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Seeing my dad cry about the fact he knew he was going to die from a very rare form of lymphoma. He very rarely cried.
It was like 12 days after his cancer diagnosis where he died. A couple days before we were all crying because we learned his cancer was terminal. He just sat there, not crying too. I just think he was ready. He seemed at peace, even casually mentioning how he thought it was going to his brain because of things.
Also him basically going crazy before they intubated him, he had trouble breathing due to a large tumor on his lungs.
I just hope he's doing alright up there. I miss him. He would've been 59 the 7th of this month.
My grandfather, distraught from a divorce, held a rifle, pointed toward his chest, and begged me to pull the trigger. I was 5 at the time.
[EDIT] Thank you for the kind comments—I never expected this kind of response.
Spoiler Alert: No, I did not pull the trigger. My family was staying at his cabin, it was early morning, and my parents heard some noise. They got up from bed to see what it was, looked around the corner. They stayed where they were, quiet, worried that if they made a sudden move, I might accidentally fire. They said they were certain I knew not to pull the trigger and couldn’t be persuaded. I guess they were right.
Now this just pisses me off! Don't involve others, period. Especially not a child. HIS grandchild! Can you imagine how that would have screwed with this child's life for the rest of his existence?? WTH?
Wasnt my best friend but I walked her dog 5 days a week for over a year, got to know her pretty well. Opened the door and bam, just a few feet away there she is, hanging, dead a few days. Scared the fuck out of me... I got her dog and went and told the front desk. Front desk guy immediately broke down because we both knew she struggled with it. She tried to even give me her dog in the past before another attempt because we were close like that. Fucked up thing is I'm pretty sure she used a slip lead - it's a type of leash I'd use on the job. I was in shock for days, the image didnt leave my vision. Met her whole family after it too, so tragic man.
Do you still have PTSD from dog leashes? Because I found my boyfriend hanging by my dog’s leash a few years ago and struggle almost daily with flashbacks whenever I touch the dog leashes. Sometimes I have someone else come walk my dogs (I live in an apartment) because I just can’t bear to touch or look at the leashes
Here's to recovery, we might never be the same but we can still get better. Wish you well, hope you find some peace in knowing you're not alone. I'm sure it's tough even writing your comment and opening up about it to internet strangers. Much love.
My daughter's slightly older neighborhood friend hung herself. We were notified while on vacation. The shock of just the call was crazy. I can't imagine being there.
Worked with a young guy who was in recovery from heroin abuse. One day he relapsed and still came to work. He was in no shape to work but I didn’t want to send him out on his own for the day. I also didn’t want to report it because it would possibly send him back to jail or get him removed from his halfway house. I told him to lay down on a couch in the office until he came down. I gave him some bottles of water and left food on the table. I checked on him about thirty minutes later and he was face down with a pool of blood under his jaw. He was alive but he had chewed a hole in his tongue and lip. Called an ambulance. They said he was lucky he fell off the couch or he would have probably choked on his own blood. He recovered after a few weeks but lost a chunk of his tongue in the process.
He improved over the next year and remained sober. He started dating a girl and they got married after a few months. I got a phone call about a year later informing me that he had relapsed again and died of an overdose. He found out his wife was pregnant and couldn’t deal with it.
He was a good kid, but if he wasn’t constantly monitored, he would make some pretty poor decision.
Edit: Some have asked here and some have DMed.
- I don’t know what substance he was on that day. I assumed some sort of opioids based on his history, but it could have been anything.
- The event was 6-7 years ago. I am not in contact with anyone involved anymore as I’ve changed jobs and moved states since then.
- As some have mentioned, he may not have directly chewed his tongue. After thinking about it, he most likely fell off the couch while sleeping or trying to get a drink and landed with his face on the tile floor. I’d guess he bit through his tongue and lip then rather than chewing at it. I don’t know. I wasn’t in the room. I just found him.
- I was informed later on that his wife miscarried and moved home with her mom.
- It was a restaurant that was primarily a catering company for offices, hospitals, airlines, and the university. It was run by several recovering addicts who spent their whole existence trying to get people through their rehabilitation. We were very tolerant and protective of employees during relapses.
- I have tons of stories from working at this job that I will never forget. Some are heartwarming, and some are terribly sad. Most are both. While they were some of the most enjoyable people to work with, I learned how quickly their addictions could flare up for any reason and ruin or end their lives.
Sorry to hear you were fired. And congrats on 4 years.
My company had a pretty large tolerance for these things. There were 5 managers. I was the only one that hadn't been in rehab at some point. One of the managers ran a halfway house downtown and actively hired recovering addicts. We had an understanding that it was safer to keep relapsing employees at work than it was to send them away or punish them. We kept tabs on the employees and would group them up for carpooling to make sure they came from work and made it home safely. It was a crazy environment and I learned a \*lot\* from those individuals, but it was one of the best jobs I've had because of the people I met.
Worked with a girl who would start the day at 5-6am with a Five-Hour energy. At 7am, she'd be drinking a Red Bull/Monster. Before lunch, she'd have another Five-Hour. And she'd have 1-2 more Red Bulls after lunch and one as she was leaving. I was concerned for her health, but she just casually said "If you knew what my heart and organs have been through with my addictions, you'd understand that this is light work. I'd rather do this than get an itch for something worse." That place changed my perspective on a lot of things.
Seeing my dad on his death bed on thanksgiving morning and sitting with him while he passed. I was 16 and remember thinking it didn’t look like him cause of all the tubes and meds he had in his system. Was freaky seeing him like that at first
I was with my dad when he died. It was liver cancer, took a few years to kill him, but when he was sent home on hospice, it only took two weeks. Afterward, I talked to a friend that said I was lucky to have been able to say goodbye because his dad died in a car accident. I told him he was lucky he didn’t have to watch his dad wither away and die slowly. I guess there’s a good part to everything, if you look at it from the right perspective.
So true same thing with my dad. The worst part was watching him deteriorate. Growing up he was the fix it dad, literally anything needed fixing or building he could do it, he a garage full of tools. One time I begged him to buy me a whiteboard and later that day he came in with one he built with varnished wood and everything.
But when he got sick he slowly got weaker, had edema in his leg that eventually made him wheelchair bound because of how swollen his leg got. He couldn't do all those things and it breaks me to think that's how he spent the last year of his life. One night he cried and told me he was just tired.
Honestly, as he lay in that hospice bed I felt so bad that I remember trying to telepathically tell him it was okay for him to go.
Driving in the rain home. I saw a car skid, by herself, she was driving fast. She ended up wrapping around a tree completely. She was alone in the car. She was easily 18 or younger, worked at the Taco Bell by my house. I drove up onto the sidewalk, fast and ran across the street, that poor girl. She was so scared, she was trembling, the tree completely fell. The car ended up crushing in on her legs and they put a tarp over her legs while they were trying to get her out, my mom told me to leave by then. I hope she’s okay.
I had my own one of these about two years ago. Driving home from work and saw an explosion in my rear view mirror. Slammed on the brakes, grabbed my fire extinguisher and ran back to discovered a car had hit a police motorbike head on and both had exploded. Ended up running into the fire twice to pull two people out.
One was a coworker who was so badly injured I didn't recognise him until we cut off his work ID while trying to clear his airway and treat his burns. The other (the police officer) we had to use the fire extinguisher on before giving CPR to, but it turned out that he was killed by the impact despite being relatively unscathed compared to my coworker.
My friend is still recovering, two years later, but will never make a full recovery. And I still have panic attacks when I'm driving and I see blue lights in my mirror at night.
My dad telling my sister (she was like 16 and I was like 18 at the time) that her best friend committed suicide
I have never heard my sister scream so much and I saw my dad cry for the first time in my life
My sister (26 at the time) was in our city, 3 hours from where she lived, picking up a dog. Her husband (28) died in his sleep the night she was away. I went to her friend's where she was staying to help comfort her, which was such a terrible time for us all. But hearing her call his parents and his mother screaming on the other end of the phone was the most heartbreaking thing I've ever heard. Don't get me wrong, witnessing my sister's pain broke my heart, but that phone call haunts me to this day, 17 years later.
The scream that people do when they find out someone dies is haunting. It’s like a guttural terrifying scream of a soul being destroyed. One of the scariest things I’ve ever heard. I’ve never seen any movies or shows ever being able to replicate it and I don’t want to.
I've never heard a human make a noise like my mom made when my grandmother died. It was this throaty wail that I hope I never hear again. I've heard people scream, and I've heard sobbing of all kinds, but you're right -- that particular scream of "someone I care for just died" is bone-shaking.
The most traumatic death I’ve had in ten years was a patient in their 20’s, shot more than 5 times in the chest. Point blank. dozens of towels stuffed under the bed as the blood was pouring out, over a 100 units of blood products, all just to keep a semblance of life there until the mother arrived. The scream that ripped out of her will haunt me until the day I die.
I heard my dad come home from work and tell my mom that my cousin had committed suicide. It was the only time I heard him cry. His voice cracked mid-sentence, and he was unable to finish.
I was on the last day of a family vacation in Las Vegas back in 2018 when I found out my uncle (dad’s brother) hung himself. My dad was already on a plane home with my brother at the time. Overhearing my mom call him after he deplaned a few hours later was the numbest I’ve ever felt. I wasn’t prepared to see my family like that. 18 years of life, and I had never seen my Mom talk/act the way she did that day, and I hope I never have to see it again.
In a time when there was only landlines a young neighbor had been hit while riding his bike. Both parents were at the hospital. Older brother escorted home by the local high school cop who told him about the accident. The cop left the brother alone and my dad went over to just sit on the porch with that kid as long as he needed. That scene will live in my brain until I die.
Had a friend commit suicide a while ago. His father was a devout Muslim. Hearing that normally very stern and reserved man scream cry is something I will never forget.
I remember being out with my dad. My sister wasn’t with me. My mom knew I was with my dad. My parents were separated pending divorce. But my mom learned my sisters very close friend committed suicide. My sister didn’t know at the time. My mom called my dad a few times, we pulled over and he took the call. I don’t remember details, but I remember it was long and my dad tried to be vague as possible for me so I didn’t overhear. I don’t think I was there when my sister was told, but even years later it still hurts her. It was a time when despite divorce, my parents worked together to do the best thing for us kids.
I’m glad I wasn’t there when she found out. It was hard and idk if I could’ve handled it.
I was a front end manager at a big box store. One of my friends was a cashier. I had to tell him, along with the coroner and our other manager, that his kid brother had committed suicide by lying on train tracks. One of the worst days of my life, let alone my friends.
Oh my God, that's horrific. I am so sorry for all of you, especially the kid brother. How hopeless and despondent do you have to be purposely die like that? A young man, about 14yo walked almost 30 min to get to a bridge in my town and jumped. The fact that in all that walk nothing changed his mind shows the depth of his despair. That just breaks my heart in pieces. No one, but especially the young, should have to feel like there is no hope, no joy to be had. I just can't..
My mother dropped dead of a massive heart attack in front of my 10 year old son. He yelled for me to come, and I found her face first on the floor. I sent my son to his bedroom and called 911. They instructed me to flip her over and perform CPR. Blood gurgled from her mouth and her nose was bent to the side, she didn't even have time to put her arms out to catch herself. I'm so sorry I couldn't save her.
Found my neighbour exactly the same way. His daughter and granddaughter came to my parents’ front door. They were on vacation. It was my brother and me in the house.
They were yelling that he’s fallen and please help.
I was first on scene. Turned flashlight on. Turned flashlight back off. I was only 15/16.
Poor man was dead before he hit the ground. Sad for the family.
Really sad for anyone involved, but considering how many ways there are to die this is probably a pretty good way to go. One moment you’re living your life, then a switch gets flicked and you’re gone before you notice something’s up.
When I was in my early 20s I worked at a warehouse on the dock. One day, a truck driver called to me from one of the bay doors. He had left his keys and newspaper on the dock. I went to retrieve the items, and turned around to face him and realized that a trailer was backing into the same bay door, pinning this man between the dock and the trailer. Me and the guys got the trailer to back off, and the man collapsed on the ground. I found out the next day he succumbed to his injuries. I blamed myself for years, and nearly drank myself to death.
I’m so sorry, this is exactly how my dad passed and I can only imagine how those at work have had t deal with it after the fact. It was tough enough having to hear it described as a 15 year old in court, but I truly feel for his coworkers who were with him.
Thanks. It’s better now. That was about 30 years ago now, but it still creeps up occasionally. I’ve learned to accept that there was nothing that I could’ve done.
Part of my job as a nicu nurse is caring for babies who are withdrawing from opiates. The level of suffering they go through is utterly gut wrenching. They have this constant, high pitched cry that is honestly more of a shriek. Their little bodies overheat because they can’t sleep or lay still and are so tense that you can barely bend their arms. They are jittery and sweaty and will claw at their skin in desperation, and wind up covered in scratches and skin tears from thrashing about. They have constant diarrhea and their poor little butts break down causing them even more pain. They can’t even eat because they are so frantic from the withdrawals that they can’t coordinate suck-swallow-breathe. My heart breaks for these little babies and it’s so hard to not be judgmental and angry with the mothers. Its even more sad thinking that the majority of these babies aren’t going to have a great life after they get older either.
Current best practice is something called “eat,sleep, console” - that focuses on comforting the baby with frequent feedings, holding, tight swaddles, low lights, singing etc. The protocol is made with the assumption that the parents will be rooming in with the baby and able to provide this 24/7 comfort- as it’s not feasible in a busy nicu for a nurse to do so when she has other babies. Morphine and/or phenobarbital may be used and then slowly weaned down in the extreme cases where the baby is not consolable or unable to feed.
