Ever have anyone die on the job?

Man, this is an odd one, and a tough one.   I've been here like 13 years, and one of my buddies for all the years I've been here had a heart attack right on his fork truck.  I unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) was not here, I was out sick yesterday.  Stopped breathing and was gone, but two other employees did cpr and managed to bring him back.   An ambulance came and got him, but he did not make it.   A good friend to many here, and a super loyal and awesome employee, he worked here for 35 years, and was set to retire next year.  It's obviously been a very difficult day here, very quiet, lots of tears.  

It's difficult too, but the work must go on, and redistribution of his duties has to happen immediately.   It's a very heavy experience, and though I've dealt with death as far back as I can remember like most of us, this is the first one at work.

Anyone else had this happen?

Unfortunately, I have. Much like your incident, actually. I recommend HR or Senior Management make grief counselors available. Maybe through your EAP? Even if you don't go into detail at the employee meeting, knowing that people are available can be a big help.

You have my sincere condolences.

My condolences, Matthew. Life is tough and rude, and those whom we've known and loved, leave us eventually... No, I've never had this experience, fortunately I would say, and hopefully never will.

My deepest condolences to you and your coworkers.

 

I have not experienced this as work, but have had a handful of serious accidents and even that makes for a challenging few days at work

 

I second the use of grief councilors and/or the use of the EAP (if you're lucky enough to have one)

Sorry this happened to you.

 

Do you have anything as part of your crisis management policy about deaths/suicides or serious injury (on-site or off-site).

Part of our plan includes providing on-site counseling and designating rooms to be used for counseling if applicable, provide any facts to prevent any rumors, remind employees of the resources available such as EAP. 

We're a smaller place compared to many of your guys' operations, and pretty much everyone in the building knows each other well.  So we don't have crisis teams or counselors or anything.   But we had a company wide meeting this morning and talked about it, and we've been talking among ourselves during breaks and stuff.  I don't think we really need anything other than that.   It's an oddity though to have to deal with filling his job duties while wounds are still fresh I guess.  Just a real strange thing.  Never had such a thing at a job before. 

 

And thanks for the kind words guys, appreciated.

We had an incident like this occur many years ago and it was incredibly traumatic.  Grief counselors were brought in and spoke with everyone on the staff to help them through it.  We did not have an EAP program at the time but we had the managers keep eyes on the team for signs of overwork and stress for the next few months afterwards.  It is a long, slow process.  With a smaller company I would look up something online, or reach out to a counselor to get a sheet with warning signs and healthy ways of handling stress.  Send that out to the staff and have the managers keep a closer eye on everyone to see if anyone is struggling.  Wish you all the best.  So sorry for the everyone's loss.  

The place I was at when my co-worker died was small too. We did the same job, and he was part of the group that trained me. I had called in that day, too. He had a heart attack shortly after we had all had CPR/First Aid training. One of the other team members was so distraught that I wasn't there...like together we could have saved him. Ask your HR to reach out to like the Red Cross or whomever did your CPR training. They most definitely have 'lost' a patient and could be of help.

My condolences on your loss.  I've worked with folks who've had some pretty serious accidents but nothing fatal on the job.  With a history like your friend's at that company, I'm sure it'll take time to grieve, and it'll never feel like someone else can take their place.  But with any loss, we move forward and keep the person in our hearts and memories to honor the time we spent with them.

 

If the forum will permit me to soapbox for a moment, I had the unfortunate experience of providing aid to a heart attack victim at my local grocery store back in June of this year.  I was shopping with my two young daughters, and a man went down in the produce section.  At first, it looked like just a collapse and the wife was surrounded by employees, so I almost walked away thinking it was handled.  But I heard someone say, "I don't think he's breathing."  Told my girls that daddy needed to help and they needed to stay in the cart.

 

I knelt down, checked for everything I could remember to check, and sure enough he wasn't breathing and I couldn't find a pulse.  I began CPR, and another bystander joined in.  The quick-thinking bystander told employees to go get their store's AED, having to explain to them what it was and that it was probably in a glass case near the front doors.  Minute or so later, employee brings it, and we hooked the gentleman up to the machine.  It confirmed there was no pulse and administered a shock.  Before it could recharge and deliver another, the fire department medics arrived and took over.

 

It was 8 minutes from 911 call to medic arrival, and they were able to get him back for his ambulance ride to the hospital.  Fire Captain told us we were a game changer for that man, that 8 minutes without any intervention would have meant certain death, but civilian first aid gave the medics the chance to save him.  

 

Automatic defibrillators are expensive.  So is company sponsored first aid training.  I get that.  But if it saves even one life, it's worth it.  I'd love to see every business keep a defibrillator onsite, hopefully just collecting dust and never needed.  But in the rare emergency where one is needed, it's a game changer and might make a difference.