I had an employee die today

[CountryBob]

Today has been the worst day I could imagine. I am a Human Resources Supervisor at a coal mine and one of our workers got struck in the head by a rock breaking off from the roof and died. We had to call his wife - that conversation will haunt me forever.
Anyone ever experience a similar occasion?

[Jujubees2]

Today has been the worst day I could imagine. I am a Human Resources Supervisor at a coal mine and one of our workers got struck in the head by a rock breaking off from the roof and died. We had to call his wife - that conversation will haunt me forever.
Anyone ever experience a similar occasion?

While not totally similar, I had one just as bad. My father-in-law got into an accident on his way up to NY from Virginia to see my first born (he was coming a day early to surprise us). It was a bad accident and even though he was still alive (but not conscious) when my wife and I got to the hospital, the doctors said he had bleeding on the brain and wouldn't make it. So I had to call his wife in Virginia and have her fly up to Newark but my wife didn't want her to freak out so I wasn't supposed to tell her how bad my father-in-law was. The ride from the airport to the hospital was horrible as she was so optimistic that he was going to be fine. When we got to the hospital I told her the doctors needed to speak with her so the three of us went in and the doctor recommended to stop giving him blood (since he had bleeding on the brain and there was nothing they could do) which would eventually kill him. I'll never forget the look on my father-in-law wife's face at that moment.

I have never spoken to her about it but I wonder sometime if she's pissed at me for not telling her the whole story up front.

[jonyrotn]

More then once..The worse one was when my best friend blew his brains out less then five minutes before I came to pick him up..
Not only did I have to call his family but I had to clean up the mess later that night..That part really sucked and has stayed with me..It still haunts me as a vivid memory..:sad:

My advice is, go out and get drunk.. Try and get as much alcohol in you as possible before the imagery of today sets in..With any luck you can damage your subconscious enough to forget alot about the entire event..
Hopefully by the time the funeral rolls around you won't even remember who the guy is..:unsure:

[KingGeno]

Not an employee, heck I wasn't even involved. My sister's husband is a pennsylvania state trooper. He was on patrol duty of a state park in Bucks County, and he came upon a car with its windows rolled up and nothing but black smoke from inside the car coming out. Apparently it was a teenager who lit up charcoal in a grill in the car to commit suicide. The kid was dead.

Found the kids uncle's number, and when he was called and asked about his nephew, he knew that he was dead. Apparently this kid had tried quite a few times to commit suicide. He remembers the uncle saying: "Guess he was successful this time..."

My sister's husband had to go and explain this to the kid's mother. THis was her only son, and I believe he said the father passed away. Said it was the worst and most upsetting situation he has ever been involved in.

[Team_Ramrod]

Yep, the site I was working on had 2 workers killed in the same accident in April of 07.

Not getting into details...


Hey Bob, If you need to get things off your chest or let out your thoughts just PM me. I've probably dealt with all the shit you're feeling and I never spoke to anyone about it, sometimes it kicks my ass.

[DiabloSammich]

My god, Bob, this sounds horrible. As an employer, I pray I never have to deal with this. Hope this gets easier for you.