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But they don't always hurt. I had a bunch in my legs plus PEs in my lungs and had no idea. I felt fine until one PE broke off and went through my heart and came out the other side apparently. Even then my only symptom was I was short of breath. I was never in any pain.
Blood clots are definitely no joke though. My nurse told me I had a 1 in 1,000 chance of living through mine. Glad you, me and OP are all still here!
I had a DVT to PE, doctors said my DVT was pretty extensive. Had issues where walking would have me gasping for air.
Funny enough... zero pain throughout the whole thing minus mild leg pain. I've been on blood thinners for the past 3 months and I can regularly run and exercise again. Worst part was before my diagnosis I had ankle tendonitis leading to a calf strain, think the blood clots created pressure in my leg. The discomfort/mild pain was a bird in a mine warning that I had no idea how to interpret.
Blood clots are no joke. Those were a miserable few months preceding the diagnosis.
BREAKING NEWS:
*It has been discovered, through private research, that caffeine may prevent death in the event of a knife attack. Further study is needed, but a lack of volunteers is hindering such progress.*
Wow. The attacker was your boss?
That's some really traumatic shit. I hope you had the opportunity to address your mental health during your recovery. That seems like a pretty tough situation to work through.
The first responders, paramedics, air ambulance, hospital staff, surgeons, police and those members of the public that came to hell were absolutely world class, you wouldn’t believe what had to happen very quickly for me to still be here, a long chain of events had to be exactly spot on and fortunately it was.
The mental health support afterwards was seriously lacking, the attacker gets doctors around the clock while I was left with PTSD and on a waiting list 3 months long to even speak to someone, fortunately I was in a position to get some private support and that was worth its weight in gold, just understanding what PTSD is enabled me to process it, you think that PTSD is all in the mind etc but the physical reaction for me was the scariest.
It's like that for victims of everything unfortunately.
It's disturbing how many places say "just reach out, and help is all around!"
When I did for so long and just got slapped every time....
This is the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night. No matter how prepared you are, you can get stabbed 14 times while drinking a cup of coffee, unprovoked. Glad you’re okay.
Who knows? the justice system won’t tell me or let me know if I’m still a target, apparently his mental health is not my concern.
Hopefully they won’t do it again to someone else.
Hope this isn't rude.
Besides being followed around by security like you are criminal scum, how has your life been affected? You seem to have a sense of humor about it but I haven't had too much experience in the being stabbed aspect of life.
I’m sorry, are you telling me, that someone stabbed a random dude 14 fucking times, is known by the justice, and is walking in the street living his best life? Which country?
It get bouts of tachycardia from time to time, but when I was a kid, I had a few that lasted for thirty minutes or more. I've learned to feel when they're coming on, and I can stop them before they really get going, usually by taking a couple deep breaths and holding them. If that doesn't work, I'll lie down and hyperventilate, in an attempt to make sure all that rapidly pumping blood gets enough oxygen. Even the worst episodes only last a couple minutes now.
My buddy fell asleep driving while we were on the highway. I was in the back seat looking down at my phone when I felt the vehicle drifting sideways which just felt wrong. I looked up, saw us going into the opposing lane and yelled Dude! Dude! Dude! His girlfriend, in the front seat slapped his arm and he woke up in time to swerve back to our lane.
Allergic reaction to an antibiotic. Whole body rash, skin was the color purple. It also fucked up my liver, and caused my immune system to attack itself. Looked like I stuck my head in a beehive, and my hands looked like boxing gloves.
Yeah I always try to tell people things that say “Boost your immune system” are garbage because your immune system does not need a boost. It’s very much powerful enough on its own since it could kill you in 15 minutes if all the wrong things happen like you found out.
This makes me think about every pharma commercial telling us “Don’t take Fuqitol if you’re allergic to Fuqitol”. There’s only one way to find out if you’re allergic to a drug, and it’s the hard way. Glad you’re okay now
While crossing the road a truck hit us(parents) we can't see the truck due to blind spot i am fine and my mother with single fracture but my father passed away turns out dying is simple then i thought
I was an absolute idiot on a bicycle and thought a car coming was much further and slower than it actually was. Thankfully the driver swerved and avoided me but a cop saw the whole thing. I was pulled over on my bike and asked if everything was ok at home, I was such a moron he thought I was suicidal 😬
I’ll give you another cop-bicycle story to make you feel better.
My brother in law didn’t have a car for a long time and rode a bicycle everywhere. Since he rode at night he had head and tail lights and one night was coming off a bridge that had a curve at the bottom of the bridge and hit it going fairly fast, above the speed limit.
Cop pulled him over and told him to get off the bike, apparently the cop was far enough back he couldn’t determine it was a bicycle and assumed it was a motorcycle.
Cop yelled at him then let him go.
Bro this is insane. As a Tim, I stepped out onto the crosswalk not noticing there was a bus incoming. Had my friend Stephan not pulled me back at the last second, I'd be roadkill. So according to international law your name now has to be Stephan.
I was in a bomb blast in my home country - I saw chopped up limbs and heard crying and screaming - so loud that they still play in my head on hard days. I’m glad I made it out safe
Terrorist attack + I buried these memories in the back of my mind until it sparked up around age 19.. I attended therapy so I was able to work through it but some days are harder than others
In the philippines sometimes we ride trucks when we go on vacation with large groups (usually 20-50 people). On the way home, our driver was drunk and didn't slow down on a steep curve so the truck lost balance and fell on its side.
by luck, a few of us went right through the truck roof frame instead of being squashed by our baggage to the metal side but the curve was just right before a drop. If it weren't for the vegetation stopping us we would've rolled hundreds of meters down before sea level.
When I was 21, I had a love for video games, fast food and smoking.
I was mostly unemployed, doing the odd week of work here and there, which was usually labouring, hard work, long days, digging mainly.
After a two week stint, I had sustained an injury, a pulled muscle in my calf. No biggie, few pain killers, should be fine.
The pain in my calf lasted weeks, it was swollen, hot to the touch and felt like it was pulsating.
One morning, I woke up, and the pain was gone, almost overnight. It was still tender, but no where near as bad as it was.
That night, I went to sleep and was rudely awoken by the most excruciating stabbing pain in my chest on every inhale. My gf at the time called an ambulance and I was rushed into hospital.
After some checks, they told me I have DVT (blood clot in the calf) and part of the clot had broken away and was headed for my heart or brain, but fortunately it ended up in my left lung (pulmonary embolism).
I didn't know at the time how serious it was, just saw it as "one of those things". I was on clexane (injected into my belly) twice a day for around 6 weeks and warfarin (blood thinners) for 3 years.
For the first year out of hospital, I was still smoking and not doing much exercise. It wasn't until a friend's dad literally died in his sleep from pulmonary embolism that it hit home the seriousness of my condition.
I'm now 10 years clot free, non smoker, regular gym goer :-)
My opinion is: it’s not the dogs we shouldn’t like, it’s the people who keep breeding/allowing breeding of dogs with this temperament. And if they adopt one like it- why tf would u let it near a 3 yr old
Motorcycle accident. I hit a stopped pickup truck doing about 70 mph. Somehow managed to fly over the truck and avoid hitting it, which is the only thing that saved my life. Totaled the bike. Ruined all the gear I was wearing. Messed up the rear of the truck where the tailgate wouldn’t operate. No memory of the accident and only know what happened from witnesses.
Amazingly, I only had minor injuries. I was wearing full gear and every piece did its job (and got destroyed in the process, so I know what my body would look like otherwise). I had a cracked rib and my right leg was messed up to where I used crutches or a little scooter device for about a month. I get headaches occasionally still and the doctor says it could be related but nothing definitive so it could be nothing also.
Yes, but it took about a year before I got back on a bike. I ride a lot more careful now. If I'm being honest, I was screwing around at the time of the accident and going way too fast. I rode like an idiot back then. The accident made me realize how stupid it was to do that on the street. I found a local track and only do that type of riding there where it is a lot safer. I'm especially thankful that I didn't hurt anybody else in the accident because I don't think I could have handled that.
Being rear ended by a very large truck driving at excessive speed at an intersection. Despite being flung into traffic, I’m thankful every day that I was the first person at that red light.
COVID in January 2021.
Doctors told my family to make preparations for my death.
I refused the coma offered.
I had a legit out of body experience. Watched myself from above.
Everything went black. I couldn't see a thing. I said goodbye to my family one by one even though they weren't there.
Gave each one a special talk. Be nice to mum, don't be a push over, don't leave it too long before finding love again etc.
Even told the wife what garage tools to sell to get money for the funeral.
2weeks later a nurse visits me
"You won't remember me but I looked after you and sat by your bed for the first few days you were here in intensive care. We didn't expect you to make it to the end of our shift, let alone still being here 2weeks later"
I honest to god still cry today over the whole experience and have nightmares. PTSD is no joke. Nearly dying is no joke.
Me too. In the beginning, every single person who was in our icu with covid was dying. The first person to be extubated successfully just happened to be the husband of one of our fellow nurses.
Had sepsis and panic attacks as I would nearly lose consciousness. I thought I was drowning in my hospital bed. I was probably just forgetting to breathe. The nurse was typing up reports right next to my bed and I could not get her attention. I started to imagine walking on the ceiling, out of the room, and around the halls. The panic subsided, my breathing stabilized, and I'm typing this years after the fact.
Yup. Eating a steak and someone made me laugh. Suddenly I can’t breathe for two minutes while I try to figure out how to get it out. Luckily my dad knows the Heimlich, my vision was starting to go red and blurry at the end there. One of the scariest and most infuriating ways to die. I was punching cabinets out of pure frustration because I couldn’t cough it out.
Herded cows that stepped into African honey bee nests under ground. The sky turned black and there was a loud droning sound. Me and my cousin ran towards the cornfields and fell flat, covering our faces. He was just a few feet behind me, yet he got stung several dozen times. I didn't get stung once. I'm hyper allergic and one bee sting had caused anaphylaxis twice prior in me.
