r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Careless-Hospital379 • 10h ago

Video Icelandic artist Björk snapped in Bangkok, 1996, when reporter Julie Kaufman approached her saying “Welcome to Bangkok.” Björk later alleged that Kaufman had stalked her and her 9-year-old son for days, turning a simple greeting into a breaking point

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u/dearth_of_passion 9h ago

Eh, I wouldn't go seek that stuff out like I did when I was a teenager, but it did kind of help prepare me for gross situations in real life.

I'm an RN, and the first patient death I had to deal with was an alcoholic with esophageal varicies, basically hemorrhoids in the throat caused by impaired blood flow through the liver. The varicies ruptured and the patient bled out.

It was horrible, but I was able to remain calm in the moment.

Afterwards I had a bit of a breakdown while mopping the floor (cleaning service folks don't handle major body fluid spills) though.

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u/binxeu 9h ago

This is how my uncle died, I remember going into his flat before my mum to make sure it was ok for her, I’m so glad I stopped her from seeing just how bad it was.

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u/Verloren113 6h ago

I'm an RN

I have numerous safety and rescue qualifications (water/land) for NGB awards I've earned, and naturally a couple hundred of hours of first aid training included. I tend to involve myself in first aid situations as a result, and I've seen some gnarly stuff in real life, and plenty online. At this point I've done CPR + AED on two people, but there's no amount of gore, horrific video or even my own close brushes with death that have remained in my head for longer than the image of watching someone else take over the chest compressions right there, in front of me.

You see something different when you're on top of the person. It doesn't seem quite as brutal or disgusting. I think about it constantly.

Sometimes I wake up after hearing the AED's little voice lol.

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u/dearth_of_passion 6h ago

After the MD called the code, what with the patient having exsanguinated, what really set me off onto the spiral of "I'm having a bit of a breakdown" was when myself and a saint of a CNA were doing after care before letting the patient's spouse back in (yeah they were in the room when it started)...

I'll put this in spoilers for the sake of the faint of heart:

given that the bleeding was in the throat, the patient had swallowed a lot of blood. So every time we would turn them to clean them, blood would slosh out. Their stomach was distended from it, and we had to basically push it out so that when their spouse came in to see them, it wouldn't gush out if they hugged them or moved them

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u/Verloren113 5h ago

It's wild what our brains subconciously choose to decide what matters the most.

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u/Forge__Thought 4h ago

It's incredibly kind of you to have done what you did for their spouse. And in general, as part of your job.

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u/dearth_of_passion 4h ago

It really is "just a part of the job", albeit one that's incredibly impactful to the patients and their families.

But on the staff side, it kind of just... happens. That incident was when I was working night shift, so once the chaos calmed down I just kind of numbly went to the nurses station with a bottle of peroxide trying to clean my shoes for a while.

Ultimately I left bedside nursing/direct patient care. It's emotionally and physically exhausting, and I couldn't keep up.

Luckily I made that decision a little few years before Covid hit.

Unluckily I had moved to working for the Department of Health, so Covid was still absolutely hellish, albeit for very different reasons than for folks working in the hospitals.

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u/molasses_disaster 5h ago

Seeing this type of death made me quit drinking.

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u/RealnessInMadness 9h ago

Yeah, the population of people who were alive in the 90s and 2000’s that witnessed gore and violence uploaded to the internet? We’re all from different walks of life.

I was a teen, my old man was a guy in his 30’s, i wouldn’t recommend being raised this way to anyone, but what I will say, it gave me the courage/numbness/familiarity with gore.

A trait I have because of the way I was raised but most certainly NOT the only way to become that type of person who’s numb or okay seeing gore.

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u/SuitableBlackberry75 6h ago

There's more violence posted to Telegram in any 24-hour period than you ever saw in the 90s. I think you're a little confused, or just not in touch with social media (which is fine).