Our Friend Exo/CHURCHMOUTH (Dan Branchen)

hadez · 02-20-2013, 11:09 PM

I just wanted to let everyone know that i got a message from dan's ex-fiance that i knew pretty well. I asked her what dans status is, what happened to him, ect ect. this is her reply, i'm posting it on here because she said she knows how much dan considers all of his fortress buddies part of his real group of friends.

" Hi Hades. Of course I remember you. I tried to get on IRC and find some of Dans friends from gaming to tell them but didn't know what channel to go on. Thanks soo much for your concern. Dan spent so much time playing with you and some of the others and even though it was only online I know he had some people he considers really good friends. I got your message while I was in visiting with Dan..I told him you sent good wishes. Its a long story so I'll start from the beginning. I don't know if you knew, but Dan struggled with a heroin additiction for years now. I tried so hard for so long to help him but it was ultimately why we split up. Anyways..he went to rehab for a couple months..he came back in the first week of December and on the morning of December 17th his mom found him struggling to get up in his room. He was conscious but had clearly been down for several hours as he was confused and could not get up..whether he overdosed overnight and made it back on his own we don't know...the paramedics came and when they lifted him off the ground he went into cardiac arrest..it was not directly from the drugs..but he had been down so long he had a blood clot form in his leg and when they moved him the clot went to his heart. He arrested 3 or 4 times before he was stable but lost oxygen to the brain each time. Once at hospital they determined that he mustve been passed out unconscious overnight for several hours for the clot to form...and since he had no circulation to leg they had to amputate his leg because it was essentially dead. Not only that but the toxins from the dead leg had got into all of his organs and were basically putting him into complete organ failure. Kidneys, heart, liver, lungs...all were failing...he was on 100% life support and the docs didn't think he'd survive through the night or even the entire first week. He was heavily sedated the first few days so that while they were working on getting all his organs better, he wasnt awake.. so at that point... he had not been conscious since when his mom found him, so his brain function was unknown...they wanted to keep him knocked out. They got him to a point that he was somewhat stable, but still critical... and stopped the sedation... so we waited for him to wake up, and waited, and waited. They did MRI, EEG, EP brain testing... the tests showed brain activity, AND brain damage, and the docs pretty much said... they just dont know if/when he will wake up. There is nothing they can do to make him wake up, or determine if he will. ALL of his organs are pretty much 100% better, he is not on ANY life support (except tube feeding) He moved out of ICU. His eyes are open, he moves around, but he is just not really aware. For a while, it seemed like he was just in lala land...he would move his arms and legs randomly, his eyes would wonder and drift and roll. The past couple weeks he has started what they call "tracking" he will focus on things/people with his eyes and follow their movement. He also just seems more relaxed, not as tense... he seems like he might be starting to wake up a tiny tiny bit, its hard to say for sure. He can not talk, respond, follow commands. There have been a couple times that his family said he was definitely following commands (like blinking or moving an arm on command) I dont know. There have been times that I was sure that he knew I was there and talking to him... other times I havent been sure. The docs say, he may or may not be able to hear us, see us, etc. Right now, the best case scenario... is that Dan slowly wakes up, and has to learn how to talk again, and walk again, and remember things.. we dont know if he will remember anything.. who he is, what he did.. etc. At the minimum it would probably be a year before he is back to somewhat normal.. and that is if he starts to wake up more. I hope he does. Worst case is that he remains like he is without improving.. just living, but not existing, no awareness. vegetative state. Never really waking up. I cant believe it, I still cant believe this happened. Dan is such a good person... he did not ever deserve this to happen. I love him so much This is the most terrible nightmare.

I am staying hopeful, and can definitely say that the past couple weeks it seems like he is somewhat more aware than he was up until this point. He will look right at people, and seems to know we're there. But its just a waiting game, wait and hope he wakes up. Please keep him in your thoughts."

