Fabrice Muamba collapsed live on TV at The Lane yesterday evening in what has been reported as a ‘cardiac incident’.
After an excruciating period of physios and medical staff attending him he was stretchered off and it was announced he was rushed to hospital. The scenes were chilling.
Not because he had some class of heart attack – in the UK alone there are about 275,000 heart attacks annually. So they are not uncommon by any stretch – but to witness one in the middle of a game of football is as about as disconcerting as it would be if it were the lady in front of you in the Post Office queue, or the man next to you in the cinema. Naturally there can’t be a ‘right’ place to have a heart attack but the cold reality is we all prefer a mental image of the unfortunate soul having it being in hospital, surrounded by medics and bleeping machines.
Twitter is a brilliant device as it has not only replaced in many ways the traditional news wires but it’s completely inclusive. You don’t need to be a colleague, friend or relation of either a journalist or an eyewitness in order to immediately share in news or opinion.
A good number of people have been gushing at the reaction of the supporters The Lane. A few understandably hesitant rounds of, ‘Fabrice Mauamba’. Since when has doing the right thing, the only thing been something worthy of praise? The crowd at The Lane have to my mind never been a nasty lot, but to celebrate not behaving badly actually made me feel uncomfortable. ‘A big well done for no one shouting out, ‘get up you girl.’
Last year at the time of a tsunami in South East Asia we had the laughable business of ‘#prayforJapan trending simultaneously with the latest Apple tablet. I suggested by Tweet that instead of a prayer, sending an appropriate charity the £400 or whatever the iPad cost would do more good. Maybe those who replied prayed at me and hence I failed to register their disgust.
I do not believe in the power of prayer. That said, I very much believe it’s mean spirited to mock or challenge something harmless that provides anyone with comfort. If a victim’s friends or family need to pray, good luck to them. but it’s fundamentally disingenuous of strangers to Tweet ‘#pray’ for anything. It’s a device to make them feel better about themselves. The effect on the poor sod surrounded by ambulance men or whatever is zero. Zip. Nada.
Hashtagging #pray is actually taking the p*ss. You walk past a homeless guy with a MacDonald’s cup in his hand. Let me break it to you a hashtag isn’t going to do it for him. In the first instance he needs some cash and the second he needs one or more government agencies to do their jobs properly.
What Fabrice and indeed the other 275,000 odd others who suddenly find themselves in the same horrible and terrifying boat is the attention of those genuinely remarkable individuals who have devoted themselves to medicine and the daily, infinite struggle of furthering human life.
Organised religion has an unquestionably abysmal history with medicine. It is still virtually impossible in 2012 to put an accurate figure upon how many human beings die annually because they refuse medical attention on religious grounds. But do be depressingly assured that you would run out of seats at White Hart Lane simply by attempting to accommodate the Jehovah’s Witnesses alone.
One cannot imagine Muamba’s his relatives must feel right now. If you genuinely want to contribute to the well being of your species then pay a bit more attention to what the politicians are up to when it comes to the tired old issue of healthcare.
Fabrice Muamba is in our thoughts. Let’s ensure our brains, our votes and our loose change when we have it to give are all contributing on a continuous basis to maintain and improve the quality of medical care we can offer each other.
Looks like you’ve managed to piss off the bible bashers brigade Aich. What I want to know is that if you believe in God you are generally regarded as a good person. If you do something and say afterwards that it was God who told you to do it you are called a nutter.
Bin Laden belived in God and started the “holy war”. If the Godbods spent less time preeching and more time physically helping people this world would be a much better place for it.
Do check this out and if you act on it, thank you, you may save a life one day.
http://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-health/life-saving-skills.aspx
And if you can find out where your nearest AED (defib machines) are, all to the good – there are more and more AED search Apps for this, which cover different countries.
Good work. Thank you.
There is also an ad with Vinny Samways about staying alive it goes push on the sovereign ah ah ah ah but i can`t remember what the song`s called. Think it`s by the Kinks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILxjxfB4zNk
Care of British Heart Foundation.
(It’s the Bee Gees – a band once asked by a local radio DJ, “and how did you all meet?”)
I wouldn’t actually bother responding to someone so obviously on a wind up.
That`s strange because you`ve been responding all day, why tell others not to bother ?
I’m on the meter.
Shit, so you don’t stand on the sov!, fuck me..oh,well if at first you don’t succeed an’ all that!
I’m not sure what this blog is about as I couldn’t be bothered to read all of it. Now,I was quite shocked when I heard the news and hope the guy recovers. But to put things in to perspective -people die every day, in some cases in a terrible way and in awful circumstances. The public outpouring of grief for one person(who at this moment in time is still alive) who they don’t even know is over the top and slightly bizarre in my opinion.
thats because we live in BIZZARE world.
I had to leave Facebook after Jade Goody died. Couldn’t stand the fake outpouring of grief. She was a cnut when she was alive. Now she’s a dead cnut. It was sad for her young kids but that’s it.
Its a disorder called mass hysteria, today it manifests itself via social media. When Di snuffed it back in the 90’s it was represented by poor working class people spending the grocery money on expensive flowers and placing them at various royal parks.
HH I didnt understand what you meant by “do be depressingly assured that you would run out of seats at White Hart Lane simply by attempting to accommodate the Jehovah’s Witnesses alone”, explain please. Thanks
There are a sh*tload of Jehova’s witnesses. More than you could fit into WHL. And then there are all the other flavours of loopdiloo out there as well. A whole lot of nutbaggery going around, I think is the point.
The number of Jehovah’s Witnesses that who refuse life threatening medical attention annually exceeds the capacity of WHL. I am happy to respect anyone’s religious views, but it is simply depressing that people are prepared to die or indeed watch loved ones suffer because of them.
You mean in the UK (or World?) over 36,000 JW’s refuse life saving medical treatment every day (or year?). That’s shocking can you post the link to that please.
The figures are speculative, but based upon custom and practice.
http://www.scienceandreligiontoday.com/2010/02/17/faith-and-the-issue-of-blood-transfusion/
http://www.prlog.org/10531550-jehovahs-witnesses-bloodless-surgeries-innovators.html
http://www.religioustolerance.org/witness11.htm