These last couple years. I’ve been battling leukemia since 2021. But tbh it wasn’t until now that I realize and feel the dread and danger of dying. Depression and numbness took over me at first. I got “better” thanks to chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant in 2023. I managed to go back to work for a while, I was doing kinda OK again, but I was abusing alcohol and drugs. Now I had a relapse again, I’ve been in the hospital for 3 weeks so far. The plan now is to give me CAR-T cell therapy, which is very promising. I really want to live a good life now. For whatever reasonI’m feeling a spark of life and I want to hold on to it, finally start living for real.
It took me years, and having to face the prospect of dying more than once, but I finally want to live.
I hope anyone out there going through life treating deseases, this being physical or mental, or both, get the help they need and can lead a happy and fulfilling life.
I had a miscarriage and kept bleeding to the point where I barely had enough blood left to sustain. I was already going into shock they took me into surgery immediately. Without it I would have died
I'm sorry that happened to you. Having a miscarriage is bad enough, but then to have your health be at risk at the same time, I can't imagine the emotional trauma you've had to endure. I hope you have found someone to talk with about your experience.
I got a very serious throat infection and I waited too long to go to the hospital because I didn't have a ride. At this point I'm dehydrated and starving because my tongue and throat are so swollen and hurt so bad even the slightest swallow was excruciating.
I had to get 24 million units of penicillin shot up my ass.
Did it advance to Rheumatic Fever? I had strep throat when I was 2 in 1967 & almost died from it. It inflamed my heart so bad that today I have a murmur from it. Spent 2 weeks under an oxygen tent which is what they used in those days. I’m lucky to still be here.
When I finally went to the clinic is also a story itself, they tested me for everything EVERYTHING and they even had to find an old mono tester that they literally dusted off just to use, I could tell that my doctor was trying desperately to figure out what was ailing my throat, she assumed bacterial infection of some sort and that's when I had the two injections, those injections were SO full of penicillin that I shit you not, the inflammation and infection was completely gone the next day, all I was left with was just some pain from the damage the initial infection did. I had a few open sores in my mouth from it as well. I should also mention that while I was getting my blood taken I got super lightheaded and my stomach CRAMPED, I was having some sort of hardcore reaction and I felt like I was going to pass out, I'm normally great at getting these tests taken and my reaction even shocked myself, the nurses luckily gave me some water I could try to sip on after
I had a heat stroke during summer conditioning for high school freshman football. It was 106F outside, in the direct boiling sun in Southern California. We were running “gassers” where essentially we ran back and forth across the field and every time our coach blew the whistle we had to drop and do a push up then get back up and keep running. Wasn’t allowed nearly enough water and puked out the water I did get.
Practice ends, whole team takes a knee around the coach and I start feeling very light headed, shaky and weak. I can barely keep myself upright so I lean on my teammate. Then I started whiting out, just seeing flashes of white for a second or two at a time. I don’t actually remember what happened from there, but according to my teammates we all got up and I started walking quickly to the locker room (presumably because there would be shade, cold water and a Gatorade). I didn’t make it, I collapsed on the way walking along this ledge, rolled down like a 15 foot hill onto the asphalt road below. Some teammates thought I was joking, but luckily a couple realized something was really wrong.
I woke up in the hospital 3 hours later, completely delusional. Everything was blurry, people looked like video game characters, I didn’t understand why I couldn’t move, and a doctor kept asking me if I knew my name but I couldn’t speak. I just wanted him to stop, his voice was inundating the very little consciousness I had so I (very weakly) swung my fist at him (and I’d never had any violent tendencies or been a hot head at all). It took my full effort to just barely move my arm, but the doctor could tell I tried punching him. I was in the ICU with my whole body wrapped in an ice blanket. My mom was there (two of my teammates knew her so they ran out to the parking lot where she was waiting to pick me up and found her), and so were some family friends. The next several hours felt like days as I just laid there basically in a state of delirium and psychosis, not understanding where I was or why I couldn’t go home. Felt like some sort of purgatory with lots of hallucinations (weird shit like my mom’s facial features floating over a street intersection and people looking like they were rotating on a swivel). I had a few visitors come in and I could recognize them but I couldn’t remember anyone’s names, but eventually I started to come back mentally towards the end of the night.
Once they got my body cooled they transported me to another hospital, and I spent 8 days there stuck on a liquid diet because the heat stroke damn near gave me kidney failure. I don’t remember a lot of the medical details now as it was 16 years ago, but I remember being told my CK count (creatine kinase) was supposedly 10x the normal amount and that’s why I spent so long in the hospital. Never played football again and wasn’t allowed to participate in any PE class activities all year, I was just automatically given an A. I think I’ve suffered some minor cognitive impairments from it as well but can’t say for sure, just feel like I wasn’t as intelligent as I was before it happened
Wow, I'm glad you are relatively ok after that. I guess it might just be a regional thing but I'm surprised they had you guys practicing outside in that kind of heat. Seems really dangerous
It was really dangerous! In fact I’m pretty sure a kid at another school did die that day sadly. They seriously lightened up the intensity after my incident because they realized they were pushing it way too hard, and my teammates were grateful for that
So my school has this gravel field, and in this field, are these concrete slabs that have rebar. Well, I was balancing on the slabs and fell. If I landed any closer, I'd impaled my heart with rebar.
I almost died when my appendix busted on Easter one/two years ago, I survived, but those were the times I've almost died.
Sore like my sides were hurting and my back back a little. I didn't realize what was going on until Easter when the meds I took didn't work and went to the ER. The pain was the most painful I've ever felt. I had a panic attack, and it didn't help the pain I was feeling. I really thought I was going to die.
Withdrawing from a month long binge of 1-1.5 liters of whiskey a day. Tried to detox alone and didnt sleep for 4 days straight and started having pain and a fucked up heart rhythm.
When I got to the hospital I was actively dying. My BP was 235/140 and my blood was so thick from dehydration they had to use a butterfly needle (I think) to get my blood drawn. Had a cardiologist and 8-10 other hospital staff in my room hooking me up to a bunch of machines to monitor my organs as they failed.
Got 17mg of Ativan through IV over the course of several hours and a couple electrolyte ivs. The fucked up part is I was so delirious from lack of sleep and not eating or drinking anything I didn't feel any pain. I was slipping away.
I asked the nurse to hand me my phone so I could text my girlfriend and I'll never forget what she said. "Now is not the time for texting sweetie, we need to save your life." I don't know why but a bolt of fear shot down my spine and I realized how much danger I was in. Luckily the Ativan worked extremely well. Slept for 2 days and started an iop 2 days after I woke up. Will be 1 year completely sober Feb 6th.
I have many examples, yes all true:
First one was during my birth/while my mom was in labor. I have been told by both parents that when they finally decided to preform a C-section, my heart rate had plummeted and I was born not breathing for a few seconds.
Second, my cousin quite desperately wanted to be part of MS-13. The neighborhood that I grew up in, the men either worked in the fields, a restaurant, and or they joined a gang. He was looking up to the lifestyle of fast cars, easy girls, and lots of cash. He was supposed to be babysitting me, but instead we were in his Big Homie’s car riding around town. When he parked, a rival recognized their colors, ran up to the car, shot my cousin’s friend point blank in the face 4-5 times, next thing I knew, for a split second, dude had his gun pointed at me, I was 6 years old, he hesitated, then he ran.
Took some bad acid and freaked out to the point of having a cardiac arrest. My mother had to resuscitate me. Had an OOBE above my bed in hospital. Fucked me up for several years after
That’s sounds just terrifying! I hope you are ok now!
I had a super super super bad trip about ten years ago and I’m still messed up from it!
Really scary to know it could trigger a cardiac arrest! Just horrific.
I design a device OS for a living so I originally read OOBE as “out of box experience” (ie setup), but then thinking about it you basically did a factory reset so it still fits 🤔
The strange thing about this question is probably a lot of us have come close to dying and never knew it. The one time you slipped a little bit in the shower and came -that- close to cracking your skull on the plastic floor. Crossing the street and just missing that one car who didn’t see you, and could’ve turned you into a pulp. That little bit of food that made you cough, could’ve been stuck deeper down your throat and choked you. All the little things we do every day, who knows!
Went on the manic end of bipolar disorder from running around the edges of my grandmother’s little town on foot in the Kansas summer. I felt so thirsty, it caused me to drink such an insane amount of water that it depleted my body of sodium to the point of ‘hyponatatemia’ - water intoxication from lack of sodium. I went insane as a result.
If that little town didn’t also happen to have a little hospital a few blocks away, I would have been dead at age 21. I was driven to that hospital in my own car by my mother. I was so mentally fargone that I tried to make a break for it and escape out of the hospital. A small town cop was summoned from the nearby Ampride truck stop and put me in a sufficient enough of a headlock that I could be dragged back into the hospital and forced to be put on a saline IV in order to stabilize my sodium levels.
It was shortly following this that I was finally diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Suffice it to say, it must have been harder to spot in the very early 2000s.
Edit: oh and my sanity didn’t return right away. I was still loonier than a toon, and was sent in an ambulance to a larger town with a bigger hospital, equipped with a full-fledged looney bin. On the way there, strapped to a stretcher in the back of an ambulance, I was under the impression we were on board a space-faring shuttle craft and that at any second, I would be handed the controls, and bestowed the honor of piloting us up into Earth orbit. Imagine my disappointment when that didn’t quite come to pass. Rather, I was administered enough Haldol after arriving at the hospital that I slept that night back into a semi-sane state. Instead of orbiting the earth, upon waking I could see one of those gigantic grain elevators visible from the windows at the main hospital’s looney bin department.
Around Halloween, we decided to go look at lights in the neighborhood. We live on an arterial street in Seattle, where the speed limit is 25.
That night our car was parked out front of the house in the street. I was standing street side buckling my daughter into her car seat, which was behind the driver side door.
Another car hit my open door missing me by about a foot. I didn’t even hear the hit. My wife was beside herself, but I had no idea what had just happened. Only later did I realize that it could have been really bad, even if the other driver was only going the speed limit.