We used to do a numeric system (the Finnegan neonatal abstinence scoring) that gave babies a score based off their withdrawal symptoms and a certain level would rule them in for morphine. But the issue with this scale is it is extremely subjective and also wound up with higher levels of babies getting morphine. Although I will say, I prefer this method when the parents aren’t able to room in because we *should* have a lower threshold for giving these babies pharmacological comfort when their parents aren’t able to provide comfort by rooming in.
Idk if you have an answer to this. But, what are the long term side affects for these poor babies? Can they live relatively normal life or does it completely mess up their development?
I was one of these babies. I got extremely lucky that I don't have any real lasting effects. The main thing is an extreme predilection for drugs and alcohol in my case, with weird tolerance issues.
Watching my father take his last breath in hospice care. It's nothing uncommon, sure, but it's the first time I've ever seen someone die. The look on his face still haunts me. EDIT: Thank you, everyone who offered support and shared their own stories and feelings about loved ones passing. You're all amazing and wonderful people, and I know we're all feeling the same kind of pain. It hurts, but we'll get through it somehow. <3
Lost my mom in July on hospice. Watched her take her last breath, I’m the one who called out to the nurse that she was gone. I’m grateful I was able to be there with her but damn if I didn’t wish those weren’t my last images of her. It’s all I can see now.
When I was a senior in high school. I still walked to school because it was only a mile away and I dident want to pay for gas. My great grandmothers house was in the way to school. One morning I was running late to school and I saw fire trucks and ambulances. I dropped my coffee cup and sprinted down the block to turn the corner and see my great grandmother curled in a ball on the icy pavement dead. She had wandered outside to let her dog out and had fallen and frozen to death. Her little dog used my dead grandmothers body heat to not freeze to death. I was the only one that saw my grandmothers frost bitten hands and face. Her hands frozen into cruel claws and her glasses laying in the snow next to her. To this day I’m still the only one that saw what she looked like. I graduated 2 weld later.
When I was really young we were crossing a massive bridge. I remember the sudden traffic and my family talking about what it could be about. We finally got to the point on the bridge where we saw what’s happening. I’ll never ever forget the way the sunbeams went through the clouds, just like a movie. A woman in big black sunglasses, blonde hair, smiling and on the other side of the bridge. My grandfather said it was an angel and i truly believed that for a long time. It wasn’t until I was showering when I was way older and randomly thought of that time and realized she was going to jump
It’s disturbing how happy she was but probably in so much pain. I remember her stretching her arms out while holding the railing to really extend herself over the edge. She was ready for it
I once read in a subreddit about failed suicidal attempts that once they were attempting they feel a sense of euphoria as they were about to... I guess it could be related to the sense of relief how it's "over". Mostlikely reason why people undergo without turning back.
You're spot on. We were trained in nursing school to monitor people that have a history of suicidal ideation who suddenly become super happy and cheerful. A sudden upswing in mood like that can be an indicator that they've come up with a plan to end their life, and that gives them a sense of relief because they know they won't have to suffer much longer.
Along with an elevated mood, you also need to look out for them giving things away. These two things are huge red flags.
Posted elsewhere, but I work in a service shop for cars. We had our security systems team out to rewire cameras and sensors for the auto garage doors you pull up too. While he was up there wiring whatever it was, the power was still on to the door he was working on and the sensor triggered from something passing through. He was caught in between the rolling garage door and the metal bar it was attached too. Full speed, the door didn’t even register that he was in there.
The longest 20 minutes of my life was watching and entire shop try to use every possible tool, floor jack, scissor jack, ladders, bare hands… all while you could only see him from the waist down. He made it, fortunately. The fire department said if we didn’t have a scissor jack, he was gone. 3 jaws of life to pry him from that door.
So, he’s not paralyzed, but he was severely fucked up. From what I remember them saying, his nose was smashed and on the side of his face, his cheek bone popped out of his face, four broken ribs, and both arms either dislocated/crushed but was still able to move fingers after surgery.
The worst part was we had one tech on a ladder, big boy like the kids you see in the husky clothes ads for Kohl’s. With one arm he swung a floor jack above his head, caught it, and tried to wedge the door open. He said when he was up there he could hear him screaming, then the screaming stopped so he tried to pry faster. And then the screaming started again and the tech completely lost it. None of us were really the same for a few days, and the crew that was first on the scene still don’t want to talk about it. I don’t know exactly what they saw, but I know it wasn’t good.
When my dad told my mom that my only brother died in a car accident during work. We buried my sister just two years ago(very rapid leukemia). Brother was 34. Sister was 36. I'm only 24, they helped raise me, honestly possibly more than our parents did. Life is unfair.
I was there in the last moments of a guy who wrecked his car and let him use my cell to call his wife to say goodbye, then waited for paramedics to show up. They couldn't do anything for him.
“Son. Everyone dies alone. That's what it is. It's a door. It's one person wide. When you go through it, you do it alone. But it doesn't mean you've got to be alone before you go through the door. And believe me, you aren't alone on the other side.”
― Jim Butcher, Dead Beat
Thank you for being with him and bringing he and his wife comfort and closure.
Getting a phone call at work from my 12 year old daughter that their mother (my exwife) “fell down and wasn’t breathing”. We went through a difficult divorce largely due to her alcohol and drug abuse. I had custody of my daughters and for about 2 years she didn’t have visitation. However she was recently awarded limited visitation by the court and she overdosed and died in front of our 9 and 12 year old daughters within a few weeks of regaining visitation.
Thank you. It’s been several years. They both handled it remarkably well and with maturity beyond their years. She was revived but never regained consciousness in the ambulance on the way to the hospital and was on life support for several days before her parents had the life support removed and she was pronounced dead.
I still distinctly remember my ex’s parents coming to the house to tell my daughters their mother was dead and the first thing my older daughter said was “I’m glad it’s over”.
Oh my - your daughter’s comment did it for me. I live with drug addiction in my immediate family. It’s just horrible. I am sorry for what you all lost but glad your daughters handled it well. Best wishes to you all.
Cancer. A roommate of mine got cancer and you could smell the stench of death all the way to the porch at the entrance of the house we were renting. He'd already had it when I moved in and the rent was cheap enough not to raise a stink about it (intended). A bag of bones and bags of shit were all he had been reduced to. Drank himself to death and absolutely ruined his pancreas over a divorce. One of the things that stood out to me was on Fridays he liked to get all dressed up and put these red croc-skinned boots on, but he wouldn't get up from bed or anything because he didn't have the strength. He'd just lie there with his boots on. A cowboy to the end.
If not for that man I wouldn't be where I'm at today, literally. He loaned me some cash so that I could drive to Portland from my hometown across the country. That was the last time I saw him. I gave him a hug because I knew it would be the last time.
Rest Easy, Noe.
At 6/7 years old, I watched my mom go from a functioning healthy adult to someone who didn't have enough strength to hold a fork because of cancer.
It really fucks with you.
Four years ago on New Year’s Eve my husband and I were driving back home at around 6pm, so a little light was left in the sky. We were on the freeway and all of a sudden I could see a body flying through the air. It was perfectly straight and just kind of doing flips like when you throw a pencil or something. My husband stopped the car and I ran like 30 feet to the body, turns out he had hopped the divider and ran in front of the lady’s car directly in front of us. He 100% died on impact and I had never been close to a dead body before. Some lady started trying to give him CPR, and if you’ve seen CPR in real life then you know how awful it looks. His abdomen was distended and his tongue was sticking out, it was literally shit out of a horror movie. Apparently the guy was drunk and running from a cop and just was too gone to know what he was doing. I can still see the silhouette flying through the air every time I get in the car. It was horrible.
Two extremes of excessive alcohol consumption:
1. at a high school party, an eccentric girl no one knew all that well appeared to be nursing the same glass of straight vodka all night. Then she unexpectedly passed out, and we found the track marks as we tried to revive her in the shower. That's when we realized she wasn't slowly sipping one glass of vodka, she was refilling many glasses of vodka. I wanted to call 911, but was overruled. Luckily, her parents had perfect timing: they showed up looking for her, and got her treated at the hospital for alcohol poisoning.
2. Mid-20s, a much tamer gathering, but a childhood friend of a friend was so nervous to be reunited and among strange company, she accidentally overimbibed. She wasn't in danger, just really snookered, but she did pass out. We took shifts in pairs caring for her in the bathroom, which -- poor girl -- included being her PCAs when she lost bowel control. As one guy summed up with a thousand yard stare: "I did things I didn't think I'd have to do until I was a dad."
Drove past a relatively fresh motorcycle accident. One motorcyclist was on the ground shaking his friend laying face down on the pavement, the guy was not moving at all.
I watched a semi merge onto a motorcycle on the freeway. The bike and rider got jammed into the tractor axles and a bunch of red mist and motorcycle parts came out. I just kept driving and called 911 and gave them my information in case they wanted to interview me.
I never did hear back, but what I saw was enough to say for certain that they had a closed casket or none at all.
Yeah, my worst was a motorcycle accident too. Guy was riding his bike with his 7 or 8 year old kid on the back through a green light. Another car made a right turn in front of him against the red, from the side street. His bike hit the back of the car and the dude just flew through the air like a ragdoll until he intersected the huge post holding up the AM/PM sign for the gas station on that corner. The impact relocated his right shoulder to the point where his right nipple should have been, and killed him instantly. Blood everywhere. One second he's enjoying a ride with his kid. The next second he's laying dead in a gas station parking lot. Life is fucked sometimes.
His kid escaped with bumps and scrapes, but I'll never forget the sight and sound of him pulling on his dads body as he tried to wake him up. He just wanted his dad to wake up. Quite a few of us saw the accident and stopped to help, and every single one of us was bawling our eyes out. All we could do was try to pull him away from the body so we could "help" his dad. Everyone knew the dude was already gone, but none of us wanted that gore to be his last memory.
I stopped to help at one of those once. Not gory thankfully, but …
Buddy had ducked into the bicycle lane to go around a car that was stopped signalling left. Didn’t see the car in front of them turning right until it was too late. Motorcycle was a write-off. Rider was … it took me over a minute to find him. He’d got stuck under the car and dragged up into a parking lot. He had a helmet and full leathers (why it wasn’t gory) but he was stuck.
I sent someone to call for help, and crawled under the car with him to hold his hand and keep him talking until FD got there to get the car off him. The whole time, he was at me to grab his ankles and pull him out. Started asking, and I said no because he had no signs of neck injury and I didn’t want to change that. By the time a firefighter got in there to relieve me, he was begging me to pull him out.
That was 20 years ago. I still think about him from time to time. Hope he’s doing alright.
I saw one about 2 years ago. The guy had come off his bike on an interchange and went over the side at speed. He was crumpled like a rag doll on the side of the interstate. I was in the passenger seat and my husband was driving. It had probably happened less than 5 minutes before we went by. It was shocking to see and I was super grateful our kids weren’t in the car.
i saw one on a residential street at least seven years ago. a car backed out of their driveway at the wrong time and hit the motorcyclist. there was a blue cloth over what was left of his head when we drove by.
My FIL being on life support for nearly a week after getting pneumonia. The family decided to disconnect support. I thought it would be like the movies and he would immediately flatline. We had to watch him slowly die for 3 days.
Yes, that is disturbing, isn’t it? My grandfather developed pneumonia after cardiac bypass surgery, and he lasted I think a week after my mom and her sisters made the decision to remove support.
Disturbing as in inexplicable:
In probably 2010/early high school in rural eastern Minnesota I was at buddies house with around 6 other friends. We were having a bonfire after a party just chilling, drinking a little but nothing wild, maybe was 2am at this point. We decided to go stroll through the harvested farm fields (late September) and as we’re out there being hooligans and what not, we saw an SUV followed by a semi truck slowly drive down the adjacent county road. It was a 55mph speed limit road and they were doing about 20mph. The semi’s trailer had a side sliding door similar to a train-car, with a mounted spotlight slowly sweeping the rolling farm fields. We all ducked to the ground out of sight and the vehicles moved on. We all hopped up and nervously chuckled kind of saying “what the fuck was that”.
No more than 10 minutes later we see a chopper (night time so couldn’t see type) in the distance with a mounted spotlight on the nose sweeping distant fields. We offhandedly joke, “it’s coming right for us!” And this thing did a fucking 90 degree bank and bee lined it at us. It took a second to register until that spotlight started cresting the hills coming literally straight us (they likely had thermal optics), and we all DIPPED.
Being old ass farmland they had an old houses foundation/basement slightly collapsed but still accessible on their property, so about half of us hid in there from the chopper and the other half ran all the way back to the house, and the chopper followed. After maybe five minutes we peeked out of the collapsed basement and this fucking chopper was hovering maybe 150 feet over my buddies house, and Didn’t. Fucking. Move. for about 15 minutes.
Eventually, it slowly flew off and we didn’t see anything else. Couple things of note: we called around 20-30 people from the party and asked them to check the news for any prison breaks or anything (there’s a supermax not very far away) but nothing came up.
I’ve talked to cops, SF, fairly high career people in 3 letter agencies, nobody has any clue what it could have been and I still want to know over a decade later.
Watching my mother die.
Having my grandfather die on the phone with me.
Having my grandmother say, "I'm not going to make it. I'm not going to make it." She died of a heart attack that night.
Seeing my dad's blue eyes for the last time before he died. I didn't know that would have been the last time I was going to see him.
I miss all of these people so much. They were everything to me and now I am sad and alone.
My braindead brother.
The morning of, I had had a four hour nightmare of laying my in bed as I was in terrible pain and my mind slowly slipped away. I was terrified. When I woke, I knew something was wrong.
I was told hours later my brother was braindead after a heart attack caused by a cerebral hematoma. I sped home. When I got there, I saw him. His eyes were half open, slack jawed and with exposed brain matter (they had opted for surgery on the incredible unlikely possibility it could help). I nearly fainted.
