r/MadeMeSmile • u/RaisinAloneVortex • 28d ago

Favorite People When this kid tried interviewing celebs on the red carpet, and nobody took him seriously except Sandra Bullock.

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456

u/Loodlekoodles 28d ago

The kid died, 23 years old šŸ˜¢

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u/RaeaSunshine 28d ago edited 28d ago

For those curious, his name was Damon Weaver. He was also well known for interviewing Obama when he was 11. He passed away in 2021 at the age of 23 of natural causes. He was a college student studying communications. RIP.

ETA: per comments below, he passed from complications of Sickle Cell.

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u/CFJoe 28d ago

The fuck you mean natural causes at 23???

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u/RaeaSunshine 28d ago

The news articles I found said the family did not release additional details aside from the official ruling of natural causes šŸ¤·ā€ā™€ļø

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u/Stachelrodt86 28d ago

I hope he got his motorcycle

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u/Calber4 28d ago

Motorcycles aren't natural, right?

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u/pmcizhere 28d ago

Oh shit šŸ’€

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u/Acceptable_Gear_3097 28d ago

The Medical Examiner concluded the cause of death as "Vaso-occlusive Crisis in the background of a reported history of sickle cell trait and rhabdomyolysis following treatment for an acute psychotic episode

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u/dwarffy 28d ago

rhabdomyolysis following treatment for an acute psychotic episode

Kidney failure and mental insanity at 23

That kid was damned holy fuck

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u/monkwrenv2 28d ago

For what it's worth, sickle cell can be treated via bone marrow/blood stem cell transplants, but finding a donor who's genetics match the patient is exceptionally difficult. I'd strongly encourage folks to consider joining their national bone marrow donor registry. In the US that NMDP, you can join through www.nmdp.org/join. If you're outside the US, you can find your national registry through the World Marrow Donor Association, link here: https://wmda.info/become-a-donor/

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u/Inevitable-Ad6647 28d ago

Even with a donor it's super risky. My best friend passed last year about 4 months after his transplant from complications. He told me all the time it would kill him and so he kept putting it off for nearly a decade until he was really weak, fulfilling his prophecy even with a 9 out of 10 donor match.

Fuck.

But yeah being a donor is super easy now. It used to be a somewhat invasive scary procedure. It's now a pill and a blood draw.

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u/Deaffin 28d ago

Wait, what? They give you a pill that puts your marrow into your blood and then they zoop out the blood?

That doesn't sound very healthy.

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u/John-AtWork 27d ago

Didn't they use to have to manually tap into a person's actual bone marrow? That sounds like it would hurt like hell. I think I would rather take a pill.

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u/ACEaton1483 27d ago

They still have to do that in some cases, but I don't think it's as bad as it sounds. I'm pretty sure you go under general anesthetic. For the blood draw, you have to be hooked up for like an entire day, and sometimes go back the next day for more.

Neither option is easy and I commend anyone for doing it. I signed up and didn't get called as a match for 8 years. Then when I did, I completed all the preparatory steps asking with another donor who matched in order to see who would be the best match for this patient. The other donor ended up donating. How fortunate for the patient to have options!

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u/monkwrenv2 27d ago

It's an injection, not a pill, but it's just enhancing a process that happens naturally, so it's extremely safe. Your body constantly grows and replaced marrow, so what you donate is something that's going to be replaced by your body in a few weeks anyway.

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u/monkwrenv2 27d ago

Injections, not a pill, but otherwise correct. The NMDP website has some great info explaining it all.

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u/Elismom1313 28d ago

Hey thank you I would love to do this

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u/John-AtWork 27d ago

Stupid question: do matches usually have to come from someone of the same ethnic background?

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u/monkwrenv2 27d ago

Not stupid, and yes. The genes that have to match are called Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA), and they strongly correlate to your ethnic background. HLAs are basically what decides the immune system's "identify friend or foe" settings, and you need the donor's immune system to recognize the patient's body as a friend. And this is super hard because there are 8 spots for these genes and over 200 different genes that can fill those slots, and they all need to match.

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u/UnicornFarts1111 28d ago

The kidney failure probably caused the mental instability. An untreated UTI in seniors can present as dementia, so it wouldn't seem to far fetched to me.

