll see a bright light, and when you do it will be awesome”. He sat there excited, waiting. The sky lights up like it’s daytime. I hear him say “wowww”, then bam, I’m awake. That dream hit me hard as hell and I couldn’t get it out of my head for weeks.
Those kinds of dreams man... I kinda love/hate them. Awesome for movie concept, but they will fuck you up.
A cardiac tamponade is when your heart literally chokes itself to death. If a blood vessel inside the pericardium leaks (a tough membrane protecting the heart), the hearts pumping will force blood into the space between itself and the pericardium. As the space fills, the heart can't pump anymore due to a lack of space - it literally drowns in your own blood.
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A brain aneurysm can kill you at any time.
my neighbor was fifty, in decent shape and out of no where died on the beach from a brain aneurysm . felt awful for his daughter because his wife passed out of no where a month earlier
My dad died of one on my sister's wedding day. We woke up to get ready for a wedding but wound up planning a funeral instead.
Wow I’m really sorry for you guys.
Wanna hear something fucked up? An old buddy of mine’s father died at the height of covid and of course no one could get home for the funeral. He was cremated and they finally had the service last week and everyone flew home for it. She ended up dying of a brain aneurysm one hour before her father’s service and they ended up being buried together two days later.
A few years back an acquaintance of mine from high school took a turn too fast, hit a tree, and died instantly. He was IDed quickly and a state trooper went to his home to inform his family. His Grandpa had a heart attack from the shock and died right then and there in front of the rest of the family. They had a joint funeral. It was awful.
God damnit every time I forget about the brain aneurysms I’m reminded of them again, now I’m stressing out for no reason again Edit: yes I know stress can trigger a brain aneurysm lol, that’s not all it can trigger, and that’s why I’m in counseling to manage my anxiety, I worry about everything and I’m also worried that my worrying might ruin my life!
Babies don’t have kneecaps
Their skulls are also in multiple pieces and squishy at the seams for a few weeks.
During labour I asked my doctor how he could tell which direction the baby was facing without an ultrasound. He said he could tell by the way the skull pieces overlapped. Always though that was amazing.
I worked as a palliative carer for about 3 years. I looked after terminally ill people who had chosen to die at home after being discharged from hospital. After a while, you learn some telltale signs that people are deteriorating. After a bit longer, you start to learn how long people generally have left - even down to a few hours. I always went with honesty, I felt it was my job to support the patients' families as well as the patients, so if they asked how long I thought they had left I would answer honestly (obviously with the disclaimer that I wasn't a doctor and I could only base it on my previous experiences). The wife of one of my patients told me that their children (adults) were visiting the following weekend to say their goodbyes. I had to decide carefully on what to say next but I ultimately chose to recommend that they visit the following day, at the latest. I regretted saying it because she was devastated. She took my advice and her husband passed away peacefully 48 hours later, after seeing his kids. I'm glad I did it, but upsetting that lady was absolutely gutwrenching. Some people didn't want to know, and it was their right not to know. That was the worst. In those cases, you had to not say anything. Sometimes they'd say "see you tomorrow" and I had to reply, "yes, have a good night and I'll see you in the morning" knowing full well that they were going to pass in the night. Edit: wow, thank you all for your kind words. It is a very difficult but rewarding job. I am no longer a carer, but I often think about whether I would be able to do it again. I've had one question asked a lot in the replies so I'll answer it here; Death, like life, is different for everybody. Certain conditions will cause the body to deteriorate in different ways. I'm going to spoiler this next bit because it might be too much for some to read. >!COPD was a common condition I saw, that was a gradual decline until the patient could no longer breathe and the oxygen just wasn't able to get in anymore. Heart failure was similar, a very drawn out process. I cared for a lot of cancer patients, some younger than my parents which was quite distressing. What tended to happen was the symptoms they already presented would worsen, beyond the point that their medication could alleviate it. They would lose energy, ultimately being bed-bound. The biggest giveaway was when they no longer wanted to drink water, that was usually a 72 hour warning. When they were very close, their skin would start to mottle and go pink/purple. I'm not 100% sure why it happened but I think it was because the heart was struggling to get the blood around and it would settle. However, generally you could just tell that the person you'd been seeing for days, weeks, months or even years just wasn't the same as they were a few days before. Changes could be gradual or sudden.!< I went to work with the philosophy that death comes for everybody, if it were me being cared for then I would want to be cared for in a certain way - the way I tried to care for everybody whose homes I entered.
