April 2, 2013

"French reality TV doctor kills himself after contestant dies."

The show is "Koh Lanta," the French equivalent of "Survivor," and a 25-year-old died of a heart attack during a tug of war challenge. The doctor wrote in his suicide note that he was "sure that I treated Gerald in a respectable manner, as a patient and not as a contestant" and that he could not bear "having to reconstruct [his] destroyed reputation."

27 comments:

bagoh20 said...

Reputation saved.

traditionalguy said...

He sure proved his critics all wrong...or did he affirm the critics?

Original Mike said...
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Original Mike said...

This doctor seems a bit touchy. He's a freakin' doctor. People are going to die on him.

Unknown said...

Survivor?
Edging ever closer to fighting to the death.

Shanna said...

Reputation saved.

Seriously.

This doctor seems a bit touchy. He's a freakin' doctor. People are going to die on him

Doctors have a high suicide rate for precisely this kind of reason, though. Well, not the reputation part but the people dying on them part.

Original Mike said...

The article didn't provide much detail, but in general when a 25 year old presents with "stomach cramps", heart attack is not the first thing that comes to mind. I'm inclined to dismiss the criticisms.

Achilles said...

I think the government needs to make suicide illegal. Then it would stop.

Rusty said...

Off topic. Which is still way better than a buncha frogs offin' theirselves.

A new financial report by California State Auditor and the Bureau of State Audits shows that California is heading down the tubes, and fast—it now has a negative net worth of $127.2 billion. It’s actually worse than that; although the report counted the state's long-term obligations at $167.9 billion, that doesn’t count unfunded liabilities for state employees' future pensions or the $60 billion in unfunded liabilities for retiree health care.
Stockton may be ahead of the curve here.

Rebecca said...

First rule of medicine: Patients die. Second rule of medicine: Doctors can't change rule number 1.

Strelnikov said...

Having the title of "French reality TV doctor" should be justification enough for the suicide.

edutcher said...

I thought it was the Prussians that always did the honorable thing.

heyboom said...

They should change the name of the show, because it seems like there isn't much surviving going on here.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

While I may not agree with the method the doctor used to get his point across... he did have a point.

The press blending of entertainment and news are causing more opportunities for this kind of thing to happen... The thigh lines are all over the place... or is that the hemlines?

The lines dictating were the free peoples right to know ends and were the free enterprising interest of an industry begin.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

In the end... Its all about who gets to have sex... or something.

Known Unknown said...

Was he really a doctor, or did he just play one on reality TV?

Man in PA said...

I'm still shocked that a 25-year old French man had a fatal heart attack. He must not have been chewing his escargot. One of those snails got in his arteries and clogged them.

lgv said...

We don't really know what the criticisms were. I'm not sure how stomach cramps relate to a heart attack. But we don't know if other signs or symptoms were missed or ignored. Was the contestant screened for heart issues? Did the doctor examine the contestant for the cramps? If so, what did check? Could he have missed obvious signs?

Not enough information without an autopsy on the contestant. As far as suicide, I find it an extreme response to unfair criticism.

Sydney said...

He would never have made it in America. In America, if a young person dies, you can expect the courts and everyone else to blame the doctor.

Mark said...

This doctor seems a bit touchy. He's a freakin' doctor. People are going to die on him.

At this point, only if they kick it while standing on his grave.

tim maguire said...

I had to read the title several times to understand he was a real doctor. If doctors killed themselves every time a patient died, all we'd have left are dermatologists and the occasional pediatrist.

Calypso Facto said...

Another Frenchman surrenders in the face of adversity. Quelle surprise.

William said...

It wasn't so much the death of his patient as the fact that he had sex with the corpse. The French claim to be ever so enlightened, but when it comes to gay necrophelia, they're practically medieval. And the show should have never aired such footage-- at least not in prime time.

Methadras said...

Vanity in the face of death and failing.

Known Unknown said...

ll we'd have left are dermatologists

I call you Pimple Popper, M.D.!

Known Unknown said...
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stlcdr said...

In the internet news today, someone does a stupid thing because someone else did a stupid thing.

(I'm not a big fan of 'survivor' type shows, or any 'reality' show in general, but whatever floats yer boat).

There's an irony here, of course. 'Survivor'. Perhaps we have come to far in the nannying of reality TV that those who don't survive still survive?