Black Friday Shopper collapses at Target; receives no help

Well, this makes me hate the world I live in even more. I really wonder what's wrong with this planet and the people that inhabit it...

A Black Friday shopper who collapsed while shopping at a Target store in West Virginia went almost unnoticed as customers continued to hunt for bargain deals.

Walter Vance, the 61-year-old pharmacist, who reportedly suffered from a prior heart condition, later died in hospital, reports MSNBC.

Witnesses say some shoppers ignored and even walked over the man's body as they continued to shop, reports The Daily News.

Friends and co-workers saddened to learn of his death, expressed outrage over the way he was treated by shoppers.

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Read more about it here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...l?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl1|sec1_lnk3|115827

You mean "disgusting", Will. :x And you didn't have to add the "living in America" part, you know. People like that exist in every country in the world, not just exclusively in America. In fact, I'd go so far as to say certain countries have a higher concentration of people like that than America does.


Anyway, the title misrepresents what happened. According to his wife, 6 off-duty nurses who were shopping had stopped to give him CPR. Damn sensationalist headline. Somebody had clearly responded and people who knew they would be useless in trying to resuscitate him stayed out of the way of the nurses.

It's nice to know that someone (several someones) did stop to give this man help even if he didn't make it. I'm not going to totally despair over this.

But it is an awful day of the year which is why I like to stay home. I wish stores didn't all have to have ridiculous sales and it didn't have to cause people to be stupid, but that's what you get with a mob mentality.

It's like the story about the girl who was stabbed in her apartment complex. All these people heard her screaming for about 20 minutes, as she bled to death, and not one tenant or a couple dozen could at least call the cops. The body was found the next morning, and then a tenant finally called the police. Several of the tenants stated that they heard repeated screams, and did not want to get involved or assume responsibility.

I guess it all depends on the situation, I mean, I guess some people many not want to deal with what they may think are private domestic disputes, but seriously, there is no risk of helping a man who collapsed on the floor of target, unless you really think the risk of losing out on a few minutes of shopping is worth someone's life. Ugh...I agree with everyone above-disgusting.

-ty- said:

I guess it all depends on the situation, I mean, I guess some people many not want to deal with what they may think are private domestic disputes, but seriously, there is no risk of helping a man who collapsed on the floor of target, unless you really think the risk of losing out on a few minutes of shopping is worth someone's life. Ugh...I agree with everyone above-disgusting.

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Did you not read the article? 6 off-duty nurses stopped to give him CPR according to his wife.

Live_Wire466 said:

Just adds to the stereotype that the Holiday season bring out the idiots.

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And adds fodder to stereotypes that the media often misrepresents and exaggerates things.

"Witnesses say some shoppers ignored and even walked over the man's body as they continued to shop"

Just curious, but what the hell were these "witnesses" doing? Like Don said he received assistant. So these seems like a none story about him not getting the help. And for this being surprising it happens every year, so I can expect something to happen like this next year.

Also I don't get why people just don't shop on Cyber Monday instead, you avoid the crowds, traffic, safe gas money. Black Friday is just a horrid day all around.

littlebrother said:

That may be true, but apparently people still ignored him and even stepped on him before the nurses noticed this was happening. Should it really take 6 nurses to help an old guy that's fallen to the ground?

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If they're the only ones who know CPR, yes. You're practically useless in helping someone's who's fallen unconscious and isn't breathing if you don't know CPR. You can dial 911, but you can't help try to resuscitate him. You'd be surprised how many people don't know how to properly help a collapsed person.

I love how people condescendingly ask if I had read the article..anyway. The whole point I brought up is, yes, people should help, even if they are unaware how to deal with the medical issue. They can call 911, they can ask others for help, and ultimately, if those people who initially stepped over the man sought out medical attention from let's say off-duty nurses this may have been a completely different article, because he would have been given more time to be resuscitated. It's like saying that people who can't swim should ignore a drowning child. It's called, find someone else who can swim.

All this article does is show further proof, as if it's needed at the time, that people put their greed above everything else that happens around them. Their mindset goes like this: Hurray for me, & F everyone else.

It's irritating, really.

Everyone would rather be the first in line to get a discounted TV or an XBOX 360 rather then help an elderly man. For shame America!!!!!

Not disgusting.

Whats disgusting is the fact that this newpaper is intentionally misleading people with the title just so they can get more attention.

Happened at Target, not Crap-Mart.

Not really. While the stores cut prices, the people choose to act that way over them.

I hate retail but still... I'd love to work a retail job on Black Friday. It would be fun as hell imo. Unless you are a retail clerk in a casket store. That job is dead boring no matter what day it is.