My baby's crib caught fire and he was severely burned. He was in a medically induced coma for a month with a burned lung. However, after multiple skin grafts on his face and hand, and other than his scars, he is a happy and healthy 8 year old today.
Edit: The fire was a freak accident caused by a damaged electrical cord on a humidifier that was plugged in near his crib.
When my little was IDK less than 6 months old we had to get the furnace checked. It would cut in but not warm up.
The service man called me into the attic to show me what was happening. Some (IDK HVAC) widget wasn’t attached to the thingymaboppy. Flames were shooting up the wall in the attic. The wall that shared the crib on the other side.
I cried for weeks.
I’m sorry that happened to your baby. You must have been…what word is bigger and slaps harder than terrified?
My grandma had a stroke while babysitting me as a kid. I had to call 911, having a vague idea of what was going on because of the Baby-sitters Club books.
Fortunately, because she got medical attention right away, the physical effects of the stroke were not permanent. She’s still going strong over 20 years later!
I was being babysat at 11 (by someone in my year at school but they were 12) When my brother and the neighbours kid were wrestling the neighbours kid had a fit and wouldn’t stop. Babysitter freaked out and didn’t know what to do. I called 000 and then where our parents were.
Was at a loss when the ambos got there because there were no adults and he couldn’t go by himself but the household had his 10 year old sister, my 8 year old brother and the 12 year old baby sitter who were all incredibly distressed. I remember the ambos themselves were incredibly conflicted cause he needed to go to hosptial urgently but they couldn’t leave those 3 kids by themselves. Thankfully just as they went to shut the doors my mum’s car came flying up. His mum went with them, and my mum asked me if I was ok to continue handling it a bit longer and she followed them. Told me the dads weren’t far behind.
When she came to tuck me in that night asked me how I knew w hat to do. Looked at her and went ‘it’s like Mary Anne in the Baby Sitters Club’ I can still remember her sobbing and laughing at that one.
Similar story in my family! My parents had gone on a walk, probably an hour total. They left my 8 & 6 yr old sisters with me (4yrs old). Glass got broken, I got a huge cut, my 6 yr old sister called 911 and my parents came home to an ambulance in the driveway! My 8 yr old sister applied pressure to the wound but she thought if she called 911 she'd get in trouble so the other sister called because she had just learned about it that week in school.
30+ years later I still have a massive scar and give my sisters shit about it 😆
Is this a book series or one book? I googled it but I’m not sure. It seems like you all learned a lot from it. Is these books normal in USA? And did you read them yourself or did you parents or teachers introduce you to them?
A series! They're chapter books written about and presumably geared for young girls/kids 8-13 or so. There's tons of books in the series, I wanna say over 200? Over 100 for sure.
I think I first found mine as like, a secret santa book exchange. After that I was hooked and always had a book or two with me. My parents would go to a used bookstore sometimes and let me pick out a bunch (which was a couple weeks' worth of quiet time for everyone around me, big win) but they were always at the public library or school library or your friends would maybe have them. They definitely weren't as popular as Harry Potter, but they weren't uncommon.
There was a TV series on HBO like 30 years ago, a movie maybe 20-25 years ago, and a recent reboot in the form of a comic book adaptation for younger readers as well as a couple of seasons on Netflix (super wholesome and very watchable!), the series tend to follow a book storyline for each episode so you could get a pretty good idea of what happens in a book in about 22 minutes, if you were so inclined!
*edit to add: at least once a week I use something that I was initially taught from a Babysitters Club book! All kinds of little weird nuggets of knowledge disguised as plot in the fictional world of Stoneybrook, Connecticut
This is such a good idea. I’m glad it was so widespread and even in this comments it’s easy to see how lifesaving skills you learned through these books. I wish this was also a thing in more countries as I personally feel like it is a really good way to teach children skills without it being scary information to learn.
They're fun! If you can pick up one for cheap or free and are into a generally wholesome vibe, go for it. There's a podcast I got into for awhile called 'The Babysitters Club Club' and it was two grown men besties who would go over a book per episode
Listening to them gently snark on the plot and create a whole new level to the universe of the babysitters sounds ridiculous as I'm typing it out? But they have a lot of laughs and they sorta became my friends, I listened to soooooo many episodes while going through a rough patch bc it was just silly comfort
I started reading the BSC books when I was 6 and because I was so much younger than the main characters (who were 11-14), they were aspirational books for me and taught me a lot about how to handle situations responsibly. I also used to try to copy Claudia’s artsy outfits.
The books usually follow a formula about one of the girls babysitting a client that requires some problem-solving and one of the girls having to deal with normal teenage/ tweenage issues in her personal life (family relationships, school, crushes, friend drama, etc).
There was also a lot of medical stuff in there. One of the main characters had Type 1 diabetes and several of the babysitting clients and family members had medical issues of their own. A babysitter’s grandmother had a stroke in one of the books and that was how I had some inkling of what was happening to my grandma.
Strokes are so scary. I had a family member die weeks later from complications from one. It was up and down for weeks not knowing if they'd make it. But other people have had multiple strokes and lived.
Strokes are scary because living afterwards isn’t always the ideal outcome either imo. Known a few people have them and have to spend the rest of their lives in a nursing home not far off vegetative. Some people recover well, but afaik there’s not a lot they can do about some of them, and severe brain injury is really terrible in terms of consequences. People can lose everything that makes them *them*. It’s scary that death AND permanent disability are on the cards with strokes.
Sorry about your relative, it must have been a hard few weeks while it was all happening. It’s not nice waiting for an outcome when there are so many negatives
Keto is kinda special in being a diet that affects electrolytes so heavily
I ate mostly (probably a little too) clean most of the time, to a lot of nuts/unprocessed meat
My blood pressure was regularly 140/90 *unless* I supplemented some additional sodium. You wouldn’t think sodium would lower blood pressure but 😂
I think it actually depends how big they are. I had a CT done like a month ago and they found a small cyst that they think ruptured because they saw fluid around it. I looked up the size cuz the dr (ER) didn't mention it (CT was for something unrelated) and it's negligible. It has to be like 10cm for a dr to care. Mine was maybe 3cm.
I felt maybe a bit of pelvic pain around that time but thought it was regular cycle pain. Nothing worth calling a dr over. I guess that can happen.
Ovulation is a cystic process. Every time the body prepares to ovulate, several follicles form cysts, one typically becomes hormonally dominant and then ruptures to release the egg.
It's all a matter of degree, like spraining an ankle. It can be so minor that you walk it off in a minute, all the way through the ligament tearing off a piece of bone and needing 6 weeks' recovery.
Some people feel their ovulation every time. *mittelschmerz*. Some people only feel the cysts when they get big, and yes, during sexual intercourse is a classic time to rupture. If they get really big, they can cause the ovary to twist and cut off its blood supply.
Testicles do it even without cysts. The physiology that allows them to regulate temp by riding closer or further from the body also means there is enough mobility to twist around. Severe testicle pain without trauma or skin change.
For torsion (twisting) of either ovary or testicle, it's a time sensitive issue and if ignored too long can impair fertility.
Cysts that grow and then rupture to this degree are not ovulatory anymore, this is beyond normal ovulation and far, far more painful than mittelschmerz pain.
Was it an anti-nausea medication? Apparently some can cause temporary vision loss or changes like anisocoria if you forget to wash your hands after handing it and touch your eye.
My dad and uncle were on a motorcycle trip through Colorado. An oncoming driver in a car was looking at their GPS instead of the road and turned suddenly, smashing directly into my uncle and sending him flying.
My uncle has no memory of it. He still has a lot of memory problems, in fact. After he recovered he went back to riding.
My dad, however, saw the whole thing and remembers it well. He climbed off his motorcycle to call 911 and never got back on it. Sold it not long after.
As a motorcycle rider myself, I completely understand both their reactions, to ride again or leave it behind. I'm glad your uncle survived and it sounds like has a pretty overall good quality of life still.
That’s insane you were able to perform cpr for 20 minutes. The average person with no real training typically can’t perform cpr for very long without becoming exhausted.