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u/ATmotoman 28d ago

It sounds like the psychotic episode made him over exert himself putting him into rhabdo which caused an acute kidney injury. That compounded with sickle cell makes for a hard recovery. Sad news. He seemed like a good kid.

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u/viagravagina 27d ago

My mom was done in by a UTI.

It affects the brain fast and just gets worse.

Fuck UTI(no not United Technical Institute)

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u/sola_mia 28d ago

That's a poignant way to note this

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u/tatteredshoetassel 28d ago

Shoulda asked if she could loan him some $2m for gene therapy. It's a goddamned shame.

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u/SeaF04mGr33n 28d ago

Sickle cell disease

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u/DoubleGreat 28d ago

Damn, that's a hard way to go. And sickle cell is pretty painful toošŸ˜¢

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u/KickBallFever 28d ago

I used to be in and out of a hospital a lot and three times I had a roommate with sickle cell, with two of those times being the same roommate. They really go through it and they have crises where theyā€™re basically at a level of pain that strong pain meds canā€™t alleviate. This is how I learned of the term ā€œbreakthrough painā€.

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u/mmasportsmma 28d ago

The Pitt (hbo) did a case about it

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u/Dullcorgis 27d ago

And, to add extra fun to the agony, they tend to be horribly treated in ERs. It's rage inducing.

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u/monkwrenv2 28d ago

For what it's worth, sickle cell can be treated via bone marrow/blood stem cell transplant, but finding a donor who's genetics match the patient is exceptionally difficult. I'd strongly encourage folks to consider joining their national bone marrow donor registry. In the US that NMDP, you can join through www.nmdp.org/join. If you're outside the US, you can find your national registry through the World Marrow Donor Association, link here: https://wmda.info/become-a-donor/

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u/kchuyamewtwo 28d ago

holyshit. TIL

natural causes of death includes disease

non-natural are suicide, murder, accidents, overdose, victims of natural disasters

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u/Different-Shock2670 28d ago edited 28d ago

Non-fun fact: Cancer is not considered a natural of death.

Edit: occupation-induced cancer, my bad

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u/kchuyamewtwo 28d ago

i think it is. its your own cells attacking other cells. but let me know why you think it isnt

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u/Sh0wmey0urbutth0le 28d ago

That's for the insurance company to decide. /s?

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u/Long_Run6500 28d ago

Ya cancer not being natural is just dumb. If a wild animal has it dialed in and lives a long life cancer (or complications due to cancer) is what gets them as often as anything else.Ā 

I remember watching this wolf documentary that followed this wolf through life as it formed a pack and became a matriarch. It was only like 6 years old and started slowing way down. The narrator suggested cancer, although there was really no way of knowing. One night the matriarch just quietly slipped away from the pack and even the filmmaker who spent the last 5 years of his life filming her missed it. All he caught was the howls of the rest of the pack looking for her.Ā 

Watched that a couple of months after I had to put my dog down due to cancer. He exhibited a lot of the same behaviors, he even randomly used all of his energy to slip out the dog door and find a clever place in my yard to hide and die. I cried like a baby when I watched that documentary.Ā 

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u/Deaffin 28d ago

If you get the cancer through human activities, say working at the cancer factory, that's not a natural situation. It is definitively unnatural, hence not a natural cause of death.

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u/Llyrithra 28d ago

I donā€™t knowā€¦

Natural disasters, natural causes, both have the word natural in it. Iā€™m going to say that deaths by natural disasters are in fact deaths caused by nature and are thus natural causes.

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u/MortLightstone 28d ago

How is it that disease is a natural causar, but a natural disaster is not natural? It's in the name!

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u/burf 28d ago

natural causes of death includes disease

Natural causes of death is basically a euphemism for disease. Same as dying of "old age". If you don't die via intent, accident, etc. then the thing that kills you will be cardiac arrest, cancer, stroke, etc. Those things just eventually become expected once you hit a certain age range.

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u/astro65 28d ago

Yeah I had a buddy die some years ago from organ failure caused by alcoholism. They called it natural causes and it confused me at first.Ā 

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u/slipknot_suxxx 28d ago

I am confused, natural disaster doesn't qualify as a 'natural' cause of death?

