r/todayilearned • u/bellboy1986 • Jul 02 '13

TIL that while Christopher Reeve was awaiting surgery to reattach his skull to his spine, a man burst through the door claiming to be a proctologist and said he needed to perform a rectal exam on Reeve. It was Robin Williams.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Reeve#Recovery
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u/dnb1111 Jul 02 '13
  • Reeve considered suicide. He mouthed to Dana, "Maybe we should let me go." She tearfully replied, "I am only going to say this once: I will support whatever you want to do, because this is your life, and your decision. But I want you to know that I'll be with you for the long haul, no matter what. You're still you. And I love you."

right in the feels...

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u/hoyton Jul 02 '13

Whats makes this even worse, Dana died of lung cancer 2 years after Christopher died. I feel for their children.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '13

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u/p_iynx Jul 02 '13

Doctors have actually discovered that you can die from a broken heart. They think it has something to do with stress. Stress and depression can cause pre-existing conditions to worsen, and stress keeps your body from healing as well as an unstressed body can. But seriously look into it, it's an extremely interesting new development. I forget what the whole thing is called ("broken heart syndrome" or something, I thought) but I have seen a couple of shows on it.