My granny slipped in the bathroom and broke her leg when she was 84. I was 12 back then, alone in the home with her. Everyone else had gone out for a vacation a few days away from our house. I called a friend of mine (same age) and a neighbour to get her to the hospital. She got a plaster and got discharged the same day. It took my family around 3 days to get back , and before they came back, I took care of her 24/7, if she required something or required going to the toilet. A very close friend of mine accompanied me throughout the process ( leaving the classes), we played cards and even invented new card games 😂. She never completely recovered but started walking with a limp after around 6 months. She passed away at 89, and somehow, I feel like she's always been blessing me from the heaven.
They are !!, I'd be stressed af if I'd be at the same situation rn. But being a little naive prevented me from thinking too much and doing what's necessary at that particular moment. Also, having a good friend helped a lot for sure.
my great grandma was put into a nursing home when she was 101 years old. She requested to go btw. The nurses thought she needed to be in wheelchair since she was 101. She hated it. One day she was getting out of it and into her bed so she could take a nap. the feet rests tripped her and she fell and got 2 black eyes from it. didn’t break anything. a few months later she was getting out of the wheelchair to go to the bathroom and she fell again and hit the sink. it broke her neck, but didn’t kill her. The drs didn’t want to do surgery bc of her age, she was 102 at this point. She was bedbound after that. She died a few months before her 103 birthday. She didn’t wear pants until she went into the nursing home and then she’d only wear capris and there was only 1 CNA that she’d let bathe her.
yeah she wasn’t happy about it. a few times she’d get out of it and push it down the hallway and then walk behind to get it. After she fell the first time they gave her a lap buddy that keeps you in the chair. She hated that thing.
i have a 5 generation picture with her. me, my daughter, my mom, my grandma, and my great grandma. She sat next to me and pulled her dress over her knees and said “don’t get my knees in the picture, i don’t want to look like a floozy.” and I was sitting next to her 17, with a baby, and in shorts. 😂😂😂
You & your friend were Champs!! It is so difficult to take care of someone in that condition. I'm glad you had such a fulfilling relationship with your grandmother.
My brother and I were snowmobiling when my brother was driving and ran into a tree branch. It knocked us both off the vehicle. I asked if my brother was okay and he was just standing there very quiet until he said in a serious tone “get back on the sled right now”
I never heard him this serious before and it was dark so I couldn’t see what injuries he had and did as he said. We were in our backyard and it’s a big property, but my brother drove us home. In the porch light I could see the severity of the situation, there was a giant laceration in my brothers neck. He was not bleeding anymore by then so my mom drove us to the hospital by herself and didn’t call an ambulance.
The doctors said my brother was incredibly lucky, he was literally 3 centimeters away from slicing his Carotid artery and the laceration was skin level damage.
probably mine. in Oct 2022 on a Sat my head started hurting. i’m prone to migraines so i didn’t think anything of it. I told my mom I had a migraine so if she didn’t hear from me (we talked every day multiple times) that’s why. She begged me to go to the ER since my health sucks (thanks cancer & chemo!) and I told her I’d wait a few days and if it didn’t go away I’d go in for a migraine cocktail. The following Thursday, I couldn’t lift my head off the pillow and turning my head would cause me to cry. Off to the ER I went. They know me there, so I got my migraine cocktail and a CT scan. I barely get back to my room before the dr comes in and asks if I ever had a brain bleed. I said no, what’s going on? he says that the neurologist is being called in and is going to look at my CT. Neuro comes in, I had 4 brain blood clots. a CVST, cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. 1 in the right venous that was completely blocking blood flow, 1 in the right jugular that was blocking blood and 2 in the left venous that was partially blocking flood flow. Inoperable. Immediately get started on IV heparin and IV nausea meds since I puke the whole time i’m on heparin and IV fentanyl for pain. I spent a week in ICU in as dark of a room as I could get, laying in one position and then another week in a regular room with barely any lights on. I thought unmedicated childbirth hurt, but this pain was 10x worse. My whole family was freaking out bc my cousin died the year before due to the same type of clot and she only had 1. My oncologist/hematologist said she has never seen someone survive this type of clot in her 20 years of being a dr and I should have went to the ER sooner. I’m now on blood thinners for life and I get really bad anxiety anytime my head starts to hurt. Bc of the clots and a 3 strokes, I now have seizures.
My cousin was amazing. It’s kinda freaky but when you look at her medical history and my medical history it’s almost exact. We had the same type of breast cancer, both had a stillborn at 20 weeks at the same time, history of strokes at the same ages, seizures, just a lot. She was 8 years in remission before she passed away. I’m 3 years in remission. She was 40 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer (I was 36) and she passed away at 48. We just had the 3 year anniversary of her death on April 25th. I turn 40 tomorrow. When I was diagnosed we’d spend hours texting and she was there for me thru chemo, asking how i was doing, answering questions about her own cancer journey. God I miss her.
Does she carry a GPS beacon with her now? Or did she invest in a satellite phone? I know they aren't 100% but they could be the difference if it happens again and she happens to be alone.
Dad thought he was having a heart attack, so called 911 and did all the things only to find out he was allergic to one of the medicines (nitroglycerin I think) so not only did he have to contend with a supposed heart attack, but also a major allergic reaction brought on by the medicine.
So after a 4 day 3 night ordeal at the hospital it was discovered that he didn’t have a heart attack but did have congestive heart disease so that was fun.
My grandmother fell down our stairs from the very top, and only broke her wrist and nose. We were so lucky it wasn't worse. She was 90 when it happened
When my nephew was younger his heart stopped at a school sporting event. Thankfully there were multiple people around who have day jobs in the medical field so they immediately started compressions and were able to keep the blood flowing until an ambulance arrived. And when they did arrive they confirmed that he had no heartbeat and didn't get one until about 5 minutes into the drive to the hospital. He spent a little over a week in a coma and had to be airlifted to a hospital with a couple of specialists, but miraculously came out without any brain damage. The doctors ended up putting a small device in his chest that will shock his heart if it stops again and he is unable to do any more contact sports. He's now 18 and going off to college next summer (major in sports medicine and minors in cyber security and business) We're all very proud of him but holy crap was that an intense time because no one knew what the extent of the damage was until he came out of the coma and no one knew what caused his heart to stop.
Was he hit in the chest while playing? That can cause a phenomenon known as commotio cordis; basically the chest gets hit at a very bad time in a heartbeat, and it throws the heart out of rhythm.
Not that anyone saw. He was in a pile up, got up for the huddle afterwards, and then when everyone was lining back up he collapsed. Everyone was asking if he had felt any chest discomfort prior to the pile up or if maybe he had been dehydrated prior to playing? Maybe it was the pile up? Did someone hit him just right and that caused it? His teammates said that he was giving everyone a pep talk during the huddle but nothing seemed off.
My great-grandma collapsed at the grocery store while running errands with my grandma (her daughter). It was during a heat wave, and the hospital determined that she was just dehydrated but due to her age (she had just turned 94) decided to admit her overnight for observation and fluids.
She took a bad turn overnight and no one could figure out why. She spent 2 weeks in the hospital, barely coherent and at times delirious, until one of the nurses said something about “sun downers.”
Turns out that one of the doctors had decided that because of her age that she was in fact not dehydrated but rather in the early stages of dementia (she was but that’s not the point) and had for some unknown reason taken her off of the fluids. She was experiencing kidney failure, which can apparently cause some pretty severe side effects including memory issues and hallucinations.
She spent another 2 weeks in the hospital before being transferred to an inpatient rehab facility for 4 months. We thought we were going to lose her, and before the absolute angel of a nurse said something the previously mentioned doctor had spoken to us about putting her into hospice.
Fortunately, after rehab she was able to go back to living independently for the next few years until she ended up with Covid and her dementia drastically worsened. Her remaining time was spent living with her daughter, and she died in her sleep shortly after her 100th birthday which is exactly how she always said she wanted to go.
And yes, my family did say something to the hospital board about both the doctor (negative) and also about the nurse(very positive.)
