To find what’s happened to Michael Mosley quite anxiety provoking

[Glasto73lover]

It’s that idea of never really knowing what’s going to happen- the idea that we walk such a fine line in life. If you think too much about it, you probably wouldn’t leave the house.!

A close family member died suddenly and tragically a decade ago - literally dropped dead at home age 48 - something went pop in their head. So you genuinely don’t know when your time is up.

It’s that idea of a chain of consequence that can go so horribly wrong too- people always say ‘oh but you could get hit by a bus’ - stuff like this actually makes me really anxious. So many what ifs.

For Michael Moseley - a chain of probably inconsequential decisions may have led to his death- not having a phone on him, choosing to undertake a walk that in the U.K. is nothing but in that heat, was devastating and probably caused his death.

It makes me anxious that I won’t know if I am making those decisions - am I making sense? I think as I have got older, I have become more anxious and risk averse (thanks menopause) and as a result, you could end up not leaving the house. How do you choose a sensible approach? Not too much risk but some!

But I also want to live my life too!! I guess I find incidents like this quite difficult!

I guess always having a phone, not undertaking walks in intense heat in an unfamiliar place etc are the common sense points that will come out of this tragedy.

Aibu to find it anxiety provoking tho?!

I remember reading in the news about someone who fell over on the pavement and died. Normal, perfectly healthy person, just tripped, hit their head on the pavement and died.

Things like this make me feel that when it's your time, there is no escaping!

One of the best written posts on here. Hear, hear.

Some of the replies here are cruel. We all make silly decisions and none of us know the specific factors behind his - I'm an avid walker and hiker and have made some mistakes, and would be surprised to hear of someone who waller as regularly as MM did who never had less than perfect preparation.

Realistically, the causes of most deaths include things within your control long-term (stress, lifestyle choices), things completely outside your control (random events, genetic makeup) and things you control short term as a split second decision (taking a certain route, not bringing phone/water on a hike). I'd put money on the latter being the least significant in most deaths. All you can do is your best, and focus on dealing with the anxiety because as you say, if you dwell on it you'll terrify yourself.

Yes, exactly this

My father died by tripping down the stairs. Very little wrong with him before then, but he sustained very serious injuries that the Drs said anyone of any age would be unlikely to survive from.
A friend is in a wheelchair after a very minor car crash. But she sustained some neurological damage that has affected her ability to walk.
People die all the time from accidents and misadventures. Sometimes because of one small silly mistake that they could not have foreseen, sometimes sheer chance.

He might have had a catastrophic bleed or a heart attack. Hence feeling faint and lying down. No one knows. His body was in a bad state of decay and they have only done the first look. Toxicology/histology reports may shed more light. Dying of heat stroke is a very rare event and I'm sure he was comfortable with the very low risk - if he was as as risk averse as some of you guys expect, he most certainly would not have had as as much success and helped as many people as he did. The judgment of a dead person here is outstanding.

The only thing I want is a good death, by that I mean a sudden and painless one. I welcome euthanasia being brought in, if any politician is brave enough to do it properly. But if you never risk anything it really would be more pointless to live than it is.

I feel the same way. I really appreciate his work and he seemed so lovely! The kind of man you'd love to have a coffee and a chat with. It's incredibly sad and I feel terrible for his family.

Absolutely agree. He wasn’t being irresponsible.Just a wrong decision which had the most awful consequences.

So you know why he made the decision he made ? Any reasonable person would agree that he made a wrong choice and was disoriented.

I think he did what many on MN do. Assume that because you are fit, age has little impact. But you are more likely to get heatstroke if you are older.

What the fuck? He's died. Have some respect.

Yes, you are right. It’s just terribly sad

All those talking about phones are also making wrong decisions. People get lost and need to be rescued or die every year on walks around the world because they assume they will always get a phone signal so can summon help if necessary. A phone may help you, but you should never rely on it.

I haven't really got a person like that in my life.

@crackofdoom
I would happily do it for a neighbour. It makes sense for a neighbour to do something like that. It's also an entirely reasonable arrangement to make with the manager of a pub or bnb if you're staying in one. Or even members of an online ramblers discussion type group to do it for each other.

It's very easy to think about stupid decisions in retrospect, but the reality is, none of us really thinks something like this is going to happen to us. Analising things looking back, we all feel other people's decisions are stupid, but we have been, and will be, that person several times in our life when we made an apparently inconsequential bad decision. Most of times it won't lead to anything catastrophic. One time it may do, and then everyone else will be all over our actions and how we could be so stupid.

The majority of times it is not one single stupid decision, but the "gruyere cheese theory": when all the holes in the cheese, by pure chance, align themselves, and then a mouse would fall through the cheese instead of just eating it peacefully.

I don't think it should take a stranger that occasionally appears on TV to appreciate the fragility of life.

But I understand how it might be a useful reminder.

Mocking you for having an increasingly commonplace bit of safety kit? It's a "them not you" situation. Pay no attention.

Dropping dead suddenly is often the culmination of a lifetime of poor diet and lifestyle choices.

Buses are fairly easy to spot.

Do you make a point of posting arsehole comments when those things happen to people?

It just said that he may have had heat stroke. It's just a possibility. Nothing has been confirmed apart from no injuries.

@Sugarnspicenallthingsnaice that is simply not true. Dropping dead suddenly always has a cause, and those vary. A relative of mine dropped dead after an aneurysm in her sixties. She had a weak vessel in her brain that she was born with, but had been undetected all her life. My dad dropped dead after he tripped going downstairs and sustained unusual serious injuries from what should have been a minor fall.

I also know someone who died walking home drunk. His friends would not let him drive. But I had not known that walking home drunk is also extremely dangerous. Apparently he could walk upright fine, but was very tipsy. But he would have had poor judgement of speed and distance and tried to cross the road when a car was going too fast along the road.
People die every day. Some from long illnesses. Others from sudden accidents or undetected health issues. We can not control things as much as we think we can.
All we really have is now.

So true. I have a childhood friend who has 3 kids, never been on holiday abroad in her life and I’ve said to her she should come on a girls holiday, she says she won’t until she can afford to pay for the whole family even though her kids are old enough (12-17) to stay at home with her partner.

So many things she’s never did even locally like a spa weekend or an overnight trip with just her partner or just her friends . She always makes plans for things she will do with me when the kids are adults and I just think wow you’re in good health now and taking it for granted that you always will be.

I can’t imagine what it’s like for you but I have had temporary post viral fatigue a number of times, and each time it happens it totally changes my life for a few months until it goes away .

That’s very unfortunate you haven’t recovered, hopefully one day you (and other long covid sufferers) will.

Others from sudden accidents or undetected health issues. We can not control things as much as we think we can.
All we really have is now.

Yep and this. I am reminded of my school friend and teammate. She died when we were in our final year of high school as she was walking to one of the classrooms. Her heart stopped, she collapsed on the stairs and was rushed to hospital. She never woke up again.

She had been complaining of an headache the night before but nothing major. Apparently she had been born with a heart problem no one including her or her family knew about it. This was a healthy looking physically fit girl who played sports every week for the school team. It was horrendous and changed our final year at school.

It’s partly why I can’t get depressed about getting older. I know it’s a privilege.

That is like my Dad. He was up a ladder cleaning his gutters at 87. He was a bit of a star at.his doctor's surgery - he phoned in for an appointment when he was 80. They had no record of him. They asked when.he had last visited the doctor. He told them 1939. He remembered the year because it was just after war broke out. Like your DH ,@PadstowGirl , he thought old age was a state of mind. He never ever felt old.