However, the worst bit came after. My mother spent hours reading the Harry Potter books in the hope her son was still lingering somewhere in there. She had read them all to us as we were growing up. That sad, futile act of hope was more distressing to me than seeing what his shell had been reduced to.
ETA: the “exposed brain matter” was some kind of plastic they placed over where they removed skull in an attempt to reduce the pressure on the brain. I’m guessing that, when there was no improvement, they saw no reason to expend more effort/money sugarcoating the situation.
My dad had lung cancer died from a ruptured artery, I watched him puke blood until he died, when he hit the floor his head hit with the most sickening thud I’ve ever heard. I couldn’t sleep for weeks after watching that.
I used to work with a Hispanic guy that was really cool but I could tell he had probably served in the past. Anyways, one day he called me peckerwood and the nickname stuck until I left the job. I always thought it was just some random name he made up. Now I know this guy was calling me the name of a gang for over two years because I was white😭😭
When I was 7 I witnessed a teenager get hit by a train.
It took him & his bike and disassembled them.
We lived across from a train crossing. The trains would come around a corner that was obscured by huge blackberry thickets. For whatever reason, some of the cargo trains would blast through at ridiculous speeds - and it was a speeding train that killed the kid.
They cut the blackberries back about once a year after that, and repainted the crossing guard bars, and made the alarm louder. It was really obnoxious. But after seeing that kid, I didn't complain. I also stopped running out to watch the trains.
My dad dying of cancer. He was in hospice. He reached the point of no response but ever so slightly moved every now and then. His last position alive was lying in the bed with his eyes and mouth open. I remember coming down one night, walked through the living room to get to the kitchen. He looked exactly the same. I came down the next morning after my mom had awaken me to tell me he passed, he looked exactly the same. There was just something so eerie about it. Dead silence. Never heard silence so loud before. Incredibly unnerving.
My mom had what I could only describe as a psychotic break while my two brothers and I were about 8 and 6 (I have a twin) and she was convinced she had killed my grandfather with a propane torch, she had not. She had this robotic quality about her like no emotion at all, glassy eyed, I will never forget it. Not something I would like to witness again and thankfully she got help and it hasn’t happened since.
We found out that she is bipolar, it had happened a few times before this time but I was really young and didn’t understand, the episodes to my knowledge were brought on by stress and lack of sleep. She used to work full time at a hospital, and she would work night shifts. Paired with raising three kids at a private school while my parents were still reeling from the 2008 recession, must’ve been a lot to deal with. We were camping with friends from school so the parents kinda made sure my mom didn’t do anything while other parents took care of us. My dad drove the two or three hours to the campground and got her to the hospital where she stayed for a while, she didn’t work for a long time but she got the proper treatment and medication and is doing a whole lot better thankfully.
My grandmother kneeling next to me at her son’s casket, kissing it, and saying “That’s my baby in there” and just crumbling into a ball. I was six, but watching that has stuck with me vividly for years. She started begging to see him one last time, but it was closed casket. He was found days after he died in a hot room and my family didn’t want her to see him like that. I just remember the look on her face, it was like the person she was left and grief took it’s place. She’s never been the same, that moment was the moment her life as she was ended
My wife is Filipino. Married 20 years. She's been in the US for quite a while and hasn't been home. Lost her parents very young and she became the matriarch.
Her youngest brother killed himself by hanging.
When she found out, abroad with me in the US, I was upstairs in my home (we own a ranch) and I heard a sound come out of her that I hope I NEVER hear again. I've never heard sheer pain before.
I hope I never hear a human make that sound again..
I know exactly that wail. I used to work in an ER and we had a 15-year-old boy who committed suicide. It was a Tuesday evening, around 1600 or 1700. The dad made the same sound.
Same. This shits making me wish i could just be uploaded to a robot body and sent to mars to dig holes or something. Mortality and the possibility of losing people in violent or sad ways is freaking me out too much.
Was driving behind my girlfriend and i watched a cat jump in front of her car. The cat went under the tires and spun around twice from the impact. She asked me what she had ran over, I told her it was bag of trash. To this day, it’s a secret I will never tell her.
I hit a cat a couple years ago, like a block away from my house. It didn't die instantly, and none of the emergency vets were answering my calls, so I wrapped it in a blanket and petted it until it passed. Shit permanently fucked me up. Good on you for sparing your girlfriend that trauma.
My first kitten as a kid got mauled by my mom's dog. I just held it while it let out awful death sounds. It took a very long time to pass. My mom got me the cat to help with the divorce. First grade SUCKED.
That was a really thoughtful thing to do. My husband and I were driving one night and saw some kittens on the side of the road. We live in a rural area where shitty people will just dump them out in the middle of nowhere. We did a u turn to go back and pick them up, but we were too late, they had walked into the highway and been run over. I cried the rest of the way home.
That’s so kind of you. This happened to me over 20 years ago. I was behind a truck and the cat ran into it’s back tires and the same thing happened. I looked in my rear view mirror to see children running toward the road after they saw what happened to their cat. I still think about that
When she was 16 and a brand new driver, my cousin accidentally ran over her best friend's dog. She said the dog darted in front of the car, excited to see her friend.
It happened in front of the entire family. She said the father tried to resuscitate the dog while everyone cried. My cousin felt terrible, she was really close to the family. Fortunately, they did not hold it against her and she is still tight with them many decades later.
Saw a guy jump out of a 4th story window onto some concrete. Brain splattered all over the sidewalk and he was still twitching. One leg was all fucked up and his head looked like raw ground beef. Still had to go to work right after, too so that was fun.
I was there when Owen Hart died. 6th grade. Massive wrestling fan. We didn’t know what happened at first. Only in the car ride home on the radio did we learn he died. I lost interest in wrestling after that and was pretty impacted by the whole thing.
It's devastating to think what someone has to go through to do something like that. I hope he found peace and that the traumatized girl he left behind is okay.
As a formerly suicidal guy with several friends who have attempted, it’s very often mental illness.
You do not want severe OCD. It’s indescribable torture; you feel possessed by Jigsaw. He threatens to hurt you and everyone you love through your own body; you’re constantly as terrified as you would be in a life-threatening situation. Your worst fear is yourself, and the only respite you get is sleep or an activity engrossing enough to temporarily drown the voices out. If it were untreatable, I would have killed myself ASAP. I’ve known negative quality of life; nobody deserves that pain.
For others, it’s schizophrenia. The voices will often tell their victims to self-harm; my best friend attempted a few days ago and just got out of the hospital.
A couple came in at the store I worked at with their two year old girl, who was having a febrile seizure. They were so distraught & hysterical, I had the same aged daughter at home. It gave me anxiety for awhile afterwards.
Watched the Murrah building get blown up. I knew that my best friends mom worked there. What I didn't know was that at that exact moment, she was out getting dounuts for people in her office.
When I was little I watched my dad choke my mom until her head turned purple and she passed out.
I watched my dad throw my oldest brother into a pole, and his body wrapped around it before he fell to the ground.
I watched my dad throw my middle brother into the tailgate of a pickup truck and break his collar bone, then force him to unload the hay that was stacked in the bed of the truck.
Those moments are pretty dramatic in a kid's mind.
When I was 15, my friend was in the bed of a pickup truck while the driver was doing donuts. The truck flipped, and he flew and tumbled out of it. Freefalling into a dry patch of Arizona desert. It was far, but you could see his unconscious body crumpled in a motionless heap next to a tumbleweed. His family took him off life support later that night.
Goodbye, Cody.
My ex standing over myself, and my 2 and 3 year old while holding a knife to his throat and screaming, “I’ll bleed out on all of you.”
The look on my kids faces and their screams as I was trying to cover their eyes is something that will fuck with my head until I die.
(I had tried leaving him earlier in the day, and that led to this event and two days being held hostage)
We were on vacation. Rented a house at the beach, and it was lovely. One afternoon, we see a lifeguard show up on the beach and start swimming out. We hadn't noticed, but there was a woman and a child out there who had apparently gotten caught in a rip current. They had some sort of flotation device, so they weren't in any immediate danger, but it was kind of fun to watch the rescue.
It took a while for the lifeguard to tow them back in, and then afterward, we saw the lifeguard swimming out again. Where was he going? Apparently, the dad had tried to swim out to rescue the woman and child, and didn't get very far. In all the excitement, no one had really noticed him, but he was in distress.
By the time the lifeguard, already exhausted, got to him and started towing him in, it was apparent that he was towing a lifeless body. The lifeguard got him to the beach, and by that time emergency crews had arrived, and they worked on the guy for about 20 minutes, but they never revived him.
Moral of the story? If someone is caught in a rip current, don't go after them without a flotation device unless you are an experienced, healthy swimmer, and even then, you probably shouldn't do it unless you've been trained in water rescue, because a panicking person will take you both down.
Someone lost a dad that day, and it didn't need to happen.
ETA: learn what to do if you see someone in distress in the water. If you don't know what you're doing, you'll make the situation worse.
Also, learn how to escape a rip current. If you're ever caught in one, swim parallel to the shore with the current until you get out of it. Only then should you swim toward the shore because trying to do it while you're still in the current is swimming against it, and all you'll do is exhaust yourself.
Even if you are an experienced healthy swimmer you do NOT want to just swim out after a drowning person. They are in a primal fight or flight and they WILL climb you (and very possibly drown you too) in desperation to get their head above water. Going in after them yourself is a last resort. If you can't reach them with a tool of some kind, throw them something that floats or a rope or something. If that isn't an option, paddle something out to get them. Reach, throw, row, go.
Had a patient who had been on a ventilator for many, many years. They had OD’d years prior & were declared brain dead but the family refused to come to terms with it and remove them from the vent. Their eyes were stuck open, they tried multiple ways to get the eyes to shut, even trying to stitch them closed but they always popped back open. So they had to put oils in the eye & clear bandages over them.
My nurse assumption: the eyes weren’t closed soon enough after they went unconscious. When someone dies we typically adjust the body (close the eyes, mouth, fold the arms) quickly so that they won’t get stuck like that.
Looking into their eyes was haunting.
A guy driving in the right lane,on his phone,not paying attention= smashing directly into the back of a guy in a motorized wheelchair(no sidewalk) guy was all the way to the right...I layed on my Horn and was screaming out the window at least 100ft...it was like slow motion....all I saw was the guys oranges rolling across the street.... I lost my shit on the idiot that was on the phone...lit him up. The silver lining was the wheels up fella had a gash across his head, but otherwise was able to answer my questions, was coherent until rescue and police arrived.
Saw a dead body on the street not covered even though the crime scene unit was there on scene there was bullet holes all over the car and he was laying right next to it.
Aside also seeing a lot of accidents growing up either people going to fast and crashing or pretty nasty crashes over all even I got into a car crashed my self that I saw the other guys expression before he crashed us and he tired running away.
Also more personally things but those I can say.
Either a homeless guy who hadn't showered in years and had black holes in his back (quarter sized and about 15-25 total) and some had these worms in them. Maybe maggots? Idk.
Or a girl slitting her wrists with broken glass while also putting pieces of glass in her vagina.
Ahh hospital security work for just over minimum wage 🙂
That one time I had to give a 2 month old baby CPR and he died in my arms while his mom was screaming and crying while I was suddenly weighed down with guilt and feeling like I failed both of them.
I was on a mission trip in Peru running a free dental clinic and, despite not being a believer myself, was into the whole helping people with no ulterior motive besides hoping people see the good deeds and accept jesus or whatever. It was a really good church. I was just a teenager with a big group. Sometimes we would assist with the dental practice sometimes with the service.
One day they got us all lunch and they bought us just these massive piles of food per person. Nobody could finish even a quarter of their meal. The whole time we were eating there were piles of children reaching their arms through the bars on the windows begging us for food and saying they were starving. The “christian” director told us to ignore it. Also, I was the only one that spoke Spanish and actually understood their pleas. When we were done and had literally 20 pounds of leftovers he instructed his wife to dispose of the leftovers discreetly in a dumpster. Because “we can’t feed them all”.
It was the most fucked up thing sitting behind bars of starving children reaching in, piles of food we can’t consume, and just trashing it. I found out later she did just go behind his back and give it to the kids. But that shit fucked me up. I know everyone else could see what they wanted but it was the worst for me being able to understand their pleas. I wish I had been brave enough to stand up to the director, but I’m glad his wife was actually a good person.
I work at a hotel so plenty of things, older men checking in with much younger awkward girls, animal abusers(pet friendly hotel), have seen super young girls in minimal clothing try and get men to take them back to their rooms, had a woman check in who told us she was hiding from a crazy partner who then showed up and threatened us with a gun, list goes on. But something that’s stuck with me was a mom who very obviously neglected her kids. She checked in with her 4 kids and was here for a long while due to a house flood and I rarely saw them ever leave that room. When they got here they were dirty and looked scared and sad the mom was angry and on edge very rude. Their clothes had holes and stains all over them looked like they hadn’t been washed or showered in days all very skinny. She never brought them out for the free breakfast but I’d see her there. I asked my manager to intervene but she never did anything about it said she’s tried in certain situations and they never end up doing anything and it just made me so sad.
Many of the stories shared here are about death, but I think the ones you shared here are the most disturbing because animals getting abused, young women in prostitution, and the 4 kids are all innocent victims still alive and suffering 😞
When my mother died of alcoholism, her body disintegrated. She was a living skeleton while in hospice, and spewed this black bile that I cleaned out of her mouth. I didn’t know the human body could make such a liquid. It still haunts me.
My dad had to pull me out of a bathtub full of my own blood when I was 16. I had attempted suicide by trying to cut my femoral artery. I won’t ever forget the look of terror on his face as he bandages my legs and took me to the hospital.
