mike23w
Giggity
Don't have the stomach to watch these videos. Despite initial curiosity, after a few months pass I'm always glad I didn't watch.
Here's the text for those that don't want to click the link.
Here's the text for those that don't want to click the link.
video
Bad reactions to the video, including nausea, vomiting, paleness, shivering, shaking, inability to stop thinking of the video and pain in the face, have been reported, and a lot of people who watched this video are saying that they are sorry that they watched it, so please take appropriate precautions if you are sensitive or get traumatized easily.
This is one of the latest viral videos going around. It actually appeared on the Net around the third week of July, but it's only started going viral in a huge way since the second week of September. In general, the video never has a name.
It's just referred to by some description of the event like Horrible Diving Accident, Bridge Fail, Worst Diving Accident, Horrific Diving Accident, Awesome Diving Accident, Disgusting Diving Accident , Jump Accident, Cellphone Horrific Diving Accident and Diving Accident. I named it Dive Fail since I could not think of anything better.
There really isn't any "violence" in this video. It's just a video of a horrible accident.
A teenager, a 16 year old boy, dives off the seaside promenade in Beirut and slips before the dive. The slip causes him to miss the ocean and instead hit the concrete slab below where fishermen fish. He hits the concrete face first, then goes into the ocean. In a short while, the ocean for yards around has turned red with blood. There are people and boats in the water trying to help the guy, and girls are screaming all over the place.
The scene then shifts to a hospital where the poor guy is being overseen by a team of doctors and nurses. His face has been split clear in two down the middle vertically!
He is still alive and conscious, he's still breathing, and his tongue is still moving around. He appears terrified. A couple of times, the doctor takes the sides of his face and pushes them together to make a whole face again. The doctor supposedly says, "Where do I begin?" a few times in Lebanese Arabic.
People are wondering how he could survive such an injury, and clearly most of the front part of his brain is destroyed. But basic things like breathing are done by the brain stem. The brain stem appears to be intact. People are also wondering about pain. The brain has no pain receptors. On the other hand, the damage to his face must be very painful.
There are a lot of rumors saying that this video is fake, but apparently it is a real video . We know this because people in Lebanon are reporting it. Some had friends who were at the Promenade that day, others said it was reported in the Lebanese press and others say that they were aware of stories on the street about the video. There is an article in Arabic from the Lebanese press online proving that this event occurred, but it's in the archives, and looking through the archives costs money.
This event occurred in Beirut in the second week of June 2009. The teenager and his brother were showing off their diving skills by diving off the Manara Promenade, which is right across from the American University on the shore of Beirut's harbor. This part of the Promenade is called Al-Rawsha, and it's long been popular with divers, although officials have always frowned on it. In fact, like the Golden Gate Bridge, it's also long been popular with suicides and attempted suicides.
It's a long way off the Manara Promenade to the sea, over 40 feet. The first part of the video shows his brother making a successful dive. He and his brother had made several jumps before, and everything had gone fine, but this time he slips and disaster unfolds.
This part was shot with a Nokia cellphone which shoots dark in the afternoon. This segment was shot by a girl at the scene who can be heard screaming, "Oh my God! Oh my God! Someone call the Civil Defense!" in Lebanese Arabic. People are saying that the video is fake because his friends would not shoot him diving, but the girl filming is just some girl who was there filming the divers. Lots of people film them with cellphones when they dive.
This actually is not the original video from Lebanon. It's apparently two different videos spliced together. In Lebanon, there were two videos, the first one of the diving accident. This one starting going around Lebanon later in the day after the accident. The second video reportedly was shot in the hospital and started going around later. In the original Lebanese video, there is no fade out after he hits, for one thing. The original video from Lebanon is not currently available, but we may be able to get it soon.
The second part of the clip is the same kid in the hospital, but was shot with a different cellphone, so it looks different. The hospital staff is definitely speaking Lebanese Arabic, as were the people at the Promenade. This part of the clip was supposedly shot in the brightly lit ER of the American University Hospital, which is only ¼ mile away from where the accident took place. That's why things are so much brighter in this part of the clip.
People are saying that there is no way that such a clip could have been shot in an ER, however, in the Developing World, it is quite common for family, friends, etc. to be present in the ER right next to the patient's bed as the staff hovers around them. It's also not uncommon that they have a cellphone on them and record the goings-on. That would probably be pretty weird in the US, but in the Arab World, no one thinks anything of it.
