back to article 'Dettol Man' cleans himself to death

A coroner has recorded a verdict of death by misadventure on a reclusive Manchester man whose obsession with cleanliness led local children to dub him "Dettol Man". Jacques Niemand, 42, of Didsbury, died of "an inadequate supply of oxygen to his vital organs" provoked by over-exposure to Dettol, the Telegraph reports. The …

COMMENTS

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  1. Robert Ramsay

    curiously...

    ..."Niemand" is the German word meaning "Nobody".

  2. Chris Matchett

    curiously...

    Ramsey is the name of a street in Australia

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Darwin Award...

    Gotta be a strong contender for this years awards.

  4. Daniel Silver badge

    Death over time?

    "We do not know if death occurred quickly or over a period of time." - now I haven't studied biology in a long, long time, but as far as I remember death is pretty much a binary operation: black or white, on or off, dead or not dead?

    </pedant>

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Darwin Award... not!

    > Gotta be a strong contender for this years awards.

    No.

    Stupidity counts.

    Making an error while under the spell of an obsessive-compulsive disorder does not.

  6. Chris Matchett

    Pedantry

    Daniel, you forgot to open the tag that you closed.

  7. Blain Hamon

    Death isn't the handicap it used to be in the olden days!

    Death is analog. You can have parts of your body die while you're still alive. Compare cancer with being shot. Slow death, fast death, sudden death, mostly dead, barely alive, dying, etc. We've got those phrases for a reason.

  8. J

    Exactly...

    Death is a journey, not a destination. I'll stay where I am for now, thanks.

    J

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Amanita poisoning...

    Starts by killing your liver. You can feel pretty good until you start missing it and then you die. So yes, you can die over time.

  10. Charley

    curiously

    Darwin is also a place in Australia. The plot thickens.

  11. xjy

    Poor bastard

    Jack Nobody... hmmm.

    Anyway, you can be clinically dead and then come back as long as you're not too braindead to be jolted into motion again.

    Death is in no way a journey - not even a destination - it evaporates as soon as you get there. A much more evanescent point than birth. Conception is much more fun and a lot more creative... :-)

    And no one over say 25 can come into serious contention for the Darwin awards, I'd think. He could have had thousands of kids by the time he was 40.

    Sounds a bit like an urban legend related to Happy Jack and Mean Mr Mustard.

  12. Michael Corkery

    Definately not Darwin material

    This man died from a mental illness that was unavoidable given his fear of incarceration. It was not stupidity in any way, just a sad waste of a life due to a mental illness still not fully understood. Have some humanity with your socially dysfunctional cynicism once in a while.

  13. Andy

    Taking the p****

    That 18 year old guy really sounds like he's taking the p*ss when speaking about talking to old people.

  14. Joe Perry

    You've all missed the point

    I was watching TV this morning when an ad for a new Dettol hand wash came on. It had people walking around a shopping centre doing everything with their elbows due to fear of contamination. And then up pops the friendly check out lady with a bottle of Dettol hand cleaner and the customer breaks into a huge smile of relief at being able to use her hands to sign the credit card receipt. SPARE ME!! There are more and more people developing illnesses brought on by decreased immunity. It is the type of hysteria and misinformation imbedded in ads such as these that end in tragedies such as "Dettol man". I admit he's an extreme case but it's only a matter of time until we see an outbreak of some illness brought on by lack of immunity to everyday, and until now, harmless bacteria.

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