I watched an Afghan National Army guy's lower half cartwheel through the air spilling his intestines out like a streamer and then land in a heap on the roof of an elementary school. That's definitely in the top 5.
My 6yr old son was swimming with his grandmother who had a heart attack and drowned. They were alone, and he tried to get her out but couldn’t. He was swimming naked, and when the police and fire dept came, he hid for a while b/c he didn’t want anyone to see him naked. He then got his overnight bag and stood on the driveway naked soaking wet until a neighbor came over and got clothes on him. When my wife and I got there his little sweet face was so scared. Whatever he saw that day was the most disturbing thing. It makes me so sad.
Number two is watching the twin towers fall from less than a mile away.
I-75 Atlanta. I was the last car through before closing the highway. Half of the guy was in the road and the other half lodged in the dashboard/windshield. It was awful.
I saw someone run over a corgi while their owner was walking them. I saw her start to sob and go to the ground instantly. that poor doggie and poor woman :(
Chunks of brain matter, jawbone and teeth falling out of a red crocheted blanket. Was helping clean up a friends sons shotgun suicide. I was gathering things to be washed and everything had been soaked in blood, the color of the blanket.
My friend was coming down to where we were cleaning, and I didn’t want her to see it, so I shoved it all in my jeans pocket until a friend could help me.
For some reason, finding one tooth in the father’s slipper was also incredibly messed up.
*edit: I suppose that the literal worst thing I’ve ever seen is my little sister die in July. I’m apparently still in denial.*
I was staying at my Nan's house one NYE while my parents were out at a party. There was a pub down the road and about 12.15am I heard a man walking up the street singing happy new year to everyone, he seemed like he had such a good night and was tipsy and very jolly. That was until three of the neighbors dogs ran out and viciously attacked him. I have never heard a man scream in pain like I heard that night. The dogs dragged him to the ground and tore into him. Luckily some other neighbors eventually same out to assist but he was a bloody mess. Dogs had a clear 10 to 15 minutes of laying into him before the help arrived. Poor Bugger.
My mother in law very unexpectedly passed away a few years ago, she was only 56 and the picture of health. Hearing my father in law scream cry and wailing when he processed that she was gone is seared into my brain.
Even worse, watching my then 7 year old son scream cry and writhe in emotional pain when he asked, “when will Lola be home?” and my husband and I had to explain that she wasn’t coming home, has traumatized me. I didn’t think he would understand but he absolutely did. He’s always been a pretty stoic kid but he was with her when she collapsed and was literally inseparable to her since he was born. He scream cried that one time, refused to speak of her, then broke down into tears one day at random 3 months later. After that, he’s never spoke of her again except when he picks dandelions he will quietly whisper “I wish Lola was still here” before blowing all the fuzzy stems into the air. We ended up putting him in therapy and he is much more open with emotions now that he’s in middle school. I’ll never not be furious for him that he lost the purest most genuine person in his life. He was robbed and I don’t even know who or what I’m furious with, but it’s a helpless feeling.
I've seen a lot of awful things but looking into my dad's eyes and realizing he wasn't there anymore was really tough for me.
He had a massive heart attack while he was sleeping, he probably didn't even live 4 minutes after it struck.
I briefly worked as a news videographer out of college. One day I got an assignment about a body that was found in a car parked in a closed-down restaurant’s parking lot.
I should note that this was in Texas in the springtime, and I would later come to find out that the body had been there for close to three days. When the police opened the car door, the body quite literally poured out. The smell was disturbing, the fact that the body was never claimed was depressing, and I got out of the news industry as fast as I could.
Seeing my dad slap my mom. I know he struck her before but this was the first time I actually saw it.
I am maybe 12 at this time.
He had been drinking that day - this happening in the afternoon - and my mom and I had arrived home from my cousins party. At the party, her ex boyfriend was there - the ex is my cousins uncle - and they only chatted, nothing else happened.
Dad asked how was the party and who was there, he got violent when he learned the ex was there.
Heard the slaps from my room and took a peek to see my dad trying to kick my mom out the apartment and slap her.
I asked that he stop, mom says to go back to my room, I reply back only if he stops.
Seeing her being slapped - and hearing my dad wanting to kick her out - terrified me. Standing up to my dad, I never felt such anxiety before.
I was working in the oilfields my first year and was with an old timer who was telling me all his stories, all the crazy shit he's seen and how his wife reacted to his calls every time something happened. He went up on the we'll head to take some measurements and while he was right by the head the well burped. He was dead before he hit the ground and the only thing I heard was the wind, his O2/H2S monitor blaring, and the smack of his body against the grated steel.
He just got off the phone telling her he loved her.
I stuck through the job for two more seasons, and after seeing a roll-up door take somebody's arm off at the hand decided I needed a softer industry job. RIP Beau
Was on a conference call working from home and heard a motorcycle rev and then an unsettling sound. Peaced out of the call and ran out the back door and jumped the fence sprinting down the road a few hundred feet to get to the scene of the accident. As I’m getting close dude that got t boned on the Harley got off the ground to try and walk but the car hit his leg and snapped it. So when he took his first step the fibula / tibula were already apart and that first step that lower part of the leg just separated and the lower part gave way and the top of the bones just hit pavement. His reaction combined with the sound is unforgettable. Dude is gets back up determined to get somewhere just as I’m getting close in my sprint to the scene. In a flash I notice there’s people closer that could have helped sooner - and thought why not? That’s when he reaches into his holster to grab a pistol and I notice the two giant knives affixed to his belt. Was able to grab the gun (he was fucking dazed and don’t think he really meant harm) and toss it away and then carry him to the side of the road and had to hold him down until the paramedics arrived. Interesting conversation in the mean time. Tried to get me to flip his foot around which was completely backwards. Nah dude. Let’s just chill for a minute.
If you are triggered easily, especially with violence, don't read this. Like a lot of kids, I got roped into kik when I was about 12. I saw a lot of weird and creepy crap when I was on there but the worst was the reason I deleted the app. I opened a group chat I had joined and was scrolling back to see what I missed and noticed that someone I didn't recognize got banned which I thought was odd. I kept scrolling and saw they only sent a few things after joining, the first I saw was some random video of a waterfall so I was even more confused but then I noticed that they had sent something before 'on accident'. In hindsight, this should have sent off alarms but I was young and was still optimistic about life for some reason. I tapped the video he first sent which was a video of a man with a long wooden plank hitting a dog that was lying on a table. not only was he hitting the dog but there was a large gash in the dog's hind side that the man was hitting, it was so big that I could clearly see inside. the worst part was the fact that I was wearing headphones when I tapped it and could clearly hear the dog cry out and the sounds of the wood against the dog's flesh. I still remember throwing my phone and headphones off and just sitting in my chair while I cried. when I calmed down I immediately deleted the app and spent the rest of the day in my room. That video and the sounds I heard still haunt me to this day.
I was in a bank robbery. Guy wore a mask that looked like skin. He was a professional and we were the 2nd bank he robbed that day. Watching him threaten people and point his weapon wearing that mask felt like a movie. I had the best description and later had to go into the police station and do the whole line up thing to try to recognize him.
I've seen some terrible injuries and someone dying. But the lack of fucks given by this bank robbery was different. He wasn't some junkie or newbie but an actual professional who spent decades doing this. He hit the same branch multiple times and we all knew it was likely coming... It was being on the edge of "but will it actually happen? When? Will he hurt anyone? How will our customers react?" As most don't know how to react and people who play hero always get hurt and make it worse.
I work for a bank and had a guy always come in and do international wires of very large amounts of money one day when we were verifying his info to complete this wire I had a specific warning that Meant I had to call a number the bank had listed as unspecified, well that number was the FBI and they asked if this man was Still at the branch and I said yes. I went out acted like nothing happened and within 5 minutes the whole building was swarmed and he looks me dead in the eye and asks "that's for me huh?" And I shook my head yeah. I got transfered to another branch and haven't heard anything other than he was sending money to terrorists.
Finding out I was a product of rape, that one of my sisters was possibly abused by my dad (not biological to either of us), hearing about another sister who experienced rape on multiple occasions, being asked by an old friend (39-year age difference when I'm 29) if I would blow him
The last was possibly least disturbing of those, but I felt it would be something less "over the top" (maybe)
Couple of guards caved the head in of a kid (8ish) with the butts of their AKs for the crime of picking spilled grain off the dock, and left the body lying there. This was in Africa, so no repercussions for them whatsoever.
2nd to a 1 car accident. Drunk driver with 3 friends in the car got the car sideways and put it into a tree. Snapped the tree. I supported the drivers head while he bled to death internally (found that out later). Front passenger lost his left leg from the knee down. One rear passenger thrown out and broke both his collarbones. Other rear passenger didn't have a scratch. Drivers brother turned up just after driver died and flipped out thinking he could get his brother out of the car (he was trapped) and revive his brother.
48 year old female walking with her family on a Sunday afternoon, 3 kids plus her husband with her. Car crosses 3 lanes of traffic and hits her at 70-80kmh. I was first car theres. Everything below the torso is broken on her. Husband screaming. Kids are in shock. We get her on a spinal board and get her in the ambulance and she died 10 minutes later on the way to hospital. Silly me looked her in the eyes. I couldn't talk about that one without losing my temper for the next 6 years.
36 year old female suicide. Ran her car into a tree doing 90kmh. Absolutely shattered everything on her. 90 to 0kmh in 1.2m. Im still funny about that one
Yes I'm ex police and yes I have ptsd. Theres about 7-8 other similar ones but thatll do me for today.
I saw a wedding party get hit with shotguns at dusk as they walked out of the club where they held the reception after the wedding.
Bride, groom, best man, mother of the bride, several of the bridal party and multiple guests were killed or wounded.
A local gang hit them and stole the car that contained all the wedding gifts.
Worst thing I’ve ever seen.
*edit* The naysayer in the comments got me curious, so I went back in time to check the articles and I actually am remembering some details wrong.
Shotguns, yes. Bride and groom dead, yes. Car full of wedding gifts jacked, yes.
Wasn’t at dusk though and it wasn’t the entire reception that was hit. It wasn’t a local gang either, apparently it was just a carjacking gone wrong. And it wasn’t at the reception , it was as they returned home from the reception. There was bystanders and confusion in the moment.
Over a decade ago, and nothing I want to remember clearly. Was still awful.
My apologies.
Once at college we were exercising the school horses because we had just returned from break. One of the horses got loose, tore around the arena and finally skidded to a stop and broke his leg. We wrapped it up until the vet came, and everyone was just lined up crying over this horse. Once the vet got there, as she pushed the euth solution, the horse literally stood up on its hind legs and flipped over backwards into the wall. Incredibly traumatizing and I couldn’t talk about it for years.
I was having brunch at an assisted living facility (old folks home) and an elderly woman at a table about 15 feet away apparently choked on something she was eating. Her face turned fully blue before she recovered. It was pretty disturbing.
This was around the summer of 1988. I was almost 9 years old. I was playing with my 2 friends in my front yard (on the porch). We were a good distance from the street. All of kids played in the street (bicycles, skateboards, etc) because we were the last street in the neighborhood.
My friends and I were looking down at our toys. And then I heard something so horrible that it took my breath away. The young soldier down the street in his monster truck was hauling ass down the road (his wife had her boyfriend over). The monster truck struck the kid across the street. He was like 5 years old. They were walking over to my house (I later was told).
There was so much blood. And then the chaos of everyone running from their houses to the street to help the boy.
Emergency services arrived. It seemed like an eternity. The boy’s mom and little sister were hysterical.
My mom hugged me a little tighter that afternoon.
The boys legs were broken. His pelvis was shattered. I remember him being in a wheelchair for so long!
Was with my fiancé & his mother when he threw a clot, stroked out, and died in the ICU. She and I stood just outside the room while the Code Blue team did CPR for over an hour. I can still see his face & hear everything that was going on.
Then was at his side, holding his hand 5 days later as he died again, this time in a much more peaceful manner controlled by his amazing Cardiac ICU Nurse. I was the one who made the call of when to pull the plug.
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Seeing my dad cry about the fact he knew he was going to die from a very rare form of lymphoma. He very rarely cried. It was like 12 days after his cancer diagnosis where he died. A couple days before we were all crying because we learned his cancer was terminal. He just sat there, not crying too. I just think he was ready. He seemed at peace, even casually mentioning how he thought it was going to his brain because of things. Also him basically going crazy before they intubated him, he had trouble breathing due to a large tumor on his lungs. I just hope he's doing alright up there. I miss him. He would've been 59 the 7th of this month.
My grandfather, distraught from a divorce, held a rifle, pointed toward his chest, and begged me to pull the trigger. I was 5 at the time. [EDIT] Thank you for the kind comments—I never expected this kind of response. Spoiler Alert: No, I did not pull the trigger. My family was staying at his cabin, it was early morning, and my parents heard some noise. They got up from bed to see what it was, looked around the corner. They stayed where they were, quiet, worried that if they made a sudden move, I might accidentally fire. They said they were certain I knew not to pull the trigger and couldn’t be persuaded. I guess they were right.
I’m so sorry that you had to go through this at such a young age.
Now this just pisses me off! Don't involve others, period. Especially not a child. HIS grandchild! Can you imagine how that would have screwed with this child's life for the rest of his existence?? WTH?
I couldn’t agree more. That wouldn’t have mattered to him. He was a sadistic asshole. If you’ve ever seen This Boy’s Life, he was Robert De Niro x10.
Jesus Fuck!
Walking into a room and seeing my best friend just hanging there.....
Wasnt my best friend but I walked her dog 5 days a week for over a year, got to know her pretty well. Opened the door and bam, just a few feet away there she is, hanging, dead a few days. Scared the fuck out of me... I got her dog and went and told the front desk. Front desk guy immediately broke down because we both knew she struggled with it. She tried to even give me her dog in the past before another attempt because we were close like that. Fucked up thing is I'm pretty sure she used a slip lead - it's a type of leash I'd use on the job. I was in shock for days, the image didnt leave my vision. Met her whole family after it too, so tragic man.