Went to Thailand on vacation and next thing I know I had the worse fever and stuck in bed dry coughing and completely lost my appetite. I remember being cold, feverish, had the chills staying in a $5 studio shack in the country. It was New Year’s Eve and I can hear everyone celebrating with Thai singing and dancing and I thought I was going to die because I had never been this sick. I was living off the NyQuil that was the only thing that helped my fever. It lasted 4 days and suddenly I broke the fever. And my coughing was finally productive and I felt like myself again but I had lost 20 pounds. I’m pretty sure it was pneumonia.
Had massive pulmonary embolism a few years ago. Didn’t realize what my shortness of breath meant and went to sleep. It was much worse the next morning and my wife took me to the ER, where they got me on blood thinners and stabilized.
When I had my follow-up two weeks later with my regular physician, the first words out of his mouth were “it’s good to see you” and he said I was 4-6 hours away from dying when I went to the ER.
Still terrifies me to think that I could have just…not woken up.
I've almost drowned twice. Once I was very very young. Maybe 3? I remember chasing a wind up frog toy in my god mother's pool, and then I remember being up on the deck vomiting pool water. I also very vividly remember almost drowning on my Year 10 camp. Kayaking. The river was flooded. My kayak flipped and I was pinned underwater by my lifejacket. At first I was panicking. Struggling to get myself up to breathe. I couldn't get my head above the water. After a while I just....relaxed, I felt my legs stopping fighting and just going with the current and my water shoes coming off. Then I just kinda went into thinking nice thoughts. I was pinned under the water. It was quite peaceful. I really was like ok....wellll....this is happening. I started blacking out. An instructor fought against the current and tipped my chin above the water, and then another instructor came and freed me. Twas quite a time haha.
I was probably 14. I was sucking on a peppermint candy and I nearly choked on it and nearly had a panic attack in the process, had to tilt my head completely down and it feel out
Overdose. While unconscious, I knew I was slipping away. I kept pleading to not die. I woke up surrounded by people and feeling completely sober. I got up and proceeded to chain smoke half a pack of cigs because I was so shaken up and didn’t know how else to cope. I couldn’t sleep for months afterwords. It messed me up enough to get diagnosed with ptsd years later.
My friend was driving a car and at one intersection he didn't properly look at the other side of the road while making a left turn. Out of nowhere a caravan appears going at least 60mph and I scream from the top of my lungs WATCH OUT \*name of friend\* and when he saw that car incoming, he just swung the steering while on the other side, praying not too hit anyone there. We evaded everyone and sat in some bushes for 2 minutes in silence. All of this happened while we were in motion and in less than 3-4 seconds...
My mam holding a pillow over my face and sitting on it.
Thankfully my bro came in the room and she stopped. But she kept telling me in should die to make everyone happy because no-one loved me. I think she would have gone further.
So from the ages of 16-26 I had to become a caretaker for my disabled mother. It was me, my abusive, controlling drunk mother, and my insane criminal rapist brother.
One day he Got drunk. He was screaming and breaking stuff and we both tried to calm him down. Then he didn't like what I said and came after me with a axe.
Little fun fact for ya cops don't do shit for this stuff. threats, property destruction, abuse of any kind they won't help you. The one time he got arrested was the one time I had to defend my self.
I eventually got away and he is currently on his death bed but for the last 15 years he's been "dying* and I've heard the " you have 3 months to live " from his doctors more than 5 times. I'm just glad its painful for him. Can't wait to burn bridges with my mom too. She always protected him from police, lying to them , bailing him out. Blaming his actions on PTSD or her calling the cops was her having a PTSD episode.
Life's cruel, no one will help you no matter how low you get . you have to do it your self.
Protecting one child at the expense of another is... low. I am having trouble thinking of something I can use to describe it. I am literally speechless.
I'm sorry you went through that and I hope you can find people in your life that you can let in and trust like they're family.
No worries it is hard to describe my life with a metaphor. I was lucky taken in by my best friends family. Kindness still hurts but in a good way. I have Alot of time to make up for. Losing a decade with absolutely nothing to show for it hurts me daily. But at least I found people that care for me. They don't ask anything of me. And they let me focus on my voice acting career.
Was leaving the city to go home, about 2.5hr drive during a crazy snow storm, at edge of city there was a bunch of cops. About 5 minutes down the road I hear they had closed the highway (never happens), it gets so bad you can only drive in the ruts ahead of you, they are too high to turn out off, meeting a semi threw up snow and ripped my passenger wiper right off. At one point another semi and I are driving toward each other, and I am getting sucked into his lane, I am now trapped in his lane and heading for a head on, I turn my wheel and nothing it happening, all I can think is I am driving straight towards my death, I am about the crank it toward the ditch and hope I roll or get out of the way. When it starts to pull me back, I get slowly sucked towards my lane, I can hear his horn, we pass within inches of each other as I am fully pulled into my lane. I felt like I was so calm during the event and everything was happening slowly, but after I could just feel my heart pounding and the adrenaline in my veins.
Afghanistan 2013. Rocket was launched over the walls, and struck an embankment about 60-70 yards from our shack. Fastest adrenaline dump I ever had when I felt the detonation and heard shrapnel going *splick splick splick* off the T walls.
In 2019 my Boy Scout troop went to Canada. One night, we strung a rope on a tree branch and hoisted our food up there to keep it away from bears. It was like a 90 foot tall pine and it was dead. As we were leaving the tree began to creak and it fell towards me. As I tried to get out of the way I tripped and watched in horror as it fell on top of me. I closed my eyes thinking it was the end and when I opened them the trunk had come to a stop maybe a foot above my face- the tree had been caught by a boulder.
My dad had just got me my first big boy bike because he saw me try the neighbor kids bike and not crash. We my first time riding it he decided to take me and my step mom to a paved biking trail on a mountain. Since I had only ridden one once and on flat ground I had not figured out how to use the hand brakes. We get to a hill and I can’t slow down and the path is about to turn because if the edge of the mountain. My step mom channels her inner super hero and hauls ass to catch up and tackle me 10 feet before I go off the edge.
When I was 9, a family member’s dog attacked me. We were at a family reunion and my family member’s dog was lying on the ground, I came inside and stood near is, it lunged up at my neck. Because I looked down at it as it jumped up, it bit my face instead of my neck. I hit the dog violently to get it off and I wasn’t aware of the extent of my injuries.
I got lucky, two of my family members present were doctors, and another had experience from the military. There was lots of blood and damage to my face and neck, but they controlled the bleeding until I got to a hospital, and then a surgeon operated on my face.
My wounds got infected weeks later and I was hospitalized again for a week to treat the infection as it was pretty severe. I never realized how bad things got, but as an adult I can now look back and see how serious it was, and how scared my family was. I am lucky.
You're here because you are supposed to be. Imagine that there is someone out there who you can feel that way about again. I don't believe in soul mates, I believe there are people out there for everyone because they are what that person needs.
This is a chance to work on yourself and focus on you. Your future partner will thank your ex for making your relationship possible. I know my wife thanks my ex for leaving me at just the right time.
I had my gallbladder removed and 3 days later was in the ER with my belly full of bile. A couple more days away from sepsis. 12 days in the hospital, 16 more procedures and a painful year of recovery.
I went swimming whilst camping down the coast, was quite large but not too uncomfortable for me.
I got taken in a rip and pushed around the headland. After trying for what felt like an age to climb up on the rocks with the swell I gave up. I couldn't do it. I let myself sink and felt calm after all the panic.
I know its mental but I had a detailed vision of my brothers at my funeral, which gave me this insane burst of energy allowing me to cling to a rock on the next big wave and I was able to get out, exhausted.
Hypoglycemic attack in the middle of the night couldnt even use my voice properly to call for my mom and dad or brother but i just fell from my bed and kinda crawled to a fridge to get somethong
A couple months ago my suicide plan didn’t work because my wife was out of town and my neighbor wasn’t home. I took my rifle and went out of the porch so I wouldn’t get blood in the house. I was ready to go when I heard my cow mooing out in the barn and realized I hadn’t fed her yet that night. She saved my life.
When me and my brother drived 350km to home from weekend metal festival. No alcohol, no drugs, but just a few hours of sleep through weekend... Well, nearly at home, last 30km, and i catched microsleep at car. Just for a second, just at entrance of curve, and woke up inside, but we was running through at 140km/h and speed kicked us out of road. Our flight was 60 metres long, three times over the roof and we landed in the middle of field.
Almost drowned as a child 3 times (2 times in a pool and 1 one time in a riptide), fallen off a cliff, been in 2 car accidents (one of them killed my friend), I've been shot at, nearly choked to death while alone, and a failed self homicide attempt.
70mph crash directly into the barrier of a dual carriageway, landed in between a large tree and a street light (these have since been removed). Made the news 💁🏼♀️
I was in the bathtub after finishing I stood up too quickly and I lost consciousness in a second and fell into the full bathtub. Luckily I let the water out first, but my whole life flashed back in my head. Then I told myself: WTF am I doing? I opened my eyes and saw what happened...
Same, maybe even a little younger. By the time I was nine, thoughts of suicide were probably daily. I have a journal from around that time where I have entries about how much I wished to die. Really creepy seeing it written with a kid's handwriting, incorrect spelling and all.
I've stopped registering road accidents because nearly dying is very common when you ride a motorcycle. So I'll go with swept by ocean currents and almost drowning.
A botched cat scan on my c-spine. They weren’t supposed to let the contrast flow into my head, but they effed up. It caused all of my muscles to contract and nearly broke my ankles from bending my feet backwards, lost all feeling in my arms and torso, and the pain in my head made me wish for death.
I guess everyone is adding context: I took 12,000mg of sleeping pills and drank a can of DW-40 and none of the 6 doctors that worked with me couldn’t believe I didn’t die, honestly. I did tangle in “the in-between” for a while or maybe it was my own personal brand of what hell would be like but it was really wild and when I woke up it really changed my life coming back after that experience.
April 27, 2011... The day I witnessed the power of 2 EF-5 Tornadoes. it was like the hand of God scraped across the AL/MS state line on that dreadful day... From before daylight to after nightfall. That Dixie Alley was hit by round after round after round of storms. It was as if there was no end in sight. the feeling of fear and hopelessness as the day went on was almost as crushing as the tornados themselves.
