What Has Been The Most Heartbreaking Thing You've Personally Witnessed?

[Christopher]

Ok so being on and off bed rest I've been reading a lot. I browse Reddit often and a topic came up that I thought I'd start here. What is the most heartbreaking thing you've personally witnessed? Here is a story below that I read, pretty sad.

*****

****, ok here shows my age, but as the cool kids say, whatever.

Back in about 1992, I was walking to a friend's place, when with no tire scream, there's a horrific car crash. I ran over to see a car had t-barred another at a roundabout. (Canberra is full of them).

Seeing as it was about 1am, and at the time this being nothing more than a sleepy hollow, a few people came out to investigate. At this point, my St. Johns training kicked in and I told someone to go call an ambulance.

The situation is thus: the driver who rammed the other car smells like a brewery, and is dead. He's also the driver who caused the accident by pushing through the roundabout.

I get to the other car, and there's a girl, she's pretty messed up. The steering column has punched her in the chest, there's blood everywhere, there are no crumple zones so her own car is smooshed against her.

I tell her that I know first aid, and that I'm not trying to grope her as a joke - trying to figure out the extent of her ijuries. But I can feel all her ribs on her left side ****** up, and even at the lightest tough, she's hurting.

So I start talking to her, saying everything's alright, well it's not, but the ambulance is coming, and start making ****ty jokes at her to keep her awake.

Then I hear the ambulance in the distance, and tell her she's gonna be alright.

She looks me in the eye, and says, "Why didn't I meet you earlier?" and dies.

Turns out, thirty seconds can be an eternity.

[wendallb]

Yes, just seconds can be an eternity..Thanks God most people never see this kind of thing happen..

I am a volunteer fire fighter for about 20 years now and I have many things that all you can do is just cry..I have seen many that were saved and many that there was just no chance so I know just what you are talking about..

The message here is that vehicles can be deadly and when you add alcohol it is much worse..

[Mike]

This story might show my age, whatever, I'm getting old.

Back in 1982 I had only 1 uncle, my dad's brother was Uncle Bob. He was a big strong muscular guy 10 years older than my dad but only in his early 50's. He served in the military when he was younger and I remember him having an eagle tattoo on his chest and always a smile on his face. He had a really nice Harley Davidson motorcycle and suffered a nasty compound fracture when he was cut off by a careless driver. He didn't have anything bad to say about the ******* that totaled his bike and broke his leg and his attitude was always positive and he always found a way to joke and laugh. After many weeks with a full cast and weeks thereafter of physical therapy he made a full recovery. I thought nothing could get the better of him. He might have been 50 something but he was in the best physical condition, more like a 30 year old. Soon after his leg was completely healed he had a routine check up. Tests reveled that a cancer may be present. He wasn't a smoker or a drinker and I don't know why this happens but it does. He went under the knife and doctors took a look inside him(this is how I was told). There was cancer everywhere. The doctors gave him a few weeks to live. He actually lived for about 6 months or so, just long enough for him to loose a lot of weight and his body in the end was just skin and bones and cancer. It was heartbreaking for everyone to see him leave this world so skinny and week when for his whole life he had been so healthy and strong. Cancer sucks.

[Christopher]

Life really is a delicate thing. I think sometimes we get caught up in our daily routines and forget how amazing and short it really is. My sympathies to those that have and will leave us early than they should.

[DevilDucky]

As being in the Law Enforcement line of work I'm with wendallb on this one I've seen way, way too many things I wish I could un-see.

[blucavvy]

******* spammer. seriously, out of all the threads you could post that stuff in you pick one based on the most heartbreaking thing you've ever witnessed thread?

on a side note, the most heartbreaking thing i've ever witnessed would be my wife crying at her fathers grave. he was 49 when he died. he joined the army when he was 30, went career and would have retired when he was 50. he was 49 1/2 when he dropped dead of a heart attack. he left 5 children behind.

[Rixter]

WOW! Gluttons for emotional upheaval...much?

How about "What Has Been The Most Uplifting Thing You've Personally Witnessed?" for a thread?

[kitsune]

sometimes its good to share tragedy, it really is very healing and can sometimes help put the less bad things into perspective.

As a Nurse I see way too much tragedy.

My Mother is also a nurse and has spent most of her life healing people.

One evening on her way home from work a 16 year old jogger... with her headphones on...turned into the road, directly in front of my Mom. The girl was killed instantly.

Fortunately for my Mom, an off duty police officer was behind her and saw the events and was able to confirm the events.

However, this event nearly destroy my mother. This is when you find out how strong your family is and how much love we have for each other.

I thank god every day that I have such an amazingly strong and loving family.

That single tragedy reminded us that life is a gift. YOLO....you only live once.