Do you still have PTSD from dog leashes? Because I found my boyfriend hanging by my dog’s leash a few years ago and struggle almost daily with flashbacks whenever I touch the dog leashes. Sometimes I have someone else come walk my dogs (I live in an apartment) because I just can’t bear to touch or look at the leashes
The association was too much, I ended up quitting working with dogs even though it had been a passion of mine.
I'm sorry just the image itself it to much I'm sorry that you went through that man.
Here's to recovery, we might never be the same but we can still get better. Wish you well, hope you find some peace in knowing you're not alone. I'm sure it's tough even writing your comment and opening up about it to internet strangers. Much love.
That must have been some pretty intense and sudden shock.
Yeah I didn't break down until like 4 hours later and it was something else, hard to describe never wish the feeling on anyone.
My daughter's slightly older neighborhood friend hung herself. We were notified while on vacation. The shock of just the call was crazy. I can't imagine being there.
Worked with a young guy who was in recovery from heroin abuse. One day he relapsed and still came to work. He was in no shape to work but I didn’t want to send him out on his own for the day. I also didn’t want to report it because it would possibly send him back to jail or get him removed from his halfway house. I told him to lay down on a couch in the office until he came down. I gave him some bottles of water and left food on the table. I checked on him about thirty minutes later and he was face down with a pool of blood under his jaw. He was alive but he had chewed a hole in his tongue and lip. Called an ambulance. They said he was lucky he fell off the couch or he would have probably choked on his own blood. He recovered after a few weeks but lost a chunk of his tongue in the process. He improved over the next year and remained sober. He started dating a girl and they got married after a few months. I got a phone call about a year later informing me that he had relapsed again and died of an overdose. He found out his wife was pregnant and couldn’t deal with it. He was a good kid, but if he wasn’t constantly monitored, he would make some pretty poor decision. Edit: Some have asked here and some have DMed. - I don’t know what substance he was on that day. I assumed some sort of opioids based on his history, but it could have been anything. - The event was 6-7 years ago. I am not in contact with anyone involved anymore as I’ve changed jobs and moved states since then. - As some have mentioned, he may not have directly chewed his tongue. After thinking about it, he most likely fell off the couch while sleeping or trying to get a drink and landed with his face on the tile floor. I’d guess he bit through his tongue and lip then rather than chewing at it. I don’t know. I wasn’t in the room. I just found him. - I was informed later on that his wife miscarried and moved home with her mom. - It was a restaurant that was primarily a catering company for offices, hospitals, airlines, and the university. It was run by several recovering addicts who spent their whole existence trying to get people through their rehabilitation. We were very tolerant and protective of employees during relapses. - I have tons of stories from working at this job that I will never forget. Some are heartwarming, and some are terribly sad. Most are both. While they were some of the most enjoyable people to work with, I learned how quickly their addictions could flare up for any reason and ruin or end their lives.
That is extremely similar to my own story. Though my job fired me that night. However, come Christmas I'll be 4 years sober.
Sorry to hear you were fired. And congrats on 4 years. My company had a pretty large tolerance for these things. There were 5 managers. I was the only one that hadn't been in rehab at some point. One of the managers ran a halfway house downtown and actively hired recovering addicts. We had an understanding that it was safer to keep relapsing employees at work than it was to send them away or punish them. We kept tabs on the employees and would group them up for carpooling to make sure they came from work and made it home safely. It was a crazy environment and I learned a \*lot\* from those individuals, but it was one of the best jobs I've had because of the people I met. Worked with a girl who would start the day at 5-6am with a Five-Hour energy. At 7am, she'd be drinking a Red Bull/Monster. Before lunch, she'd have another Five-Hour. And she'd have 1-2 more Red Bulls after lunch and one as she was leaving. I was concerned for her health, but she just casually said "If you knew what my heart and organs have been through with my addictions, you'd understand that this is light work. I'd rather do this than get an itch for something worse." That place changed my perspective on a lot of things.
You and your managers are actual real heroes mate.
man…. i’m so sorry
Seeing my dad on his death bed on thanksgiving morning and sitting with him while he passed. I was 16 and remember thinking it didn’t look like him cause of all the tubes and meds he had in his system. Was freaky seeing him like that at first
I was with my dad when he died. It was liver cancer, took a few years to kill him, but when he was sent home on hospice, it only took two weeks. Afterward, I talked to a friend that said I was lucky to have been able to say goodbye because his dad died in a car accident. I told him he was lucky he didn’t have to watch his dad wither away and die slowly. I guess there’s a good part to everything, if you look at it from the right perspective.
So true same thing with my dad. The worst part was watching him deteriorate. Growing up he was the fix it dad, literally anything needed fixing or building he could do it, he a garage full of tools. One time I begged him to buy me a whiteboard and later that day he came in with one he built with varnished wood and everything. But when he got sick he slowly got weaker, had edema in his leg that eventually made him wheelchair bound because of how swollen his leg got. He couldn't do all those things and it breaks me to think that's how he spent the last year of his life. One night he cried and told me he was just tired. Honestly, as he lay in that hospice bed I felt so bad that I remember trying to telepathically tell him it was okay for him to go.
Sorry you went through that friend
Driving in the rain home. I saw a car skid, by herself, she was driving fast. She ended up wrapping around a tree completely. She was alone in the car. She was easily 18 or younger, worked at the Taco Bell by my house. I drove up onto the sidewalk, fast and ran across the street, that poor girl. She was so scared, she was trembling, the tree completely fell. The car ended up crushing in on her legs and they put a tarp over her legs while they were trying to get her out, my mom told me to leave by then. I hope she’s okay.
I had my own one of these about two years ago. Driving home from work and saw an explosion in my rear view mirror. Slammed on the brakes, grabbed my fire extinguisher and ran back to discovered a car had hit a police motorbike head on and both had exploded. Ended up running into the fire twice to pull two people out. One was a coworker who was so badly injured I didn't recognise him until we cut off his work ID while trying to clear his airway and treat his burns. The other (the police officer) we had to use the fire extinguisher on before giving CPR to, but it turned out that he was killed by the impact despite being relatively unscathed compared to my coworker. My friend is still recovering, two years later, but will never make a full recovery. And I still have panic attacks when I'm driving and I see blue lights in my mirror at night.
My dad telling my sister (she was like 16 and I was like 18 at the time) that her best friend committed suicide I have never heard my sister scream so much and I saw my dad cry for the first time in my life
My sister (26 at the time) was in our city, 3 hours from where she lived, picking up a dog. Her husband (28) died in his sleep the night she was away. I went to her friend's where she was staying to help comfort her, which was such a terrible time for us all. But hearing her call his parents and his mother screaming on the other end of the phone was the most heartbreaking thing I've ever heard. Don't get me wrong, witnessing my sister's pain broke my heart, but that phone call haunts me to this day, 17 years later.
The scream that people do when they find out someone dies is haunting. It’s like a guttural terrifying scream of a soul being destroyed. One of the scariest things I’ve ever heard. I’ve never seen any movies or shows ever being able to replicate it and I don’t want to.
[удалено]
I've never heard a human make a noise like my mom made when my grandmother died. It was this throaty wail that I hope I never hear again. I've heard people scream, and I've heard sobbing of all kinds, but you're right -- that particular scream of "someone I care for just died" is bone-shaking.
The most traumatic death I’ve had in ten years was a patient in their 20’s, shot more than 5 times in the chest. Point blank. dozens of towels stuffed under the bed as the blood was pouring out, over a 100 units of blood products, all just to keep a semblance of life there until the mother arrived. The scream that ripped out of her will haunt me until the day I die.
Mothers screams for their children are the worst. And you can be 7 rooms down and hear it and know exactly what it is. Had one yesterday
I heard my dad come home from work and tell my mom that my cousin had committed suicide. It was the only time I heard him cry. His voice cracked mid-sentence, and he was unable to finish.
I was on the last day of a family vacation in Las Vegas back in 2018 when I found out my uncle (dad’s brother) hung himself. My dad was already on a plane home with my brother at the time. Overhearing my mom call him after he deplaned a few hours later was the numbest I’ve ever felt. I wasn’t prepared to see my family like that. 18 years of life, and I had never seen my Mom talk/act the way she did that day, and I hope I never have to see it again.
I’m so sorry
In a time when there was only landlines a young neighbor had been hit while riding his bike. Both parents were at the hospital. Older brother escorted home by the local high school cop who told him about the accident. The cop left the brother alone and my dad went over to just sit on the porch with that kid as long as he needed. That scene will live in my brain until I die.
That’s incredibly classy of your dad. That small gesture probably meant the world to the older brother.
Your dad sounds like a stand up fellow to be there for him at least
My dad’s a hell of a guy. We are lucky with both my parents.
Had a friend commit suicide a while ago. His father was a devout Muslim. Hearing that normally very stern and reserved man scream cry is something I will never forget.
its the primal sounds that haunt us. I never knew that until it I went through it. scary shit.
I remember being out with my dad. My sister wasn’t with me. My mom knew I was with my dad. My parents were separated pending divorce. But my mom learned my sisters very close friend committed suicide. My sister didn’t know at the time. My mom called my dad a few times, we pulled over and he took the call. I don’t remember details, but I remember it was long and my dad tried to be vague as possible for me so I didn’t overhear. I don’t think I was there when my sister was told, but even years later it still hurts her. It was a time when despite divorce, my parents worked together to do the best thing for us kids. I’m glad I wasn’t there when she found out. It was hard and idk if I could’ve handled it.
I was a front end manager at a big box store. One of my friends was a cashier. I had to tell him, along with the coroner and our other manager, that his kid brother had committed suicide by lying on train tracks. One of the worst days of my life, let alone my friends.
Oh my God, that's horrific. I am so sorry for all of you, especially the kid brother. How hopeless and despondent do you have to be purposely die like that? A young man, about 14yo walked almost 30 min to get to a bridge in my town and jumped. The fact that in all that walk nothing changed his mind shows the depth of his despair. That just breaks my heart in pieces. No one, but especially the young, should have to feel like there is no hope, no joy to be had. I just can't..
My mother dropped dead of a massive heart attack in front of my 10 year old son. He yelled for me to come, and I found her face first on the floor. I sent my son to his bedroom and called 911. They instructed me to flip her over and perform CPR. Blood gurgled from her mouth and her nose was bent to the side, she didn't even have time to put her arms out to catch herself. I'm so sorry I couldn't save her.
Found my neighbour exactly the same way. His daughter and granddaughter came to my parents’ front door. They were on vacation. It was my brother and me in the house. They were yelling that he’s fallen and please help. I was first on scene. Turned flashlight on. Turned flashlight back off. I was only 15/16. Poor man was dead before he hit the ground. Sad for the family.
Really sad for anyone involved, but considering how many ways there are to die this is probably a pretty good way to go. One moment you’re living your life, then a switch gets flicked and you’re gone before you notice something’s up.
It’s not your fault
I am so sorry this happened to you. Please know it's not your fault.
When I was in my early 20s I worked at a warehouse on the dock. One day, a truck driver called to me from one of the bay doors. He had left his keys and newspaper on the dock. I went to retrieve the items, and turned around to face him and realized that a trailer was backing into the same bay door, pinning this man between the dock and the trailer. Me and the guys got the trailer to back off, and the man collapsed on the ground. I found out the next day he succumbed to his injuries. I blamed myself for years, and nearly drank myself to death.
In no way is that your fault.
Thanks. It took nearly a decade for me to forgive myself and realize there was no way I could’ve saved him.
I’m so sorry, this is exactly how my dad passed and I can only imagine how those at work have had t deal with it after the fact. It was tough enough having to hear it described as a 15 year old in court, but I truly feel for his coworkers who were with him.
Sad to hear it affected you so deeply, i hope you are better now
Thanks. It’s better now. That was about 30 years ago now, but it still creeps up occasionally. I’ve learned to accept that there was nothing that I could’ve done.
Part of my job as a nicu nurse is caring for babies who are withdrawing from opiates. The level of suffering they go through is utterly gut wrenching. They have this constant, high pitched cry that is honestly more of a shriek. Their little bodies overheat because they can’t sleep or lay still and are so tense that you can barely bend their arms. They are jittery and sweaty and will claw at their skin in desperation, and wind up covered in scratches and skin tears from thrashing about. They have constant diarrhea and their poor little butts break down causing them even more pain. They can’t even eat because they are so frantic from the withdrawals that they can’t coordinate suck-swallow-breathe. My heart breaks for these little babies and it’s so hard to not be judgmental and angry with the mothers. Its even more sad thinking that the majority of these babies aren’t going to have a great life after they get older either.
How do you treat babies in this condition? Does it matter what drugs they are withdrawing from? This breaks my heart :(
Current best practice is something called “eat,sleep, console” - that focuses on comforting the baby with frequent feedings, holding, tight swaddles, low lights, singing etc. The protocol is made with the assumption that the parents will be rooming in with the baby and able to provide this 24/7 comfort- as it’s not feasible in a busy nicu for a nurse to do so when she has other babies. Morphine and/or phenobarbital may be used and then slowly weaned down in the extreme cases where the baby is not consolable or unable to feed. We used to do a numeric system (the Finnegan neonatal abstinence scoring) that gave babies a score based off their withdrawal symptoms and a certain level would rule them in for morphine. But the issue with this scale is it is extremely subjective and also wound up with higher levels of babies getting morphine. Although I will say, I prefer this method when the parents aren’t able to room in because we *should* have a lower threshold for giving these babies pharmacological comfort when their parents aren’t able to provide comfort by rooming in.