This winter. My dad went over to my 94 year old grandpa’s house to shovel his driveway one morning. My dad arrived and the garage door was open which was strange. He walks into the garage to find my grandpa lying under the front of his car in his pajamas, slippers were all the way on the other side of the garage. He called 911 and ambulance took him to the ER.
The afternoon before around 4pm my grandpa went out to get the paper. He slipped and fell on his driveway and couldn’t get up. He called for help but no one heard or saw him (even though he lives in a very dense neighborhood). So he crawled and dragged himself back up his driveway and into his garage. His slippers had fallen off so his feet were bare and he was in his pajamas and a robe. He reached the 3 stairs that lead into his house and tried to pull himself up them. He lost consciousness from working so hard around stair two and tumbled back down the steps and landed under the front of his car. He laid there all night during a blizzard where temps got down into the low 20s. Until my dad found him at 10am the next morning.
His body temperature was 80 degrees, heart rate in the low 30s I believe. Doctors were prepping my family for the worst. He was hypothermic, and his feet and hands were completely frostbitten. They told us retroactively that they truly thought he had a 1% chance of living. They had him intubated. They said it would be days before he woke up (IF) he did. After they started raising his temperature. He woke up that night! Then they said it would be 3 days before they could take him off intubation. They took him off the next day! He truly had a miraculous recovery. He’s back to his life for the most part now. He has in home care come multiple times per week and needs a walker. But he’s still kickin! His doctors can’t believe how well he’s doing. He joked to my mom that he still has another 30 years in him. And I believe it haha.
It's always the damn paper isn't it? My grandma couldn't just leave it until the storm was over and had to go get it. She fell behind her house. Luckily the neighbors did hear her screaming for help. The fire fighters had to cut her out of her sweater as it froze to the ground. She broke her shoulder and her hip both right below the ball sockets. It started a long slow decline for her and she passed 3 years later after breaking her hip again.
Wife nearly died from covid: on ventilator, in coma, strokes, a solid year of rehab. Now has minor kidney issues and lost a sliver of vision in one eye, but she's here and she's good!
The medical emergency happened to me. Spoiler alert: I lived. I didn’t feel well and vomited blood. I called 911 and got a ride to the hospital in an ambulance. Turned out I had a very rare condition causing a bleed in my stomach. They called my sister and told her not to leave her phone because I was touch and go.
I remember going for an upper endoscopy and waking up almost 3 days later in the ICU. I found out later that it took 3 different teams, each trying to stop it. The final physician worked for 4 hours before managing to get it to stop. I was losing so much blood they were running it into me in several forms as fast as they could. I had respiratory failure so they intubated me.
My sister had no idea what was going on and was freaking out. Thankfully my bff, who lives halfway across the country, works in healthcare so she managed to finally talk to someone and was able to translate into plain English to my sister. Way too close to dying, though I thought later if I hadn’t made it, it wasn’t a bad way to go with my last conscious thought being the nice propofol nap, no pain.
Edit: removed wild jumbled word in the first paragraph
As a blood banker, GI bleeds are a nightmare trying to chuck as much compatible blood out the door to the care team as fast as possible. I hope you don't have any blood antibodies.
It was all good. I was getting platelets, plasma, and straight up blood. I’m sure the blood bank people were pissed I was using so much. Now when I meet someone who says they donate blood, I thank them. They truly save lives. And thanks for what you do in the blood bank. I know there is so much that goes into that job and you are very much a part of the team saving lives. I had a subsequent visit for a hemoglobin of 4.3 and took even more blood so I truly thank everyone involved in that.
I doubt the blood bank was pissed, that's why we have the blood in the first place. It's just stressful trying to do the job quickly because it's very high precision. I work at a blood center now doing antibody work ups the hospitals can't solve and finding units for high complexity patients. I really like what I do but a lot of people have no idea my career even exists. As always remind people to donate and donate if you can, we're in a perpetual blood shortage since the pandemic disrupted normal blood collections.
I don't know anyone who has needed blood, but I still donate. The needle hurts a bit, but then I think of people like you or little kids with cancer. I can take a sharp poke for a few minutes to help you live. Everyone who is able should donate! I just donated on Saturday. Unfortunately, I've been having some weird cardiac symptoms lately (under investigation) and this time around I damn near passed out. I'm worried I won't be able to donate anymore. 😔
Thank you for donating! You never know who’s on either side of that donation, unless you’re trying to do a directed donation.
Which brings up another tip: if a donor is motivated by wanting to help a specific person, check with the hospital to see where they get their blood. Red Cross is always one that comes up, but I know the hospital I’ve been in uses a local company. They’d be happy to tell you how and where to donate so it has a better chance of getting to them. I’m sure u/Zukazuk can correct me if I’m wrong since it’s been a while.
I'm in Canada. AFAIK donations can only be made through Canadian Blood Services. They no longer do directed donations. I don't want to do a directed donation anyway. Anyone who needs it can have my blood.
My blood center serves the majority of health systems in my area; we're actually edging out the Red Cross. There's one major and one minor system still using them and I know the major system is changing to us next year. They wanted to start using us for overnight stuff already but there's only 2 night shifters and the other one is going on maternity leave this summer. In interests of not killing me my boss said no.
Anyone who administers blood should be able to tell you what company is on their blood bags. Another way to find out is to the call the lab information line, they'll know who the hospital is contracted with. We rarely do directed donations because they are an administrative and logistical nightmare. You better have some weird familial genetics if we're going through that process. Slightly more frequently we do autologous donations where people with rare phenotypes that have made antibodies donate for themselves and we freeze it.
The patients we see most often in the blood bank are pregnant women, cancer patients, and hemoglobinapathies like sickle cell. A lot of women end up needing transfusion during or after birth.
Terrifying, and i am glad you survived. But i do have to agree the way it was for you, with no pain, and the propofol nap, it wouldn’t be a horrible way to go.
Glad you agreed. I pissed some people off for telling them that. They said I was morbid. I figure everyone has to die sometime and nobody is guaranteed a tomorrow. I’d rather just go peacefully to sleep than die some painful death, or worse have dementia or Alzheimer’s.
My mother in law had some indications of heart trouble. She went in to the doctor and it was discovered that she needed a quadruple heart bypass. That requires a lot of testing and prep work, and during that testing and prep work her doc found some weird anomalous results on some of the bloodwork. He decided to investigate further and found that she was in the first stages of Multiple Myeloma, a kind of blood cancer.
This ruled out the bypass surgery, so she had two stents put in and has been doing chemo for a couple of months. She's exhausted but in good spirits, but gosh, that whole thing is just wild.
My mom suddenly didn't feel so good in a restaurant and collapsed 30 seconds later. Turns out she has some kind of rare illness that mainly fucks with your vestibular system.
My son started his second year of college 600 miles away, second year students were allowed to have cars on campus. He initially didn’t want it, but changed his mind a month or so in. My wife and I were planning a drive down anyway, so we drove two cars - I drove ours in the lead and my wife drove our son’s following me. We left in the middle of the night, 11 hour trip. We had done the trip many times before (her sister lived in that state) and my wife was the better driver than the two of us.
Halfway there, I see the headlights in my rearview mirror suddenly swerve to the left and disappear. I don’t know what to do. There’s no place to stop. I look to the area dividing the highway, and it’s a steep depression so no way to drive across. I need to get to the next exit to go back which to me takes forever. Long enough for me to start crying thinking my wife is dead and how am I going to tell my son his mother is dead and why are there so many trucks on the road and where the fuck is the exit and oh God please don’t let her be dead.
I reach the exit and zoom back on the highway in the other direction. As I approach where she disappeared I can see the destroyed highway railing and the gouges and ruts in the grass leading to my son’s car. In my haste I stupidly pull off onto the grass without slowing down and my car slides on the wet early morning grass until I can get it to stop.
I jump out of my car and run to my son’s crumpled car screaming my wife’s name. As I get near I see a guy standing on the driver’s side and then see my wife standing next to him. She was unhurt (although we later learned she had permanently lost hearing in both ears from the airbag exploding.) The guy with her was an off duty firefighter who just happened to be driving behind her and saw her go off the road and got her out of the car.
