[url]http://www.kyw1060.com/news_story_detail.cfm?newsitemid=30093[/url]

A funeral mass has been celebrated for Robert Long, who played a key role in the rescue of nine trapped miners in western Pennsylvania last July.
He killed himself last Monday night, and his death seems to mark a sad trend.

The reason for the suicide remains unknown, but there is speculation that miners' resentment could have been a factor.

After the rescue, Disney paid Long $150,000 for the rights to his story, produced as a made-for-TV movie.

This created resentment among the rescued miners.

One of them, Tom Foy, was quoted as saying, "I don't understand why he got the same amount we did."

Long fired back: "You know what, you bastards -- I saved your life and you still don't acknowledge it!" Depression is common for people who play a role in high-profile rescue efforts.

First-responders have committed suicide after Hurricane Andrew, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the September 11th attacks.

Perhaps the most prominent example is Robert O'Donnell, who killed himself seven years after he became a hero for helping rescue "Baby Jessica" from a well shaft in 1987.



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thats ashame

Is this true?  Damn.  I'd be inviting the guys that helped save my life over for dinner on a regular basis...

Alex

That's a shame...

Perhaps it's a common mental problem among certain personality types.  This guy seems to have wanted to be acknowledged as a hero, but went into the depths of depression when it didn't flow.  

Most of us understand that a small percent of some LEO, Fire, and Paramedic types, percieve themselves a heros and would love nothing more than being elevated to that level in the eyes of their peers.  This is not restricted to government service, as after reading some posts here, many of the posters suffer from this complex too.  You see this in the posts where people seem to subconciously desire a situation where they save the day with their concealed  weapon.  (Boy will I get respect and chicks then)[rolleyes]  The far end of this spectrum is when people actually set up their own canonization by causing the problem they solve. I remember where some volunteer fireman just happened to be first on the scene of a burning bulding.  He was indeed a short time hero, but he later admitted he set it just to "save the day".

Just a thought about what may happen when one of these personalities actually performs admirably, but gets few to no kudos more than a "job well done" pat on the back.

Wow. That's a crying shame!