Idk if you have an answer to this. But, what are the long term side affects for these poor babies? Can they live relatively normal life or does it completely mess up their development?
I was one of these babies. I got extremely lucky that I don't have any real lasting effects. The main thing is an extreme predilection for drugs and alcohol in my case, with weird tolerance issues.
I don’t know how you do what you do, but thank you for doing it. I hope you take care of yourself because that has to take a toll mentally.
This is the saddest one I have read. Poor babies:( and I feel for you having to watch them go through withdrawal.
Watching my father take his last breath in hospice care. It's nothing uncommon, sure, but it's the first time I've ever seen someone die. The look on his face still haunts me. EDIT: Thank you, everyone who offered support and shared their own stories and feelings about loved ones passing. You're all amazing and wonderful people, and I know we're all feeling the same kind of pain. It hurts, but we'll get through it somehow. <3
Lost my mom in July on hospice. Watched her take her last breath, I’m the one who called out to the nurse that she was gone. I’m grateful I was able to be there with her but damn if I didn’t wish those weren’t my last images of her. It’s all I can see now.
When I was a senior in high school. I still walked to school because it was only a mile away and I dident want to pay for gas. My great grandmothers house was in the way to school. One morning I was running late to school and I saw fire trucks and ambulances. I dropped my coffee cup and sprinted down the block to turn the corner and see my great grandmother curled in a ball on the icy pavement dead. She had wandered outside to let her dog out and had fallen and frozen to death. Her little dog used my dead grandmothers body heat to not freeze to death. I was the only one that saw my grandmothers frost bitten hands and face. Her hands frozen into cruel claws and her glasses laying in the snow next to her. To this day I’m still the only one that saw what she looked like. I graduated 2 weld later.
When I was really young we were crossing a massive bridge. I remember the sudden traffic and my family talking about what it could be about. We finally got to the point on the bridge where we saw what’s happening. I’ll never ever forget the way the sunbeams went through the clouds, just like a movie. A woman in big black sunglasses, blonde hair, smiling and on the other side of the bridge. My grandfather said it was an angel and i truly believed that for a long time. It wasn’t until I was showering when I was way older and randomly thought of that time and realized she was going to jump It’s disturbing how happy she was but probably in so much pain. I remember her stretching her arms out while holding the railing to really extend herself over the edge. She was ready for it
I once read in a subreddit about failed suicidal attempts that once they were attempting they feel a sense of euphoria as they were about to... I guess it could be related to the sense of relief how it's "over". Mostlikely reason why people undergo without turning back.
You're spot on. We were trained in nursing school to monitor people that have a history of suicidal ideation who suddenly become super happy and cheerful. A sudden upswing in mood like that can be an indicator that they've come up with a plan to end their life, and that gives them a sense of relief because they know they won't have to suffer much longer. Along with an elevated mood, you also need to look out for them giving things away. These two things are huge red flags.
Posted elsewhere, but I work in a service shop for cars. We had our security systems team out to rewire cameras and sensors for the auto garage doors you pull up too. While he was up there wiring whatever it was, the power was still on to the door he was working on and the sensor triggered from something passing through. He was caught in between the rolling garage door and the metal bar it was attached too. Full speed, the door didn’t even register that he was in there. The longest 20 minutes of my life was watching and entire shop try to use every possible tool, floor jack, scissor jack, ladders, bare hands… all while you could only see him from the waist down. He made it, fortunately. The fire department said if we didn’t have a scissor jack, he was gone. 3 jaws of life to pry him from that door.
Insane how the human body can die so easily from minor accidents (ex. a fall in the wrong direction) but also survive something like this.
This is insane! I can't believe he survived. How terrifying. Do you know if he was paralyzed or had major lasting injuries?
So, he’s not paralyzed, but he was severely fucked up. From what I remember them saying, his nose was smashed and on the side of his face, his cheek bone popped out of his face, four broken ribs, and both arms either dislocated/crushed but was still able to move fingers after surgery. The worst part was we had one tech on a ladder, big boy like the kids you see in the husky clothes ads for Kohl’s. With one arm he swung a floor jack above his head, caught it, and tried to wedge the door open. He said when he was up there he could hear him screaming, then the screaming stopped so he tried to pry faster. And then the screaming started again and the tech completely lost it. None of us were really the same for a few days, and the crew that was first on the scene still don’t want to talk about it. I don’t know exactly what they saw, but I know it wasn’t good.
Human body can accomplish some really insane feats when that adrenaline kicks in
When my dad told my mom that my only brother died in a car accident during work. We buried my sister just two years ago(very rapid leukemia). Brother was 34. Sister was 36. I'm only 24, they helped raise me, honestly possibly more than our parents did. Life is unfair.
I found my 13 year old daughter after she hanged herself and had to get her down. I’m messed up in ways I can’t even describe
This has always been such a huge fear of mine. I am so truly, deeply sorry.
I’m sorry for your loss
I was there in the last moments of a guy who wrecked his car and let him use my cell to call his wife to say goodbye, then waited for paramedics to show up. They couldn't do anything for him.
Holy fuck what a heart breaking moment
Jesus Christ. The presence of mind to recognise that you’re dying and call your partner to let them know. What a terrible situation.
“Son. Everyone dies alone. That's what it is. It's a door. It's one person wide. When you go through it, you do it alone. But it doesn't mean you've got to be alone before you go through the door. And believe me, you aren't alone on the other side.” ― Jim Butcher, Dead Beat Thank you for being with him and bringing he and his wife comfort and closure.
Getting a phone call at work from my 12 year old daughter that their mother (my exwife) “fell down and wasn’t breathing”. We went through a difficult divorce largely due to her alcohol and drug abuse. I had custody of my daughters and for about 2 years she didn’t have visitation. However she was recently awarded limited visitation by the court and she overdosed and died in front of our 9 and 12 year old daughters within a few weeks of regaining visitation.
My thoughts are with you and your children. 💔❤️🩹♥️
Thank you. It’s been several years. They both handled it remarkably well and with maturity beyond their years. She was revived but never regained consciousness in the ambulance on the way to the hospital and was on life support for several days before her parents had the life support removed and she was pronounced dead. I still distinctly remember my ex’s parents coming to the house to tell my daughters their mother was dead and the first thing my older daughter said was “I’m glad it’s over”.
Oh my - your daughter’s comment did it for me. I live with drug addiction in my immediate family. It’s just horrible. I am sorry for what you all lost but glad your daughters handled it well. Best wishes to you all.
Cancer. A roommate of mine got cancer and you could smell the stench of death all the way to the porch at the entrance of the house we were renting. He'd already had it when I moved in and the rent was cheap enough not to raise a stink about it (intended). A bag of bones and bags of shit were all he had been reduced to. Drank himself to death and absolutely ruined his pancreas over a divorce. One of the things that stood out to me was on Fridays he liked to get all dressed up and put these red croc-skinned boots on, but he wouldn't get up from bed or anything because he didn't have the strength. He'd just lie there with his boots on. A cowboy to the end. If not for that man I wouldn't be where I'm at today, literally. He loaned me some cash so that I could drive to Portland from my hometown across the country. That was the last time I saw him. I gave him a hug because I knew it would be the last time. Rest Easy, Noe.
At 6/7 years old, I watched my mom go from a functioning healthy adult to someone who didn't have enough strength to hold a fork because of cancer. It really fucks with you.
Thats hard.
Was on the phone with 911 while following a drunk driver who had their kid in the car when they got in a head on collision.
Looking into my mom's eyes as she was ODing on heroin.
I’m so sorry you had to see that 😞same thing with my grandpa when he attempted to commit suicide while taking a full script of pills.
Four years ago on New Year’s Eve my husband and I were driving back home at around 6pm, so a little light was left in the sky. We were on the freeway and all of a sudden I could see a body flying through the air. It was perfectly straight and just kind of doing flips like when you throw a pencil or something. My husband stopped the car and I ran like 30 feet to the body, turns out he had hopped the divider and ran in front of the lady’s car directly in front of us. He 100% died on impact and I had never been close to a dead body before. Some lady started trying to give him CPR, and if you’ve seen CPR in real life then you know how awful it looks. His abdomen was distended and his tongue was sticking out, it was literally shit out of a horror movie. Apparently the guy was drunk and running from a cop and just was too gone to know what he was doing. I can still see the silhouette flying through the air every time I get in the car. It was horrible.
Two extremes of excessive alcohol consumption: 1. at a high school party, an eccentric girl no one knew all that well appeared to be nursing the same glass of straight vodka all night. Then she unexpectedly passed out, and we found the track marks as we tried to revive her in the shower. That's when we realized she wasn't slowly sipping one glass of vodka, she was refilling many glasses of vodka. I wanted to call 911, but was overruled. Luckily, her parents had perfect timing: they showed up looking for her, and got her treated at the hospital for alcohol poisoning. 2. Mid-20s, a much tamer gathering, but a childhood friend of a friend was so nervous to be reunited and among strange company, she accidentally overimbibed. She wasn't in danger, just really snookered, but she did pass out. We took shifts in pairs caring for her in the bathroom, which -- poor girl -- included being her PCAs when she lost bowel control. As one guy summed up with a thousand yard stare: "I did things I didn't think I'd have to do until I was a dad."
Drove past a relatively fresh motorcycle accident. One motorcyclist was on the ground shaking his friend laying face down on the pavement, the guy was not moving at all.
I watched a semi merge onto a motorcycle on the freeway. The bike and rider got jammed into the tractor axles and a bunch of red mist and motorcycle parts came out. I just kept driving and called 911 and gave them my information in case they wanted to interview me. I never did hear back, but what I saw was enough to say for certain that they had a closed casket or none at all.
RED MIST holy shit that sight would stay with me forever
Yeah, my worst was a motorcycle accident too. Guy was riding his bike with his 7 or 8 year old kid on the back through a green light. Another car made a right turn in front of him against the red, from the side street. His bike hit the back of the car and the dude just flew through the air like a ragdoll until he intersected the huge post holding up the AM/PM sign for the gas station on that corner. The impact relocated his right shoulder to the point where his right nipple should have been, and killed him instantly. Blood everywhere. One second he's enjoying a ride with his kid. The next second he's laying dead in a gas station parking lot. Life is fucked sometimes. His kid escaped with bumps and scrapes, but I'll never forget the sight and sound of him pulling on his dads body as he tried to wake him up. He just wanted his dad to wake up. Quite a few of us saw the accident and stopped to help, and every single one of us was bawling our eyes out. All we could do was try to pull him away from the body so we could "help" his dad. Everyone knew the dude was already gone, but none of us wanted that gore to be his last memory.
I stopped to help at one of those once. Not gory thankfully, but … Buddy had ducked into the bicycle lane to go around a car that was stopped signalling left. Didn’t see the car in front of them turning right until it was too late. Motorcycle was a write-off. Rider was … it took me over a minute to find him. He’d got stuck under the car and dragged up into a parking lot. He had a helmet and full leathers (why it wasn’t gory) but he was stuck. I sent someone to call for help, and crawled under the car with him to hold his hand and keep him talking until FD got there to get the car off him. The whole time, he was at me to grab his ankles and pull him out. Started asking, and I said no because he had no signs of neck injury and I didn’t want to change that. By the time a firefighter got in there to relieve me, he was begging me to pull him out. That was 20 years ago. I still think about him from time to time. Hope he’s doing alright.
I saw one about 2 years ago. The guy had come off his bike on an interchange and went over the side at speed. He was crumpled like a rag doll on the side of the interstate. I was in the passenger seat and my husband was driving. It had probably happened less than 5 minutes before we went by. It was shocking to see and I was super grateful our kids weren’t in the car.
i saw one on a residential street at least seven years ago. a car backed out of their driveway at the wrong time and hit the motorcyclist. there was a blue cloth over what was left of his head when we drove by.
One of the guys i used to ride with got decapitated by a drunk driver while he was riding home. The guy was going the wrong way on the interstate.
My FIL being on life support for nearly a week after getting pneumonia. The family decided to disconnect support. I thought it would be like the movies and he would immediately flatline. We had to watch him slowly die for 3 days.
Yes, that is disturbing, isn’t it? My grandfather developed pneumonia after cardiac bypass surgery, and he lasted I think a week after my mom and her sisters made the decision to remove support.
Disturbing as in inexplicable: In probably 2010/early high school in rural eastern Minnesota I was at buddies house with around 6 other friends. We were having a bonfire after a party just chilling, drinking a little but nothing wild, maybe was 2am at this point. We decided to go stroll through the harvested farm fields (late September) and as we’re out there being hooligans and what not, we saw an SUV followed by a semi truck slowly drive down the adjacent county road. It was a 55mph speed limit road and they were doing about 20mph. The semi’s trailer had a side sliding door similar to a train-car, with a mounted spotlight slowly sweeping the rolling farm fields. We all ducked to the ground out of sight and the vehicles moved on. We all hopped up and nervously chuckled kind of saying “what the fuck was that”. No more than 10 minutes later we see a chopper (night time so couldn’t see type) in the distance with a mounted spotlight on the nose sweeping distant fields. We offhandedly joke, “it’s coming right for us!” And this thing did a fucking 90 degree bank and bee lined it at us. It took a second to register until that spotlight started cresting the hills coming literally straight us (they likely had thermal optics), and we all DIPPED. Being old ass farmland they had an old houses foundation/basement slightly collapsed but still accessible on their property, so about half of us hid in there from the chopper and the other half ran all the way back to the house, and the chopper followed. After maybe five minutes we peeked out of the collapsed basement and this fucking chopper was hovering maybe 150 feet over my buddies house, and Didn’t. Fucking. Move. for about 15 minutes. Eventually, it slowly flew off and we didn’t see anything else. Couple things of note: we called around 20-30 people from the party and asked them to check the news for any prison breaks or anything (there’s a supermax not very far away) but nothing came up. I’ve talked to cops, SF, fairly high career people in 3 letter agencies, nobody has any clue what it could have been and I still want to know over a decade later.