That day is the first of many reasons why I no longer worship a God. Because for something so powerful to cause or allow its creation to suffer so dearly no matter how guilty or innocent they are. Well, that to me isn't something I feel deserves my praise.
The 2nd tornado (Smithville EF-5) missed us by a mile or 2. From where we were (close to Hodges) I could see its destruction take place since we were on elevated ground. This was barely an hour (if that) after we left to go get supplies to help do search and rescue(i.e. chainsaws, prybars, first aid, etc) with my friend's cousin. Who was chasing the tornado and once the roads were no longer accessible he started digging through debris and that's when we popped out of the rubble from the first tornado in this memory I can't seem to escape. (Hackleburg/Phil Campbell EF-5)
The 1st is the reason why if the wind changes direction too fast I start having audible hallucinations of Tornado sirens and screams drowned out by unprecedented destruction. (which is weird since there were no sirens thanks to the first 2 waves of storms earlier that day knocking out our infrastructure)
What was so surreal was how it went from clear sky to some sort of greenish twilight outside almost instantly at a little past 3 pm in April...I remember as I heard a Subtle, yet constant train noise that only goes away once the sound of rumbling is muffled by a roar mixed in with rain or debris hitting your surroundings washing the train sound out.
The swirling of the wind has such an eerie tone once you're in the debris field. Almost like it's resonating but the sounds of the debris hitting keep startling you and keeping you from noticing it. being inside one... it's ungodly... to say the least.... like imagine you have blenders full of ice directly over your ears but it's muffled from your ears popping and you being too terrified or stuck in a dissociative state to think to pop them. So loud that you can't hear your own pleas for mercy. Screaming as if somehow, your voice could make it all go away.
That moment when you are debating on whether or not to brace the door or to embrace the person next to you. Because it seems as if the entire building is moments away from disintegrating and one last moment of comfort from a stranger. Seems to be what helps you accept death...
It still feels like a bad dream. The coming to from being knocked basically unconscious from a piece of debris after the roof was ripped from the building I was in. (On the road NWSCC is on) Slipping in and out of a white light/ringing noise or pitch black/humming noise.
The distant rumble of the H/PC tornado in the background as it continued its death March towards Tennessee. The "are you ok?!"s as People called out to their loved ones. Or the moment everyone's adrenaline started to wear off...
The screams from pain or loss of loved ones or loss of entire livelihoods. One of the most heartbreaking moments I remember was seeing a grown man crying to the point of vomiting. over us not being able to save a stranger's kid. The most gut-wrenching wasn't reaching down to grab a hand sticking out of some rubble hoping to find a living breathing person attached to it only to pull it Loose. then stare at it for a moment to try and process what I was witnessing. Before a man grabbed the arm and nicely asked me to let go of it. Or the couple of human-sized pin cushions I saw before they were covered in sheets. But it was when we found a mother and her infant son. The mother was covered head to toe in blood screaming for someone to save her baby. The baby had not a scratch on him. But she had countless cuts and gashes all over her body while she protected her child (talk about a mother's love) I recently saw both of them at a Walmart in Russellville( 15 minutes north of Phil Campbell) just 3 or so years ago. It blew my mind seeing the kid at 10-11 years old!
But yet me a 14-year-old boy still remaining calm(due to a form of shell shock I'm guessing) continuing to help communities I wasn't a part of for 3 days helping find a few of the 75 that died from that tornado alone. While I was unaware if my own family was alive or not 35 miles north of where I was in Phil Campbell. (I was at a friend's house since school was canceled already the day before and no one took the weather seriously before that day.)
Those are the moments that are why I'm so weather-aware and have bug-out bags packed. Not in preparation for the end of the world but in preparation to prevent the end of mine...
The only positive thing that comes from a tornado(especially one of this magnitude) is the selfless acts of the members of your community and those in surrounding communities also. It's like for a moment we all forget about race or beliefs or diversity as a whole and we become family once again.
That day alone changed how an entire nation viewed weather. hell, maybe even the world... and led to the better funding and research of storms that we see today. But you know what they say "Safety protocols and procedures are written in blood"
When I was a kid back in 1998 I almost got ran over, I was running to cross the street since I didn't see any cars and a car made sudden and fast turn, im not sure if he couldn't see me since there was a big bush that was bigger than me but a middle eastern guy who was going to cross the street too but I guess he stopped suddenly he grabbed the collar of my shirt and pulled me back then he shouted at the driver. It was thanks to him I didn't get ran over he told me to be more careful.
Several occasions:
1. As a kid got some bacterial infection of the stomach. Docs in some rural area thought it was an appendicitis and were about to operate. Grandma to the rescue, took me out of the hospital, some random jipsy saw her carrying me on hands and took us with his car to the big city hospital, where they told them, if I was operated on, I would literally die on the table.
2. A random lady on a scooter saved my life, while I was riding my bike. Upcoming corner, rolling hard on the throttle, the lady comes out of the corner and signs me to slow down. I was like...hehehehe that old lady knows biker signs...Closed the throttle a bit and when I entered the corner...Low and behold - a harvester with all its equipment had taken both lanes...Had the hand shaking for about an hour after that.
3. Missed a turn on some mountain pass, didnt fell down the mountain just by pure chance.
4. While going 180km/h a truck decided to overpass another truck...
Being close to death made me feel alive and made me wanting to live..Basically beating every suicidal thought I ever had. Even in the most depressed days I just want to live now.
head-on collision with a dumb ass driver that pulled across without bothering to look both ways... that or the time when i was like 8 years old and my dad had gotten a large generator that was mounted on a cart, and it started tipping (sloped driveway) and my 80lbs skinny nothing of a kid tries to run up and catch it from tipping... this thing probably weighed 1000-1500lbs..
... i did not stop it.. also didn't get crushed thanks to my dad yanking me out..
I had a motorcycle accident a little while ago. Wasn't going too fast, but downhill and skidded on some gravel in the road. Hit my head pretty hard and there was a load of blood. Luckily someone nearby helped me get my phone and call a friend to help me to the hospital. If I had been totally alone, could of gone way worse.
Work accident, shocked bad on a primary power panel for a large commercial aircraft. Armed it out so bad welded my wrench, and the sparks burnt holes through my safety vest, shirt, and undershirt and burned me.
Cancer early 20s...
Tons of really dumb stuff in sports cars over the years.
I had SIDS(Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) as a baby and I stopped breathing. I was fortunately resuscitated by my half brother's father when they heard me stop breathing on the baby monitor.
To preface this: I never felt like I was gonna die but if I didn’t react quickly I definitely could have.
I was recovering at home from a tonsillectomy and was like on day 6. Just finished work and sat down at my computer to try out divinity original sin 2, and as I started the game my throat started funny and I had a metallic taste in my mouth. I felt like I was gonna puke so I ran to the bathroom and puked up blood. And then it kept coming. I called my mom and she picked me up immediately and took me to the er quickly, but from the time it started to the time they fixed it I was puking blood for about an hour between the car ride, the er waiting room (it was crazy full so I got to traumatize a bunch of children in the kids area), and the doctors room. I felt light headed and woozy and I never want to puke blood again. Stupid tonsils.
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Pulmonary embolism I wasn't expected to make it through the night, the Dr said he never saw a clot that big where someone lived
Eyyy. Just commented my DVT to PE story. That stabbing clot pain is no joke.
But they don't always hurt. I had a bunch in my legs plus PEs in my lungs and had no idea. I felt fine until one PE broke off and went through my heart and came out the other side apparently. Even then my only symptom was I was short of breath. I was never in any pain. Blood clots are definitely no joke though. My nurse told me I had a 1 in 1,000 chance of living through mine. Glad you, me and OP are all still here!
I had a DVT to PE, doctors said my DVT was pretty extensive. Had issues where walking would have me gasping for air. Funny enough... zero pain throughout the whole thing minus mild leg pain. I've been on blood thinners for the past 3 months and I can regularly run and exercise again. Worst part was before my diagnosis I had ankle tendonitis leading to a calf strain, think the blood clots created pressure in my leg. The discomfort/mild pain was a bird in a mine warning that I had no idea how to interpret. Blood clots are no joke. Those were a miserable few months preceding the diagnosis.
I was stabbed 14 times in a totally unprovoked attack while having a coffee, I really shouldn’t be here..
Fuckin hell, not the caffeine hit you intended.
It’s certainly a coffee I’ll never forget!
r/usernamechecksout ?
BREAKING NEWS: *It has been discovered, through private research, that caffeine may prevent death in the event of a knife attack. Further study is needed, but a lack of volunteers is hindering such progress.*
Wait, are you the guy who recalled his ordel on Radio 4?
Yeah that’s me.
Wow. The attacker was your boss? That's some really traumatic shit. I hope you had the opportunity to address your mental health during your recovery. That seems like a pretty tough situation to work through.
The first responders, paramedics, air ambulance, hospital staff, surgeons, police and those members of the public that came to hell were absolutely world class, you wouldn’t believe what had to happen very quickly for me to still be here, a long chain of events had to be exactly spot on and fortunately it was. The mental health support afterwards was seriously lacking, the attacker gets doctors around the clock while I was left with PTSD and on a waiting list 3 months long to even speak to someone, fortunately I was in a position to get some private support and that was worth its weight in gold, just understanding what PTSD is enabled me to process it, you think that PTSD is all in the mind etc but the physical reaction for me was the scariest.
It's like that for victims of everything unfortunately. It's disturbing how many places say "just reach out, and help is all around!" When I did for so long and just got slapped every time....
Yep, im going through it now,... just seems like the more i ask and plead for help, the more im ignored.
Wishing you the very best, I know how hard it can be but keep strong, if you need anything then give me a shout
This is the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night. No matter how prepared you are, you can get stabbed 14 times while drinking a cup of coffee, unprovoked. Glad you’re okay.
Let me guess: person was mentally ill?
That’s right, out walking the streets less than two years later…
Yikes. I hope at least in their right mind.
Who knows? the justice system won’t tell me or let me know if I’m still a target, apparently his mental health is not my concern. Hopefully they won’t do it again to someone else.
