I'm not sure I took so much comfort in the fact that the subject in question spent every remaining moment of his life begging for death... so much that he sprung at the first opportunity, even though he was told his wife was on her way.

Of course we know his wife was not on her way. She'd been detained, given a Class A amnestic, and reconditioned into a new identity as soon as friend Edward had met with his little misfortune... but hey, he didn't know that!

Keep in mind, he was alive for quite a while. Without a face. In incessant olfactory agony we cannot even begin to understand. Imagine a smell so bad you want to die. How terrible would that have to be?!

Yeah. There is nothing comforting about this. ;)