The power of 10 poll - Warning: about death

PrairieMom wrote: The other night I was watching the power of 10 and this was a question on there.
Their Poll said that 63% of people had seen a dead body. That seemed a bit odd to me, so I thought I would conduct my own little experiment.

Calimama replied: Before I vote.. does that include in a casket at a funeral?

mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied: Nope. One word...Yuck.

PrairieMom replied:
OOH! thats important!


EXCLUDING FUNERALS.

luvmykids replied: Yes, but only as Denise mentioned, in a casket.

eta: Since that doesn't count, no And I hope to keep it that way

PrairieMom replied: Can A MOD fix my question to include that FUNERALS ARE EXCLUDED?

Calimama replied:
Okay, then my vote is NO.

PrairieMom replied: thank you mystery Mod!

Boys r us replied: I edited it for you Tara.

and yes! On the way home from dinner(no less) one night with several girlfriends in the car as well as Tanner when he was 4 yrs old...we're driving down the highway and we had a carload of friends in front of us as well. Next thing I know something is falling from the sky right in front of us and my friend and several other cars hit it and we managed to miss it. What was IT? It was a person who jumped off an interstate overpass! All of us in volved(accept for Tanner) had to have therapy after that. Tanner didn't because somehow my friends all had the presence of mind to cover his eyes as it was happening.

PrairieMom replied:
OMG. How nice. If your gonna take your self out, at least have the decency to not harm other people in the process. Good Grief.

AlexsPajamaMama replied: An old woman commited suicide on the train tracks near my house

lovemy2 replied: Yes - my father - I was with him when he died

Anthony275 replied: my dad has seen this many times, but not yet for me. hopefully i wont ever

Brias3 replied: I saw someone get shot outside of the United Center in Chicago once after a Bulls game about fourteen or so odd years ago. I'm not sure whether or not the person died, but they were clearly just laying motionless on the ground as the crowd freaked and tried to scatter. Scary stuff!

I was also in the room when my great grandfather died.

mom2patrick&jalin replied: I voted yes because my dad and I were on I-75 in Ohio and we saw a car accident where a car had run up under the back of a semi truck and the coriner(sp) was there.

holley79 replied: Yes unfortunately I have.

MyBrownEyedBoy replied: Yes, but I work in a hospital and I've had to draw blood on a body before.

PrairieMom replied: I'm really suprised. I thought their poll #'s were way off. The contestants both voted around the 10 -20% range and were both surprised when the number was so high.

PrairieMom replied:
yeah, I don't think I really count for the poll either, since its such a big part of my job.

Cece00 replied: Yes.

I was in Baton Rouge, over 3 years ago, and I was driving down the road & there was a guy who had been murdered in a parking lot. He was just lying there, the cops were getting ready to cover him up.

Hillbilly Housewife replied: I've been around a dead body. A few years ago, a city bus ran smack in the back of a parked car... completely squished the back bumper up against the front seats. There was a baby in the car.

So while I didn't see the actual body... I was there.

TheOaf66 replied: does the movies count?

BAC'sMom replied: Yes several.... I was with my Grandmother when she died, At car wrecks ( My Ex DH was an officer and we always had to stop and render aid) and when a neighbor died and I sat with the wife until the Police & EMS arrived.

A&A'smommy replied: I voted no but I forgot I saw my grandfather when he passed.. it took a while to get the dr. there to pronouce him and he had to be pronouced passed before the funeral home could come and get him... He died at home

lisar replied: My Mom, and my grandfather (not a funeral). My grandfather passes away at home, and my mom passed away and we went there and seen her.

MoonMama replied: No and I hope I never do!

gr33n3y3z replied:
Why so many?
I hope you dont see that many either

punkeemunkee'smom replied: Bill got food poisoning lastyear and we went to the ER. The nurse came in and said that Taylor and I couldn't be back there right now they were having a 'situation'. So we leave the cubicle and run smack into (literally) a dead guy a bed. I tried to cover Taylor's eyes but on the way home she says 'Momma-what the heck was wrong with that guy?' I said 'He was sick baby.' She says 'I hate to tell you this Momma but I think he was dead...' It was so shocking it was commical!

gr33n3y3z replied: to many of them for my liking

jcc64 replied: My dad. It really wasn't bad, guys. It sort of felt right, tbh. He was in his own bed, surrounded by his wife and kids and dogs. I hope I die that way, too.


A few other times-
Saw a kid get hit by a car when I was in 5th grade- saw him fly across the road and land a few feet from me. Saw all the 'stuff' coming out of his ears and nose........THAT freaked me out.

Saw a guy drop to the floor in Newark Airport. My brother, who is a dr, and my dad, who was an EMT, worked on him, but he was dead before he hit the floor. The airline gave them free tix for being "good samaritans", which I thought was a little weird, but nice nonetheless.

BAC'sMom replied:

I totally agree! In my case(s) there was a peacefully calm feeling (it’s hard the explain) in the room. I never experience that feeling since. Sorry if that sounds morbid but it is true.

