When one thinks of survivors of suicide loss, the first people who come to mind, of course, are family members of suicide victims. But a story yesterday in the Portland Oregonian serves as a reminder that many people -- some of whom do not know the victim personally -- can be profoundly affected by a suicide fatality.
The story tells of how a man's death from jumping off of Portland's Vista Bridge affected two volunteers, Jan Schumacher, who was on foot patrol as part of an initiative by Friends of Vista Bridge, and Susan Cech, with the Trauma Intervention Program (TIP). Schumacher encountered the 51-year-old man as he walked from his car to the railing and quickly jumped; and Cech arrived at the scene within half an hour to give emotional first aid to Schumacher.
Cech said that when she arrived on the scene, Schumacher was "'distraught, emotional, visibly upset'":"You can only imagine what she's dealing with ... My heart aches for her."KGW TV talked to Schumacher, who said, indeed, that what she witnessed "broke my heart":
"I work [as a nurse] with survivors in the burn unit, so I work with people who are doing their utmost and struggling to live. To see someone just throw it away was something I'd never seen before."Tony Farrenkopf, a psychologist who works with the foot patrol, told the Oregonian that suicide profoundly affects volunteers like Schumacher and Cech:
"People have all the traumatic reactions. Shock. Disbelief. Outrage. Anger: 'How could this person do this to us?' Grief. The existential questions of what all this means."
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