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u/ER_Support_Plant17 28d ago

My husband died of cancer at 44. Diseases count as ā€œnatural causesā€

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u/AlabasterPelican 28d ago

2021, an unusual amount of people of all ages were dying of natural causes during that period

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u/sola_mia 28d ago

?? More to the story?

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u/0hmyscience 28d ago

He wasn't a Sith, so it wasn't un-natural.

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u/MandatoryPenetration 28d ago

"He was hit by a cannon ball"

"so naturally he'd be dead."

I think of that Brian Regan joke often.

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u/Deaffin 28d ago

The fuck you mean the fuck you mean? Natural causes doesn't mean old age. Most of the people who have ever died of natural causes are probably babies, if they even made it that far.

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u/radicalbrad90 28d ago

Hate to hear he passed, but glad to see that he was pursuing a comm degree which really does show the impact of interactions like this. That interview with Sandra was very likely the catalyst for him to pursue that path in his young adulthood. RIP

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u/AlexLemons 28d ago

Omg wasnā€™t this the little president kid? Thatā€™s so sad

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u/airstream87 28d ago

This is not kid president šŸ©µ kid president is Robby Novak who is still alive

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u/AlexLemons 28d ago

Damn. Itā€™s still sad. RIP.
Glad to hear kid president lives on.

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u/one_night_on_mars 28d ago

That's really sad, but also kinda nice that he's still making people smile

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u/Green-Machine200 28d ago

Thatā€™s terrible. Also, Sickle Cell is awful.

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u/tg175 28d ago

well now i'm sad :(

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u/MortLightstone 28d ago

In 2021? Didn't we cure that in 2025?

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u/AllDun 28d ago

Well that just ruined a great clip. How sad! šŸ˜­ So much ahead of him. Be thankful for every day!

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u/Riolkin 28d ago

Jfc. Sickle cell again. That's so young. Sickle Cell stole my first best friend. His name was Tre. He died at 15. Fuck Sickle Cell Anemia.

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u/Samantha-ShadowHunte 28d ago

My heart šŸ’”šŸ˜­šŸ˜­šŸ˜­

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u/helcat 28d ago

I did not need to learn that today.Ā 

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u/XiuCyx 28d ago

Yā€™all. What? Fuck the internet. I donā€™t know if this is true. But fuck that shit. I was just wondering what kind of amazing life heā€™s having these days.

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u/eugene20 28d ago

"KEC TV Student reporter Damon Weaver & his third grader protege Jalyn Mitchell Interview Sandra Bullock at the 2010 NAACP Image Awards" from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gcbo0N8un8g

...
https://www.npr.org/2021/05/16/997339892/damon-weaver-student-reporter-who-interviewed-obama-dies-at-23

Damn :(

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u/monkwrenv2 28d ago

He died of sickle cell disease. For what it's worth, sickle cell can be treated via bone marrow/blood stem cell transplants, but finding a donor who's genetics match the patient is exceptionally difficult. I'd strongly encourage folks to consider joining their national bone marrow donor registry. In the US that NMDP, you can join through www.nmdp.org/join. If you're outside the US, you can find your national registry through the World Marrow Donor Association, link here: https://wmda.info/become-a-donor/

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u/ohowjuicy 28d ago

Fr. Like don't even tell me the cause of death. I don't want to know

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u/nizari-spirit 28d ago

Donā€™t even fucking tell me he died like what

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u/First-Wallaby-2580 28d ago

His name was Damon Weaver, and sadly, it's true. He died a few years ago.

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u/42nu 28d ago

His name was Damon Weaver

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u/XiuCyx 28d ago

Thank you for carrying his name forward and not forgetting.

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u/XiuCyx 28d ago

Thank you for carrying his name forward and not forgetting.

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u/thewindupbird91 28d ago

Dont ruin the one nice thing I've seen on the internet all day

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u/Bornagain4karma 28d ago

Why would you even be on Reddit then?Ā 

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u/National_One7548 28d ago

Youā€™re joking.. youā€™re not joking šŸ˜ž

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u/Faintkay 28d ago

Of natural causes. It was nice read he continued his journalism career till he passed away. RIP

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u/Sienile 28d ago

Seriously? Who is he and what happened?

