lucidvisions
06-29-2009, 05:06 AM
Life can definately throw you some curve balls. Not sure why or for what reason things happen but here's the story of last Fri.
I rode my bike to work like every other day and as I arrived I saw there was a Mercedes Compressor parked in our studio's driveway. I came to unlock my studio door and heard something behind my liquid tanks and looked over to see a man crouched down hiding behind them.
We can have our share of homeless hanging around under our stairwell drinking doing whatever so I backed up and instructed the man to get out and leave. As he got up I noticed that his shirt was completely covered in blood and he had a knife in his hand. All my focus on was the knife and I yelled at him to put it down. He did so with his head hung low and sulked over to the wall of our studio. I asked him WTF was going on and he replied that I just caught him trying to "OFF" himself. WHAAAAA? I then saw the slices to his wrists and a stab wound to his neck and told him to sit down. He was super calm but mentally paranoid. He didn't appear to be under the infuence of any drugs or anything and with me having the knife away from him I didn't feel threatened anymore.
I was very worried that he was just gonna jet and do something stupid to himself. Run in the street, jump in his car, I don't know but I wanted him to stay put. I preceeded to talk to him and ask if he had family in the area and such trying to turn the conversation from his depression to him thinking about what his family would go through if he had suceeded. At this time I knew he had just done superficial damage to his wrists and the stab wound in his neck missed any major artery as it just oozed blood. He was really in need of someone to let his problems out to so I decided to just listen. After hearing and discussing his depressed state I told him I was calling the medics and he should call his family and let them know. He did so and I walked him over to the firestation across the street for treatment. This all took place in about 20 minutes, but it seemed to last hours.
Not sure what has happened to him since but I gotta say you never know what the hell will cross your path in any given moment. If any of you know me personally you know I have my issues with anxiety and stress managment. It was crazy at first how the anxiety took over as I was shaking like a leaf trying to figure out how to handle the situation. But then a weird calm over took me and put my fear aside for him and getting him help. I'm not a religious man at all, but it came as I looked at his cross around his neck with a bit of his neck flesh hanging from it. Man was it crazy.
I'm still trying to figure out how to best deal with the aftermath but I got to say it's affected me more than I would think. Since the incident I've had two nightmares of finding his body dead by my liquid tanks, but I so happy dreams aren't reality. I thought writing it out might help, so there it is. I hope he's OK and glad reality had as good an outcome as what happened.
Time to go bleach the outside of the shop...oh joy.
Josh
I rode my bike to work like every other day and as I arrived I saw there was a Mercedes Compressor parked in our studio's driveway. I came to unlock my studio door and heard something behind my liquid tanks and looked over to see a man crouched down hiding behind them.
We can have our share of homeless hanging around under our stairwell drinking doing whatever so I backed up and instructed the man to get out and leave. As he got up I noticed that his shirt was completely covered in blood and he had a knife in his hand. All my focus on was the knife and I yelled at him to put it down. He did so with his head hung low and sulked over to the wall of our studio. I asked him WTF was going on and he replied that I just caught him trying to "OFF" himself. WHAAAAA? I then saw the slices to his wrists and a stab wound to his neck and told him to sit down. He was super calm but mentally paranoid. He didn't appear to be under the infuence of any drugs or anything and with me having the knife away from him I didn't feel threatened anymore.
I was very worried that he was just gonna jet and do something stupid to himself. Run in the street, jump in his car, I don't know but I wanted him to stay put. I preceeded to talk to him and ask if he had family in the area and such trying to turn the conversation from his depression to him thinking about what his family would go through if he had suceeded. At this time I knew he had just done superficial damage to his wrists and the stab wound in his neck missed any major artery as it just oozed blood. He was really in need of someone to let his problems out to so I decided to just listen. After hearing and discussing his depressed state I told him I was calling the medics and he should call his family and let them know. He did so and I walked him over to the firestation across the street for treatment. This all took place in about 20 minutes, but it seemed to last hours.
Not sure what has happened to him since but I gotta say you never know what the hell will cross your path in any given moment. If any of you know me personally you know I have my issues with anxiety and stress managment. It was crazy at first how the anxiety took over as I was shaking like a leaf trying to figure out how to handle the situation. But then a weird calm over took me and put my fear aside for him and getting him help. I'm not a religious man at all, but it came as I looked at his cross around his neck with a bit of his neck flesh hanging from it. Man was it crazy.
I'm still trying to figure out how to best deal with the aftermath but I got to say it's affected me more than I would think. Since the incident I've had two nightmares of finding his body dead by my liquid tanks, but I so happy dreams aren't reality. I thought writing it out might help, so there it is. I hope he's OK and glad reality had as good an outcome as what happened.
Time to go bleach the outside of the shop...oh joy.
Josh