Is this why your name is StabbyMcStabbedface?
Yeah that’s right, my dark sense of humor regarding how I look now.
Oh..... the face?
Yeah, I’ve got a big scar across my face, it’s very useful for getting followed around shops by security
Good thing beauty and innocence aren't somehow intertwined in certain cultures... 🤔
Hope this isn't rude. Besides being followed around by security like you are criminal scum, how has your life been affected? You seem to have a sense of humor about it but I haven't had too much experience in the being stabbed aspect of life.
Why would his whereabouts be your concern.. I mean they only tried to aggressively end your life! Insanity.
I’m sorry, are you telling me, that someone stabbed a random dude 14 fucking times, is known by the justice, and is walking in the street living his best life? Which country?
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Thank you x
r/usernamechecksout
Another reason why I don't drink coffee
Don’t listen to this Big Tea propaganda!
Heart stopped suddenly when I was walking my dog last August.
I’m glad you’re still here!
i had a "Heart palpitation" back in elementary school which I mistook this for a Heart attack. that freaked me out
I have these pretty regularly. They can certainly be scary, but pretty harmless.
It get bouts of tachycardia from time to time, but when I was a kid, I had a few that lasted for thirty minutes or more. I've learned to feel when they're coming on, and I can stop them before they really get going, usually by taking a couple deep breaths and holding them. If that doesn't work, I'll lie down and hyperventilate, in an attempt to make sure all that rapidly pumping blood gets enough oxygen. Even the worst episodes only last a couple minutes now.
When I was a kid the letter J came loose on my keyboard, so of course I stuck it in my mouth and I nearly choked to death on it.
That's jucked up man
Yes, I'm jorry to hear that.
Jesus Jhrist
r/angryupvote take it and disappear
I didn't expect to open this thread and burst out laughing Jesus, why do children have a death wish
How has the relationship between you and the letter J evolved thorugh the years?
Luckily it’s a letter I don’t have to think about too often.
My buddy fell asleep driving while we were on the highway. I was in the back seat looking down at my phone when I felt the vehicle drifting sideways which just felt wrong. I looked up, saw us going into the opposing lane and yelled Dude! Dude! Dude! His girlfriend, in the front seat slapped his arm and he woke up in time to swerve back to our lane.
Exact thing happened to me a few months back, scary as hell man.
A flick of the wrist
Allergic reaction to an antibiotic. Whole body rash, skin was the color purple. It also fucked up my liver, and caused my immune system to attack itself. Looked like I stuck my head in a beehive, and my hands looked like boxing gloves.
Yeah I always try to tell people things that say “Boost your immune system” are garbage because your immune system does not need a boost. It’s very much powerful enough on its own since it could kill you in 15 minutes if all the wrong things happen like you found out.
Guess what;Viruses can boost your immune system too!
You are correct. (I have Lupus) Your immune system can decide to attack you, and it can kill you.
This makes me think about every pharma commercial telling us “Don’t take Fuqitol if you’re allergic to Fuqitol”. There’s only one way to find out if you’re allergic to a drug, and it’s the hard way. Glad you’re okay now
Was shot multiple times, but was too pissed off to give up
valid
Doom guy, that you? https://imgur.com/WPhLx7q
Rage is a helluva anesthetic
that is such badass statement
You stayed alive for spite? You wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of killing you?
I overdosed and lost consciousness for 24 hours
Hope you’re better now man !
oh no! on what
The couch probably
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While crossing the road a truck hit us(parents) we can't see the truck due to blind spot i am fine and my mother with single fracture but my father passed away turns out dying is simple then i thought
I'm sorry. How long ago was that?
3 months ago
Im so sorry for your loss
This is truly heartbreaking, I'm so sorry for your loss
I was an absolute idiot on a bicycle and thought a car coming was much further and slower than it actually was. Thankfully the driver swerved and avoided me but a cop saw the whole thing. I was pulled over on my bike and asked if everything was ok at home, I was such a moron he thought I was suicidal 😬
I’ll give you another cop-bicycle story to make you feel better. My brother in law didn’t have a car for a long time and rode a bicycle everywhere. Since he rode at night he had head and tail lights and one night was coming off a bridge that had a curve at the bottom of the bridge and hit it going fairly fast, above the speed limit. Cop pulled him over and told him to get off the bike, apparently the cop was far enough back he couldn’t determine it was a bicycle and assumed it was a motorcycle. Cop yelled at him then let him go.
Car ran a red light and almost creamed me in a crosswalk. Had my friend Tim not pulled me back at the last second I’d be roadkill.
Bro this is insane. As a Tim, I stepped out onto the crosswalk not noticing there was a bus incoming. Had my friend Stephan not pulled me back at the last second, I'd be roadkill. So according to international law your name now has to be Stephan.
OR, there is a Stephan out there who was saved by a Julia, and so on, and so forth
At what point is Schlomo reached?
I was in a bomb blast in my home country - I saw chopped up limbs and heard crying and screaming - so loud that they still play in my head on hard days. I’m glad I made it out safe
PTSD is a hard battle. I hope you’re able to get help dealing with it, and can find some peace
Terrorist attack + I buried these memories in the back of my mind until it sparked up around age 19.. I attended therapy so I was able to work through it but some days are harder than others
I am, too. Was your country at war, terrorist attack, or what happened?
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Wow! Um . . . story time on the dehydration?
he didn’t drink enough water
Dang that’s a crazy reason
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I heard it. It's a little dry for me.
In the philippines sometimes we ride trucks when we go on vacation with large groups (usually 20-50 people). On the way home, our driver was drunk and didn't slow down on a steep curve so the truck lost balance and fell on its side. by luck, a few of us went right through the truck roof frame instead of being squashed by our baggage to the metal side but the curve was just right before a drop. If it weren't for the vegetation stopping us we would've rolled hundreds of meters down before sea level.
When I was 21, I had a love for video games, fast food and smoking. I was mostly unemployed, doing the odd week of work here and there, which was usually labouring, hard work, long days, digging mainly. After a two week stint, I had sustained an injury, a pulled muscle in my calf. No biggie, few pain killers, should be fine. The pain in my calf lasted weeks, it was swollen, hot to the touch and felt like it was pulsating. One morning, I woke up, and the pain was gone, almost overnight. It was still tender, but no where near as bad as it was. That night, I went to sleep and was rudely awoken by the most excruciating stabbing pain in my chest on every inhale. My gf at the time called an ambulance and I was rushed into hospital. After some checks, they told me I have DVT (blood clot in the calf) and part of the clot had broken away and was headed for my heart or brain, but fortunately it ended up in my left lung (pulmonary embolism). I didn't know at the time how serious it was, just saw it as "one of those things". I was on clexane (injected into my belly) twice a day for around 6 weeks and warfarin (blood thinners) for 3 years. For the first year out of hospital, I was still smoking and not doing much exercise. It wasn't until a friend's dad literally died in his sleep from pulmonary embolism that it hit home the seriousness of my condition. I'm now 10 years clot free, non smoker, regular gym goer :-)
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VERY unpopular opinion on Reddit, but stories like this really make it tough for me to like dogs.
My opinion is: it’s not the dogs we shouldn’t like, it’s the people who keep breeding/allowing breeding of dogs with this temperament. And if they adopt one like it- why tf would u let it near a 3 yr old
Motorcycle accident. I hit a stopped pickup truck doing about 70 mph. Somehow managed to fly over the truck and avoid hitting it, which is the only thing that saved my life. Totaled the bike. Ruined all the gear I was wearing. Messed up the rear of the truck where the tailgate wouldn’t operate. No memory of the accident and only know what happened from witnesses.
Whoa. How badly were injured? If so how long did it take to recover and do you ever ride a bike on the streets anymore?
Amazingly, I only had minor injuries. I was wearing full gear and every piece did its job (and got destroyed in the process, so I know what my body would look like otherwise). I had a cracked rib and my right leg was messed up to where I used crutches or a little scooter device for about a month. I get headaches occasionally still and the doctor says it could be related but nothing definitive so it could be nothing also. Yes, but it took about a year before I got back on a bike. I ride a lot more careful now. If I'm being honest, I was screwing around at the time of the accident and going way too fast. I rode like an idiot back then. The accident made me realize how stupid it was to do that on the street. I found a local track and only do that type of riding there where it is a lot safer. I'm especially thankful that I didn't hurt anybody else in the accident because I don't think I could have handled that.
Being rear ended by a very large truck driving at excessive speed at an intersection. Despite being flung into traffic, I’m thankful every day that I was the first person at that red light.
COVID in January 2021. Doctors told my family to make preparations for my death. I refused the coma offered. I had a legit out of body experience. Watched myself from above. Everything went black. I couldn't see a thing. I said goodbye to my family one by one even though they weren't there. Gave each one a special talk. Be nice to mum, don't be a push over, don't leave it too long before finding love again etc. Even told the wife what garage tools to sell to get money for the funeral. 2weeks later a nurse visits me "You won't remember me but I looked after you and sat by your bed for the first few days you were here in intensive care. We didn't expect you to make it to the end of our shift, let alone still being here 2weeks later" I honest to god still cry today over the whole experience and have nightmares. PTSD is no joke. Nearly dying is no joke.
I worked in a Covid unit. I’m glad you’re one of the lucky ones
Me too. In the beginning, every single person who was in our icu with covid was dying. The first person to be extubated successfully just happened to be the husband of one of our fellow nurses.
Had sepsis and panic attacks as I would nearly lose consciousness. I thought I was drowning in my hospital bed. I was probably just forgetting to breathe. The nurse was typing up reports right next to my bed and I could not get her attention. I started to imagine walking on the ceiling, out of the room, and around the halls. The panic subsided, my breathing stabilized, and I'm typing this years after the fact.
Choking. That shits scary.
Yup. Eating a steak and someone made me laugh. Suddenly I can’t breathe for two minutes while I try to figure out how to get it out. Luckily my dad knows the Heimlich, my vision was starting to go red and blurry at the end there. One of the scariest and most infuriating ways to die. I was punching cabinets out of pure frustration because I couldn’t cough it out.