If you would like to donate to dan's family and freinds they are having a funderraiser here:

http://highmark.towercare.com/Marksl...25704845890636

keep praying for exo that he will eventually be able to talk to us about this one day!!

**squeek.** · 02-20-2013, 11:47 PM

Wow. Thank you for posting this. How incredibly unfortunate.

Exo was always one of my favorite people to play FF with and he was an integral part of the community for a really long time (he was one of the handful of people there on day 1 of #ff.pickup). I'll always remember the hours and hours of 2v2s I played with/against him in those early days.

Here's to hoping he recovers.

YouTube

vimeo.com/6215094

R00Kie · 02-20-2013, 11:51 PM

Thank you for the post Hadez. I've been wondering what was happening with him. It was very upsetting reading this, but I hope he can make a good recovery.

Peppas · 02-21-2013, 12:18 AM

Hope he pulls through!

XPelargos · 02-22-2013, 01:52 AM

Fuck.

Friend just died from H overdose on Valentine's Day.

This is a scary fucking drug guys, I've shot up, there is no such thing as a casual heroin user.

You never full comeback. I'm so sorry.

Lynus · 02-22-2013, 10:37 AM

exo will pull through, i know this. he has a very strong will. don't lose faith! say a prayer for our friend dan please everybody

the_cake · 02-22-2013, 12:44 PM

I think that last airshot in the 2nd vid was on me. I can remember him pming me all excited and saying it was the best airshot he'd ever made lol.

I really hope this isn't too personal but he posted something publicly in IRC about 6 months ago that's kinda stuck with me. I wasn't sure how serious he was at the time but in retrospect he was obviously very serious. I've known exo since before he was exo, he went by TauNt in mulch servers circa 2004. As he got better our egos clashed quite a bit but he was a good player and opponent. He's the closest to anyone I've known personally that's gone down this path. Even in real life I think of this every time anyone mentions heroin addiction, in particular the last two lines pretty much sum up why to never even try heroine.

(10:35:37 PM) HEAVYHEAVYLOWLO: i dunno
(10:35:49 PM) HEAVYHEAVYLOWLO: no my shit didnt get bad untill 2011
(10:36:02 PM) HEAVYHEAVYLOWLO: 160$ a day just to stay off sick
(10:36:03 PM) CrunK: im addicted to weed
(10:36:07 PM) HEAVYHEAVYLOWLO: depressed
(10:36:22 PM) HEAVYHEAVYLOWLO: if ur addicted to weed
(10:36:24 PM) HEAVYHEAVYLOWLO: dont try heroin'
(10:36:29 PM) HEAVYHEAVYLOWLO: thats what i did
(10:36:31 PM) CrunK: lol
(10:36:34 PM) CrunK: u seen half baked right
(10:36:34 PM) HEAVYHEAVYLOWLO: never smoked weed again
(10:36:47 PM) HEAVYHEAVYLOWLO: yeah
(10:37:02 PM) HEAVYHEAVYLOWLO: still want to stick needles in my arms
(10:37:59 PM) CrunK: never did heroin
(10:38:02 PM) CrunK: tons of ecstacy though
(10:38:05 PM) CrunK: and cocain
(10:38:18 PM) HEAVYHEAVYLOWLO: i liked coke a few years ago
(10:38:27 PM) HEAVYHEAVYLOWLO: but for as long as i can remember its been dope
(10:38:35 PM) HEAVYHEAVYLOWLO: everyfuckkkking day
(10:38:47 PM) HEAVYHEAVYLOWLO: til my parents fuckin intervened
(10:39:00 PM) HEAVYHEAVYLOWLO: now i live in their basement
(10:39:13 PM) CrunK: my buddy is in prison
(10:39:14 PM) HEAVYHEAVYLOWLO: i used to live in my own house with my girlfriend
(10:39:19 PM) HEAVYHEAVYLOWLO: its embarrassing
(10:39:20 PM) CrunK: he did heroin
(10:39:26 PM) CrunK: and kepts stealing
(10:39:29 PM) HEAVYHEAVYLOWLO: thats my next stop
(10:39:58 PM) HEAVYHEAVYLOWLO: once ur hooked on that shit theres nothing else in the world that can make you happy
(10:40:03 PM) HEAVYHEAVYLOWLO: NOTHING

I hope this doesn't sound too posthumous as I realize he's still alive and wish him the best recovery possible.

