Death at Disneyland

[AmericanItGirl]

All I can say is, that's pure irony right there.

 

[Lou-Ann]

Well said. May he rest in peace. I am sorry for your loss.

 

[CindyH]

I would bet my house he made sure no one could see what he did until it was done.

Did he think that Tinkerbell would sweep him away? How horrific if a child came upon his body!

My thoughts to his family, but my very first thought after hearing about this was that this was one selfish guy. It's your choice to commit suicide, and it's also the same person's choice as to how he/she does it.

I'm not saying this to be mean, but anyone who chooses to do it this way is thoughtless, inconsiderate and mean.

 

[twinspluscade]

Did he think that Tinkerbell would sweep him away? How horrific if a child came upon his body!

My thoughts to his family, but my very first thought after hearing about this was that this was one selfish guy. It's your choice to commit suicide, and it's also the same person's choice as to how he/she does it.

I'm not saying this to be mean, but anyone who chooses to do it this way is thoughtless, inconsiderate and mean.

I agree, but remember that if you're committing suicide you're not exactly in your right mind. I doubt he even realized/comprehended what impact is death might have on passer-bys.

My SIL and MIL suffer from severe depression, and when they are having one of their "episodes" they've been known to do things they wouldn't even consider doing when in a normal frame of mine. SIL had severe post-partum depression, and tried to commit suicide by OD'ing on pills one day....while she was alone in the house with her 4 month old daughter. . Not good! Fortunately, she was fine, and got help. This was about seven years ago...she now has 2 more kids, is a SAHM, and home-schools to boot. I guess my point is that when you are in such a desperate frame of mind, you just don't even "get" everything that's going on around you.

 

[seattlebusymom]

He was from Scotts Valley, a beautiful place to live.
We all need to be aware of those around us and ask the questions we have all gotten away from. A simple, "how's it going" or a more personal, "how are Johnny and Jimmy" will go miles. Take the extra MINUTE to actaully talk to someone and CARE ABOUT WHAT THEY ARE SAYING. Our society is beyond the neighborhoods of yesteryear. We need to somehow find our neighborhood relative to our time. Embrace your neighbors, help some stranger (safely of course) and kiss your kids EVERY DAY.
So knowledge is key. Know your neighbors and Doctors and Dentists and mailmen and grocery clerks and waitresses and teachers and coaches................. and we all will be better for off.
Keep the humanity in the human race.
Mark

I do agree that this sad thing happened and had to happen in what is to most of us the Happiest Place on Earth. I hope we all try to balance our anger with the knowledge that these people are mentally ill in most cases and shows how sick they were.
After Mark sharing his personal note I really had to stop and think about it. I appreciate the challange that he has given us to be open to others we run into every day. Sadly there will still be many that will still make the wrong choice but I for one will try harder.
I grew up going to camp in Scott's Valley where the dentist was from and it is a very small place of paradise. Sadly even illness survives in paradise as well as Disneyland.

 

[CindyH]

I'm not blasting anyone, and certainly hope I don't get blasted back, but keep in mind that this is "Mark's" first post here. I'm usually a little suspicious of anyone who posts for the first time - aren't those called trolls?

 

[DoomBugger]

I'm not blasting anyone, and certainly hope I don't get blasted back, but keep in mind that this is "Mark's" first post here. I'm usually a little suspicious of anyone who posts for the first time - aren't those called trolls?

It did come of a little strange. He was my dentist? Hmmm.

I think I'm going to just bail on this thread. Too bad anything like this has to happen in the first place.

 

[TinkandPooh]

I'm not blasting anyone, and certainly hope I don't get blasted back, but keep in mind that this is "Mark's" first post here. I'm usually a little suspicious of anyone who posts for the first time - aren't those called trolls?

Well I disagree. We all had a 1st post at some point or another.
What would a "troll" have to gain about sharing a piece of info regarding this type of situation???

I really thought that the words Mark used are words that need to be heard by all and that human kindness can go a long way if only more would reach out and try.
Unfourtunatley there are many people in this world who are so wrapped up in their own lives they forget to care about others but yet complain that there is no world peace. It takes us all working together. The poor dentist that did this is not in my opinion a selfish person. I choose to see him as deeply hurt and someone that could have been helped if only someone really knew what was in his heart. When people are in this frame of mind they have no selfish reasons or thoughts what so ever. It is not like they sit there and think oh I will show him or her or I will make them pay by taking my life so they hurt...that would be the definition of selfish.

