Worker Dead at Desk for Five Days

This unbelievable story appeared in the New York Times recently.

"Bosses of a publishing firm are trying to work out why no one noticed that one of their employees had been sitting dead at his desk for five days before anyone asked if he was feeling okay.

George Turklebaum, 51, who had been employed as a proofreader at a New York firm for 30 years, had a heart attack in the open-plan office he shared with 23 other workers.

He quietly passed away on Monday, but nobody noticed until Saturday morning when an office cleaner asked why he was still working during the weekend.

His boss Elliot Wachiaski said: 'George was always the first guy in each morning and the last to leave at night, so no one found it unusual that he was in the same position all that time and didn't say anything. He was always absorbed in his work and kept much to himself.'

A post mortem examination revealed that he had been dead for five days after suffering a coronary. Ironically, George was proof reading manuscripts of medical textbooks when he died.

You may want to give your co-workers a nudge occasionally.

The moral of the story: Don’t work too hard. Nobody notices anyway."

Now that is just sad, and I am filled with questions. I try to picture this man hunched over a manuscript day after day. He has a massive heart attack and dies but somehow, doesn’t fall out of his chair. Did he not at least fall forward onto the desk of his cubicle at the time of the coronary? I googled rigor mortis to see how quickly it sets in and here is what I learned:

Once the heart stops beating, blood collects in the most dependent parts of the body (livor mortis). Livor mortis is usually pronounced eight to twelve hours after death. Also at the moment of death, the muscles relax completely—a condition called "primary flaccidity." The muscles then stiffen into a condition known as rigor mortis, which begins within two to six hours of death, starting with the eyelids, neck, and jaw. The body then begins to cool (algor mortis).

So, I’m thinking that he was, at least, hunched forward onto his desk. I’m curious about his boss. If you have a worker that is so dedicated that he comes before anyone, leaves after everyone, and never strays from his task, doesn’t he merit at least a grateful, “Hello, George” or “Good Morning, George” from his boss every day? Does his boss not touch base with the 24 workers in the open-plan office every day? How hard is that?

And finally, what does that office typically smell like, that no one would notice the unusual odor of a body decomposing?

George was a lonely man. He lived alone; he died alone. Was it by choice? We’ll never know. Are there others out there like him? You bet there are, and while it is sometimes difficult to identify the lonely, especially when they are surrounded by friends, I have a responsibility as a follower of Jesus to reach out to the George’s in my life.

“There was a man all alone; he had neither son nor brother.

There was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.

‘For whom am I toiling,’ he asked, ‘and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?’

This too is meaningless – a miserable business!

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work.

If one falls down, his friend can help him up.

But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!”

Ecclesiastes 4:8-10