Features- · 02-22-2013, 04:58 PM

Sad day

. I really hope he pulls through I always enjoy playing with Dan competitively while we fucked around on Ventrillo and making fun of me for playing WoW. I wasn't around when he got really heavily into drugs (stopped playing around late 2009 - early 2012) because he would talk about doing weed and first time he tried cocaine, but not heroine. Sucks he went down that path, but I know he was a pretty good electrician (think he was an apprentice electrician when we clanned) so I'm sure he had the money for it.

Peppas · 02-23-2013, 06:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by exosexattack

pF · 02-24-2013, 11:04 AM

Oh wow, depressing read. My thoughts are with exo and his family.

KubeDawg · 02-24-2013, 02:11 PM

Sorry to hear about exo. That sucks. I hope he has a good recovery.

XPelargos · 02-26-2013, 03:55 PM

Heroin is an amazing medicine. If you're going through surgery recovery then opiates are a godsend.

They turn down the volume of the pain.

They are the warmest blanket on the coldest day.

Ecstasy and Cocaine aren't even in the same ballpark. You thought you felt good on those? They don't even compare to the waves of bliss heroin gives you. An orgasm looks like a sneeze compared to heroin.

The problem is that once you use heroin when you're sober (i.e. NOT as medicine) then all it does is MAKE THE NORMAL WORLD FEEL COLD.

And then you need that blanket again and again and again.

Stay away from heroin, guys. It's literally TOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOD %h %a

WiFiDi · 02-27-2013, 01:49 PM

exo will be in my thoughts and prayers.

Features- · 02-27-2013, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XPelargos

Heroin is an amazing medicine. If you're going through surgery recovery then opiates are a godsend.

They turn down the volume of the pain.

They are the warmest blanket on the coldest day.

Ecstasy and Cocaine aren't even in the same ballpark. You thought you felt good on those? They don't even compare to the waves of bliss heroin gives you. An orgasm looks like a sneeze compared to heroin.

The problem is that once you use heroin when you're sober (i.e. NOT as medicine) then all it does is MAKE THE NORMAL WORLD FEEL COLD.

And then you need that blanket again and again and again.

Stay away from heroin, guys. It's literally TOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOD %h %a

I get you're just describing the feel of the drug, but to a immature kid this would sound like a great drug to use. In all honesty just stay away from any drugs unless absolutely needed even for colds.

vatterin · 03-12-2013, 04:38 PM

I'm not sure where to begin. As some of you may know I am David-. I played with exo in the 'hay days' of FF. At times he was an a-hole. But most of the time he was a great player and a funny guy. He contributed a lot to the FF community via being active/admin/making maps. I remember playing his first map and it becoming a regular rotated map in pickups.

I'm so so sorry to hear this about Dan. While I'll never really enjoy FF like I used to. I don't think I'll forget the colorful personalities with Dan included. I wish Dan well and hope he recovers. I'll be praying for him and his family. Bye all.

GeoKill-----> · 03-28-2014, 11:25 PM

It's been a full year, and Dan's birthday was the other day.

Any update on Exo?

I hope he made a recovery.

onE · 03-29-2014, 01:17 AM

I dont know the last thing you heard, and I know there are others on here that know more than me

He has been awake for quite some time, I think he stays at home. He lost pretty much all motor function, but is capable of relearning most things with time.

They keep his facebook updated, so try lookin him up on there.

FDA_Approved · 03-29-2014, 03:23 AM

He was browsing the forums the other day and idling in irc. I guess a few people have talked to him through pms over the last week or so.