Anthony275 replied:
he was in a war ( just PM me for more)

Kentuckychick replied: I've had two and those two made me view death in totally different ways.

The first was when I was around 15 and it was my neighbor's health worker who was supposed to be taking care of her. She had told her she couldn't get out of the chair and so she called her daughter who came and then came to get us. The woman was very overweight and had a blood clot that had passed to her brain. It was really gross and I couldn't get past the fact that there was absolutely nothing we could do for her (not even CPR because she was too large) until the ambulance got there. I had met her earlier in the day and she was a really nice lady... it really broke my heart and my neighbor (who was once a nurse) had a really difficult time accepting that she couldn't get up and help her at the time).

The second was my grandmother. She had lung cancer and I got to hold her hand as she breathed her last breaths of air. That changed my whole perspective of death. It was peaceful and beautiful really. She was ready, we were ready... it was sad but a relief at the same time.

boyohboyohboy replied: YES, lots working for hospice.
and my mom was just telling me, that where they live in az, they have friends in there developement that only stay for 6 months and return to canda for 6 months of the yr..anyway, the man and wife were driving back to az and the husband had told the wife before if i ever die on the way to az dont stop till you get to the house, i dont want to be buried on the indian reservation..( i have no idea why he thought he would be buried there but thats the story) so anyway, while she was driving there this last time, he died in the car in his sleep, she had no idea when, for she thought he was sleeping, and then drove the rest of the way, stopping only at rest stops for bathroom breaks, and then drove to my mom and dads to ask for help getting the man out of his car!
can you imagine driving all that way with a dead man next to you, husband or not.....
yuck

Kentuckychick replied:
That poor woman... I can't even imagine.

When I started working in retail a few years back one of our managers had just lost his teenaged daughter. She was on a trip with her school team and her heart stopped in her sleep in the back seat of their van because of an undiagnosed condition. All of her teamates thought that she was just asleep and when they tried to wake her after several hours she was unresponsive... of course at that point it was too late.

I simply can't even begin to imagine how scared and heartbroken all of those young girls were when they realized what was going on.

kimberley replied: i got to the hospital too late and arrived to find my uncle had already passed. i wanted to say my goodbyes so i did. like others, it felt right. he was young but had suffered so much with his illness i was glad he wasn't suffering anymore.

MyBlueEyedBabies replied: I saw my uncle. he died at home and my mom needed me to hold her hand when she went in to say good bye. I am a once they are dead they are gone kinda person so it was creepy being next to this thing that only kinda resembled my uncle from a few months before when he was still a healthy vibrant man.

did the poll originally exclude at a funeral home??? because that would definately bring the ##'s up

Jackie012007 replied: twice, and both still haunt me.

I was working at a restaurant on the beach here, and a body washed up on shore. I was on my lunch break and saw people hysterical on the shore so I ran over to see what was going on and I saw the body - it was horrible. I won't go into details but I've never been the same.

Anotehr time I was at Carousel Mall when I was like 16, with my mom. A kid was "Robi-tripping" (doped up on Robitussin) and jumped from the third level... and smashed on the ground several feet away from a crowd of us. Also horrific... I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

PrairieMom replied:
yeah, funerals are excluded. I am really surprised at the numbers.

Kentuckychick replied: I personally was/am a little confused by the poll I guess. I don't really see the numbers as being odd because if you consider that most everyone here is at least in their twenties, it's really not all that uncommon to have been present at the death of a loved one.

Now when I answered the poll I'll be honest and say I wasn't sure I was supposed to count being by my grandmother's side when she died but I saw that other's were counting that and did as well, plus I'd seen another death.

I think if the poll were to not include being present at the deathbed of a loved one the numbers would drop some.

I think that you may still be surprised at how many people have witnessed death though. It's tragic, but it happens. I know when our family friends lost their son in a car accident they were grateful for those "witnesses" who stopped to hold his hand and share his final minutes. And I know that our neighbor's healthworker's family camed to thank us for doing what we could and making sure they were contacted. Sometimes we feel like we're in the "wrong place at the wrong time" when really I think maybe we're supposed to be there for a reason.

PrairieMom replied:
On the show it didn't specify anything but that funerals don't count, so I guess anything goes. The question was have you seen a dead body. I guess they didn't even say if it had to be human or not.

I didn't realize how many people had been at the bedside of a dying family member, that has never happened to me personally, or to anyone in my immediate family as far as I am aware. All the experience I have is working at the hospital.

amymom replied: I saw my mother seconds after she passed away. I was with my brother-in-law when he passed away.

HuskerMom replied:
That's probably what I would've guessed too.

My neighbor across the street died in her house and I saw them bring her outside. That was only the second time I had ever seen her leave her house. And my other neighbor shot himself with a shotgun not too long ago. That was pretty sad, he was only about 18.

TANNER'S MOM replied: I have seen lots of death. Family members I was there for when they took their last breath, friends. And accidents on the roadway. For me death isn't something that scares me badly. I guess b/c of my family's view on the after life it has seemed like a blessing instead of the curse.