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Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

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Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#21

Post by yellowstuff »

papeda wrote: post #4

From the end of the article: > To come so close to death does not provide a shortcut to wisdom or contentment. It doesn’t answer all your questions or eliminate your weaknesses. I’m fundamentally the same person I was before, but with one big difference. I’m viscerally aware how tenuous our existence is. How you can be walking on solid ground only to find it suddenly disappear from beneath you. The meaning comes in w…

I don't have hard statistics, but there's a New Yorker article about survivors of Golden Gate Bridge suicide attempts that says many of them regret the attempt and don't try again. The people who survive jumping off a bridge is probably pretty close to a random sample.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:V_siZl...

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#22

Post by flotzam »

admiral33 wrote: post #16
papeda wrote: post #4

From the end of the article: > To come so close to death does not provide a shortcut to wisdom or contentment. It doesn’t answer all your questions or eliminate your weaknesses. I’m fundamentally the same person I was before, but with one big difference. I’m viscerally aware how tenuous our existence is. How you can be walking on solid ground only to find it suddenly disappear from beneath you. The meaning comes in w…

There's a whole market for that. Roller coasters, haunted houses/corn maze etc. They get people as close to the edge of that feeling as possible. They won't get that full effect though because people know they are safe. If you wanted to get the full effect you need to break the illusion that customers signed up for midway through. Convince riders that the roller coaster is broken while they're still going full speed.…

Nathan for You S01E05:

"Nathan makes a haunted house scarier by convincing visitors that they have contracted an airborne disease."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nathan_for_You_episode...

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#23

Post by salimmadjd »

They found that half of the patients who fell from the height I did – 18.2 metres

Some high school physics:

s = 1/2 at^2 about 1.98 sec of free fall time.

v = at which gives us about 43 mph of impact velocity.

There was a time I was a volunteer at the SF General ER room when I was considering going to the medical school.

We had a guy who fell from a 5 story parking lot that survived with a broken foot. The police came and he wouldn't say what had happened and the whispers behind the ER room was he was probably pushed but he is afraid to speak.

When the ER doctor came to examine him, the doctor asked about two other old scars.

What is this scar? I was stabbed once. What is this other scar? I was shot once.

Yep, talk about nine lives.

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#24

Post by mattr47 »

mpalmer wrote: post #2

The most pressing issue for the orthopaedic team was my left shoulder, which was visibly dislocated. Before attempting to reattach it, the doctor told me I would be given a dose of fentanyl: an opioid that is up to 100 times more potent than morphine. He went away, returned and started using a bed sheet to try to pop the shoulder back into the socket. Alarmed, I told him that I had not been given any pain medication.…

I've had both morphine via IV and fentanyl via a lollipop. Both were in Afghanistan and as far as pain relief goes the morphine was way better for me, because I got a large dose in my bloodstream. I totally understood at that point why people get addicted to that stuff. I did not care about anything at that point. The fentanyl just did not have a strong effect on me.

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#25

Post by xwdv »

ak39 wrote: post #13
xwdv wrote: post #5

Easily could have been killed, and the story would have been a young man aged 32 died gruesomely after falling five stories. A life barely lived, a death barely known.

And yet he didn't! That cooler box, those planks just inches from denying him one more day. I am an atheist but such stories always evoke a delightful supernatural indulgence. I was vicarious with my enjoyment when he said "The world seemed to vibrate with a new intensity".

The people who put the milk crates there saved his life.

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#26

Post by lumberingjack »

Working in residential construction since the 1980s I've seen several people fall from that height. None of them injured all of them were not direct falls most of them were scrapes along walls. I've also seen way more people fall from step ladders two or three feet tall and get injured worse. One case in the early 90s a painter exterior work about 32 ft tall fell from maybe 26 ft his primary concern was not spilling his paint landed in a koi pond on his butt didn't spill the drop of paint.

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#27

Post by mikeyouse »

mattr47 wrote: post #24
mpalmer wrote: post #2

The most pressing issue for the orthopaedic team was my left shoulder, which was visibly dislocated. Before attempting to reattach it, the doctor told me I would be given a dose of fentanyl: an opioid that is up to 100 times more potent than morphine. He went away, returned and started using a bed sheet to try to pop the shoulder back into the socket. Alarmed, I told him that I had not been given any pain medication.…

I've had both morphine via IV and fentanyl via a lollipop. Both were in Afghanistan and as far as pain relief goes the morphine was way better for me, because I got a large dose in my bloodstream. I totally understood at that point why people get addicted to that stuff. I did not care about anything at that point. The fentanyl just did not have a strong effect on me.

Most fentanyl is administered IV as well, the “100x more potent” stuff is mostly misleading because the doses are different but it is substantially more effective than morphine.

My wife does anesthesia and if they’re going to use opioids at all, it’s almost always IV fentanyl. It’s extremely rare that patients report any pain afterwards. Though there’s a big movement toward opioid-free surgery so that’s promising.

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#28

Post by Tronno »

Reading this gives me flashbacks of my own fall from about 45 feet, which broke my spine, pelvis, and ankle.

The initial days after the surgery were confusing, painful, and scary. If the fractures had been another half inch to the right, I would have been paralyzed for life.

Indeed, I lost control over my bowel functions, and for a few agonizing days was unclear if I would ever get them back. I learned how to insert my own catheter to avoid the embarassment of having it done for me.

The following weeks were spent wheelchair-bound in a rehab facility, where each day brought surreal new challenges, but also small increments of progress. A year later, all bodily functions have been restored, with only minor limitations.

If you have also been struck by disaster, and narrowly escaped by sheer miracle, you will understand the intense gratitude and sense of purpose that one is filled with in such circumstances.

Gratitude for all the little things that were almost taken away forever - wiggling your toes, playing a sport, walking to the store, using the toilet unassisted. Gratitude for all the help, care, and healing from medical staff, without which life would be awful and pointless.

And a deep sense of purpose, as you realize how short and fragile that life is. It is a powerful reminder to learn, build, and grow while you still have the resources and opportunity.

I think about it less as time goes on, but sometimes I will see the ground rushing at me, or glimpse a flash of the life I almost had... and it keeps me on my toes.

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#30

Post by aidenn0 »

mpalmer wrote: post #2

The most pressing issue for the orthopaedic team was my left shoulder, which was visibly dislocated. Before attempting to reattach it, the doctor told me I would be given a dose of fentanyl: an opioid that is up to 100 times more potent than morphine. He went away, returned and started using a bed sheet to try to pop the shoulder back into the socket. Alarmed, I told him that I had not been given any pain medication.…

I had a tooth extraction without numbing when I was a kid. Dentist didn't believe it hurt because so many kids freak out for everything dentist related.

Since then I've had many injuries, but in terms of acute pain, that was the worst. Only thing that came close was when my appendix burst.

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