KubeDawg · 03-29-2014, 07:06 AM

Rumors are rampant in this game and I had heard a while back that he passed away. Good to hear he's alive and in recovery. I had a friend pass away last year from a heroin addiction. That shit is no joke.

GeoKill-----> · 03-30-2014, 09:47 PM

Good call about looking him up on Facebook, thanks guys!

02-20-2013, 11:09 PM	#1
hadez Beta Tester Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Boston, Massachusetts Gametype: Capture the Flag Posts Rated Helpful 20 Times	Our Friend Exo/CHURCHMOUTH (Dan Branchen) I just wanted to let everyone know that i got a message from dan's ex-fiance that i knew pretty well. I asked her what dans status is, what happened to him, ect ect. this is her reply, i'm posting it on here because she said she knows how much dan considers all of his fortress buddies part of his real group of friends. " Hi Hades. Of course I remember you. I tried to get on IRC and find some of Dans friends from gaming to tell them but didn't know what channel to go on. Thanks soo much for your concern. Dan spent so much time playing with you and some of the others and even though it was only online I know he had some people he considers really good friends. I got your message while I was in visiting with Dan..I told him you sent good wishes. Its a long story so I'll start from the beginning. I don't know if you knew, but Dan struggled with a heroin additiction for years now. I tried so hard for so long to help him but it was ultimately why we split up. Anyways..he went to rehab for a couple months..he came back in the first week of December and on the morning of December 17th his mom found him struggling to get up in his room. He was conscious but had clearly been down for several hours as he was confused and could not get up..whether he overdosed overnight and made it back on his own we don't know...the paramedics came and when they lifted him off the ground he went into cardiac arrest..it was not directly from the drugs..but he had been down so long he had a blood clot form in his leg and when they moved him the clot went to his heart. He arrested 3 or 4 times before he was stable but lost oxygen to the brain each time. Once at hospital they determined that he mustve been passed out unconscious overnight for several hours for the clot to form...and since he had no circulation to leg they had to amputate his leg because it was essentially dead. Not only that but the toxins from the dead leg had got into all of his organs and were basically putting him into complete organ failure. Kidneys, heart, liver, lungs...all were failing...he was on 100% life support and the docs didn't think he'd survive through the night or even the entire first week. He was heavily sedated the first few days so that while they were working on getting all his organs better, he wasnt awake.. so at that point... he had not been conscious since when his mom found him, so his brain function was unknown...they wanted to keep him knocked out. They got him to a point that he was somewhat stable, but still critical... and stopped the sedation... so we waited for him to wake up, and waited, and waited. They did MRI, EEG, EP brain testing... the tests showed brain activity, AND brain damage, and the docs pretty much said... they just dont know if/when he will wake up. There is nothing they can do to make him wake up, or determine if he will. ALL of his organs are pretty much 100% better, he is not on ANY life support (except tube feeding) He moved out of ICU. His eyes are open, he moves around, but he is just not really aware. For a while, it seemed like he was just in lala land...he would move his arms and legs randomly, his eyes would wonder and drift and roll. The past couple weeks he has started what they call "tracking" he will focus on things/people with his eyes and follow their movement. He also just seems more relaxed, not as tense... he seems like he might be starting to wake up a tiny tiny bit, its hard to say for sure. He can not talk, respond, follow commands. There have been a couple times that his family said he was definitely following commands (like blinking or moving an arm on command) I dont know. There have been times that I was sure that he knew I was there and talking to him... other times I havent been sure. The docs say, he may or may not be able to hear us, see us, etc. Right now, the best case scenario... is that Dan slowly wakes up, and has to learn how to talk again, and walk again, and remember things.. we dont know if he will remember anything.. who he is, what he did.. etc. At the minimum it would probably be a year before he is back to somewhat normal.. and that is if he starts to wake up more. I hope he does. Worst case is that he remains like he is without improving.. just living, but not existing, no awareness. vegetative state. Never really waking up. I cant believe it, I still cant believe this happened. Dan is such a good person... he did not ever deserve this to happen. I love him so much This is the most terrible nightmare. I am staying hopeful, and can definitely say that the past couple weeks it seems like he is somewhat more aware than he was up until this point. He will look right at people, and seems to know we're there. But its just a waiting game, wait and hope he wakes up. Please keep him in your thoughts." If you would like to donate to dan's family and freinds they are having a funderraiser here: http://highmark.towercare.com/Marksl...25704845890636 keep praying for exo that he will eventually be able to talk to us about this one day!! Last edited by hadez; 02-20-2013 at 11:26 PM.

