So this is about Half-Life, NOT the Source version or the Black Mesa remake. In fact I don't even have Steam (I'd get it if I had a desktop gaming PC that could run HL2 but I don't...)

Anyway:

In one chapter you're climbing these ladders up these elevator shafts, and there's a scientist dangling precariously from one of the ladders, and once you get up high enough, he falls.

I once heard there's a way to save this scientist and if you do, he's able to open up a secret room.

Anyone have anything about this or is this just a "schoolyard rumor" (though I was long out of school when I first heard this)?

For that matter, ARE there any scripted-to-die scientists you can actually save?