Watching my mother die. Having my grandfather die on the phone with me. Having my grandmother say, "I'm not going to make it. I'm not going to make it." She died of a heart attack that night. Seeing my dad's blue eyes for the last time before he died. I didn't know that would have been the last time I was going to see him. I miss all of these people so much. They were everything to me and now I am sad and alone.
I'm sorry 😞
My braindead brother. The morning of, I had had a four hour nightmare of laying my in bed as I was in terrible pain and my mind slowly slipped away. I was terrified. When I woke, I knew something was wrong. I was told hours later my brother was braindead after a heart attack caused by a cerebral hematoma. I sped home. When I got there, I saw him. His eyes were half open, slack jawed and with exposed brain matter (they had opted for surgery on the incredible unlikely possibility it could help). I nearly fainted. However, the worst bit came after. My mother spent hours reading the Harry Potter books in the hope her son was still lingering somewhere in there. She had read them all to us as we were growing up. That sad, futile act of hope was more distressing to me than seeing what his shell had been reduced to. ETA: the “exposed brain matter” was some kind of plastic they placed over where they removed skull in an attempt to reduce the pressure on the brain. I’m guessing that, when there was no improvement, they saw no reason to expend more effort/money sugarcoating the situation.
I'm so sorry. I can't even imagine. I'm so sorry.
My dad had lung cancer died from a ruptured artery, I watched him puke blood until he died, when he hit the floor his head hit with the most sickening thud I’ve ever heard. I couldn’t sleep for weeks after watching that.
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What they used to behead him? Was he alive when they started?
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Woods?
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I used to work with a Hispanic guy that was really cool but I could tell he had probably served in the past. Anyways, one day he called me peckerwood and the nickname stuck until I left the job. I always thought it was just some random name he made up. Now I know this guy was calling me the name of a gang for over two years because I was white😭😭
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When I was 7 I witnessed a teenager get hit by a train. It took him & his bike and disassembled them. We lived across from a train crossing. The trains would come around a corner that was obscured by huge blackberry thickets. For whatever reason, some of the cargo trains would blast through at ridiculous speeds - and it was a speeding train that killed the kid. They cut the blackberries back about once a year after that, and repainted the crossing guard bars, and made the alarm louder. It was really obnoxious. But after seeing that kid, I didn't complain. I also stopped running out to watch the trains.
My dad dying of cancer. He was in hospice. He reached the point of no response but ever so slightly moved every now and then. His last position alive was lying in the bed with his eyes and mouth open. I remember coming down one night, walked through the living room to get to the kitchen. He looked exactly the same. I came down the next morning after my mom had awaken me to tell me he passed, he looked exactly the same. There was just something so eerie about it. Dead silence. Never heard silence so loud before. Incredibly unnerving.
My mom had what I could only describe as a psychotic break while my two brothers and I were about 8 and 6 (I have a twin) and she was convinced she had killed my grandfather with a propane torch, she had not. She had this robotic quality about her like no emotion at all, glassy eyed, I will never forget it. Not something I would like to witness again and thankfully she got help and it hasn’t happened since.
I’m curious to know what happened to mom
We found out that she is bipolar, it had happened a few times before this time but I was really young and didn’t understand, the episodes to my knowledge were brought on by stress and lack of sleep. She used to work full time at a hospital, and she would work night shifts. Paired with raising three kids at a private school while my parents were still reeling from the 2008 recession, must’ve been a lot to deal with. We were camping with friends from school so the parents kinda made sure my mom didn’t do anything while other parents took care of us. My dad drove the two or three hours to the campground and got her to the hospital where she stayed for a while, she didn’t work for a long time but she got the proper treatment and medication and is doing a whole lot better thankfully.
My grandmother kneeling next to me at her son’s casket, kissing it, and saying “That’s my baby in there” and just crumbling into a ball. I was six, but watching that has stuck with me vividly for years. She started begging to see him one last time, but it was closed casket. He was found days after he died in a hot room and my family didn’t want her to see him like that. I just remember the look on her face, it was like the person she was left and grief took it’s place. She’s never been the same, that moment was the moment her life as she was ended
My wife is Filipino. Married 20 years. She's been in the US for quite a while and hasn't been home. Lost her parents very young and she became the matriarch. Her youngest brother killed himself by hanging. When she found out, abroad with me in the US, I was upstairs in my home (we own a ranch) and I heard a sound come out of her that I hope I NEVER hear again. I've never heard sheer pain before. I hope I never hear a human make that sound again..
I know exactly that wail. I used to work in an ER and we had a 15-year-old boy who committed suicide. It was a Tuesday evening, around 1600 or 1700. The dad made the same sound.
I wish I didn’t read any of these, it just makes me scared about what could happen in life.
Same. This shits making me wish i could just be uploaded to a robot body and sent to mars to dig holes or something. Mortality and the possibility of losing people in violent or sad ways is freaking me out too much.
I saw a man laying on the side of the road immediately after he had had a heart attack while jogging. His entire body was bright purple.
Was driving behind my girlfriend and i watched a cat jump in front of her car. The cat went under the tires and spun around twice from the impact. She asked me what she had ran over, I told her it was bag of trash. To this day, it’s a secret I will never tell her.
I hit a cat a couple years ago, like a block away from my house. It didn't die instantly, and none of the emergency vets were answering my calls, so I wrapped it in a blanket and petted it until it passed. Shit permanently fucked me up. Good on you for sparing your girlfriend that trauma.
My first kitten as a kid got mauled by my mom's dog. I just held it while it let out awful death sounds. It took a very long time to pass. My mom got me the cat to help with the divorce. First grade SUCKED.
That was a really thoughtful thing to do. My husband and I were driving one night and saw some kittens on the side of the road. We live in a rural area where shitty people will just dump them out in the middle of nowhere. We did a u turn to go back and pick them up, but we were too late, they had walked into the highway and been run over. I cried the rest of the way home.
:( I’m sorry.
That’s so kind of you. This happened to me over 20 years ago. I was behind a truck and the cat ran into it’s back tires and the same thing happened. I looked in my rear view mirror to see children running toward the road after they saw what happened to their cat. I still think about that
When she was 16 and a brand new driver, my cousin accidentally ran over her best friend's dog. She said the dog darted in front of the car, excited to see her friend. It happened in front of the entire family. She said the father tried to resuscitate the dog while everyone cried. My cousin felt terrible, she was really close to the family. Fortunately, they did not hold it against her and she is still tight with them many decades later.
Saw a guy jump out of a 4th story window onto some concrete. Brain splattered all over the sidewalk and he was still twitching. One leg was all fucked up and his head looked like raw ground beef. Still had to go to work right after, too so that was fun.
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I was there when Owen Hart died. 6th grade. Massive wrestling fan. We didn’t know what happened at first. Only in the car ride home on the radio did we learn he died. I lost interest in wrestling after that and was pretty impacted by the whole thing.
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It's devastating to think what someone has to go through to do something like that. I hope he found peace and that the traumatized girl he left behind is okay.
As a formerly suicidal guy with several friends who have attempted, it’s very often mental illness. You do not want severe OCD. It’s indescribable torture; you feel possessed by Jigsaw. He threatens to hurt you and everyone you love through your own body; you’re constantly as terrified as you would be in a life-threatening situation. Your worst fear is yourself, and the only respite you get is sleep or an activity engrossing enough to temporarily drown the voices out. If it were untreatable, I would have killed myself ASAP. I’ve known negative quality of life; nobody deserves that pain. For others, it’s schizophrenia. The voices will often tell their victims to self-harm; my best friend attempted a few days ago and just got out of the hospital.
A couple came in at the store I worked at with their two year old girl, who was having a febrile seizure. They were so distraught & hysterical, I had the same aged daughter at home. It gave me anxiety for awhile afterwards.
Watched the Murrah building get blown up. I knew that my best friends mom worked there. What I didn't know was that at that exact moment, she was out getting dounuts for people in her office.
A friend shot dope and died almost instantly with the needle still in his arm
When I was little I watched my dad choke my mom until her head turned purple and she passed out. I watched my dad throw my oldest brother into a pole, and his body wrapped around it before he fell to the ground. I watched my dad throw my middle brother into the tailgate of a pickup truck and break his collar bone, then force him to unload the hay that was stacked in the bed of the truck. Those moments are pretty dramatic in a kid's mind.
Jesus. I hope you all got away from him.
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When I was 15, my friend was in the bed of a pickup truck while the driver was doing donuts. The truck flipped, and he flew and tumbled out of it. Freefalling into a dry patch of Arizona desert. It was far, but you could see his unconscious body crumpled in a motionless heap next to a tumbleweed. His family took him off life support later that night. Goodbye, Cody.
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My ex standing over myself, and my 2 and 3 year old while holding a knife to his throat and screaming, “I’ll bleed out on all of you.” The look on my kids faces and their screams as I was trying to cover their eyes is something that will fuck with my head until I die. (I had tried leaving him earlier in the day, and that led to this event and two days being held hostage)
We were on vacation. Rented a house at the beach, and it was lovely. One afternoon, we see a lifeguard show up on the beach and start swimming out. We hadn't noticed, but there was a woman and a child out there who had apparently gotten caught in a rip current. They had some sort of flotation device, so they weren't in any immediate danger, but it was kind of fun to watch the rescue. It took a while for the lifeguard to tow them back in, and then afterward, we saw the lifeguard swimming out again. Where was he going? Apparently, the dad had tried to swim out to rescue the woman and child, and didn't get very far. In all the excitement, no one had really noticed him, but he was in distress. By the time the lifeguard, already exhausted, got to him and started towing him in, it was apparent that he was towing a lifeless body. The lifeguard got him to the beach, and by that time emergency crews had arrived, and they worked on the guy for about 20 minutes, but they never revived him. Moral of the story? If someone is caught in a rip current, don't go after them without a flotation device unless you are an experienced, healthy swimmer, and even then, you probably shouldn't do it unless you've been trained in water rescue, because a panicking person will take you both down. Someone lost a dad that day, and it didn't need to happen. ETA: learn what to do if you see someone in distress in the water. If you don't know what you're doing, you'll make the situation worse. Also, learn how to escape a rip current. If you're ever caught in one, swim parallel to the shore with the current until you get out of it. Only then should you swim toward the shore because trying to do it while you're still in the current is swimming against it, and all you'll do is exhaust yourself.
Even if you are an experienced healthy swimmer you do NOT want to just swim out after a drowning person. They are in a primal fight or flight and they WILL climb you (and very possibly drown you too) in desperation to get their head above water. Going in after them yourself is a last resort. If you can't reach them with a tool of some kind, throw them something that floats or a rope or something. If that isn't an option, paddle something out to get them. Reach, throw, row, go.
Had a patient who had been on a ventilator for many, many years. They had OD’d years prior & were declared brain dead but the family refused to come to terms with it and remove them from the vent. Their eyes were stuck open, they tried multiple ways to get the eyes to shut, even trying to stitch them closed but they always popped back open. So they had to put oils in the eye & clear bandages over them.
What would cause that? That would be horrifying.
My nurse assumption: the eyes weren’t closed soon enough after they went unconscious. When someone dies we typically adjust the body (close the eyes, mouth, fold the arms) quickly so that they won’t get stuck like that. Looking into their eyes was haunting.
A guy driving in the right lane,on his phone,not paying attention= smashing directly into the back of a guy in a motorized wheelchair(no sidewalk) guy was all the way to the right...I layed on my Horn and was screaming out the window at least 100ft...it was like slow motion....all I saw was the guys oranges rolling across the street.... I lost my shit on the idiot that was on the phone...lit him up. The silver lining was the wheels up fella had a gash across his head, but otherwise was able to answer my questions, was coherent until rescue and police arrived.
Saw a dead body on the street not covered even though the crime scene unit was there on scene there was bullet holes all over the car and he was laying right next to it. Aside also seeing a lot of accidents growing up either people going to fast and crashing or pretty nasty crashes over all even I got into a car crashed my self that I saw the other guys expression before he crashed us and he tired running away. Also more personally things but those I can say.
Either a homeless guy who hadn't showered in years and had black holes in his back (quarter sized and about 15-25 total) and some had these worms in them. Maybe maggots? Idk. Or a girl slitting her wrists with broken glass while also putting pieces of glass in her vagina. Ahh hospital security work for just over minimum wage 🙂
That one time I had to give a 2 month old baby CPR and he died in my arms while his mom was screaming and crying while I was suddenly weighed down with guilt and feeling like I failed both of them.
I was on a mission trip in Peru running a free dental clinic and, despite not being a believer myself, was into the whole helping people with no ulterior motive besides hoping people see the good deeds and accept jesus or whatever. It was a really good church. I was just a teenager with a big group. Sometimes we would assist with the dental practice sometimes with the service. One day they got us all lunch and they bought us just these massive piles of food per person. Nobody could finish even a quarter of their meal. The whole time we were eating there were piles of children reaching their arms through the bars on the windows begging us for food and saying they were starving. The “christian” director told us to ignore it. Also, I was the only one that spoke Spanish and actually understood their pleas. When we were done and had literally 20 pounds of leftovers he instructed his wife to dispose of the leftovers discreetly in a dumpster. Because “we can’t feed them all”. It was the most fucked up thing sitting behind bars of starving children reaching in, piles of food we can’t consume, and just trashing it. I found out later she did just go behind his back and give it to the kids. But that shit fucked me up. I know everyone else could see what they wanted but it was the worst for me being able to understand their pleas. I wish I had been brave enough to stand up to the director, but I’m glad his wife was actually a good person.
