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Posts in 'death'

Existential Rockclimbing

Yes, I got quiet. No, I didn't give up (again). Far from it. Over the last year I have taken up a new sport: existential rockclimbing (aka supporting the bereaved).

So, I have always been drawn to the mystery of death. As a child I would read books on murder and ghosts (with tears of fear rolling down my face), and then would ponder the greatest of questions: what the fuck happens after we die? What does it mean to stop existing? What is this thing called death?

Of course these questions influenced my early career path: detective or ghostbuster? I chose the latter merely because I felt it was the more mysterious of the two. Yes, Sherlock Holmes was a boyhood hero. But investigating death (that greatest of mysteries) rather than the precipitating causes of death, seemed like the avenue with the greatest glory, and the greatest for personal …

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in death · Sat 16 September 2017

Fungal Infections from Beyond the Grave

When my youngest brother Eddie died in 2015, I quadrupled my shoe collection overnight. Despite our inside legs being inches different (I got the brains and he got the height and the beauty), our shoe sizes were fortuitously similar. We shared a taste for converse trainers, and so there seemed to be the tiniest of silver linings in this shittest of events. But, of course, the universe loves to shit where it eats, and whilst Eddie may no longer exist, the remnants of a serious fungal infection remained. So I found myself striken by both grief and athletes foot (ironic as I am the least athletic person there is). Thanks a lot Eddie (or Deadie as I came to refer to him during this period)!

But funny really. Eddie was an atheist and obviously I’m one too. But here, imprinted in the soles of his shoes (geddit) were the …

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in death · Wed 19 April 2017

Death of a Window Cleaner

Consider this sorry yet intriguing tale from the BBC, about the death of a window cleaner, who drowned head first in his own bucket:

A window cleaner drowned in his bucket of water after suddenly collapsing while he worked, an inquest heard.

...The father-of-one, of Fowler Close, Scholes, was working at the home of Miss Bebe in Whelley, near Wigan. She told the inquest: "I went outside to hang some washing at the back when I saw a ladder propped up against the wall. "I then saw Mark lying on the ground motionless, with his arms tucked in and his head tilted to the right inside the bucket.

...Miss Bebe told the jury she thought Mr Fairhurst may have fallen while on the ground, rather than from his ladder. The hearing also heard that the window cleaner had complained about heart palpitations earlier in the year but had not told …

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in death · Mon 21 May 2007

Dissected Alive

Over at the Times is an article about the human vivisection experiments conducted by the Japanese during WW2. An extract:

“The first time it was one prisoner, a middle aged man. He’d already given up - there was no struggle. He was tied to the bed and anaesthetised with ether, so that he was completely unconscious. The Lieutenant showed me what to do. He cut him open, and pointed out, ’Here’s the liver, here’s the kidneys, here’s the heart.’ The heart was still beating, then he cut the heart open and showed me the inside. That was when he died.” “I didn’t want to do it, but it was an order, you see. At that time, if a commander gave you an order it was understood that it was the order of the Emperor, and the Emperor was a god. I had no choice - if I …

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in death · Wed 28 February 2007

Scared to Death: Long QT

So this is a story that I saw a while ago that quite worried me. Apparently 17 year old, Kasia Ber, died unexpectedly in bed, after being literally scared to death by her mobile phone ring-tone. From the BBC:

An inquest in Hartlepool heard evidence from Miss Ber's boyfriend Scott Wheatley, who said she began shaking when her mobile phone alarm went off on the morning of 28 December last year. She stopped breathing soon afterwards. Coroner Malcolm Donnelly recorded a narrative verdict that the teenager died as a result of an undiagnosed genetic condition. The cause of death was congenital fatal ventricular arrythmia brought on by Long QT syndrome.

So what is Long QT syndrome? From the BBC on the condition:

The duration of the QT interval is a measure of the time required for depolarization and repolarization to occur. In long QT syndrome, the duration of repolarization (or …

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in death · Fri 16 February 2007

What Feels the Hanged Head?

I'm sure you've all seen that there have been more hangings in Iraq. This time two of Saddam's henchmen received the death sentence, following him to the gallows. Apparently as the two men dropped to their deaths, the presiding officials believed one had escaped, only to discover that he had in fact been decapitated.

Now death cannot have been instantaneous for either man. Back in the time of Dick Turpin, loved ones used to hang on the legs of the convicted, to help speed along their departure. But both deaths were quicker than that. However, breaking your neck or snapping your spine, does not cause instantaneous death. No, these men died of something nearly all humans die of: lack of oxygen to the brain. The only other cause of death is swift physical destruction of the brain (think Andre Delambre in The Fly or being vaporised in a nuclear explosion …

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in death · Thu 18 January 2007

 
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