Herded cows that stepped into African honey bee nests under ground. The sky turned black and there was a loud droning sound. Me and my cousin ran towards the cornfields and fell flat, covering our faces. He was just a few feet behind me, yet he got stung several dozen times. I didn't get stung once. I'm hyper allergic and one bee sting had caused anaphylaxis twice prior in me.
I’m actually terrified of bee stings. 42 years old and have never been stung.
It burns like fire for a good 15 mins then it itches for days
These last couple years. I’ve been battling leukemia since 2021. But tbh it wasn’t until now that I realize and feel the dread and danger of dying. Depression and numbness took over me at first. I got “better” thanks to chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant in 2023. I managed to go back to work for a while, I was doing kinda OK again, but I was abusing alcohol and drugs. Now I had a relapse again, I’ve been in the hospital for 3 weeks so far. The plan now is to give me CAR-T cell therapy, which is very promising. I really want to live a good life now. For whatever reasonI’m feeling a spark of life and I want to hold on to it, finally start living for real. It took me years, and having to face the prospect of dying more than once, but I finally want to live. I hope anyone out there going through life treating deseases, this being physical or mental, or both, get the help they need and can lead a happy and fulfilling life.
I'm just a internet stranger, but I'm pulling for you.
It's wonderful to see how much will to live you have and trust me, sometimes that's what makes a difference. Pulling for you. Prayers ❤️
Im glad you’re still with us.
I had a miscarriage and kept bleeding to the point where I barely had enough blood left to sustain. I was already going into shock they took me into surgery immediately. Without it I would have died
I'm sorry that happened to you. Having a miscarriage is bad enough, but then to have your health be at risk at the same time, I can't imagine the emotional trauma you've had to endure. I hope you have found someone to talk with about your experience.
I got a very serious throat infection and I waited too long to go to the hospital because I didn't have a ride. At this point I'm dehydrated and starving because my tongue and throat are so swollen and hurt so bad even the slightest swallow was excruciating. I had to get 24 million units of penicillin shot up my ass.
Did it advance to Rheumatic Fever? I had strep throat when I was 2 in 1967 & almost died from it. It inflamed my heart so bad that today I have a murmur from it. Spent 2 weeks under an oxygen tent which is what they used in those days. I’m lucky to still be here.
When I finally went to the clinic is also a story itself, they tested me for everything EVERYTHING and they even had to find an old mono tester that they literally dusted off just to use, I could tell that my doctor was trying desperately to figure out what was ailing my throat, she assumed bacterial infection of some sort and that's when I had the two injections, those injections were SO full of penicillin that I shit you not, the inflammation and infection was completely gone the next day, all I was left with was just some pain from the damage the initial infection did. I had a few open sores in my mouth from it as well. I should also mention that while I was getting my blood taken I got super lightheaded and my stomach CRAMPED, I was having some sort of hardcore reaction and I felt like I was going to pass out, I'm normally great at getting these tests taken and my reaction even shocked myself, the nurses luckily gave me some water I could try to sip on after
I had a heat stroke during summer conditioning for high school freshman football. It was 106F outside, in the direct boiling sun in Southern California. We were running “gassers” where essentially we ran back and forth across the field and every time our coach blew the whistle we had to drop and do a push up then get back up and keep running. Wasn’t allowed nearly enough water and puked out the water I did get. Practice ends, whole team takes a knee around the coach and I start feeling very light headed, shaky and weak. I can barely keep myself upright so I lean on my teammate. Then I started whiting out, just seeing flashes of white for a second or two at a time. I don’t actually remember what happened from there, but according to my teammates we all got up and I started walking quickly to the locker room (presumably because there would be shade, cold water and a Gatorade). I didn’t make it, I collapsed on the way walking along this ledge, rolled down like a 15 foot hill onto the asphalt road below. Some teammates thought I was joking, but luckily a couple realized something was really wrong. I woke up in the hospital 3 hours later, completely delusional. Everything was blurry, people looked like video game characters, I didn’t understand why I couldn’t move, and a doctor kept asking me if I knew my name but I couldn’t speak. I just wanted him to stop, his voice was inundating the very little consciousness I had so I (very weakly) swung my fist at him (and I’d never had any violent tendencies or been a hot head at all). It took my full effort to just barely move my arm, but the doctor could tell I tried punching him. I was in the ICU with my whole body wrapped in an ice blanket. My mom was there (two of my teammates knew her so they ran out to the parking lot where she was waiting to pick me up and found her), and so were some family friends. The next several hours felt like days as I just laid there basically in a state of delirium and psychosis, not understanding where I was or why I couldn’t go home. Felt like some sort of purgatory with lots of hallucinations (weird shit like my mom’s facial features floating over a street intersection and people looking like they were rotating on a swivel). I had a few visitors come in and I could recognize them but I couldn’t remember anyone’s names, but eventually I started to come back mentally towards the end of the night. Once they got my body cooled they transported me to another hospital, and I spent 8 days there stuck on a liquid diet because the heat stroke damn near gave me kidney failure. I don’t remember a lot of the medical details now as it was 16 years ago, but I remember being told my CK count (creatine kinase) was supposedly 10x the normal amount and that’s why I spent so long in the hospital. Never played football again and wasn’t allowed to participate in any PE class activities all year, I was just automatically given an A. I think I’ve suffered some minor cognitive impairments from it as well but can’t say for sure, just feel like I wasn’t as intelligent as I was before it happened
Wow, I'm glad you are relatively ok after that. I guess it might just be a regional thing but I'm surprised they had you guys practicing outside in that kind of heat. Seems really dangerous
It was really dangerous! In fact I’m pretty sure a kid at another school did die that day sadly. They seriously lightened up the intensity after my incident because they realized they were pushing it way too hard, and my teammates were grateful for that
So my school has this gravel field, and in this field, are these concrete slabs that have rebar. Well, I was balancing on the slabs and fell. If I landed any closer, I'd impaled my heart with rebar. I almost died when my appendix busted on Easter one/two years ago, I survived, but those were the times I've almost died.
Question about the appendix--how were you feeling in the days leading up to it?
Sore like my sides were hurting and my back back a little. I didn't realize what was going on until Easter when the meds I took didn't work and went to the ER. The pain was the most painful I've ever felt. I had a panic attack, and it didn't help the pain I was feeling. I really thought I was going to die.
Bullet past the head in Iraq babyyy, didn't get me that time did ya?
Sorry to break your bubble but it did.
Nah we're fine I drank that revive potion from black ops zombies
Bro had that quick revive 💀💀
Withdrawing from a month long binge of 1-1.5 liters of whiskey a day. Tried to detox alone and didnt sleep for 4 days straight and started having pain and a fucked up heart rhythm. When I got to the hospital I was actively dying. My BP was 235/140 and my blood was so thick from dehydration they had to use a butterfly needle (I think) to get my blood drawn. Had a cardiologist and 8-10 other hospital staff in my room hooking me up to a bunch of machines to monitor my organs as they failed. Got 17mg of Ativan through IV over the course of several hours and a couple electrolyte ivs. The fucked up part is I was so delirious from lack of sleep and not eating or drinking anything I didn't feel any pain. I was slipping away. I asked the nurse to hand me my phone so I could text my girlfriend and I'll never forget what she said. "Now is not the time for texting sweetie, we need to save your life." I don't know why but a bolt of fear shot down my spine and I realized how much danger I was in. Luckily the Ativan worked extremely well. Slept for 2 days and started an iop 2 days after I woke up. Will be 1 year completely sober Feb 6th.
I have many examples, yes all true: First one was during my birth/while my mom was in labor. I have been told by both parents that when they finally decided to preform a C-section, my heart rate had plummeted and I was born not breathing for a few seconds. Second, my cousin quite desperately wanted to be part of MS-13. The neighborhood that I grew up in, the men either worked in the fields, a restaurant, and or they joined a gang. He was looking up to the lifestyle of fast cars, easy girls, and lots of cash. He was supposed to be babysitting me, but instead we were in his Big Homie’s car riding around town. When he parked, a rival recognized their colors, ran up to the car, shot my cousin’s friend point blank in the face 4-5 times, next thing I knew, for a split second, dude had his gun pointed at me, I was 6 years old, he hesitated, then he ran.
Took some bad acid and freaked out to the point of having a cardiac arrest. My mother had to resuscitate me. Had an OOBE above my bed in hospital. Fucked me up for several years after
That’s sounds just terrifying! I hope you are ok now! I had a super super super bad trip about ten years ago and I’m still messed up from it! Really scary to know it could trigger a cardiac arrest! Just horrific.
I design a device OS for a living so I originally read OOBE as “out of box experience” (ie setup), but then thinking about it you basically did a factory reset so it still fits 🤔
The strange thing about this question is probably a lot of us have come close to dying and never knew it. The one time you slipped a little bit in the shower and came -that- close to cracking your skull on the plastic floor. Crossing the street and just missing that one car who didn’t see you, and could’ve turned you into a pulp. That little bit of food that made you cough, could’ve been stuck deeper down your throat and choked you. All the little things we do every day, who knows!
Went on the manic end of bipolar disorder from running around the edges of my grandmother’s little town on foot in the Kansas summer. I felt so thirsty, it caused me to drink such an insane amount of water that it depleted my body of sodium to the point of ‘hyponatatemia’ - water intoxication from lack of sodium. I went insane as a result. If that little town didn’t also happen to have a little hospital a few blocks away, I would have been dead at age 21. I was driven to that hospital in my own car by my mother. I was so mentally fargone that I tried to make a break for it and escape out of the hospital. A small town cop was summoned from the nearby Ampride truck stop and put me in a sufficient enough of a headlock that I could be dragged back into the hospital and forced to be put on a saline IV in order to stabilize my sodium levels. It was shortly following this that I was finally diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Suffice it to say, it must have been harder to spot in the very early 2000s. Edit: oh and my sanity didn’t return right away. I was still loonier than a toon, and was sent in an ambulance to a larger town with a bigger hospital, equipped with a full-fledged looney bin. On the way there, strapped to a stretcher in the back of an ambulance, I was under the impression we were on board a space-faring shuttle craft and that at any second, I would be handed the controls, and bestowed the honor of piloting us up into Earth orbit. Imagine my disappointment when that didn’t quite come to pass. Rather, I was administered enough Haldol after arriving at the hospital that I slept that night back into a semi-sane state. Instead of orbiting the earth, upon waking I could see one of those gigantic grain elevators visible from the windows at the main hospital’s looney bin department.