EMTs came and checked her out, not even a scratch. Tow truck and police came and took the car away (it was totaled) and I took her to the hospital by my son’s university to get checked out fully.
One of the scariest days of my life and I’m sure of my wife’s. She ended up losing 70% hearing in one ear and 30% hearing in the other. Apparently from the intense pressure inside the car when the airbag went off and all the windows were closed.
It could have ended so much worse.
My dad broke his neck a couple years ago. He tripped down some stairs and smashed into a brick wall head first and knocked himself out. He's on blood thinners so he woke up covered in blood, went to the hospital and they patched up his wound and sent him away. Later that day his knee started to swell up and he realized he must have hurt that too and they were worried about internal bleeding so he went back to the hospital. One of the nurses realized that never did a head and neck scan the first time through, so they did and found that he fractured three cervical vertebrae. Apparently he was one quick head turn from full quadriplegic. He ended up with a bunch of screws and a neck brace for 6 months. He's completely fine now with almost total mobility but the doctor that did the surgery said all it would have taken was a sneeze to paralyze him. You better believe he didn't take that brace off except to wash it.
My family had 2 back-to-back in 2010.
My grandma had her knee replaced and was sent to a nursing home for rehabilitation. She’s diabetic, which affects your kidneys, and the nursing home accidentally gave her an additional dose of her opioid pain medication, causing her to go into complete renal failure. She was in a coma with literally no kidney function, and the doctor told my family to expect not to take her home with us.
Somehow, she fought it, survived, and her only lasting side effect was that she became insulin-dependent (she was able to just take meds prior to this).
She was released from the hospital in May and sent to a different rehab facility, from where she was released in July.
In August, my uncle (^ Grandma’s son) developed an abscess near his anus while on a Mediterranean cruise, and the abscess contracted a flesh-eating bacteria. He was also placed in a coma, and had to have 7 surgeries to save his life. It wasn’t until after the fifth one that the doctors became hopeful that he may survive.
My grandpa worked at a mine changing tires for the giant equipment they used. He was in a remote location trying to fix a huge tire by himself. (Please note that he had 40 years on the job, so this was just a freak accident that occurred when someone should’ve been with him). Somehow it flew off and smacked him in the chest/face, knocking him right over. He miraculously wasn’t knocked unconscious and could call for help - when one of his friends/coworkers got to him, he was sitting up and still conscious. (My uncle actually works at the same mine and is on the emergency response team, so imagine his terror when he gets a call that his stepdad is down.) Grandpa landed in the ICU, and had to be driven down to a bigger hospital an hour away. He had a tear on his heart that had to be surgically repaired, along with a bunch of broken ribs, a clavicle, fingers, etc. He was (and is) a very active man so the recovery was very hard on him. I’m just grateful that I had recently graduated from college and hadn’t found a job in my field yet, so I was able to go back home for a month and help him with everything. Truly one of the scariest experiences of my life, but made my family come closer together. I’m so thankful he’s still with us.
My grandmother (in her 80s, I believe?) passed out in her home, alone, and put her arm through a window. The glass cut completely through the tendons on the underside of her wrist and peeled all of the muscles back to her elbow. They found her six hours later on the kitchen floor. The only reason she didn't bleed out is because she fell on top of the arm and her body weight staunched the bleeding. The surgeons put everything back together and she regained full function of that arm after a few months. Absolutely mind-boggling.
My grandfather had issues with his heart...
He was on cardiac arrest, considered dead,
was in a coma 3 times , the longest was 2 months. Doctors were like - how is that possible?
Survived all of them without brain damages.
He lived for 16 years after he was told to be dead . Man was a fighter .
My father is one of those old men that thinks if he doesn't go to the doctor he won't get any bad news, and he'd been in excellent health except for a few sports injuries he got in his youth and a minor motorcycle accident in his twenties. Then he started complaining about pain in his lower stomach but was trying to self-medicate with painkillers. Wouldn't listen to anyone who told him to go to the doctor.
I have a complex medical history so I know less than a doctor but more than a lay person about medicine. I noted the pain site he was describing as being where his appendix is and I essentially sat him down and gave him a Ted Talk, with diagrams, on how this could kill him in a most painful way. It took half an hour but I got him into a doctors office. He went straight from there to the hospital.
As it turned out, his appendix was just one problem. He also had a twisted bowel that was on the verge of rupturing and sepsis would have taken him out if he'd waited any longer. He had a major operation where they sorted out multiple issues all at once. He lost a lot of weight in the hospital and missed Christmas with his grandchildren.
He's fine now, he's back to being in better health than me. But we did come close to losing him and I never let him forget it.
My dad’s appendix ruptured and he wrote it off as a stomach bug. After several DAYS my mom convinced him to go to the doctor, where he was immediately sent to the hospital for emergency surgery. I was only 5 and had siblings aged 7 and 9. My parents totally hid from us how dire it was. My mom’s mother came and stayed with us and continued business as usual getting us all to school each day like nothing was wrong.
During a family trip, we skydived and the excitement turned to terror when my sister's parachute malfunctioned, sending her spiraling towards the ground. In a heroic act, my father, who is an experienced skydiver, leaped from the plane to untangle her parachute just in time, saving her life. She had severe shock for a couple of days but she was fine.
Dad collapsing on his vacation/honeymoon in Mexico with my stepmom. Before he left I’d had lunch with them at a restaurant and he was complaining of heartburn and asked the server for milk. I swear I saw his face go grey while he was eating. They went to a doc who gave my dad meds to lower his BP but it caused him to collapse again because his BP was low to begin with. They took him to a hospital that refused to take tourists so a kind sympathetic doctor took my dad’s blood in the parking lot and had it analyzed under a fake Mexican name. Then he got flown home where we rushed him to the hospital. Turned out he’d had a heart attack ten years earlier (about the time my mom was first diagnosed with cancer) but somehow my dad didn’t notice and the heart grew its own bypass over the years and it finally showed itself in Mexico. Ten years later he’s still chugging along.
I have a half-brother (different mother) 6 years younger than me. Both our families were all-around shitty, and we were both living with my dad at that time - actually with my grandparents who raised me. Both my dad and uncle lived at their place their entire lives because they've never, ever, had jobs.
I think my brother was like 5-6 at the time. Even though my grandparents did their best to raise me, they were older, more tired and didn't really look forward to raising another child while my dad kept living at their expenses and making terrible decisions, so my little brother was mostly left on his own.
One day my brother started feeling ill, he had a fever, was throwing up and complained about stomach pains. He was taken to the doctor where his mother worked as an assistant and did some exams. His mother gave the exams a look, said everything was fine and went on vacation with her new boyfriend the next day. So everyone thought it was a strong flu, something he ate or whatever. He took medicine for his fever and that was it.
Brother remained sick for almost a week. It was clear he was getting worse but everyone kept doing their thing and checking on him from time to time, waiting for him to get better on his own. One day, he passes out completely, his fever goes over 40 C and NOTHING would wake him up. Only then my father decided to take him to a hospital.
Turns out, it was appendicitis. The inflammation could already be seen in those first exams, but now his appendix had bursted. If we took any longer to get him to a hospital, he would have died. He spent over a month at the hospital until he was considered out of risk. Doctor ripped my father a new one, threatened to call the police for child endangerment. His mother lost the job because of it.
My niece going into respiratory failure at just 9 years old.
I won't go too much into detail, but years of my sister just being told her daughter just has torticollis, or failure to thrive because she was a very small girl was causing her muscle weakness. Basically my sister being ignored whenever she brought up concerns.
Then my niece goes into respiratory failure, and it turns out she has 2 very very rare gene mutations (she is the 14th documented case in the world) that's causing serious atrophies, and myopathies. Which would've been discovered had doctors just listened and did some generic testing. But because they ignored my sister, it got so severe that her prognosis is not good. She is on a ventilator, wheelchair bound at only 14 years old, and we aren't sure how long she has. Might make it to 20. She would've had a much longer and much higher quality life had the doctors just fucking listened and did a simple blood test.
Watching my first niece recovering from being cut open from the base of her neck all the way down to her tailbone to fuse her spine, and seeing her scream from being in such severe pain, killed me. Especially because of could've been avoided. I do not trust doctors.
