Sad story: man dies after saving little girl

[BainsBane]

Michael Patterson, the 43-year-old Georgia man who dived into a creek to save a 4-year-old girl from drowning and became paralyzed from the chest down during the rescue, died after spending three weeks in a hospital, The Associated Press reports.

Patterson's family shared the news on Facebook.

Patterson's bravery left many, including the woman whose daughter he rescued, stunned. "He jumped in head first and after I grabbed her, I looked back and he was floating on top of the water," Carlissa Jones told WSB-TV.com after Patterson's injury, which occurred on June 8.

Jones' daughter, Javea, was able to be resuscitated. Patterson broke his neck during the dive. He also developed respiratory acidosis, pneumonia and a bacterial infection after the injury, according to Fox News. The medical problems that came after the broken neck contributed to his death, Polk County Coroner Trey Litesey told news outlets. . . .

Patterson's dive was not the first time that he had demonstrated his bravery. A week before, he and another man had pulled a truck driver from his cab after the truck caught fire.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/man-became-paralyzed-saving-drowning-girl-dies-43-210825678.html

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. very sad

[BainsBane]

8. Did you see that he saved someone else the week before?

How many people save one person's life let alone two in the course of a single week?

[Whisp]

2. I heard this earlier today and made me look up this:

“The great German philosopher Schopenhauer, in a magnificent essay on 'The Foundation of Morality,' treats of this transcendental spiritual experience. How is it, he asks, that an individual can so forget himself and his own safety that he will put himself and his life in jeopardy to save another from death or pain—as though that other’s life were his own, that other’s danger his own? Such a one is then acting, Schopenhauer answers, out of an instinctive recognition of the truth that he and that other in fact are one. He has been moved not from the lesser, secondary knowledge of himself as separate from others, but from an immediate experience of the greater, truer truth, that we are all one in the ground of our being. Schopenhauer’s name for this motivation is “compassion,” Mitleid, and he identifies it as the one and only inspiration of inherently moral action. It is founded, in his view, in a metaphysically valid insight. For a moment one is selfless, boundless, without ego."

Excerpt From: Joseph Campbell, “Myths to Live By.” Joseph Campbell Foundation, 2011-03-11. iBooks.

[BainsBane]

3. Thanks for sharing that

Michael Patterson truly was a remarkable person.

[freshwest]

13. Yes, he was and should be remembered. Thanks for the story, although it's sad.

In healthier days. A modest looking hero, just an ordinary man. There are pictures of his last days in the hospital. It was not an easy passage. Those he saved will not forget.

[BainsBane]

17. It's also uplifting to know about truly heroic people

with such good souls. My heart goes out to his family.

[NYC_SKP]

4. Thank you for posting this, Whisp.

You're pretty awesome.

[flvegan]

5. "selfless, boundless, without ego"

I have nothing to add to that.

[Whisp]

9. I think this is what we all really are

but there is so much interference and distractions and plots against us.

But the Michael Pattersons remind us every once in a while

[BainsBane]

10. I wish I could believe that

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. It's easy if you try.

[freshwest]

14. This is it. Thanks. Transcendent truth... We are one... Freedom from the ego.

[Honeycombe8]

6. So sad. I guess he was too good to stay here. I like to think that, anyway. nt

[JI7]

7. i read about this when it first happened and i'm sorry he has passed away

[pnwmom]

11. A true hero. I hope that's a little comfort to his family.

[sheshe2]

15. What a heroic selfless man

Michael Patterson was.

I cry for having lost such a great soul.

[BainsBane]

18. kick

because people could benefit from reflecting some on the more noble aspects of human beings.