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red11

red11

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As paramedics attempted to revive her son Bryson after he was found floating face down in a swimming pool, Shellie Ross sent out a message on Twitter , asking her followers: "Please pray like never before, my 2 yr old fell in the pool."

Five hours later, when her son was pronounced dead, she again took to the Twitter site to update her 5,000 followers.

"Remembering my million dollar baby," she wrote.

Moments later, she posted a photo of her son on the site.

Her use of Twitter as her son lay dying provoked outrage among the blogging community in the US.

Police in Florida said they were aware of the "tweets" and would be looking into them as part of their investigation into the drowning.

Mrs Ross's public announcement of her son's death prompted anger from fellow bloggers and Twitter users.

Many were shocked that she chose to use the social networking site to reveal something so deeply personal.

"The first thing I thought when I saw the tweet was that it was very sad," said Madison McGraw.

"But then I thought, 'Who would tweet that her son just drowned?' I couldn't believe it."

Mrs Ross, who used the tweet name of "Military-Mom", had sent out a message at 5.22pm on Monday which read:"Fog is rolling in thick scared the birds back in the coop." She and her 11-year-old son had been cleaning out a chicken coup while Bryson played in the garden.

A minute later police in Mirrett Island, Florida, said they received an emergency call from Mrs Ross's 11-year-old son saying that his brother was floating unconscious in their pool.

Records show that the Brevard County Fire-Rescue paramedics arrived at Mrs Ross's home at 5:38 pm

And 34 minutes later, at 6:12 pm, she asked for people's prayers.

Police spokesman Lt Bruce Barnett said Mrs Ross had asked her older son to turn off a hose inside the pool enclosure but the gate behind him did not close properly.

"When Ross finished cleaning she went inside and was looking for the 2-year-old, who she thought was with her 11-year-old, and wasn't able to find him and started to panic," he said. "That's when she found him floating."

Lt Barnett said Mrs Ross said her son was in the water for "maybe five minutes" and performed CPR on her son before paramedics arrived.

Mrs Ross defended her use of Twitter to announce her son's death.

"Nobody has a right to question" why she tweeted, she said.

"I didn't tweet-by-tweet the accident."

The messages and photos later appeared to have been removed from the website.

Mrs Ross, who is in her 30s, was a regular blogger on the site Momdot.com where she worked as an administrator.

Trisha Haas, who founded the site, said Mrs Ross wanted her online friends to know what was going on. She said there was nothing wrong in her tweeting about her son.

"She Twitters a lot and was very good close friends with people in the blogging community," said Mrs Haas.

Mrs Ross and her husband Steven, who is in the US Air Force, have said they want to be left alone to mourn their son.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolo...ther-updated-Twitter-while-son-was-dying.html

If your child was dying right in front of your eyes would your first thought be to go and twitter it?

RIP poor kid. :(
 
She has friends she updates via twitter, so she used it to get their support when something awful happened. I fail to see the issue either, if she phoned them all instead would this have been in the news?
 
Makes you wonder if she did it on purpose to get fame, like ballon boy saga etc. the world is a screwed up place, no way would i be shouting from the roof tops like that if someone close to me died what about relatives, finding out that way you would be mortified.

Mrs Ross and her husband Steven, who is in the US Air Force, have said they want to be left alone to mourn their son.
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Irony
 
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maxilive said:
Erm wrong thread Fenris? :p
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Completely.

I blame my works power cutting during writing my post.


To comment however, this is my issue with things like twitter and facebook, people treat them like some way of braodcasting their every thourght, news is no longer news.
 
cheets64 said:
Makes you wonder if she did it on purpose to get fame, like ballon boy saga etc. the world is a screwed up place, no way would i be shouting from the roof tops like that if someone close to me died what about relatives, finding out that way you would be mortified.
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Well that is the way she chose to deal with the situation, everyone deals with grief differently. :rolleyes:
 
Linoge said:
If your child was dying right in front of your eyes would your first thought be to go and twitter it?

RIP poor kid. :(
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No it wouldn't be.

However, this doesnt appear to be what she has done. This wasnt her first action. She tried CPR etc, and tweeted when paramedics were tending to him 35 minutes later in order to update friends/family :confused: I guess twitter was the quickest way she could think of!
 
Many were shocked that she chose to use the social networking site to reveal something so deeply personal.
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Er, what?

It's hardly something you keep to yourself is it?

I bet if a celeb's kid drowned the very same paper would be notifying the world within minutes.

Twitter is a community just like a forum, in fact they even called it a social networking site. On these communities people often have close friends. If she'd rang her best friend to tell them her son had a terrible accident would people care?

She was already logged into Twitter and posting when she found out about the accident, so it would have taken mere seconds to write that post.

I'd also like it confirmed that she left her son as he was being resuscitated.

What actually disgusts me is the person who decided to stir the **** by alerting the media.
 
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HumanShield said:
No it wouldn't be.

However, this doesnt appear to be what she has done. This wasnt her first action. She tried CPR etc, and tweeted when paramedics were tending to him 35 minutes later in order to update friends/family :confused: I guess twitter was the quickest way she could think of!
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I didn't phrase myself correctly, the point I was trying to raise was would you turn to twitter while paramedics were trying to resuscitate your son. Not the initial reaction, in which her 11yr old son rang 911 while she tried CPR on him for 9 minutes.

skippi90 said:
Non-story is non-interesting.
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Well don't post in this thread then, I just wanted to see how people felt about it as it seems to be causing quite a fuss in America.

Ziggy said:
Er, what?

It's hardly something you keep to yourself is it?

I bet if a celeb's kid drowned the very same paper would be notifying the world within minutes.

Twitter is a community just like a forum, in fact they even called it a social networking site. On these communities people often have close friends. If she'd rang her best friend to tell them her son had a terrible accident would people care?

She was already logged into Twitter and posting when she found out about the accident, so it would have taken mere seconds to write that post.

I'd also like it confirmed that she left her son as he was being resuscitated.

What actually disgusts me is the person who decided to stir the **** by alerting the media.
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Personally I feel indifferent to it, twitter is obviously a medium she felt she could turn to for support. It's not something I would have done.

The media are really hounding her at the minute and she's posted this on her personal blog:

Media outlets: Please leave us alone, stop trespassing onto our property. Yes this includes the private drive you have to turn down to get of our home. Stop calling me my family and friends for comments. WE ARENT GIVING ANY, PERIOD, END OF STORY FOR YOU. Stop posting my information, photos of my home and address.

Those who do not know me, us our family: Find a hobby, get a job, get a clue please. You do not know me us or him. You do not have the right to speak or type his name. He was better than you in every way. Stop slandering my name, stop disrespecting my son and husband with your pitiful pathetic mouths.

There have been NO interviews granted by myself, my husband or my family. There will be no interviews granted, period end of story. So for those who have “covered” this tragedy without learning the facts, and who have miss spoken and have not gotten it right, gee thanks. If it were not for you I could mourn in peace. Let’s try this why don’t we, leave me alone, find your next victim and let my sons memory be one of good and peace and strength.

LEAVE US ALONE
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http://blog4mom.com/
 
Hang on, it's not like she saw her son face down and decided to twitter about it before calling the ambulance is it?

This whole thing is being blown out of proportion.
 
I would be utterly distraught and wouldn't be able to do anything, let along type messages on twitter and post pictures. Maybe days after it had happened to let people know.
 
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