Religion kills another person.

[laconicsax]

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (NBC) -- Believing his faith would heal him, a Greenwood County, South Carolina man sat down in his recliner after an injury in March and never got up.

On Thursday, his wife explained why he stayed in the recliner until shortly before he died.

"The man totally believed in God and his healing," said Ada Webb.

...

"He read his Bible daily, he spent his full focus on God," said Webb. "And he was literally waiting and praying for a Job miracle. If anybody knows the Bible and knows Job, he really and fully believed that God was going to heal him just like he did Job, because he said he couldn't think of a better testimony to go out and to tell people."

Read more: http://www.ksn.com/content/news/also/story/Man-dies-after-sitting-in-recliner-for-eight/IYHyG3psmkWk6UgSGpq9Ww.cspx

[atreides1]

1. So

How did a perfect being create such a stupid species?

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. Would it be too ironic

to nominate him for a Darwin award?

[laconicsax]

3. I think not.

[FiveGoodMen]

12. René Descartes walks into a bar and is asked if he wants a beer...

He ponders for a moment ... says, "I think not" ... and promptly disappears.

[dmallind]

25. Two atoms on a pub crawl.....

One atom turns to the other and says

"I left an electron in the last bar"

"Are you sure?"

"I'm positive".


OR alternatively.....

Neutron walks into a bar. Baretnder hands him a beer.

"How much?" asks the neutron

"For you? No charge."

Ah, nerd wit. Gotta love it. :)

[immoderate]

32. A pair of jumper cables go into a bar...

The bartender eyes them suspiciously and says, "You guys can stay, but don't start anything!"

--imm

[fl_dem]

4. good one!

[Pab Sungenis]

6. Did he have kids?

You have to have prevented your genetic code from being continued to qualify, don't you?

[DeSwiss]

22. Posthumously. n/t

[theoldman]

5. Want to bet whether there are thousand of people like him who die each year?

They may not all sit in a chair waiting for a miracle but the belief is the same.

[struggle4progress]

7. Earlier DU thread:

Injured 550-lb man, unable to afford health care, dies waiting for a 'Job miracle'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=7188412

It seems to be the same story. Note the following: ... Tillmon tore his ACL in March and drove to a doctor's office. "They were gonna give him an appointment, but they wanted $300 up front, and we didn't have the money" ...

[laconicsax]

10. Which is why he spent 8 months praying for healing.

If he didn't fervently believe that the Abrahamic god would heal him, he probably would have invested some time trying to get medical attention.

[struggle4progress]

11. The report clearly says he went to the doctor first but was unable to afford medical care

There may be multiple issues here, but I don't expect to learn much from your sneering over his grave

[laconicsax]

13. And he then spent eight months praying for a cure.

Are you honestly suggesting that he'd have still sat in the same chair 24/7 for the next 8 months if he didn't believe his god would cure him?

[struggle4progress]

14. 800-Pound South Carolina Man Dies After Getting Stuck in Recliner for 8 Months

Thursday, November 19, 2009

COLUMBIA, S.C. — When an ambulance brought Daniel Webb home from the hospital after he hurt his knee in March, paramedics warned the then 550-pound man he probably wouldn't be able to get up from his recliner if they put him there, his wife said.

Webb told them to leave him there anyway. He would sit in that recliner, slowly dying, for the next eight months. Finally, paramedics were called back to his Greenwood home on Wednesday because he was in a lot of pain.

Webb's body was physically stuck to the power recliner and firefighters had to cut him from the chair to take him to the hospital. He died a few hours later, his body covered with sores and a "very bad odor," according to a police report.

Webb, 33, didn't ask for help for all those months, because he was ashamed and didn't have health insurance, said his wife, Ada. He slept and used the bathroom in his chair and she cleaned it every day. The former preacher would post sermons online from the chair, and it wasn't long before he decided he was ready to go home to the Lord, she said ...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,575807,00.html

[struggle4progress]

15. 900 Pound Man Dies - Family Wishes More Was Done

By Jonathan Carlson
Published: November 19, 2009
Updated: November 19, 2009

... A Greenwood County man died Wednesday, shortly after emergency workers had to cut open part of his home to remove him in an effort to save his life ...

Authorities say Webb died from cardiac arrest en route to the hospital.

Having not left the house or walked in months, his wife Ada Webb says he became imobile after hurting his knee in March. He sat for the rest of his life ...

Mrs. Webb says she and her husband tried to get disability and insurance but could not and she says she didn’t know where else to turn. She says she cared for him the best she could ...

http://www2.wspa.com/spa/news/local/article/crews_remove_wall_to_remove_700_pound_man_in_greenwood_county/29927/

[Meshuga]

16. That's a very sad story n/t

[struggle4progress]

17. Here's the story as I reconstruct it. The man had an obesity problem, which led

to the loss of his bus driving job and health insurance. He subsequently sought medical attention for an impairing knee injury, but was unable to afford the treatment costs. The hospital refused to keep him and sent him home in ambulance; the med-techs dropped him into his recliner, at his request, with the warning he would be probably unable to rise from it. In the following months, repeated efforts to get funding for treatment were unsuccessful. His mood, originally upbeat, eventually became depressed and he resigned himself to dying in the recliner, stinking and covered with sores. His weight increased from 500 to 800 or 900 lbs. His mother finally demanded medical attention; the med-techs cut him from the chair, cut a hole in his house, and started to transport him back to the hospital. He died en route of a coronary.

