In the context of the discussion we were having there is a crucial difference, the opponent must wait for their next action to perform the coup de grace and in the meantime someone can AP lend the hapless victim back up to positive. So long as someone friendly has an action left they will have an opportunity to do this before the final blow descends. Game mechanically it does not seem to matter much whether player 2 sits and waits their turn before lending the AP or jumps in and "intervenes" to lend the AP - either way they get player 1's hero back on his/her feet before the killing blow can be delivered.
You also get to resist a coup de grace, which is invariably a good idea and almost always a good time to spend HP if you have any. Once you are on 0 AP from Humakt's secret you are in no position to resist anything (except maybe Resurrection).
As a pure storytelling matter I am often tempted to narrate that heroes who have been on serious negative AP for a while are in a bad way but this has no game-mechanical effect, just because someone is unconcious on -35 AP does not mean that they need someone with healing 10W - perhaps a bucket of water will suffice. Of course if nobody comes up with that bucket of water quickly then they may well be dying by the time the dust has settled. Or to put it another way - if you find time within the combat to help your friend and make the roll then it somehow wasn't as bad as it looked, conversely if you failed the roll then it probably /was/ as bad as it looked. At which point it may help anyone new to the game to take a deep breath and repeat "this is not a simulation game" ten times.
-- Nic
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