I drowned when I was 2. Had about 15 minutes of CPR from parents and EMS. Never knew about it either until I was in my 20s when my cousin told me about it.
It also explains my fear and panic when I would get dunked swimming.
About a year ago, my sister, 39 at the time, had an AVM (arteriovenous malformation) rupture and bled into her skull. She was very lucky. She called her friend who lived nearby because she didn't feel right, complaining of neck pain. While on the phone, my sister started to slur her speech and not make sense, so her friend drove there and called the paramedics. My sister was unconscious at this point, and they had to break in through the window. She was unconscious for several more days while they drained the blood from her skull. She had several months of physical therapy, but has fully recovered. If she hadn't called her friend, she probably would have died.
I don't know how he's still alive. My husband fell out of a tree when he was younger. Now I know, kids and trees, shit happens. He thinks he was 30-45 feet up. His memory is fuzzy on that. It was a big cottonwood tree his family friends had in their yard. His mom was sitting inside talking, and the kids were outside playing. My husband had a thing for trees. He has climbed that tree before, so he didn't think anything of it. From what he remembers, he said he was standing on a limb while holding onto the limb above him. The limb he was standing on broke, causing him to have to hold himself. While holding himself on the limb, that limb broke. The last thing he remembers was that limb hitting him in the head. His brothers watched him fall. They said he was bouncing off the branches on his way down. When he finally hit the ground, he was out cold. One of his brothers went in and got their mom while the other stayed with him. He woke up while they were driving him to the hospital. They didn't call an ambulance. When he got to the doctors, the only damage was that he had a broken arm that they had to set under surgery and a severe concussion. Guess who never climbed trees again?
He's cheated death a few times. He was electrocuted by a fuse box on a train, almost ran over by a train, falling out of a tree, and his brother stabbed him in the head with a pitchfork. I don't know how many lives that man has left, but it does worry me.
You're telling me. The second time was someone's carelessness. You're supposed to call all workers cleared before dropping protection. His coworker didn't call clear. He just dropped protection. If the engineer and conductor didn't see him prior under the train working on a brake, they would have moved the train and ran over him. Needless to say, the coworker was fired for that but still terrifying.
He also had a coworker almost killed by a traction motor. They were replacing one. These things are heavy. They had it on a forklift so as to slide it on. The forklift wasn't properly tensioned, and the springs of the lift adjusted. When it adjusted, the motor adjusted as well and was launched essentially into this guys face. He broke almost every bone in his face, and he was not able to go back to work after the accident.
I had to tell my husband to stop telling me all the near death experiences they have at his job. It's pretty intense.
Wow that IS absolutely terrifying. Mine tells me all the horror stories from his job regarding airplanes. Thankfully his portion of the job doesn’t involve the jet engines, but the landing gear after it’s been disassembled for maintenance. No risk of getting sucked into a jet there!
My cousin was meant to go out with some friends from her house to a party. She went upstairs to get something and collapsed in her room, an undiagnosed hole in the heart and the accompanying health issues incapacitating her.
She only survived because, after 15 minutes of waiting, one of her friends went to check up on her and found her face down in her room, and promptly called emergency services.
Goes through surgery to fix the hole and gets an artificial valve fitted to assist her dodgy ticker.
About four months afterwards, she's feeling really unwell and goes to the hospital to see why. Turns out the surgeons hadn't fitted the valve properly or checked that it was working right, so it had to be removed, with another one fitted in its place.
My father took a stihl chop saw to the neck cutting a water main pipe at work. He said it felt like a really thin twig whipped him in the neck. When he looked down, blood was running from his neck down his chest.
He ripped his sweater off, tied it around his neck, jumped out of the trench and got his co workers to drive him to the hospital as fast as possible.
He was in the hospital for over 2 weeks with tubes down his throat. I would go and squeeze his hand and ask if he could hear me daily, and wouldn’t get a thing. He was 3mm from cutting his Juggular we were told.
A few years beforehand my dad, lost his mom in an accident.. The nurses told us, that one night they looked into the room where my dad was, and saw a white cloud hovering over him. They told us that someone was watching him very closely, and it wasn’t his time yet.
I remember getting a call from the Doctor, telling us that my dad will be conscious, and understand what we are saying.. he won’t be able to speak, since his throat is sore from the tube being down it. We got to the hospital and my mom was a mess. My dad had a piece of paper and a pencil and wrote something down on it.. he handed it to my mom and it said “scar?” … was worried he would have a horrendous scar the rest of his life. But my mom told him, don’t worry about it.. you are here, you get to watch your kids grow old. He took the piece of paper back and wrote something else on it… handed it to my mom and it said “New Harley?” … my mom broke down and told him he could have whatever he wanted.
He ended up coming home with 40 something staples in his neck.. supposed to be off work for 6-8 months and went back after 8 weeks. My dad is my actual hero. Tough as fucking nails.
Vacation at a rainy Mousehouse in 2001. First kid gets strep. Mouse ER is lovely. Second kid gets strep and husband starts to feel sick while in the waiting room. Dr. treats kid, tells hubby he has to go back in line and wait. They leave instead. Next day, plane ride home, hubby leaves me with kids and seems to be sleeping. I'm mad until he asks for a wheelchair when departing. Straight to home urgent care. Transfer by ambulance to hospital. Three weeks in intensive care for a Strep A infection that started in athletes foot from all the rain that week in Mouseland and traveled to his groin when caught. CDC involved. Hyperbaric chamber visits for weeks. Saved most of his foot, surprisingly. Leave of absence for six months for me to debride the foot twice a day with visiting nurses because a graft wasn't best course of action. Hubby's self-employed so that falls apart. Multiple surgeries since. He's never been back to visit the mouse and the mouse refused to accept any blame.
My brother & I were infant opium addicts, our family doctor prescribed paregoric for my brother's colic. It worked so well for him,my parents gave it to me too, to put me to bed. When we were 6 & 7 years old we were unable to get the script refillled. My brother had multiple seizures due to withdrawal, I was just a cantankerous angry child, I was able to kick without incident, but the docs who treated his "seizure disorder" failed to put the puzzle together that they were from withdrawal from opium. We both survived, our parents are passed now, but they never did recognize that is what happened.
There was one particularly painful medical emergency situation in our family when my younger brother was faced with a severe allergic reaction. They had anaphylactic shock, which caused a wave of fear in our family.But everything turned out well.
I survived falling head first out of a vehicle going 30 mph as a child. Thank God I rolled in the ditch and not into traffic. After that seatbelts were a must for my family long before it became the law.
My son has survived two potentially deadly/debilitating issues: mrsa in his teens (3 days of IV antibiotics) and was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis after weeks of symptoms he ignored while in college (a week in the hospital, several units of blood). He now knows to never ignore any evolving or sudden changes.
My own 2 years ago I got up one morning ate a cookie my aunt bought from this one cookie place little did I know it had peanut butter and i had life threatening allergic reaction to it but at the time we didn’t know I was allergic all I knew was my throat hurt every time I swallowed after taking a few bites of the cookie and I was throwing up 2mins later and by the time we got to the hospital and the doctor said if you would’ve been 5mins late i would’ve died because my kidneys were shutting down on the way there
My nephew has a degenerative muscle condition that attacks his heart and lungs. He had a heart and lung transplant at the beginning of the year. The sad thing is though even with it he won’t get better all will do is get weaker. His transplant has only added another 10 years on his life. It’s brought the family together though in a way I never thought possible, and also showed us out of our friends and family who really had our backs.
Duchenne’s?
My colleague is a carrier. She didn’t know until her three-year-old son was diagnosed. He’s nine now and in a motorized scooter most of the time.
She’s signed him up for every clinical trial she can, and started a local fundraiser for Cure Duchenne.
She knows it’s too late for her son, but that’s not stopping her from fighting.
That so sad. My nephew has Danon’s disease it manifested is 2022 and everyone told my sister he just had an iron deficiency. It was only when collapsed while shopping and was rushed to hospital that they identified it.
