

Bill Nye collapses during speech at USC - djnym
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/11/bill-nye-the-science-guy-usc.html

======
tc
_"Nobody went to his aid at the very beginning when he first collapsed -- that
just perplexed me beyond reason,"_

Why didn't she? Perhaps she was in the middle of a row. But often the reason
that no one helps is that everyone is expecting someone else to do it --
someone more official or someone better located.

If a person needs help, don't look around for who else is moving. Go help.

\--

A story, while we're on the subject: I'm eating at this sushi place with a
girl when I hear a chair hit the floor. I look up, and there's this big fellow
a few tables over who appears to be choking. He's with a date, but it's clear
she's shocked and doesn't know what to do. As I'm sliding out of the booth to
get to my feet, a guy blows past me. He must have noticed the poor fellow
choking sooner, because he came flying from the bar at the other side of the
restaurant. He just seemed to appear out of nowhere.

He gives the big fellow the Heimlich Maneuver. The guy starts coughing after
two or three hard thrusts. The rescuer makes sure the guy is OK, then
disappears out the front door and into the night.

The total time from him blowing past me to breezing out the front door was no
more than 30 seconds. It was a terribly efficient rescue.

I've always imagined he wanted out of there quickly and anonymously because of
liability concerns.

~~~
wr1472
Superfreakonmics[2] talks about this in chapter 3 about the Kitty Genovese[1]
murder when no one went to her aid, in effect everyone thinking that someone
else would go. They do expand on it further and blow apart some of the urban
myths surrounding all the events (I can't remember the specifics now
unfortunately). Definitely worth reading.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovese> [2]
[http://freakonomicsbook.com/superfreakonomics/chapter-
excerp...](http://freakonomicsbook.com/superfreakonomics/chapter-
excerpts/chapter-3/)

~~~
eli
Interestingly, while the bystander effect is a real thing -- the Kitty
Genovese story doesn't really support it. As wikipedia points out in its
understated way, the story that prompted all this research has "been
criticized as inaccurate." There were actually very few witnesses who could
have seen her murder and it's entirely possible that at least one of them did
call the police.

~~~
wr1472
From memory I think there were a number of calls, but the police didn't
prioritise them highly enough. I think in the end it was a neighbour who ID'ed
the murderer.

------
maxawaytoolong
This happened to my dad. TIA was suspected but there was no lasting damage nor
other stroke symptoms. It was ruled exhaustion. My dad regularly works 70-80
hour weeks and does at least one all-nighter a month. What I learned is that
this is not uncommon in his field (medicine.) Four of his colleagues have had
the same experience, they just don't let anyone know and really try to hide it
out of personal and professional pride.

I was still trying to be a startup hacker in my 30s, working all nighters,
living on pizza and coffee. After one all nighter I could not remember the
combination to my lock at the gym (I often showered at the gym by work instead
of going home) nor could I remember my PIN number at the ATM. My hands were
shaking it felt like my heart was going to explode . I checked into the ER and
they said I was fine but that I was experiencing acute exhaustion and
dehydration.

Since then I've tried to tone things down a bit, but unfortunately most tech
companies tend towards insane work hours, no matter how much they claim to
follow a "normal" work week. I recently left a job because it was expected to
work about 70 hours a week and I knew I'd end up falling apart like my dad (or
Bill Nye) if I kept it up.

When I lives in SF, it was not uncommon for my fellow engineers to binge drink
on weekends (or wednesdays), have super unhealthy foodie-fests like "bacon
parties" or try to outdo each other with the craziest 4-espresso-shot coffee
concoction. I've seen too many halfways-healthy looking programmers turn into
high-blood-pressure overweight blobs over the course of 18 months, and I fear
for their long term health. Nobody wants to admit it, but the culture of
stress and overwork at startups (and other fields) has real physical effects.
Maybe not today, but somewhere down the road.

------
ANH
A few weeks ago I spent a few hours volunteering next to him at the Planetary
Society's booth at the National Science & Engineering Fair. He's doing a great
service for the Society by drawing big crowds. I must say, though, that it
looked absolutely exhausting. Hours of signing autographs and small talk with
eager fans. He went well past his allotted time and he was likely starving by
the end.

------
lkrubner
People underestimate dehydration. The symptoms are extremely subtle. Combined
with any other form of physical exhaustion, dehydration can trigger extreme
responses in the body. The US military has had to deal with 20 year olds
collapsing from what is sometimes called heat stroke, but heat stroke often
has a large degree of dehydration attached to it.

If you get older and start developing the slightest bit of elevated glucose
and/or glucose resistance (which can start years prior to developing diabetes)
then even mild dehydration can lead to the body mishandling blood sugar
levels.

------
IdahoEv
Shit, I hope he's okay; he's one of the best faces this country has for the
popularization of science.

I just saw him recently at a talk on exoplanet discovery. He was there as one
of the introductory speakers in his role as Executive Director of the
Planetary Society.

------
eel
How should one help someone who unexpectedly collapses? I have no idea what I
would do. I can only envision myself going up and dumbly asking "Are you OK?"
which I am not sure is the best way to help.