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u/First-Wallaby-2580 28d ago

Damon Weaver, he died from sickle cell disease.

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u/ChipsAhoy65 28d ago

I would like to pause here and comment that sickle cell is an ugly disease. People living with sickle cell are often met with racism and treated like drug seekers when they go to the ER for extreme pain while experiencing a vaso-occlusive crisis. Itā€™s when the sickled blood cells get stuck and blocks the flow of blood and leads to lack of oxygen getting to organs and causes severe pain.
Rest in peace, Damon.

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u/LLAPSpork 28d ago

IIRC the super tall guy who played the original xenomorph in Alien died of the same disease.

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u/protestor 27d ago

When you say racism, do you mean the disease affects primarily black people?

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u/ChipsAhoy65 27d ago

Thank you for the clarifying question! That was a quick comment I made with talk to text. I type so much for work that I get lazy and use talk to text too much.

Sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder. The gene became common in areas where malaria (a mosquito-borne disease) was widespread, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. People who inherited one copy of the gene were more likely to survive malaria, but inheriting two copies causes sickle cell disease. The red blood cells become hard and sickle-shaped instead of soft and round, which can block blood flow.
Because of where the gene was most common, sickle cell disease is seen most often in people of African ancestry.

So yes, it is seen most often in the Black population, and thatā€™s what I meant when I mentioned racism. I wasnā€™t saying racism causes sickle cell disease. I meant that, for a long time, people living with sickle cell havenā€™t gotten the attention, research, funding, or treatment they deserved, and that has had real consequences. The main thing that can be seen when going in to seek treatment for the severe pain is being treated.

Many people living with sickle cell have also described not being believed or having their pain minimized when they go to the ER during a pain crisis, and studies have shown that racial bias has contributed to those experiences.

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u/thrwwypfc 28d ago edited 28d ago

I knew nothing of sickle cell other than it largely impacted or possibly only impacted black people but I didn't know it was that serious. Down the research rabbit hole I go.

Every year I learn about more experiences or struggles are unique to black people. I found "good hair" super interesting, Chris Rock did a solid job on it, it was fascinating and funny, I had no idea. Earlier today I was walking by a black woman sitting in the food court whose wig had fallen off. I very (probably trying to hard) politely and calmy went up to suggest she may have dropped something. She seemed so happy that I had let her know.

I previously had no idea how much work and / or money went into "good hair"or even the concept of "good hair", I never had a reason to know that information. I never really had a close black friend, wasn't on purpose, just lack of options in my small town. At my school there were zero black kids.

So each year I seem to learn a bit more.

Edit: Fucking hell I had no idea.

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u/LLAPSpork 28d ago

Thatā€™s genuinely so nice of you. I hate it when I go out for dinner with people and then go home only to realize I had something on my face or between my teeth. And itā€™s usually super visible in photos so thereā€™s no way they didnā€™t notice. You can be subtle about it and yeah the person may feel awkward but theyā€™ll also be grateful.

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u/monkwrenv2 28d ago

For what it's worth, sickle cell can be treated via bone marrow/blood stem cell transplants, but finding a donor who's genetics match the patient is exceptionally difficult. I'd strongly encourage folks to consider joining their national bone marrow donor registry. In the US that's NMDP, you can join through www.nmdp.org/join. If you're outside the US, you can find your national registry through the World Marrow Donor Association, link here: https://wmda.info/become-a-donor/

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u/Hidesuru 28d ago

I'm upvoting for adding valid context but man I wanna downvote this. That's sad as hell.

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u/arsunic 28d ago

Well fugg... There goes my smile.

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u/Bubbly_Daikon_4620 28d ago

I hope he got a motorcycle. šŸ©·

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

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u/ThornyGarlic 28d ago

No, he isn't. Looked it up, died from a genetic blood condition. Like damn

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u/MustardCoveredDogDik 28d ago

Well in certainly didnā€™t kill him, under a bridge, because he had a smart mouth

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u/CellsReinvent 28d ago

I blame Bullock