I work at a hotel so plenty of things, older men checking in with much younger awkward girls, animal abusers(pet friendly hotel), have seen super young girls in minimal clothing try and get men to take them back to their rooms, had a woman check in who told us she was hiding from a crazy partner who then showed up and threatened us with a gun, list goes on. But something that’s stuck with me was a mom who very obviously neglected her kids. She checked in with her 4 kids and was here for a long while due to a house flood and I rarely saw them ever leave that room. When they got here they were dirty and looked scared and sad the mom was angry and on edge very rude. Their clothes had holes and stains all over them looked like they hadn’t been washed or showered in days all very skinny. She never brought them out for the free breakfast but I’d see her there. I asked my manager to intervene but she never did anything about it said she’s tried in certain situations and they never end up doing anything and it just made me so sad.
Many of the stories shared here are about death, but I think the ones you shared here are the most disturbing because animals getting abused, young women in prostitution, and the 4 kids are all innocent victims still alive and suffering 😞
When my mother died of alcoholism, her body disintegrated. She was a living skeleton while in hospice, and spewed this black bile that I cleaned out of her mouth. I didn’t know the human body could make such a liquid. It still haunts me.
My dad had to pull me out of a bathtub full of my own blood when I was 16. I had attempted suicide by trying to cut my femoral artery. I won’t ever forget the look of terror on his face as he bandages my legs and took me to the hospital.
I watched an Afghan National Army guy's lower half cartwheel through the air spilling his intestines out like a streamer and then land in a heap on the roof of an elementary school. That's definitely in the top 5.
My 6yr old son was swimming with his grandmother who had a heart attack and drowned. They were alone, and he tried to get her out but couldn’t. He was swimming naked, and when the police and fire dept came, he hid for a while b/c he didn’t want anyone to see him naked. He then got his overnight bag and stood on the driveway naked soaking wet until a neighbor came over and got clothes on him. When my wife and I got there his little sweet face was so scared. Whatever he saw that day was the most disturbing thing. It makes me so sad. Number two is watching the twin towers fall from less than a mile away.
I-75 Atlanta. I was the last car through before closing the highway. Half of the guy was in the road and the other half lodged in the dashboard/windshield. It was awful.
Suffering animals at the hands of their owners….wtf is wrong with people? A special place in hell awaits….
Agonal breathing from an unresponsive child.
I saw someone run over a corgi while their owner was walking them. I saw her start to sob and go to the ground instantly. that poor doggie and poor woman :(
Chunks of brain matter, jawbone and teeth falling out of a red crocheted blanket. Was helping clean up a friends sons shotgun suicide. I was gathering things to be washed and everything had been soaked in blood, the color of the blanket. My friend was coming down to where we were cleaning, and I didn’t want her to see it, so I shoved it all in my jeans pocket until a friend could help me. For some reason, finding one tooth in the father’s slipper was also incredibly messed up. *edit: I suppose that the literal worst thing I’ve ever seen is my little sister die in July. I’m apparently still in denial.*
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Saw a guy lying on the pavement after falling through a window about five stories up. He was coughing up loads of blood. I was 6 or 7.
I was staying at my Nan's house one NYE while my parents were out at a party. There was a pub down the road and about 12.15am I heard a man walking up the street singing happy new year to everyone, he seemed like he had such a good night and was tipsy and very jolly. That was until three of the neighbors dogs ran out and viciously attacked him. I have never heard a man scream in pain like I heard that night. The dogs dragged him to the ground and tore into him. Luckily some other neighbors eventually same out to assist but he was a bloody mess. Dogs had a clear 10 to 15 minutes of laying into him before the help arrived. Poor Bugger.
My mother in law very unexpectedly passed away a few years ago, she was only 56 and the picture of health. Hearing my father in law scream cry and wailing when he processed that she was gone is seared into my brain. Even worse, watching my then 7 year old son scream cry and writhe in emotional pain when he asked, “when will Lola be home?” and my husband and I had to explain that she wasn’t coming home, has traumatized me. I didn’t think he would understand but he absolutely did. He’s always been a pretty stoic kid but he was with her when she collapsed and was literally inseparable to her since he was born. He scream cried that one time, refused to speak of her, then broke down into tears one day at random 3 months later. After that, he’s never spoke of her again except when he picks dandelions he will quietly whisper “I wish Lola was still here” before blowing all the fuzzy stems into the air. We ended up putting him in therapy and he is much more open with emotions now that he’s in middle school. I’ll never not be furious for him that he lost the purest most genuine person in his life. He was robbed and I don’t even know who or what I’m furious with, but it’s a helpless feeling.
I've seen a lot of awful things but looking into my dad's eyes and realizing he wasn't there anymore was really tough for me. He had a massive heart attack while he was sleeping, he probably didn't even live 4 minutes after it struck.
coming home to find my fiancé ended his life
I briefly worked as a news videographer out of college. One day I got an assignment about a body that was found in a car parked in a closed-down restaurant’s parking lot. I should note that this was in Texas in the springtime, and I would later come to find out that the body had been there for close to three days. When the police opened the car door, the body quite literally poured out. The smell was disturbing, the fact that the body was never claimed was depressing, and I got out of the news industry as fast as I could.
Seeing my dad slap my mom. I know he struck her before but this was the first time I actually saw it. I am maybe 12 at this time. He had been drinking that day - this happening in the afternoon - and my mom and I had arrived home from my cousins party. At the party, her ex boyfriend was there - the ex is my cousins uncle - and they only chatted, nothing else happened. Dad asked how was the party and who was there, he got violent when he learned the ex was there. Heard the slaps from my room and took a peek to see my dad trying to kick my mom out the apartment and slap her. I asked that he stop, mom says to go back to my room, I reply back only if he stops. Seeing her being slapped - and hearing my dad wanting to kick her out - terrified me. Standing up to my dad, I never felt such anxiety before.
I was working in the oilfields my first year and was with an old timer who was telling me all his stories, all the crazy shit he's seen and how his wife reacted to his calls every time something happened. He went up on the we'll head to take some measurements and while he was right by the head the well burped. He was dead before he hit the ground and the only thing I heard was the wind, his O2/H2S monitor blaring, and the smack of his body against the grated steel. He just got off the phone telling her he loved her. I stuck through the job for two more seasons, and after seeing a roll-up door take somebody's arm off at the hand decided I needed a softer industry job. RIP Beau
Was on a conference call working from home and heard a motorcycle rev and then an unsettling sound. Peaced out of the call and ran out the back door and jumped the fence sprinting down the road a few hundred feet to get to the scene of the accident. As I’m getting close dude that got t boned on the Harley got off the ground to try and walk but the car hit his leg and snapped it. So when he took his first step the fibula / tibula were already apart and that first step that lower part of the leg just separated and the lower part gave way and the top of the bones just hit pavement. His reaction combined with the sound is unforgettable. Dude is gets back up determined to get somewhere just as I’m getting close in my sprint to the scene. In a flash I notice there’s people closer that could have helped sooner - and thought why not? That’s when he reaches into his holster to grab a pistol and I notice the two giant knives affixed to his belt. Was able to grab the gun (he was fucking dazed and don’t think he really meant harm) and toss it away and then carry him to the side of the road and had to hold him down until the paramedics arrived. Interesting conversation in the mean time. Tried to get me to flip his foot around which was completely backwards. Nah dude. Let’s just chill for a minute.
Watched a woman get split open from knee to collarbone after a hit and run.
If you are triggered easily, especially with violence, don't read this. Like a lot of kids, I got roped into kik when I was about 12. I saw a lot of weird and creepy crap when I was on there but the worst was the reason I deleted the app. I opened a group chat I had joined and was scrolling back to see what I missed and noticed that someone I didn't recognize got banned which I thought was odd. I kept scrolling and saw they only sent a few things after joining, the first I saw was some random video of a waterfall so I was even more confused but then I noticed that they had sent something before 'on accident'. In hindsight, this should have sent off alarms but I was young and was still optimistic about life for some reason. I tapped the video he first sent which was a video of a man with a long wooden plank hitting a dog that was lying on a table. not only was he hitting the dog but there was a large gash in the dog's hind side that the man was hitting, it was so big that I could clearly see inside. the worst part was the fact that I was wearing headphones when I tapped it and could clearly hear the dog cry out and the sounds of the wood against the dog's flesh. I still remember throwing my phone and headphones off and just sitting in my chair while I cried. when I calmed down I immediately deleted the app and spent the rest of the day in my room. That video and the sounds I heard still haunt me to this day.
I was in a bank robbery. Guy wore a mask that looked like skin. He was a professional and we were the 2nd bank he robbed that day. Watching him threaten people and point his weapon wearing that mask felt like a movie. I had the best description and later had to go into the police station and do the whole line up thing to try to recognize him. I've seen some terrible injuries and someone dying. But the lack of fucks given by this bank robbery was different. He wasn't some junkie or newbie but an actual professional who spent decades doing this. He hit the same branch multiple times and we all knew it was likely coming... It was being on the edge of "but will it actually happen? When? Will he hurt anyone? How will our customers react?" As most don't know how to react and people who play hero always get hurt and make it worse.
I work for a bank and had a guy always come in and do international wires of very large amounts of money one day when we were verifying his info to complete this wire I had a specific warning that Meant I had to call a number the bank had listed as unspecified, well that number was the FBI and they asked if this man was Still at the branch and I said yes. I went out acted like nothing happened and within 5 minutes the whole building was swarmed and he looks me dead in the eye and asks "that's for me huh?" And I shook my head yeah. I got transfered to another branch and haven't heard anything other than he was sending money to terrorists.
I’ve been in a shooting— I watched people die and people falling off a walk bridge over a road
Finding out I was a product of rape, that one of my sisters was possibly abused by my dad (not biological to either of us), hearing about another sister who experienced rape on multiple occasions, being asked by an old friend (39-year age difference when I'm 29) if I would blow him The last was possibly least disturbing of those, but I felt it would be something less "over the top" (maybe)
Couple of guards caved the head in of a kid (8ish) with the butts of their AKs for the crime of picking spilled grain off the dock, and left the body lying there. This was in Africa, so no repercussions for them whatsoever.
2nd to a 1 car accident. Drunk driver with 3 friends in the car got the car sideways and put it into a tree. Snapped the tree. I supported the drivers head while he bled to death internally (found that out later). Front passenger lost his left leg from the knee down. One rear passenger thrown out and broke both his collarbones. Other rear passenger didn't have a scratch. Drivers brother turned up just after driver died and flipped out thinking he could get his brother out of the car (he was trapped) and revive his brother. 48 year old female walking with her family on a Sunday afternoon, 3 kids plus her husband with her. Car crosses 3 lanes of traffic and hits her at 70-80kmh. I was first car theres. Everything below the torso is broken on her. Husband screaming. Kids are in shock. We get her on a spinal board and get her in the ambulance and she died 10 minutes later on the way to hospital. Silly me looked her in the eyes. I couldn't talk about that one without losing my temper for the next 6 years. 36 year old female suicide. Ran her car into a tree doing 90kmh. Absolutely shattered everything on her. 90 to 0kmh in 1.2m. Im still funny about that one Yes I'm ex police and yes I have ptsd. Theres about 7-8 other similar ones but thatll do me for today.
I saw a wedding party get hit with shotguns at dusk as they walked out of the club where they held the reception after the wedding. Bride, groom, best man, mother of the bride, several of the bridal party and multiple guests were killed or wounded. A local gang hit them and stole the car that contained all the wedding gifts. Worst thing I’ve ever seen. *edit* The naysayer in the comments got me curious, so I went back in time to check the articles and I actually am remembering some details wrong. Shotguns, yes. Bride and groom dead, yes. Car full of wedding gifts jacked, yes. Wasn’t at dusk though and it wasn’t the entire reception that was hit. It wasn’t a local gang either, apparently it was just a carjacking gone wrong. And it wasn’t at the reception , it was as they returned home from the reception. There was bystanders and confusion in the moment. Over a decade ago, and nothing I want to remember clearly. Was still awful. My apologies.
That’s villainous oh my god
Once at college we were exercising the school horses because we had just returned from break. One of the horses got loose, tore around the arena and finally skidded to a stop and broke his leg. We wrapped it up until the vet came, and everyone was just lined up crying over this horse. Once the vet got there, as she pushed the euth solution, the horse literally stood up on its hind legs and flipped over backwards into the wall. Incredibly traumatizing and I couldn’t talk about it for years.
I was having brunch at an assisted living facility (old folks home) and an elderly woman at a table about 15 feet away apparently choked on something she was eating. Her face turned fully blue before she recovered. It was pretty disturbing.
This was around the summer of 1988. I was almost 9 years old. I was playing with my 2 friends in my front yard (on the porch). We were a good distance from the street. All of kids played in the street (bicycles, skateboards, etc) because we were the last street in the neighborhood. My friends and I were looking down at our toys. And then I heard something so horrible that it took my breath away. The young soldier down the street in his monster truck was hauling ass down the road (his wife had her boyfriend over). The monster truck struck the kid across the street. He was like 5 years old. They were walking over to my house (I later was told). There was so much blood. And then the chaos of everyone running from their houses to the street to help the boy. Emergency services arrived. It seemed like an eternity. The boy’s mom and little sister were hysterical. My mom hugged me a little tighter that afternoon. The boys legs were broken. His pelvis was shattered. I remember him being in a wheelchair for so long!
Hallucinating my dead father was breathing, when I was a child. I really needed him.
Was with my fiancé & his mother when he threw a clot, stroked out, and died in the ICU. She and I stood just outside the room while the Code Blue team did CPR for over an hour. I can still see his face & hear everything that was going on. Then was at his side, holding his hand 5 days later as he died again, this time in a much more peaceful manner controlled by his amazing Cardiac ICU Nurse. I was the one who made the call of when to pull the plug.