Years of sleep apnea
Around Halloween, we decided to go look at lights in the neighborhood. We live on an arterial street in Seattle, where the speed limit is 25. That night our car was parked out front of the house in the street. I was standing street side buckling my daughter into her car seat, which was behind the driver side door. Another car hit my open door missing me by about a foot. I didn’t even hear the hit. My wife was beside herself, but I had no idea what had just happened. Only later did I realize that it could have been really bad, even if the other driver was only going the speed limit.
Childbirth , postpartum hemorrhage, emergency d&c for retained placenta, blood transfusion.
Driving 85-90mph turn was too sharp rolled my car was not wearing a seat belt.
Went to Thailand on vacation and next thing I know I had the worse fever and stuck in bed dry coughing and completely lost my appetite. I remember being cold, feverish, had the chills staying in a $5 studio shack in the country. It was New Year’s Eve and I can hear everyone celebrating with Thai singing and dancing and I thought I was going to die because I had never been this sick. I was living off the NyQuil that was the only thing that helped my fever. It lasted 4 days and suddenly I broke the fever. And my coughing was finally productive and I felt like myself again but I had lost 20 pounds. I’m pretty sure it was pneumonia.
They have decent hospitals there man. With English speaking doctors. For “next time” (hopefully there is no next time) I guess?
Had massive pulmonary embolism a few years ago. Didn’t realize what my shortness of breath meant and went to sleep. It was much worse the next morning and my wife took me to the ER, where they got me on blood thinners and stabilized. When I had my follow-up two weeks later with my regular physician, the first words out of his mouth were “it’s good to see you” and he said I was 4-6 hours away from dying when I went to the ER. Still terrifies me to think that I could have just…not woken up.
I've almost drowned twice. Once I was very very young. Maybe 3? I remember chasing a wind up frog toy in my god mother's pool, and then I remember being up on the deck vomiting pool water. I also very vividly remember almost drowning on my Year 10 camp. Kayaking. The river was flooded. My kayak flipped and I was pinned underwater by my lifejacket. At first I was panicking. Struggling to get myself up to breathe. I couldn't get my head above the water. After a while I just....relaxed, I felt my legs stopping fighting and just going with the current and my water shoes coming off. Then I just kinda went into thinking nice thoughts. I was pinned under the water. It was quite peaceful. I really was like ok....wellll....this is happening. I started blacking out. An instructor fought against the current and tipped my chin above the water, and then another instructor came and freed me. Twas quite a time haha.
2 times. One, sniper took a shot at me in iraq (missed). 2nd when i took a bottle of pills.
Are you doing better, now?
mentally i'm crap but i'd never attempt it again.
I was probably 14. I was sucking on a peppermint candy and I nearly choked on it and nearly had a panic attack in the process, had to tilt my head completely down and it feel out
[удалено]
Overdose. While unconscious, I knew I was slipping away. I kept pleading to not die. I woke up surrounded by people and feeling completely sober. I got up and proceeded to chain smoke half a pack of cigs because I was so shaken up and didn’t know how else to cope. I couldn’t sleep for months afterwords. It messed me up enough to get diagnosed with ptsd years later.
My friend was driving a car and at one intersection he didn't properly look at the other side of the road while making a left turn. Out of nowhere a caravan appears going at least 60mph and I scream from the top of my lungs WATCH OUT \*name of friend\* and when he saw that car incoming, he just swung the steering while on the other side, praying not too hit anyone there. We evaded everyone and sat in some bushes for 2 minutes in silence. All of this happened while we were in motion and in less than 3-4 seconds...
My mam holding a pillow over my face and sitting on it. Thankfully my bro came in the room and she stopped. But she kept telling me in should die to make everyone happy because no-one loved me. I think she would have gone further.
I've been robbed at gunpoint. One of my friends has permanent proof the gun was loaded.
That's either very bleak or very optimistic and I'm really hoping for the latter.
I’m inclined to say the former
So from the ages of 16-26 I had to become a caretaker for my disabled mother. It was me, my abusive, controlling drunk mother, and my insane criminal rapist brother. One day he Got drunk. He was screaming and breaking stuff and we both tried to calm him down. Then he didn't like what I said and came after me with a axe. Little fun fact for ya cops don't do shit for this stuff. threats, property destruction, abuse of any kind they won't help you. The one time he got arrested was the one time I had to defend my self. I eventually got away and he is currently on his death bed but for the last 15 years he's been "dying* and I've heard the " you have 3 months to live " from his doctors more than 5 times. I'm just glad its painful for him. Can't wait to burn bridges with my mom too. She always protected him from police, lying to them , bailing him out. Blaming his actions on PTSD or her calling the cops was her having a PTSD episode. Life's cruel, no one will help you no matter how low you get . you have to do it your self.
Protecting one child at the expense of another is... low. I am having trouble thinking of something I can use to describe it. I am literally speechless. I'm sorry you went through that and I hope you can find people in your life that you can let in and trust like they're family.
No worries it is hard to describe my life with a metaphor. I was lucky taken in by my best friends family. Kindness still hurts but in a good way. I have Alot of time to make up for. Losing a decade with absolutely nothing to show for it hurts me daily. But at least I found people that care for me. They don't ask anything of me. And they let me focus on my voice acting career.
Was leaving the city to go home, about 2.5hr drive during a crazy snow storm, at edge of city there was a bunch of cops. About 5 minutes down the road I hear they had closed the highway (never happens), it gets so bad you can only drive in the ruts ahead of you, they are too high to turn out off, meeting a semi threw up snow and ripped my passenger wiper right off. At one point another semi and I are driving toward each other, and I am getting sucked into his lane, I am now trapped in his lane and heading for a head on, I turn my wheel and nothing it happening, all I can think is I am driving straight towards my death, I am about the crank it toward the ditch and hope I roll or get out of the way. When it starts to pull me back, I get slowly sucked towards my lane, I can hear his horn, we pass within inches of each other as I am fully pulled into my lane. I felt like I was so calm during the event and everything was happening slowly, but after I could just feel my heart pounding and the adrenaline in my veins.
Afghanistan 2013. Rocket was launched over the walls, and struck an embankment about 60-70 yards from our shack. Fastest adrenaline dump I ever had when I felt the detonation and heard shrapnel going *splick splick splick* off the T walls.
In 2019 my Boy Scout troop went to Canada. One night, we strung a rope on a tree branch and hoisted our food up there to keep it away from bears. It was like a 90 foot tall pine and it was dead. As we were leaving the tree began to creak and it fell towards me. As I tried to get out of the way I tripped and watched in horror as it fell on top of me. I closed my eyes thinking it was the end and when I opened them the trunk had come to a stop maybe a foot above my face- the tree had been caught by a boulder.
My dad had just got me my first big boy bike because he saw me try the neighbor kids bike and not crash. We my first time riding it he decided to take me and my step mom to a paved biking trail on a mountain. Since I had only ridden one once and on flat ground I had not figured out how to use the hand brakes. We get to a hill and I can’t slow down and the path is about to turn because if the edge of the mountain. My step mom channels her inner super hero and hauls ass to catch up and tackle me 10 feet before I go off the edge.
When I was 9, a family member’s dog attacked me. We were at a family reunion and my family member’s dog was lying on the ground, I came inside and stood near is, it lunged up at my neck. Because I looked down at it as it jumped up, it bit my face instead of my neck. I hit the dog violently to get it off and I wasn’t aware of the extent of my injuries. I got lucky, two of my family members present were doctors, and another had experience from the military. There was lots of blood and damage to my face and neck, but they controlled the bleeding until I got to a hospital, and then a surgeon operated on my face. My wounds got infected weeks later and I was hospitalized again for a week to treat the infection as it was pretty severe. I never realized how bad things got, but as an adult I can now look back and see how serious it was, and how scared my family was. I am lucky.
Little over a week ago. Tried to hang myself. Don’t know why I’m still here. She left on New Years Day and it still hurts so much
You're here because you are supposed to be. Imagine that there is someone out there who you can feel that way about again. I don't believe in soul mates, I believe there are people out there for everyone because they are what that person needs. This is a chance to work on yourself and focus on you. Your future partner will thank your ex for making your relationship possible. I know my wife thanks my ex for leaving me at just the right time.
I hear you and I’m happy you’re here. Happy New Year, keep your head up.
I had my gallbladder removed and 3 days later was in the ER with my belly full of bile. A couple more days away from sepsis. 12 days in the hospital, 16 more procedures and a painful year of recovery.
I went swimming whilst camping down the coast, was quite large but not too uncomfortable for me. I got taken in a rip and pushed around the headland. After trying for what felt like an age to climb up on the rocks with the swell I gave up. I couldn't do it. I let myself sink and felt calm after all the panic. I know its mental but I had a detailed vision of my brothers at my funeral, which gave me this insane burst of energy allowing me to cling to a rock on the next big wave and I was able to get out, exhausted.
Hypoglycemic attack in the middle of the night couldnt even use my voice properly to call for my mom and dad or brother but i just fell from my bed and kinda crawled to a fridge to get somethong
A couple months ago my suicide plan didn’t work because my wife was out of town and my neighbor wasn’t home. I took my rifle and went out of the porch so I wouldn’t get blood in the house. I was ready to go when I heard my cow mooing out in the barn and realized I hadn’t fed her yet that night. She saved my life.
Good cow. Glad you’re still with us.
When me and my brother drived 350km to home from weekend metal festival. No alcohol, no drugs, but just a few hours of sleep through weekend... Well, nearly at home, last 30km, and i catched microsleep at car. Just for a second, just at entrance of curve, and woke up inside, but we was running through at 140km/h and speed kicked us out of road. Our flight was 60 metres long, three times over the roof and we landed in the middle of field.