Anyhow not trying to bash anyone here just speaking on the matter.

Prayers for his family, friends and loved ones go out.

 

[bumbershoot]

Knowing him personally, I can attest to the fact he NEVER would have knowingly done ANYTHING to hurt ANYONE; especially a child. I would bet my house he made sure no one could see what he did until it was done.

Did he think that Tinkerbell would sweep him away? How horrific if a child came upon his body!

My thoughts to his family, but my very first thought after hearing about this was that this was one selfish guy. It's your choice to commit suicide, and it's also the same person's choice as to how he/she does it.

I'm not saying this to be mean, but anyone who chooses to do it this way is thoughtless, inconsiderate and mean.

I thought some of the same things, but decided not to post b/c I didn't think anyone would agree with me.

And when you're jumping from a tall building with windows everywhere, there's absolutely no way to know if anyone is looking.

 

[FoodLover]

I'm not blasting anyone, and certainly hope I don't get blasted back, but keep in mind that this is "Mark's" first post here. I'm usually a little suspicious of anyone who posts for the first time - aren't those called trolls?

It's possible that "Mark's" post is true, regardless of whether it is his first post.

The man who committed suicide has been identified in the press as John Newman, Jr. of Santa Cruz. A quick Google search turns up a dentist practicing in Scotts Valley named John H. Newman. Scotts Valley is in Santa Cruz County.

An advertising blog for John Newman, DDS has a couple of recent comments by people who say they will miss him, so I think this might be the same person.

In any case, it's a very sad situation.

Mary

 

[LisainCalifornia]

There is some updated news on mouseplanet.com that does say his name was John Newman (he was a dentist in Santa Cruz in the Scotts Valley area).

http://www.mouseplanet.com/articles.php?art=dl080505xx

And here is another article with more info:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/jumped-year-old-2034270-floor-hotel?slideshow=1

He apparently said something to his roommate at the hotel (they were both in town for a Dental Convention) before quickly jumping. I don't think he had time to check if anyone was down there (children or adults). A cast member was right near the area that it happened.

He must have been in a great deal of pain. I can't fathom his thinking, but I think that is why it is called "mental illness"---he must have been very sick.

 

[DevilDuckie]

That said, I can't help but feel that commiting suicide at a Disney resort is an incredibly selfish thing to do.

Dying of cancer at Disneyland is equally selfish. Seriously. Mental illness is not something you can just control.

 

[Vanvmom]

Mental illness is not something you can just control.

I agree with you 100%! If it could be controlled, I know my life would be MUCH more stable. I've been married 19 years to a wonderful man who struggles again and again with depression and anxiety (now Drs. are thinking it may be a degree of bipolar). When meds are working well, everything is wonderful. When the meds are not enough to control it, it gets so bad that NO one could seem to understand it. For as bad/hard as it is to love and live with someone with a mental illness, it must be immeasurably more difficult to be the person suffering from it.

You would not bash a diabetic for having an insulin reaction, so please don't bash when a depressed person considers suicide. If they could change how their minds process things, believe me, they would! If as family members we could change how they think and how they view reality, we would! We would LOVE it if no one ever considered suicide as an option again, but unfortunately, that's not going to happen. You don't know how many times I've wished there was some magic medicine that depressed people could take to make them think rationally and "snap out of it" but that is a elusive as the cure for the common cold.

I feel badly for this man's family and friends, and I feel badly that he felt there was no other way to stop the pain.

 

[canadianmommyof2]

As a person who has lost a loved one to suicide I truly believe that he wasn't trying to be selfish by killing himself at Disneyland. It wasn't the best choice, but to him he probably felt that life was just too painful to live. After going through this in my own family, I wasn't upset at my uncle for what he did...I was upset with the rest of my family who was close to him for not realizing his pain, for not taking the time to make sure he was ok.

I do not believe that suicide is right but it happens, I think it is hard for people who don't suffer from mental illness to realize the pain that they endure, for those who suffer they feel that life would be easier for the one's around them if they were not around. They feel like a burden and lots of times they keep that to themselves until it just explodes. Try to imagine what it would be like if you felt you had no one to confide in?? No one to sit with and talk about your feelings?? For people with mental illness it is a struggle, they try so hard to be "normal" but it becomes overwhelming. We don't know what his life was like so we shouldn't sit here and judge, it was support that he probably needed.

