Death convulsions (not for the faint of heart)

I have seen this in a human being only once and I wish I could forget this now. For the squeamish you probably shouldn't read this at all.

Often when a violent death is reached in a human or other mammal or reptile or other creature the body violently reacts in death convulsions.

On this day I was about 21 years of age and waiting for a traffic signal to change in the Greater Los Angeles area. I heard a noise up a hill on the cross street and a car had hit a series of things rolled over and I saw the driver thrown free upon the pavement and it rolled sideways at great speed. I saw the body go into what likely was either death convulsions or an epileptic seizure that likely was fatal either way. A person ran from the street to try and prevent the head of the victim from banging anymore against the pavement which I thought was very heroic at the time. When the light changed I drove away fairly horrified at having seen this and not wanting to see anymore. I felt bad for the person who ran from the sidewalk to shield the person's head from beating anymore against the pavement. However, I also considered this person to be a hero especially if the person having a seizure actually survived this accident, being thrown free of the car, having a seizure (fatal or otherwise etc).

I was completeley unprepared for this experience (just like most unexpected things that happen to us). The best I could do was to drive away feeling like I was going to throw up and faint.

At this point in my life (now in my late 60s) very likely if I had been walking by and seeing this I very likely would be the person holding that person's head in my lap to protect them from further concussions and bruising and death while they convulsed. But, at that time all I could do to prevent myself from fainting was to drive away while all the blood drained from my face as I felt I was going to throw up. This likely was the most traumatic thing I had ever seen in person and I never want to see anything like that again happen to a human being ever.

Obviously, I have seen many more horrific things in my life since then and have learned to steel myself and stay calm through almost anything so I can be of help to both myself and others ongoing.

I think they call this "Growing up". Sometimes this is also called "Soldiering on".