There are obviously multiple issues here, including: an original obesity problem and attendant knee difficulties; inability to obtain appropriate medical treatment and ongoing failure to control the obesity; social embarrassment; depression; and so on

I'm afraid I just don't find this sad story as hilarious as you do

[laconicsax]

18. There're significant problems with your reconstruction.

There's no account of him repeatedly seeking treatment after being placed in the chair. Your sources state that he and his wife tried to get disability and insurance, were unable to do so, gave up, and refused help from others. He didn't resign himself to dying, he looked forward to it as an opportunity to enjoy the afterlife he believed in.

Another problem is that you are ignoring his beliefs. He truly believed that his god would heal him if he continued to pray. It is grossly dishonest to discount that as a motivation in his actions--namely refusing outside help. His obesity likely contributed to his state of mind, but I don't believe for an instant that his sincerest belief that a supernatural force was going to magic him into a state of well being made no difference.

The day before he died, he called his mother, and expressed a new willingness to see a doctor. This indicates that he began to have doubts that his god would cure him. That his wife doesn't regret anything about what happened likewise indicates that her beliefs rendered her incompetent as a caregiver.

I don't find this story hilarious, nor did I ever said that I do. It's an interesting insight into your mind that you assumed so.

[darkstar3]

19. +10! n/t

[rd_kent]

28. Does the family have any responsibility in his death?

I mean, if he could not get up from the chair and his weight went from 500 to 800-900 lbs, then SOMEONE had to bring him COPIOUS amounts of food. AND that costs money, lots of it.

I do not find this story funny, but I do think that others are at least PARTIALLY responsible for his death.

[laconicsax]

29. His wife.

She fed, bathed, bed-panned, and clothed him every day in that chair. Of course, she says that she has no regrets because he's now supposedly enjoying some fantastic afterlife.

[RaleighNCDUer]

27. About his injury:

http://orthopedics.about.com/od/aclinjury/tp/acl.htm

There is NOTHING about the ACL tear that was life threatening. This guy just gave up on life. He sat down at 550lbs, because he couldn't walk without crutches, and died 8 months later at over 800 lbs.

Not being able to see a doctor was just an excuse for him to give up.

The real reason for his death was lack of mental healthcare. He was clearly profoundly depressed, and so he sat down to die.

But who needs counseling when you got Jesus on your side?

[Bad Thoughts]

30. Abrahamic?

Of all the potentially dubious things in the Bible, I don't know where those who decided to waste away were singled out for special, miraculous intervention appear. Perhaps you are thinking of another religion?

[laconicsax]

31. Yes, Abrahamic.

The god of the Bible and Koran is the god of Abraham, i.e. the Abrahamic god.

[Deep13]

26. Religion and no access to health care. nt

[safeinOhio]

8. He had a Republican health care plan

don't get sick
or
die quickly

[louslobbs]

9. Waits For God's Cure

How'd that go for him?

[cynatnite]

20. I watched a documentary that showed basically the same thing...

They showed a church where the members handled snakes and one of them was bitten by a rattler. The man believed that god would heal him. There was a video of him and his arm had swelled 3 times it's normal size. He refused medical care and he died.

[laconicsax]

21. Religion kills, plain and simple.

[humblebum]

33. Does religion kill or does stupidity kill? Actually

many more have died under atheism and by atheists than do to any religious cause. I'm just sayin'.

[darkstar3]

34. *Facepalm* n/t

[iris27]

35. I think you mean "due to", and you'd be wrong.

I'm just saying.

[onager]

23. A JOB Miracle? WTF?

Is this some new-fangled Fundie terminlogy I've missed?

Does it mean a "Job miracle" as in - Gawd infests you with boils, kills all your livestock, bankrupts you, THEN kills all your children...but makes it all better because he gives you NEW kids later?

THAT kind of "miracle?"

And all that, just so Gawd could win a bet with Satan. I wonder what Gawd would have done if he'd LOST the bet?

Which Mrs. Job seemed to be hoping for. As I remember, she gave her husband the best advice in that whole weird fairy tale - "Curse God and die."

Mrs. Job was probably a Closet Fundamentalist Atheist.

(Usual Parenthetical Irrelevance: One of my favorite short stories is "A Job of the Plains" by William Humphreys. The story begins with the bet between God and Satan. But the object of the bet is a dirt-poor Okie named Dobbs, who strikes oil on his hardscrabble farm.)

[charlie]

24. Well, he didn't get his Job miracle

But he was at least spared the Who's the Real BadAss Here harangue from God.

Or maybe he's getting that in heaven right now. The poor git.

[ChadwickHenryWard]

36. "Curse God and die."

Possibly my favorite line from the Bible. It's the one little bit of substance in the thoroughly silly story of Job. Job is at the point of unendurable suffering, and it's better for him just to stand up to the celestial bully and die a man. Contrast that with his asswipe friends spinning nonsense for thirty pages and God basically putting a bandaid on the life of a man he has deeply wounded for no other reason than to satisfy his own pride.