Humanity. San Francisco has none.

[Osiris]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43233984/ns/us_news-life/

This is what is wrong with the world. This is what happens when you follow regulations blindly, without thinking for yourself. Without being human.

[Creem_Filling]

That's just terrible! People would rather defend their jobs, than save a man's life. It doesn't surprise me in today's world, but is still shocking.

[Osiris]

That's just terrible! People would rather defend their jobs, than save a man's life. It doesn't surprise me in today's world, but is still shocking.

This is what happens when regulations are never questioned or deviated from.

[Boomstick]

54 degree water is pretty cold water,especially without a wetsuit. That would be very dangerous for someone to get into water @ that temp. It would be even more dangerous to try and rescue a suicidal grown man in 54 degree water without a wetsuit. Im afraid if the responders would of jumped into the water in an attempt to rescue the suicidal man there would of been more fatalities. Its an unfortunate situation due to the lack of funds for water-based rescue. Hopefully San Fran can learn from this and put money into areas where they're truly needed.

[Osiris]

It took how long for the victim to drown again? I can't quite... remember...

[Boomstick]

I believe it was an hour. However, the water was still at a constant 54 degrees throughout the hour. Hypothermia probably started kicking in around the 20-30 minute mark. That gave the man at least 20 minutes to turn around and walk back to shore. This being said, For a rescue officer to swim out to the man and then "convince" the man to come back to the shore or drag the man back to the shore before hyperthermia sets in, is highly unlikely. Any type of movement dramatically increases heat loss within the body in cold water. Now you have two people needing rescuing. The key element in this story is the temp of the water. If the water was in the 70s then the rescue team could of just swam out and grabbed him. I know the knee-jerk reaction is to blame the First Responders but if you objectively look at the situation and consider all the cirmcustances, you should see they made the right call.

[Osiris]

Wow. No, I really don't see that they made the right call. They pussied out, sorry. I don't see it your way.

[Boomstick]

Its not about "pussying out". They didn't have the necessary equipment to make a successful rescue. They didn't want to stupidly risk their own lives. These men have families and some could have children. Don't mistake bravery for stupidity. There were only two things that could of saved that man. A Coast Guard helicopter with a trained water rescue crew, and himself. I agree with you that the city should have had the proper training and equipment in place but to say that the First Responders "pussyied out" is just ignorant to the circumstances.

[Chelsea C.]

When someone attempts suicide, they are no longer in a sane frame of mind. I agree with Boomstick 100%. Even if a rescuer braved the cold temperatures, there is no guarantee that the suicidal man would have been rescued willingly or even swiftly. Also, there was no way that the rescuer could know if the man was armed with a knife or something equally dangerous. As they said, drugs could have been involved, which would have made the person even more unpredictable.

There are too many variables in such a situation to act on it safely. It’s an unfortunate turn of events, but let us not forget that this man chose to commit suicide. No one else is to blame for his actions. Most importantly, no one should die in the process of saving him.

[Osiris]

Ignorance to the situation is not commandeering a speed boat, raft, rubber fucking dingy or ANYTHING that could be used to do your job and not stand on the beach watching like assholes. Sorry man, but defending apathy under the pretense of 'oh the water was too cold, we couldn't go in' is complete bullshit. It took an hour for him to die. An hour. Not 15 minutes. Not 40 minutes. An hour. Standing idle and doing nothing is pussying out.