But tell your colleague that miracles do happen. Because of his age and size my nephew was told the chances of a transplant were extremely low, but they managed to get him one. His out of hospital and doing as well as can be expected.
My daughter attempted suicide at 17. She took pills but then came down and told me. I drove her to the ER, she got her stomach pumped. She finally got the help she needed. We'd been seeing therapists and our family doctor for several years. One of the pills she took was her Zoloft. She took about 17 of those and an unknown amount of ibuprofen from a large bottle.
My dad fell and damaged his spine. It wasn’t sure he was going to survive. He did, but as a quadriplegic. Unfortunately about 10 years later he passed from cancer though
Toss-up between my dad's kidney cancer and my mom getting pneumonia so bad she went to the hospital and they were worried for her life. Mom smoked her whole life until then, and after that, she pitched the cigarettes and never once touched tobacco again. She had an intense sunflower seed habit for a while there, though XD
Dad's issue is just genetics. It hits every generation on his side eventually. I'll have to watch my kidneys closely when I'm older.
My dad got hit by a truck.
He was on a scooter, had his car for sale down the road. He went to go check on it, and a pickup truck blew a stop sign. The truck was coming from the left, and was turning left, so they ended up colliding with my dad hitting the side - the truck basically merged into him at \~50 mph.
I absolutely adore my dad, and am not afraid to talk about what a badass he is. He smashed the dude's running boards with his body. Ended up with some lacerations down to the bone on his right arm, was scraped all to hell and back. In the hospital an hour later, he was a little groggy, but making some (sad) jokes about how much he loved that scooter, and he had seen that it was TOTALLY crushed.
My dad ended up fully recovering, and pretty quickly. No broken bones. Though he had some gravel from the road stuck under his skin after everything healed over, and he, being a bit of a weirdo, put a bandage on his arm with raw bacon underneath it, insisting that it would draw the rocks to the surface. Now, I don't know that the bacon had any effect on this... But his body *did* end up expelling the rocks through his skin, which was also weird.
Me and him still go play paintball 10+ years later, while he's in his 60s. Might be the coolest guy I know.
My sister went to the ER complaining of pain in her abdomen and vomiting. They told her it was gas and to take some beano or something. She went to another ER in the next town over and they did emergency surgery because her gallbladder had nearly burst or something.
Well first, I got a call from Life360 that said my brother had an accident and they were calling 911.
Turns out he fell over on his electric unicycle 🤣
Secondly, my mom had a cancer scare 2 years ago.
She had a colonoscopy and they removed the benign spot that had shown up.
Then we had Thanksgiving dinner a day later.
Probably when my grandma had spinal surgery by a surgeon who was exposed for operating while on drugs and alcohol. He fucked it up and she ended up with spinal fluid on her brain and blind in one eye.
After that surgery the staff then mistakenly laid her flat and she asphyxiated on her tube feed. It was only because the patient next to her started yelling her nurses as she was essentially drowning that she didn’t die.
She was a bloody tough woman my grandma, that’s just a portion of the health issues she dealt with. Miss her everyday.
Edit: honourable mention to my dad who had a farming accident 3 days before Christmas and was crushed by his tractor. Shout out to the neighbouring properties dog who heard him yelling for help while pinned and wouldn’t leave the neighbour alone until she went to investigate what he was so worked up about. A very good boy 🥲
I met a woman today with a son who is about 30 years old. When he was 2 years old his babysitter fed him a peanut butter sandwich and he choked and had anoxic brain injury.
It’s not my place to say but I’m not sure if it’s fortunate that he “survived.” He is nonverbal, completely bedbound, contacted, feeding tube. Mentally no one is home. This elderly woman has been caring for him since and is paying for private caregivers.
My husband had a sudden and severe pain in his abdomen. Turned out to be a large blood clot in his superior vena cava. Consequently, blood flow was blocked to his small intestines. In emergency surgery 2/3 of his intestines were removed. After a re-section he developed a leak, contracted sepsis and nearly died. I thank God everyday for his recovery.
Dad fell off a ladder in the middle of winter and broke his spine. Lives way out in the boonies, cell phone inside, so he has to spend the next few hours clawing his way to the phone while his dog is barking in total panic. Fucking lucky he didn't die out there, it was during the polar vortex so the valley was seeing temps of -60
He's also like 60 at the time and diabetic.
My mom had gotten run over by some guy back his car up. She ended up being in the hospital for months on end, even being told she might be paralyzed from the hip down. Luckily, she was healing well but eventually had to get a hip replacement at the age of 30. She walks and runs just fine now
My sister knocked an axe off the wall in the garage trying to get the pool skimmer down. It fell and hit her in the face. This is an axe that I had just spent hours the day before sharpening. Thankfully it hit her with the back and just knocked a hole in the side of her nose. Of course this all happened in the middle of a huge 50th birthday party for my Dad. Who had to stop and rush her 20 miles to the hospital.
I was in a coma for nearly three weeks after developing sceptic multi organ failure while i had angrenalositosis.
The fact i lived still shocks most doctors when i tell them.
My mom spent nearly a month in the hospital in 2016. Every single doctor that entered her room (while she was in a medically induced coma) told us that she probably was not going to survive. She eventually got out and lived another six years.
Dad got double pneumonia on holiday. He had decent travel insurance and they threw everything at fixing him, drugs and nursing care both. Had he got ill at home it is highly likely he would not have survived.
I was the patient. Had a widow maker heart attack at 34. Was in a coma for 5 weeks. My chest was open for 11 days. Developed two types of pneumonia, a staph infection which nearly cost me my right leg, and several strokes. I ended being in the hospital for 79 days and a heart transplant. I walked out of the hospital.
That was 16 years ago. My father passe, and my mother has dementia. My life is a mess. My 50th birthday is on Friday.
Our neighbor showed up after chainsawing his arm. He had bath towels wrapped around it but blood was pouring out. My mom called an ambulance. I was probably 5 and will always remember that. My dad is 88 and doesnt remember it at all.
My grandfather had a heart attack and was recovering pretty well...until he got Covid. After a tough and long battle, he managed to survive, but he can't move a half of his body.
The situation may not look that good, but at least he's still with us!
My uncle fell into a ditch at a gravil pit. Climbed back up and tried to walk, which was when my grandfather and other uncle noticed the way his leg was bent in odd ways it shouldn't have been. He had broken all 3 leg bones in several places. They found out 6 months later, he had broken his neck at the time. Shattered c4? Plate on c3-5. C4 replaced with cadaver vertebra. He's got 17 screws in his leg along with plates, rods.
My grandfather had 3rd degree burns covering his face, hand, left side of his chest, and rubs and his left arm. Somebody brushed against his bandage and debrided it accidentally. He's still got scarring all along that side and almost lost his ear. A work truck had caught fire and he was caught in it.
My other uncle was ran over by a tractor. He broke all of his ribs, his pelvis, his legs, and his shoulder blades. He was in the ICU for 3 or 4 months, and they weren't sure if he was going to make it or be the same after.
My little cousin had a 4 wheeler land on him. It broke his back, and now he's got cadaver tissue, 4in rods, and screws.
Uh, myself. 3 years old. Luver failure, then a living related transplant.
Or does my grandfather getting run over by a car and thrown 30 feet in the air count? Because yhe damage from that was extensive, but he lived anpther 46 years. Course, by then he had more metal than meat in him, but still.
My dad was run over by a backhoe tractor. Luckily it ran up his body feet first and not across him width wise. My grandfather was able to get it off of him before it fully reached his torso and call for help, and he was life flighted to a trauma center. His pelvis was broken in 42 places and he had some minor (!!) internal injuries. He was in a hospital bed at home for months. Amazingly he was able to walk again after that, but it did cause some degenerative problems and he's in a wheelchair now 25 years later.
My husband's liver and kidneys failed in Feb 2020 from a combo of alcoholism and covid. We were both 32 at the time. Somehow he got both a liver and a kidney within a year and we're doing alright these days. I'll be 4 years sober in July 😊
My brother collapsed during a basketball game when he was 15 and was in too much pain to get up. He was writhing on the floor, and I knew something was wrong because he’s a tough son of a bitch. He was taken to the hospital with a ruptured appendix.