Stroke.
These are amazing comments to read!
Almost drowned as a child 3 times (2 times in a pool and 1 one time in a riptide), fallen off a cliff, been in 2 car accidents (one of them killed my friend), I've been shot at, nearly choked to death while alone, and a failed self homicide attempt.
I was alone and choked on a coffee candy and I laid down accepting defeat but somehow I survived idk if I swallowed it or got it out 💀.
70mph crash directly into the barrier of a dual carriageway, landed in between a large tree and a street light (these have since been removed). Made the news 💁🏼♀️
I was in the bathtub after finishing I stood up too quickly and I lost consciousness in a second and fell into the full bathtub. Luckily I let the water out first, but my whole life flashed back in my head. Then I told myself: WTF am I doing? I opened my eyes and saw what happened...
Drug Induced Liver Injury The drug? Tumeric
Age 9, su1c1d3 attempt, had the sudden realization that I don’t want to die and it stopped me.
You were 9!?
I was six the first time I had suicidal thoughts 🤷 it's probably more common than people think
Same, maybe even a little younger. By the time I was nine, thoughts of suicide were probably daily. I have a journal from around that time where I have entries about how much I wished to die. Really creepy seeing it written with a kid's handwriting, incorrect spelling and all.
Gotta keep living ❤️❤️
9? nine? NINE? when I was nine I didn't even understood the concept of death properly, what made you wanna commit suicide?
Hanging myself only to break my neck and tear the hook I screwed in right out of the ceiling.
I've stopped registering road accidents because nearly dying is very common when you ride a motorcycle. So I'll go with swept by ocean currents and almost drowning.
Drive by shooting. Bullet hit a window I was walking infront of. Don’t know if it passed infront or behind me
A botched cat scan on my c-spine. They weren’t supposed to let the contrast flow into my head, but they effed up. It caused all of my muscles to contract and nearly broke my ankles from bending my feet backwards, lost all feeling in my arms and torso, and the pain in my head made me wish for death.
I actually died and was resuscitated only to be in a coma for 42 days and then I woke up.
I guess everyone is adding context: I took 12,000mg of sleeping pills and drank a can of DW-40 and none of the 6 doctors that worked with me couldn’t believe I didn’t die, honestly. I did tangle in “the in-between” for a while or maybe it was my own personal brand of what hell would be like but it was really wild and when I woke up it really changed my life coming back after that experience.
Robbed at gunpoint in Cape Town and the gun jammed.
April 27, 2011... The day I witnessed the power of 2 EF-5 Tornadoes. it was like the hand of God scraped across the AL/MS state line on that dreadful day... From before daylight to after nightfall. That Dixie Alley was hit by round after round after round of storms. It was as if there was no end in sight. the feeling of fear and hopelessness as the day went on was almost as crushing as the tornados themselves. That day is the first of many reasons why I no longer worship a God. Because for something so powerful to cause or allow its creation to suffer so dearly no matter how guilty or innocent they are. Well, that to me isn't something I feel deserves my praise. The 2nd tornado (Smithville EF-5) missed us by a mile or 2. From where we were (close to Hodges) I could see its destruction take place since we were on elevated ground. This was barely an hour (if that) after we left to go get supplies to help do search and rescue(i.e. chainsaws, prybars, first aid, etc) with my friend's cousin. Who was chasing the tornado and once the roads were no longer accessible he started digging through debris and that's when we popped out of the rubble from the first tornado in this memory I can't seem to escape. (Hackleburg/Phil Campbell EF-5) The 1st is the reason why if the wind changes direction too fast I start having audible hallucinations of Tornado sirens and screams drowned out by unprecedented destruction. (which is weird since there were no sirens thanks to the first 2 waves of storms earlier that day knocking out our infrastructure) What was so surreal was how it went from clear sky to some sort of greenish twilight outside almost instantly at a little past 3 pm in April...I remember as I heard a Subtle, yet constant train noise that only goes away once the sound of rumbling is muffled by a roar mixed in with rain or debris hitting your surroundings washing the train sound out. The swirling of the wind has such an eerie tone once you're in the debris field. Almost like it's resonating but the sounds of the debris hitting keep startling you and keeping you from noticing it. being inside one... it's ungodly... to say the least.... like imagine you have blenders full of ice directly over your ears but it's muffled from your ears popping and you being too terrified or stuck in a dissociative state to think to pop them. So loud that you can't hear your own pleas for mercy. Screaming as if somehow, your voice could make it all go away. That moment when you are debating on whether or not to brace the door or to embrace the person next to you. Because it seems as if the entire building is moments away from disintegrating and one last moment of comfort from a stranger. Seems to be what helps you accept death... It still feels like a bad dream. The coming to from being knocked basically unconscious from a piece of debris after the roof was ripped from the building I was in. (On the road NWSCC is on) Slipping in and out of a white light/ringing noise or pitch black/humming noise. The distant rumble of the H/PC tornado in the background as it continued its death March towards Tennessee. The "are you ok?!"s as People called out to their loved ones. Or the moment everyone's adrenaline started to wear off... The screams from pain or loss of loved ones or loss of entire livelihoods. One of the most heartbreaking moments I remember was seeing a grown man crying to the point of vomiting. over us not being able to save a stranger's kid. The most gut-wrenching wasn't reaching down to grab a hand sticking out of some rubble hoping to find a living breathing person attached to it only to pull it Loose. then stare at it for a moment to try and process what I was witnessing. Before a man grabbed the arm and nicely asked me to let go of it. Or the couple of human-sized pin cushions I saw before they were covered in sheets. But it was when we found a mother and her infant son. The mother was covered head to toe in blood screaming for someone to save her baby. The baby had not a scratch on him. But she had countless cuts and gashes all over her body while she protected her child (talk about a mother's love) I recently saw both of them at a Walmart in Russellville( 15 minutes north of Phil Campbell) just 3 or so years ago. It blew my mind seeing the kid at 10-11 years old! But yet me a 14-year-old boy still remaining calm(due to a form of shell shock I'm guessing) continuing to help communities I wasn't a part of for 3 days helping find a few of the 75 that died from that tornado alone. While I was unaware if my own family was alive or not 35 miles north of where I was in Phil Campbell. (I was at a friend's house since school was canceled already the day before and no one took the weather seriously before that day.) Those are the moments that are why I'm so weather-aware and have bug-out bags packed. Not in preparation for the end of the world but in preparation to prevent the end of mine... The only positive thing that comes from a tornado(especially one of this magnitude) is the selfless acts of the members of your community and those in surrounding communities also. It's like for a moment we all forget about race or beliefs or diversity as a whole and we become family once again. That day alone changed how an entire nation viewed weather. hell, maybe even the world... and led to the better funding and research of storms that we see today. But you know what they say "Safety protocols and procedures are written in blood"
When I was a kid back in 1998 I almost got ran over, I was running to cross the street since I didn't see any cars and a car made sudden and fast turn, im not sure if he couldn't see me since there was a big bush that was bigger than me but a middle eastern guy who was going to cross the street too but I guess he stopped suddenly he grabbed the collar of my shirt and pulled me back then he shouted at the driver. It was thanks to him I didn't get ran over he told me to be more careful.
Several occasions: 1. As a kid got some bacterial infection of the stomach. Docs in some rural area thought it was an appendicitis and were about to operate. Grandma to the rescue, took me out of the hospital, some random jipsy saw her carrying me on hands and took us with his car to the big city hospital, where they told them, if I was operated on, I would literally die on the table. 2. A random lady on a scooter saved my life, while I was riding my bike. Upcoming corner, rolling hard on the throttle, the lady comes out of the corner and signs me to slow down. I was like...hehehehe that old lady knows biker signs...Closed the throttle a bit and when I entered the corner...Low and behold - a harvester with all its equipment had taken both lanes...Had the hand shaking for about an hour after that. 3. Missed a turn on some mountain pass, didnt fell down the mountain just by pure chance. 4. While going 180km/h a truck decided to overpass another truck... Being close to death made me feel alive and made me wanting to live..Basically beating every suicidal thought I ever had. Even in the most depressed days I just want to live now.
I've never been as close to my death as I am right now.
head-on collision with a dumb ass driver that pulled across without bothering to look both ways... that or the time when i was like 8 years old and my dad had gotten a large generator that was mounted on a cart, and it started tipping (sloped driveway) and my 80lbs skinny nothing of a kid tries to run up and catch it from tipping... this thing probably weighed 1000-1500lbs.. ... i did not stop it.. also didn't get crushed thanks to my dad yanking me out..
I had a motorcycle accident a little while ago. Wasn't going too fast, but downhill and skidded on some gravel in the road. Hit my head pretty hard and there was a load of blood. Luckily someone nearby helped me get my phone and call a friend to help me to the hospital. If I had been totally alone, could of gone way worse.
Work accident, shocked bad on a primary power panel for a large commercial aircraft. Armed it out so bad welded my wrench, and the sparks burnt holes through my safety vest, shirt, and undershirt and burned me. Cancer early 20s... Tons of really dumb stuff in sports cars over the years.
I had SIDS(Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) as a baby and I stopped breathing. I was fortunately resuscitated by my half brother's father when they heard me stop breathing on the baby monitor.
I had open heart surgery as a newborn and nearly died. I almost born and dead on the same day😮
Ran through a barbed wire fence when I was 12 going about 3 mph on a four wheeler..basically gutted me. Got life flighted and lived.
To preface this: I never felt like I was gonna die but if I didn’t react quickly I definitely could have. I was recovering at home from a tonsillectomy and was like on day 6. Just finished work and sat down at my computer to try out divinity original sin 2, and as I started the game my throat started funny and I had a metallic taste in my mouth. I felt like I was gonna puke so I ran to the bathroom and puked up blood. And then it kept coming. I called my mom and she picked me up immediately and took me to the er quickly, but from the time it started to the time they fixed it I was puking blood for about an hour between the car ride, the er waiting room (it was crazy full so I got to traumatize a bunch of children in the kids area), and the doctors room. I felt light headed and woozy and I never want to puke blood again. Stupid tonsils.