So there’s something I’ve wanted to post on ItL, but very specifically did not want to bring attention to (as it would bump the post up to the top)…

And since this blog is back up and working, I feel like posting it here because I’ve wanted to get it off my chest.

This topic on ItL.

Hello.

I am Aaron’s sister, and I don’t know where exactly to post this, and I have some difficult things I must say. Aaron, or AppleInject as you know him, got sick quite some time ago. He later began experiencing sharp abdominal aches and pains, but my family all assumed it was part of the flu – we are not terribly rich people and did not take him to a doctor. Aaron was rushed to hospital when he began vomiting blood… but because of our ignorance, we were too late.

Blood loss. Internal bleeding. Ruptured appendix. Aaron passed away in his hospital cot a gut-wrenching 19 hours after he was admitted. I pray that none of you will treat this as an ill-timed joke. Please give Aaron some respect.

I write this here today, weeks after my only brother’s funeral, because of a package that arrived in the mail for him. It contained this game called 世界樹の迷宮III 星海の来訪者, which I am well familiar with because of how much of a fan my brother was of the series. With reluctance, I pulled Aaron’s laptop out and checked his bookmarks and saw this community, by posting I guess I felt I would be doing my brother’s memory a favor and giving myself some sort of closure, I don’t really know. But this feels like the right thing to do.

My brother was a very kind and sharing person, and would never turn down a request for help. While he could be lazy and obnoxious, just like any other guy, but he had a good sense of humor and a strong work ethic when it came down to it. If he were here right now, I’m sure he would laugh and say that his only regret was to not to be able to play this new game. He always stood up for me when I was a little kid, there’s so many little and huge things he did for me that the list would be endless, so I’ll save you all the trouble. Just know that Aaron never did a wrong thing in his life, he never hated anyone, and he never set out to harm anyone.

Rest in peace, dear Aaron.

I don’t know if this is a joke. Well, a quick search on the forums and his last post is here:

I doubt anyone will really mind, but I’ll probably be out for the better part of the week. Had a cold creeping up on me, really hit hard this morning.

I can already tell this one is going to kick and scream all the way until the end. Anyone got any handy remedies that actually work? >_>

As a physician my immediate response is: Fuck. Missed appendicitis and subsequent perf, acute abdomen, fatal.

This kind of story hurts the most because it’s nobody’s fault, and yet it’s everybody’s fault. Everybody makes mistakes, misunderstanding the severity of an illness happens all the time, and yes, it would be unreasonable to expect someone outside of medicine to know the difference between a simple viral enteritis and a fatal appendiceal infection.

And often, people feel a need to minimize their degree of pain in order to avoid being an inconvenience to others.

It’s just that sometimes, this is how it ends.

Rest in peace.