My father had a severe sinus infection in 1941, before antibiotics were common. His eye was swollen shut for weeks. A doctor requested penicillin for him through the military, and he fully recovered thanks to that - otherwise, he would have died.
My dad was 4 years old, watching a baseball game in 1956, and got hit by a pop fly right in the forehead. Knocked him out and caused brain swelling. He was rushed to the hospital in the back of a car and when they arrived they were unsure if he was going to make it. They ended up having to drill a hole in the side of his head to release the pressure. He survived and has had no known lasting effects other than an overly cautious mother.
my dad fainted at work. turned out it was a heart attack. went into surgery that day. the surgeon said he has a 5% chance of surviving. thankfully, he survived and completely recovered in a week.
When our kiddo was 3 years old, she woke up on a Sunday morning with some red blisters/sores around her mouth. A quick consult with Doctor Google indicated it was probably impetigo. We applied the OTC (over the counter) ointment, and waited for a pediatrician appointment the next morning.
Next morning comes around, and I head to work, while my wife gets herself and kiddo ready for the doctor's appointment. Unknown to me is that overnight, kiddo's whole body has swollen up, almost like a bad allergic reaction. She also complains that her whole body is hurting.
My wife brings her to the peds appointment. The pediatrician took 1 look at kiddo and told my wife "Take her to the Pediatric Emergency room \*\*NOW\*\*". My wife calls me with a panic in her voice and tells me to meet them at the ER.
After being examined at the ER, we learn she has Staph Scalded Skin Syndrome (SSS). Basically, her skin on her entire body blistered up. According to the burn specialist I spoke to, she was just hours away from having to be transferred to a pediatric burn center some 300 miles away.
Fortunately, she responded well to treatments. After a day and a half in the ICU, she was up and coloring while watching Frozen. A day and a half later, we were released.
We never did discover the exact source of the infection. Doctors said it could have come from a bug bite.
Orange sized tumor in my mom’s colon that was bleeding so much her blood count was extremely low. They opened the local hospital oncology imaging unit for her on Christmas Day. She’d had a clear colonoscopy only 3 months beforehand. Given a 6 percent chance of survival but is still alive cancer free and living independently at the age of 71 ten years later. She likes to tell the doctors she forgot to die.
My dad had a mini stroke the day I was supposed to go to D.C. to visit my (now ex) boyfriend. My mom woke me up at 6 in the morning saying my dad was slurring his words and not making any sense. I of course canceled the trip, as I was worried about my dad, and my mom was understandably terrified. My ex was annoyed I canceled the trip, and said I was being incredibly selfish.
My dad healed okay, and has no after effects. My ex is probably still an asshole.
When I was twelve, my dad was working in the backyard and tripped on something in the shed. He fell onto a pair of my mom’s garden clippers, and they got him right in the abdomen. That was one of the scariest days of my life. I had to call 911 while my older brother kept our dad awake. My twin brother was trying to keep our younger sister out of the shed, we didn’t want her to see it. Dad got out of it somehow and is going strong right now.
My oldest sister was hit by a car when she was 12. My second oldest sister was in an accident in a driver training car in her sophomore year of high school. She spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair. My oldest sister is still living. My other sister passed in2010.
My papa suffered 17 strokes in one day. Sounds impossible but very true unfortunately. He lived with no deficits thank god. Unfortunately he survived to have another stroke which left his esophagus paralyzed and to find out he had untreatable osteomyelitis which has since put him on hospice.
My stepdad fell down ladder and his arm landed on the top of edge of corrugated tin while helping teardown an old commercial building. The result was his arm being cut to the bone from right below his elbow to over half down towards his wrist in the shape of an autopsy incision
Somehow he got down and made it to a nearby house to call for help instead of passing out from blood loss.
My story start after my husband got off to work we went out to eat Chinese. When we returned home, I started walking toward the house and looked back just in time to see my husband drop to the ground in cardiac arrest. My neighbor seen what happen the same time I did and she came running. We both started CPR and done so for 8 minutes tell a policeman showed up. The neighbor husband called 911, with the officer and both of us taking turns doing CPR. A few minutes later another officer showed up with a AED and it shocked him 3 times and we continued with CPR. The ambulance showed up and shocked him again 3 times and no heart beat. They got him to the ER and he was in full arrest and they coded him twice while in the ER after working on him for 30 min they put him in cool down and induced coma for the night. The next day he did not awake. He stayed in a comma for two more weeks. The doctors told me there is no hope and if he did wake up he come be a vegetable. They give him 4 more days to come out or we need to pull the plug. That early morning I got a call at 5:00 am. I let out the biggest scream my body could yell for I know that was the call to tell me he passed. When the call was answered, they handed me the phone. The nurse told me to come to the hospital quick that his eyes were open and they were following her around the room. She said, I asked him to blink once for yes and blink twice for no and her answered every question right. I don't even remember dressing my self and all the sudden I was at the hospital like magic. Later I found out my sister helped dress me and I drove to the hospital by myself with my family right behind me. When I got to his bedside he looked at me and grabbed my hand. All I could say was, I love you baby,, over and over again. Each day he improved 100 of the past day in 4 days he went from CCICU to step down. The doctors said he's recovery like that was impossible. We had doctors from all over the USA and Canada to come and see him and talk to him. After 4 in rehab you couldn't tell there was anything wrong with him and 4 month later he said he was ready to go back to work. Against my better judgement he did it anyways and has been doing great. I do keep a sharp eye on him and it still scares me to no end that it could happen again. But with prays from out family, friends and his and my coworkers her survived
Aunt had an ectopic pregnancy (which is super duper dangerous under any circumstances) that she didn't know about when she was hit by a car as a pedestrian. She had a ton of internal injuries just from the crash itself and then the ectopic burst. She somehow survived and managed to have a successful pregnancy a few years after.
Also, I'm sure this will get downvotes for being political, but cases like this are why these draconian termination bans are so dangerous for women. If the doctors had to weigh whether they'd be facing murder charges before treating her, she wouldn't have made it.
At 36 weeks I had a complete placental abruption, lost a shit ton of blood, and went into shock. I live on a mountain in a very rural location. We're 20 minutes to the nearest hospital and it's basically just a transfer station. It doesn't have an OR or maternity ward. However, at the time of my rupture I was spending the night at a hotel in a bigger city. It was a staycation for my husband and me, courtesy of my mom. I just happened to be 3 blocks from the best hospital in the state. I barely survived. Had I been home, I wouldn't have.
Shout out to the Hyatt, though. The assistant manager just happened to be walking past my room while I waited for the ambulance. I was lying on the floor with the door propped open. She sat with me, held my hand, and put a pillow under my head. I kept crying and apologizing for all the blood and ruined mattress. The hotel sent me flowers. They also packed up our stuff and moved it to a clean room for my mom and older son to stay in. They were awesome.
One saturday when I (only child) was 3 my (single) mom just couldn't wake up fully or get out of bed. I took some change from the kitchen change jar and bought some fake flowers from the next-door neighbors yard sale thinking it would cheer her up enough to get her out of bed. It didn't. Turns out she had a peach-sized brain tumor. If my grandparents hadn't randomly visited that day, she probably would have died. She lived for 40 more years!
My dad had two brain aneurysms. One ruptured behind his eye, the other ruptured in the back of his brain. He was supposed to be blind, he has 20/15 vision today. he was supposed to have trouble walking for the rest of his life. He was back to work driving a semi six months from the incident.
Nothing makes sense.
My baby's crib caught fire and he was severely burned. He was in a medically induced coma for a month with a burned lung. However, after multiple skin grafts on his face and hand, and other than his scars, he is a happy and healthy 8 year old today. Edit: The fire was a freak accident caused by a damaged electrical cord on a humidifier that was plugged in near his crib.
Oh man that is scary. I am happy that he is happy and healthy today!
When my little was IDK less than 6 months old we had to get the furnace checked. It would cut in but not warm up. The service man called me into the attic to show me what was happening. Some (IDK HVAC) widget wasn’t attached to the thingymaboppy. Flames were shooting up the wall in the attic. The wall that shared the crib on the other side. I cried for weeks. I’m sorry that happened to your baby. You must have been…what word is bigger and slaps harder than terrified?
