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.
HH I will say the reason why I was proud of the supporters is because in this day and age the “right thing is rarely done”. Yesterday was a lesson in how to behave and react.
POPP(sound of your tongue unplugging)
Oh I get it, I’m not allowed to agree or disagree…very good. I bet you thought of that all by yourself. Clever boy!
And your whiny crybaby opinion would be?
Read above,I don’t just read my own post
Are you referring to the 2 sentences? That’s it? Without any reason or substance. Amazing insight :sleeping:
I think I hurt you.Don’t worry I’ll say a prayer and light a candle for your ego. :angel:
Think what you like, save the candle and your breath, you’ll need it for your date later. :devil: :winke:
MINIONAS AT 12.10. Beautifully put, could not have expressed it better myself.
I was at the game. It was the most horrific thing I’ve ever witnessed. He was given shocks with a defibrillator several times and I saw Fabrice’s body jolt with every one. It looked like the medical staff had got his heart going again several times but they kept losing him, much to the distress of the crowd. The surges in support you might have heard on the tv where basically the crowd pleading with the medics to please not let him die. There might have been many a prayer said in the stadium but it wasn’t a fictitious deity that kept Fabrice alive it was the very real medical experts that were fighting to save his life within seconds.
Have to say that I agree with HH.
As well as feeling shocked and horrible inside, I’m also uncomfortable about my own reaction. What does make his case so exceptional and why has it created this reaction in me?
The point about the hashtag, I think, is that it professes to do one thing and for many does something else. I came on here looking for solidarity because I felt horrible having seen it. In other words, I was looking to comfort myself, not get involved in something that comforts the poor sod at the centre of all this, or indeed his poor family. I agree with the point regarding prayer made above – it can lead to an abdication of responsibility because somehow we’ve “done our bit” by hashtagging. No, we’ve comforted ourselves, and maybe others, but we’ve not really made a difference to the people at the centre of the entire thing.
I’ll be the first to take these words back if hashtag actually leads to the sorts of social changes and advocacy of healthcare that helps avoid these situations and find better treatments. I’ll be the first to take them back if those who hashtagged remember these feelings in a week’s time and allow them to change the way they live their life; to treat the people they love better, to change jobs and do something directly of benefit to society, to give to a charity, or to even behave better at football matches. But let’s be fair, how many of us feel what we feel in the moment and then carry on as normal soon afterwards?
None of that takes away from the fact that I and HH I am sure, like us all, wish with all our heart that Muamba makes a full recovery. It does and did warm me to see such an outpouring of solidarity – to see that football can be a vehicle for that and to see that our football club can do the right thing in a time when it’s often the unfashionable thing to do did fill me with pride. None of that takes away from the fact that all our thoughts were with him and his family last night, and continue to be with him.
And indeed, none of it takes away from the horror of the situation, and for anyone who witnessed it there was and is still perhaps a need for some sort of comfort. That’s understandable, because we can all empathise and imagine ‘what if that was us or one of our loved ones?’ All I think this post is doing is asking us for a little emotional honesty.
Superb post, worthy follow up to HH’s excellent original comment.
Great response. :daumen:
:daumen: beautifully put….
I understand that Fabrice`s family and friends have taken great comfort in the Prayers and messages which have been posted and sent.
And if you re-read the blog above I respect that. It’s all the rest of this self serving cobblers I struggle to see any rational good in.
Not joining in sending a ‘prayer’ online does not equate to not caring.
To suggest such a thing is basically dishonest.
And who has suggested such a thing ? and is therefore dishonest.
Have i said you don`t care ?
Some of us do support the relevant charities and as such make a very practical difference.
I have been a trained first-aider for 35 years and thankfully have not had to use CPR except on Dummies.
Harry, when others exhort you to pray and it raises your hackles, maybe just let it go. Does it matter so much?
In tragedy, people do not weigh every word for strict philosophical validity. They emote, they say things they maybe don’t even understand. They just feel that at such times this is what a human does or says. So they do it, because it seems appropriate.
As for reason, if you don’t temper it with feeling, then reason is worth nothing. And further, as Joseph Conrad put it: “the main use of reason is to justify the obscure desires that motivate our actions”.
I don’t believe I’ve got anything to ‘let go’, I just find it hilarious that me believing all this public wailing to be nonsense will be ‘cured’ by having a prayer. I may as well try and fix the latch on my kitchen window by growing a moustache.
Just to clarify HH, are you saying that anyone who wishes to show their sympathy and support through prayer should not use this blog as a vehicle to do so as you find it offensive.
The blog in my understandings is to discuss all things Tottenham, so what`s your problem ?
I’ve no problem with people praying. But I do find it a bit strange that people have to post online that they are praying. And I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t want the blog hijacked by religious zealots of any persuasion irrespective of who they supported football wise.
If people want to express dismay at last night’s events, as I have incidentally that’s understandable and of course I have no issue with it.
It’s fruitcakes posting stuff like, ‘sinner repent’ and quoting passages from ‘the good book’ on here which is …er creepy rather than offensive.
It seems to me that you are taking these twitter hashtags over-literally or even personally. I can’t imagine that this particular #pray hashtag is really intended as a campaign to get atheists to wise up. In other circumstances it might be. But in this case I think it is just meant to indicate solidarity with others who feel similarly moved. It’s not a campaign against atheists.
The fact that they are praying and saying so online is a comfort to Fabrice`s family, how on earth do you find that strange ?
No one would want the blog hi-jacked by the Bible squad but you do seem threatened by any mention of religion, no doubt a problematical childhood, was a Priest involved ?
Perhaps you should seek professional advise and bring it to the surface, you would be a much happier man as a result. Makes sense now.
First you said, ‘HH strikes me as the guy who throughout his lifetime mocks religion and anything else he does not understand, however on his deathbed will embrace religion in the fervent hope of salvation. He won`t be the first or the last to do so. Repent sinner and see the light.’
Which I found strange.
Then you use the the widespread, systematic and institutionalized rape of children by the Church as a device to have a dig at me. Which is not so much strange, rather just a bit sad.
For the record, my take on religion is based upon adopting the strategy of ‘one of your very own’.
“Beware the man of one book.”
Thomas Aquinas
You mention Saint Thomas Aquinas, the greatest Theologian and Philosopher of the 13th centuary.
An Italian Dominican Priest who in his latter years heard Christ speak to him,to which his reply was “Only you Lord, only you.” After that St Thomas re-evaluated his written word and sometimes we must all re-evaluate our positions.
Tunnel vision has a purpose but to see the whole picture is advisable at times also.
this is true,I dont participate in sending email messages on to 10 or 15 loved onesdoesnt mean I dont agree with the sentiments or dont love loved ones.just means I’m curmudgeonly when it comes to things like that.
As an alternative to hashtagging, how about everyone go out instead and sign up for a First Aid course? Having worked in a clinical audit team dealing with cardiac arrests, I know the difference it can make if there are people around who can perform proper First Aid in a situation where every second counts.
And instead of scouring the Internet for people who aren’t earnestly hashtagging or ostentatiously praying, what about sending The British Heart Foundation a postal order for a pound.
Or in fact doing anything else that would make a practical difference.