It was a terrible tragedy and not an appropriate place but he probably just saw it as a balcony, a way to end the suffering...not as Disneyland. May peace be with his family.

I just wanted to add, that if I was at disneyland with my kids when it happened I would have freaked out, no one should ever have to witness someone taking their own life. It is just plain wrong.

 

[dumbodame]

My brother's wife was bi-polar. When she took her meds, she was fine. When she started to feel well, she would stop taking her meds, thinking she was cured. We repeatedly had to tell her that there was NO cure, and that she HAD to take her meds daily. She stopped taking her meds because she felt good and "normal."

My brother came home from a business trip, and when he opened the garage door, he found her hanging from the rafters. She had quit taking her meds because she felt "normal."

On the one hand, I feel very sorry for her. On every other level, I feel for my brother, and the 2 little girls she left behind. It's been 10 years, and to this day my brother will on occasion have a nightmare about finding her. He says that image will be with him forever.

Do I think she was selfish? Absolutely. I may feel badly for her, but she was given the medication that helped her...yet she refused to stay on it. She made the decision to remove herself from the world...and made sure that my brother was the first to see the results. Worse part? Two little girls lost their mother at the ages of 4 and 6.

 

[DevilDuckie]

Do I think she was selfish? Absolutely. I may feel badly for her, but she was given the medication that helped her...yet she refused to stay on it.

You act like that's a choice she had total control over and that's coming from a place of ignorance. You also act like her life was "normal" on meds and guess what? You're wrong there too. The side effects of many psych meds are not visible to others but they are brutal. You might see the 40 pound weight gain and the lethargy but you would not see the total lack of libido and the feeling of having one's brain wrapped in cotton fluff that Does Not Stop on a lot of the most common meds.

You don't know what she was going through. You cannot possibly understand it unless you've been inside her head. If it were as easy as "just keep taking your meds" then nobody would go off of them. The fact that thousands upon thousands do should tell you that there's more to it than that.

 

[canadianmommyof2]

I agree, they think that by committing suicide it will be better for their loved ones and themselves....they are in a "state of mind" that they don't see that what they are thinking about doing is wrong.

It would be easy for us to say, just stay on your meds but it isn't that easy. When chemicals are messed up in your brain you don't make correct choices. Take for instance, how many people on antibiotic stop taking them when they start to feel better but then wind up getting sick again because the illness wasn't completely gone, same thing with mental illness. They start to feel more in control but hate the side effects of the meds so they stop. Then they start to spin out of control but don't realize it. It takes someone else to make sure that they get on meds again because they don't realize they are out of control.

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

You act like that's a choice she had total control over and that's coming from a place of ignorance. You also act like her life was "normal" on meds and guess what? You're wrong there too. The side effects of many psych meds are not visible to others but they are brutal. You might see the 40 pound weight gain and the lethargy but you would not see the total lack of libido and the feeling of having one's brain wrapped in cotton fluff that Does Not Stop on a lot of the most common meds.

You don't know what she was going through. You cannot possibly understand it unless you've been inside her head. If it were as easy as "just keep taking your meds" then nobody would go off of them. The fact that thousands upon thousands do should tell you that there's more to it than that.

I totally agree. As a former social worker, and having a bipolar SIL and a BIL who suffers from severe depression, I understand that this is an illness. All medications have side effects. The psychotropic drugs can have very serious side effects. It's easy for those of us who have never had to suffer anything more than some mild depression or "blues" to judge people who have total, overwhelming pain, and sometimes delusional thoughts. I pray that my family never has to suffer the loss of one of our family members to suicide- but it does happen. These are not "bad" people. They are just so wracked with pain and can't think clearly. Their brain chemistry is altered. It's not their fault, any more than it is the fault of the person with leukemia or diabetes.

While I lament that he chose to do this at Disneyland, I don't feel any anger toward him. I choose to feel compassion for his loved ones, instead.

 

[Rora]

This news finally just reached Florida.. How tragic! I hope his family is coping with this as best as possible.

 

[Quest4Kingdom]

This is really sad... I didn't read the articles, but did this just happen recently in DL California? And how do they know for sure it was not an accident? Were there witnesses?