As you can see, they have him intubated, which is an excellent idea. However, he is not on a ventilator, nor are there any signs of monitoring equipment such a pulse oximeter. Also they did not put him in C-Spine precautions (C-collar, backboard, strapped down). The physician is focusing on holding his face together in order to protect the airway. Critics are saying that the doctor is "playing" with the face, and no doctor would even do that, but I don't think is playing with it. I think he's trying to fix it.
Medical personnel in the US were saying the video is fake because apparently he is not receiving proper medical care. Keep in mind that this is Lebanon. He is getting reasonable medical care, but I think it is safe to say he is not receiving the best of medical care.
All the surgeons could do was to stitch up his very deep and severe wounds in his face. Although some clinicians on the Net have said that a good ENT could patch this kid up good, this poor guy could not be saved. All they were able to do was to keep him alive in the ICU for two days before he died. Other reports from Lebanon say he only lived for one hour and then died. Death was reportedly due to internal bleeding.
The city of Beirut has tried to stop such nonsense by putting up railings and barbed wire where people like to dive, but teenage boys and even young men in their 20's keep on diving off the Promenade in very risky circumstances. Before this accident, there were a number of other horrible diving accidents in this area, all involving teenage boys and young men.
There is a post on the Net describing a different video supposedly proving that this video is fake. In this one, the hospital footage is said to be of a failed 9mm suicide that got spliced onto the end of the diving footage in the first half. However, no way can a 9mm do that kind of damage to your face. Also, in that video, once again, the hospital staff are speaking Lebanese Arabic. Furthermore, in a longer video version of the ER scene, the two doctors are said to be discussing in Lebanese Arabic how the kid "landed on a rock when he jumped into the water." This dialogue would not exist in a gun suicide video.
In addition, some are saying that the victim in the failed gun suicide video had a similar injury that differed from this one in certain ways, in particular, this one has a dichotomy of the jaw at the chin and the other did not.
There are claims that instead of a 9mm failed suicide, this is a shotgun failed suicide. However, there are many photos of shotgun suicides on the Web, for instance, at Rotten.com. In general, shotgun failed suicides do not neatly clove one's face in two in the way that this injury did.
This is all very confusing, and there is no proof one way or the other at the moment. If it's really a failed gun suicide, why are they speaking Lebanese Arabic just like they are speaking during the dive accident? If the second part is fake, why are they speaking Lebanese Arabic in both sections? What's more likely is that someone took the second half of this video - in the operating room, and uploaded it as a failed gun suicide.
But until we can sort all of this out, this video will remain somewhat mysterious.
Sources in Lebanon who were there at the promenade and witnessed the dive accident claim that the word on the street in Lebanon is that the second half was shot in the hospital and is footage of aftermath of the diving accident. The fact that they are speaking Lebanese Arabic in the hospital makes the failed gun suicide theory dubious.
At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter if the video is "fake" or not, because it isn't. The dive footage is real, and the kid died from the dive two days later. The hospital footage is of a real person, apparently one who died soon afterward. Does it matter if it's the diving kid or some kid who tried to blow his brains out?
No, it doesn't matter. When we watch a scary Hollywood movie, do we all scream, "Fake!"? Of course not. What matters is if a movie is scary. And this video is downright terrifying, whether the two vignettes, one on the promenade and one in the operating room, are connected or not. They are both real footage, and it doesn't matter if it's the same person or not. It's scary like Saw or Hostel is scary. Getting down to brass tacks, that's all that matters.
There is something really creepy about this video that I can't quite put a finger on.
From the very amateurish trilingual warning at the beginning (Arabic, French and English, suggesting once again it was made in Lebanon) to the horrible screams after he hits, to the blood-red ocean spreading in a large area around the 20-30 people gathered in the water to help him, to the absolutely terrifying scene in the hospital where the poor kid, incredibly, has a face split clear in two, this video hits you hard. The labored, terrified breathing of the victim combined with the look of horror on his face is something that really stays with you.
Throughout the video, there is some weird, cheesy, hard to describe instrumental music going in the background that for some strange reason really adds to the terror. The amateurish cellphone footage that jumps around jerkily also makes the video frightening in some odd way.
I was traumatized for several days after watching this thing, and I've watched a lot of nasty stuff.