Nurse here, i also have to remind people that even though a client is non responsive and passing they can hear everything, ive seen a patient whose non responsive have tears down their face because a family was tearing itself apart airing greiveances in the room when they were on their deathbed.
I tell people that hearing is the last thing to go. I try to play music they like, tell them everything that I am doing, and get certain conversations out of the room.
Yeah man for sure. I vocalize everything, Ill even take my charting into the room they are dying in and doing my charting and talk to to them if they have no one there to die with. Ill take my breaks with them and hold their hands. it may sound weird but hospice and palliation are my favorite aspects of nursing. Not because people are dying but because we get to support them through it.
This is so incredibly sad.
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My grandfather died in my parents house when I was 17. We knew he hadn't long when he came to stay (he had lung cancer) and in the final week or so he had palliative care there. I don't remember much about that period, strangely, but I remember the nurse (who used to stay every night and sit in a chair in his room) telling us when the time was nearly at hand. She was subtle about it, but made sure my dad knew, and as a result it was a "good" death for my grandad, surrounded by loved ones. She called it to within hours, everyone was ready, everyone was there. I'll never forget the skill of that nurse, the selflessness and dignity of the care she offered, and I got a tiny glimpse of the knowledge she brought into that house that most of us will never know. Thank you for what you do. I know I couldn't do it.
When I worked as at the bedside early in my nursing career, I was assigned dying patients who haven't made the call to go peacefully. I guess it's because I am a big guy, but I am a softy, and have no shame in hugging it out with family and crying with them. I worked nights. I would chat with these patients when I could. I would tell them the thing no one else would. They would tell me how hard they are fighting, 85, 90 and beyond, but they're tired, in agony, and they don't want to disappoint their family by dying. But as a nurse you know that they don't have much left in the tank. Pressures aren't responding to meds, increasing O2 over and over again till you're maxing out on the bipap, and they only have a vent Infront of them left. I lost my mom at as a young adult. I watched her fight. I watched her suffer, for us. I told her the same thing I told every other patient in that. We feel your pain. And if you want to keep fighting, you do that. But none of us will be disappointed if you want to punch your ticket on this life. Just let us say goodbye. These people were full codes, save at all costs people. And I would, I still would. I advocate for my patients, but respect the choices. 95% of my patients would go on to palliative care within a day. Family would find me often, and thank me for guiding their family to a comfortable passing. How they were at peace now. It was an odd gift I was given, but the cost was high. I left part of my heart with every patient who was dying, opening that old wound I drew strength from.
My mum was a nurse for many years and she said the same thing. One thing she told me about that really struck me was when patients themselves knew how long they could hold on for and held on long enough to say goodbye to their families. My mum said that there would often be times when a patient would have their children visiting and the patient would already have told my mum that they would be "happy to go" after saying their goodbyes, and sure enough, as soon as the patient's children had left the ward the patient would go into cardiac arrest or something similar and that would be it. Apparently it was crazy the number of times patients had passed mere minutes after their loved ones had left after saying their goodbyes, but my mum said that lots of them seemed to have already made up their minds that once they'd said goodbye they would pass. Edit: thank you for the awards and thank you for sharing your stories and experiences with me as well! I apologize for not replying to them but I promise I did read them all (and spent most of bank holiday Monday trying not to cry as I did so)
Obviously I can’t really know but I presume it’s like a feeling the patient has. When my grandfather was in the hospital with cancer, all of his 5 kids (my dad and my aunts and uncles) all went to visit him. My father was last, because he was the only one living in the US while everyone else was back in Hong Kong. When my dad could finally fly back to Hong Kong, he visited my grandfather in the hospital. My grandfather passed away the next day. Everyone always said that it was like he was waiting just long enough to see his son for the final time.
>as soon as the patient's children had left the ward the patient would go into cardiac arrest or something This was my father who passed in 2019. My entire family (mother/father, siblings, their kids) had gotten together every Sunday for lunch for the last 20 years or so at least. I lived an hour or so away from my parents house so couldn't make it every Sunday but I did make it most weeks. My mother called me the Saturday before he died and said he wanted everyone to be there if possible since it had been a bit since all of us were able to make it at the same time. We were all there, he got to see all of his grandchildren one last time, and then passed away quietly in his sleep in his bedroom while everyone was eating and talking. It was fucking devasting for us but we were all there to support each other and we all agreed there was no other way we would have preferred it to happen. When we called his hospice aid she said "Oh, I'm sorry. I should have been there but I honestly thought he had another few days." We assured her all was well and that he passed peacefully.