02-20-2013, 11:51 PM	#3
R00Kie Kawaii!　ルーキー Lua Team Wiki Team Fortress Forever Staff Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Nowhere, Kansas Class/Position: Random Gametype: CTF Affiliations: BiG, Kawaii!, MustacheBrigade, GoodFellas Posts Rated Helpful 82 Times	Thank you for the post Hadez. I've been wondering what was happening with him. It was very upsetting reading this, but I hope he can make a good recovery. __________________ Released: [ Island ] [ Rookie ] [ Limbo ] [ Sonic ] [ Tomb ] [ Skydive2 ] [ Bunkerwars ] Beta: [ Argon ] [ Reflection ] [ Urbantag ] Lua: [ game_rules ]

02-22-2013, 10:37 AM	#6
Lynus I like Ceyx Beta Tester Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: MI Posts Rated Helpful 11 Times	exo will pull through, i know this. he has a very strong will. don't lose faith! say a prayer for our friend dan please everybody __________________ hef

02-24-2013, 11:04 AM	#10
pF no war but class war Fortress Forever Staff Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: big bad berlin Class/Position: Soldier / Scout Gametype: ctf Affiliations: [w~k!] Posts Rated Helpful 3 Times	Oh wow, depressing read. My thoughts are with exo and his family. __________________ Support FF: Gay And Lesbian Fiction \| Teen Books \| Bath Products

02-24-2013, 02:11 PM	#11
KubeDawg Nade Whore Server Owner Beta Tester Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Oklahoma Class/Position: Scout/Soldier Gametype: CTF/TDM Affiliations: blunt. Moto Posts Rated Helpful 128 Times	Sorry to hear about exo. That sucks. I hope he has a good recovery. __________________ Moto's Funhouse \| Dallas, TX - 74.91.114.247:27015 ff_plunder - Complete

02-21-2013, 12:18 AM	#4
Peppas Join Date: Jun 2009 Gametype: Capture the Flag Posts Rated Helpful 3 Times	Hope he pulls through!

02-22-2013, 01:52 AM	#5
XPelargos I like to spam binds Beta Tester Join Date: May 2009 Class/Position: Scoooooot Gametype: Capture the Flag Posts Rated Helpful 73 Times	Fuck. Friend just died from H overdose on Valentine's Day. This is a scary fucking drug guys, I've shot up, there is no such thing as a casual heroin user. You never full comeback. I'm so sorry.

02-22-2013, 04:58 PM	#8
Features- Beta Tester Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Pennsylvania Class/Position: Soldier / Medic Gametype: Capture the Flag Affiliations: has left the game Posts Rated Helpful 10 Times	Sad day . I really hope he pulls through I always enjoy playing with Dan competitively while we fucked around on Ventrillo and making fun of me for playing WoW. I wasn't around when he got really heavily into drugs (stopped playing around late 2009 - early 2012) because he would talk about doing weed and first time he tried cocaine, but not heroine. Sucks he went down that path, but I know he was a pretty good electrician (think he was an apprentice electrician when we clanned) so I'm sure he had the money for it.

