Wal-Mart employee dies after setting himself on fire

[stevedeshazer]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-wal-mart-suicide-blotter-28-feb28,0,2211223.story

A Wal-Mart employee who told police he "couldn't take it anymore" lit himself on fire late Thursday outside the Bloomingdale store where he worked and later was pronounced dead at a hospital, authorities said Friday.

The 58-year-old Carol Stream man was in a parking lot of an adjacent sporting goods store in the west suburban strip mall when he set himself on fire with lighter fluid about 10 p.m., said Randy Sater, a watch commander with the Bloomingdale Police Department.

The man was transported to Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove before being transferred to the burn unit at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood. He was pronounced dead there at 12:42 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

:(

[WorseBeforeBetter]

1. Holy shit... what a painful way to go.

How very sad. :-(

[elocs]

2. I have driven past Loyola in Maywood many times when I have visited Chicago.

It may have been a blessing that he died because survival of those burns would have been torturously horrendous. This type of suicide is way beyond what most Americans can ever understand.

[Joe the Liberal]

3. Ouch, how sad.........

why did he do it? He couldn't take what anymore?

[originalpckelly]

4. Perhaps being a cog in the machine of wal-mart?

[Mind_your_head]

5. Huh. I wonder why they took him all the way to "Good Sam" in Downers Grove, IL

When Central Dupage Hospital in Winfield, IL is at least 5 minutes and more than 6 miles closer.

(~in tiny little letters I would like to type that~ "some people" consider Central Dupage Hospital to be a 'superior' hospital when compared to unnamed other hospitals in the area)

Walmart - Bloomingdale, IL to Advocate Good Samaratin, Downers Grove, IL

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1c=Bloomingdale&1s=IL&1a=314+W+Army+Trail+Rd&2c=Downers+Grove&2s=IL&2a=3815+Highland+Avenue+

Walmart - Blomingdale, IL to Central Dupage Hospital, Winfield, IL

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1c=Bloomingdale&1s=IL&1a=314+W+Army+Trail+Rd&1z=60108-2300&1y=US&1l=41.939078&1g=-88.105402&1v=ADDRESS&2c=Winfield&2s=IL&2a=25+N.+Winfield+Road

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Besides what I posted up above....How horrific! What drove this guy over the edge to make such a poignant 'exit statement'? We need "more information", that's for sure.

[csziggy]

6. Advocate Good Samaratin is a Level I Trauma facility

Central Dupage is Level II. That may be why they took someone with horrific burns to the Level I location.

[Mind_your_head]

7. Didn't know that. Thanks.

:hi:

[Mind_your_head]

9. btw, I'll have to check out the Level I vs. Level II thing.......

Not that I don't believe you, but VERIFICATION, and people who take the time to vericate claims is what helps keep everyone honest, beyond everyone's "natural inclination" to be honest, of course ;-)

[MedleyMisty]

8. I came pretty close to killing myself so I wouldn't have

to go to work at a fast food restaurant anymore. My husband let me quit, though.

I still have the scars on my left arm.

And yeah, I worked at Wal-Mart before too and it also drove me crazy. It was more of a deadness inside sort of thing than the rage and wild pain of the fast food place, though.

My husband says I'd better do everything I can to keep my current job, since it's probably one of the few that I can tolerate emotionally.

Go gently into that good night, fellow sufferer.