~~~
reduxredacted
_How should one help someone who unexpectedly collapses?_

Exactly what you said. Walk up to the person and loudly ask "Are you OK?". If
you get a response, then you can ask further questions and provide help. If
you get no response, your next move is to use first aid skills and call
emergency services. If you are trained in CPR, proceed. Your loud voice might
also catch the attention of someone with the appropriate training, or someone
who can call emergency services while you administer CPR.

... But this wasn't someone collapsing at a mall, on the street or somewhere
else where they might not be noticed. This was someone collapsing on stage.
Standing up, rushing the stage and attempting to help could just as easily
have caused a riot of well meaning folks and could have gotten in the way of
staff who should be trained to deal with this sort of circumstance. I'm not
accosting staff for not being prepared, I'm just defending those in the
audience who didn't rush to help. As a child, I did a lot of community theater
(the sort where you pay $5 to participate and your mother may need to sew your
costume), and there was always someone with the appropriate training to handle
a circumstance like this (usually our lone director, or a member of tech).
Thankfully, we never had an incident, but this makes me wonder ... would they
have responded within 15 seconds or waited to see if I tripped and could ad-
lib my way back into character? I really don't know.

------
FelixDoof
What is this world coming to? How can a notoriously animated prankster
dramatically collapse during a presentation about gravity and go _5 whole
seconds_ before standing back up? Why wasn't every student racing toward the
stage with their defibrillator paddles already charged?

Kids these days with their twitters and their facebooks. Why back in my day,
we _never_ socialized. Not under any circumstances! As was made terribly clear
today, socializing just takes your attention away from the people around you
who could collapse at any moment!

Everybody is terrible and deficient except me!

------
shrikant
I'm not sure if this is the right time/place for it, but I've always wanted to
trot out this factoid:

Archie Comics 'parodied' Bill Nye in one of their comics as "Phil MacPherson,
The Science Person".

------
icegreentea
Everyone should read the comments on this article. There's posts from other in
attendance that gives a different take on the events. It's very easy in events
like this for people to get their details mixed up.

On the side, I hope he's well. "The earth is tilted tilted tilted" has been
burned into my head so well. I will never forget what causes the seasons.

------
siculars
During my rescue diver training there was a fair amount of time spent on crowd
control during an emergency. For instance an incident on a boat, on shore or
in the water. How do you handle spectators? Who is responsible for what? On a
boat, for example, you might specifically ask one or two people to keep eyes
on a distressed swimmer. When diving, there is a hierarchy based on experience
and when diving you know the experience level of your fellow divers. More or
less, everyone knows their roles.

In a situation like this someone needs to step up and assist. Contrast this to
Patraeus fainting, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtZSkGvARCg>, during
testimony to congress. One of his aides was assisting him within 8 seconds. I
imagine his aides are military and consequently trained responders.
Nevertheless, assisting could be as simple as getting someone a chair and/or
keeping them from smashing their head on the floor. The most important thing
is to specifically assign someone the role of calling 911.

------
tomcat81
Why are there so many posts about the bystander effect instead of asking WTF
may be wrong with Bill Nye's health?!

------
dbrannan
I've even seen this happen to people in good shape. The combination of no
sleep, low blood sugar, heat, stress from speaking, and then standing for a
period of time can all add up. Especially if you "lock" you legs while
standing, which can lower the blood pressure to the upper body (head).

Still, it is wise to visit a doctor ASAP to have your ticker checked.

I hope Bill is okay - what an awesome individual!

------
raptrex
"Nobody went to his aid at the very beginning when he first collapsed -- that
just perplexed me beyond reason," USC senior Alastair Fairbanks said.
"Instead, I saw students texting and updating their Twitter statuses. It was
just all a very bizarre evening."

I fear for the future.

~~~
astine
Indeed, the whole description was very unnerving. It appears the fellow was
having a stroke and nobody was inclined to do anything about it. Scary.

~~~
mrduncan
This is actually a well known phenomenon
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect>). It's why, in a crisis, you
should always single people out to do tasks instead of saying "someone do
this". Otherwise everyone will just assume that someone else will do it.

------
joshu
I hope he's ok.

I had lunch with him at a conference. Nice guy -- very driven and focused.

------
sabat
Nye's current status: "feeling much better". I had feared a stroke, but he's
saying that he had just been pushing himself too hard. Whew.

Dug up a story here:
[http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2...](http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2010/11/bill-
nye-feeling-much-better-today-after-collapsing-at-usc/1)

~~~
pkulak
That still sounds way too much like a stroke for me to fully believe it
wasn't. Maybe it's because I'm a fan of college football, but I don't believe
injury reports.