02-26-2013, 03:55 PM	#12
XPelargos I like to spam binds Beta Tester Join Date: May 2009 Class/Position: Scoooooot Gametype: Capture the Flag Posts Rated Helpful 73 Times	Heroin is an amazing medicine. If you're going through surgery recovery then opiates are a godsend. They turn down the volume of the pain. They are the warmest blanket on the coldest day. Ecstasy and Cocaine aren't even in the same ballpark. You thought you felt good on those? They don't even compare to the waves of bliss heroin gives you. An orgasm looks like a sneeze compared to heroin. The problem is that once you use heroin when you're sober (i.e. NOT as medicine) then all it does is MAKE THE NORMAL WORLD FEEL COLD. And then you need that blanket again and again and again. Stay away from heroin, guys. It's literally TOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOD %h %a

02-27-2013, 01:49 PM	#13
WiFiDi Beta Tester Join Date: May 2010 Class/Position: Soldier Gametype: Capture the Flag is there any other Posts Rated Helpful 26 Times	exo will be in my thoughts and prayers. __________________ WiFi's Stream Support FF: Failure is always an option. It's a happy massacre?! (yes, yes it is!) To make most awesome thing in universe combine Bears and Nicholas Cage! and remember kids, we didn't start the flame-war!

03-12-2013, 04:38 PM	#15
vatterin David- Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts Rated Helpful 18 Times	I'm not sure where to begin. As some of you may know I am David-. I played with exo in the 'hay days' of FF. At times he was an a-hole. But most of the time he was a great player and a funny guy. He contributed a lot to the FF community via being active/admin/making maps. I remember playing his first map and it becoming a regular rotated map in pickups. I'm so so sorry to hear this about Dan. While I'll never really enjoy FF like I used to. I don't think I'll forget the colorful personalities with Dan included. I wish Dan well and hope he recovers. I'll be praying for him and his family. Bye all.

03-28-2014, 11:25 PM	#16
GeoKill-----> Community Member Server Owner Beta Tester Forum Moderator Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Hawthorne, California Class/Position: Soldier/Spy/Scout Gametype: AvD Affiliations: :e0:Eternal Order Leader Posts Rated Helpful 12 Times	It's been a full year, and Dan's birthday was the other day. Any update on Exo? I hope he made a recovery. __________________ Fortress-Forever Guides All Your Mapping Needs :e0: Will live on Forever Support FF:

03-29-2014, 01:17 AM	#17
onE Beta Tester Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Detroitish Class/Position: D Scout Gametype: CTF Posts Rated Helpful 0 Times	I dont know the last thing you heard, and I know there are others on here that know more than me He has been awake for quite some time, I think he stays at home. He lost pretty much all motor function, but is capable of relearning most things with time. They keep his facebook updated, so try lookin him up on there.

03-29-2014, 03:23 AM	#18
FDA_Approved Beta Tester Join Date: Nov 2011 Gametype: Capture the Flag Posts Rated Helpful 293 Times	He was browsing the forums the other day and idling in irc. I guess a few people have talked to him through pms over the last week or so. __________________ Currently equipped: Rad Scarf of liberating happiness.

03-29-2014, 07:06 AM	#19
KubeDawg Nade Whore Server Owner Beta Tester Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Oklahoma Class/Position: Scout/Soldier Gametype: CTF/TDM Affiliations: blunt. Moto Posts Rated Helpful 128 Times	Rumors are rampant in this game and I had heard a while back that he passed away. Good to hear he's alive and in recovery. I had a friend pass away last year from a heroin addiction. That shit is no joke. __________________ Moto's Funhouse \| Dallas, TX - 74.91.114.247:27015 ff_plunder - Complete

03-30-2014, 09:47 PM	#20
GeoKill-----> Community Member Server Owner Beta Tester Forum Moderator Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Hawthorne, California Class/Position: Soldier/Spy/Scout Gametype: AvD Affiliations: :e0:Eternal Order Leader Posts Rated Helpful 12 Times	Good call about looking him up on Facebook, thanks guys! __________________ Fortress-Forever Guides All Your Mapping Needs :e0: Will live on Forever Support FF:

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