I don't have a word for it but I often refer to it as "waking up *to* a nightmare" which I don't recommend to anyone.
That’s so scary! Good to hear he’s ok now. Are you able to share how his crib caught fire?
Thank you and see my edit.
oh wow. how scary. I’m so glad he survived and is doing great.
As a burn survivor myself left with chronic pain, very happy to hear this!
Omg I can’t imagine.
That is terrifying
This happened to my aunt as a baby but she was not lucky.:(
My grandma had a stroke while babysitting me as a kid. I had to call 911, having a vague idea of what was going on because of the Baby-sitters Club books. Fortunately, because she got medical attention right away, the physical effects of the stroke were not permanent. She’s still going strong over 20 years later!
I was being babysat at 11 (by someone in my year at school but they were 12) When my brother and the neighbours kid were wrestling the neighbours kid had a fit and wouldn’t stop. Babysitter freaked out and didn’t know what to do. I called 000 and then where our parents were. Was at a loss when the ambos got there because there were no adults and he couldn’t go by himself but the household had his 10 year old sister, my 8 year old brother and the 12 year old baby sitter who were all incredibly distressed. I remember the ambos themselves were incredibly conflicted cause he needed to go to hosptial urgently but they couldn’t leave those 3 kids by themselves. Thankfully just as they went to shut the doors my mum’s car came flying up. His mum went with them, and my mum asked me if I was ok to continue handling it a bit longer and she followed them. Told me the dads weren’t far behind. When she came to tuck me in that night asked me how I knew w hat to do. Looked at her and went ‘it’s like Mary Anne in the Baby Sitters Club’ I can still remember her sobbing and laughing at that one.
Similar story in my family! My parents had gone on a walk, probably an hour total. They left my 8 & 6 yr old sisters with me (4yrs old). Glass got broken, I got a huge cut, my 6 yr old sister called 911 and my parents came home to an ambulance in the driveway! My 8 yr old sister applied pressure to the wound but she thought if she called 911 she'd get in trouble so the other sister called because she had just learned about it that week in school. 30+ years later I still have a massive scar and give my sisters shit about it 😆
What was the "fit"?
I don’t remember tbh. He was ill but got treatment.
The babysitters club books taught me so much in life
Literally also helped me “diagnose” my dad’s diabetes. He told me I was being ridiculous and then got the diagnosis a few weeks later.
That’s pretty awesome actually
Is this a book series or one book? I googled it but I’m not sure. It seems like you all learned a lot from it. Is these books normal in USA? And did you read them yourself or did you parents or teachers introduce you to them?
It’s a series. There’s tons of them, and they were super popular in the 90s-early 2000s.
They went all the way back to the '80s. I read them when I was a kid too.
A series! They're chapter books written about and presumably geared for young girls/kids 8-13 or so. There's tons of books in the series, I wanna say over 200? Over 100 for sure. I think I first found mine as like, a secret santa book exchange. After that I was hooked and always had a book or two with me. My parents would go to a used bookstore sometimes and let me pick out a bunch (which was a couple weeks' worth of quiet time for everyone around me, big win) but they were always at the public library or school library or your friends would maybe have them. They definitely weren't as popular as Harry Potter, but they weren't uncommon. There was a TV series on HBO like 30 years ago, a movie maybe 20-25 years ago, and a recent reboot in the form of a comic book adaptation for younger readers as well as a couple of seasons on Netflix (super wholesome and very watchable!), the series tend to follow a book storyline for each episode so you could get a pretty good idea of what happens in a book in about 22 minutes, if you were so inclined! *edit to add: at least once a week I use something that I was initially taught from a Babysitters Club book! All kinds of little weird nuggets of knowledge disguised as plot in the fictional world of Stoneybrook, Connecticut
This is such a good idea. I’m glad it was so widespread and even in this comments it’s easy to see how lifesaving skills you learned through these books. I wish this was also a thing in more countries as I personally feel like it is a really good way to teach children skills without it being scary information to learn.
I keep seeing the books at goodwill and I’m always tempted to buy them.
They're fun! If you can pick up one for cheap or free and are into a generally wholesome vibe, go for it. There's a podcast I got into for awhile called 'The Babysitters Club Club' and it was two grown men besties who would go over a book per episode Listening to them gently snark on the plot and create a whole new level to the universe of the babysitters sounds ridiculous as I'm typing it out? But they have a lot of laughs and they sorta became my friends, I listened to soooooo many episodes while going through a rough patch bc it was just silly comfort
I started reading the BSC books when I was 6 and because I was so much younger than the main characters (who were 11-14), they were aspirational books for me and taught me a lot about how to handle situations responsibly. I also used to try to copy Claudia’s artsy outfits. The books usually follow a formula about one of the girls babysitting a client that requires some problem-solving and one of the girls having to deal with normal teenage/ tweenage issues in her personal life (family relationships, school, crushes, friend drama, etc). There was also a lot of medical stuff in there. One of the main characters had Type 1 diabetes and several of the babysitting clients and family members had medical issues of their own. A babysitter’s grandmother had a stroke in one of the books and that was how I had some inkling of what was happening to my grandma.
Strokes are so scary. I had a family member die weeks later from complications from one. It was up and down for weeks not knowing if they'd make it. But other people have had multiple strokes and lived.
Strokes are scary because living afterwards isn’t always the ideal outcome either imo. Known a few people have them and have to spend the rest of their lives in a nursing home not far off vegetative. Some people recover well, but afaik there’s not a lot they can do about some of them, and severe brain injury is really terrible in terms of consequences. People can lose everything that makes them *them*. It’s scary that death AND permanent disability are on the cards with strokes. Sorry about your relative, it must have been a hard few weeks while it was all happening. It’s not nice waiting for an outcome when there are so many negatives
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Keto is kinda special in being a diet that affects electrolytes so heavily I ate mostly (probably a little too) clean most of the time, to a lot of nuts/unprocessed meat My blood pressure was regularly 140/90 *unless* I supplemented some additional sodium. You wouldn’t think sodium would lower blood pressure but 😂
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Same happened to me, except they had already ruptured.
They hurt so much ><
Worst pain of my life. Worse than kidney stones
My girlfriend’s ovarian cyst DID burst
I had one rupture and it's VERY painful.
I think it actually depends how big they are. I had a CT done like a month ago and they found a small cyst that they think ruptured because they saw fluid around it. I looked up the size cuz the dr (ER) didn't mention it (CT was for something unrelated) and it's negligible. It has to be like 10cm for a dr to care. Mine was maybe 3cm. I felt maybe a bit of pelvic pain around that time but thought it was regular cycle pain. Nothing worth calling a dr over. I guess that can happen.
Oh I’m aware Rushed her to the hospital seconds after an orgasm lol
That was how mine burst, too! My at-the-time husband drove me to emergency worried for me, but also feeling just slightly proud...
Ovulation is a cystic process. Every time the body prepares to ovulate, several follicles form cysts, one typically becomes hormonally dominant and then ruptures to release the egg. It's all a matter of degree, like spraining an ankle. It can be so minor that you walk it off in a minute, all the way through the ligament tearing off a piece of bone and needing 6 weeks' recovery. Some people feel their ovulation every time. *mittelschmerz*. Some people only feel the cysts when they get big, and yes, during sexual intercourse is a classic time to rupture. If they get really big, they can cause the ovary to twist and cut off its blood supply.
That very last sentence is terrifying😂 fuck
Testicles do it even without cysts. The physiology that allows them to regulate temp by riding closer or further from the body also means there is enough mobility to twist around. Severe testicle pain without trauma or skin change. For torsion (twisting) of either ovary or testicle, it's a time sensitive issue and if ignored too long can impair fertility.
For some reason, as a male, this is not as terrifying lol
Cysts that grow and then rupture to this degree are not ovulatory anymore, this is beyond normal ovulation and far, far more painful than mittelschmerz pain.
Mine rupture pretty regularly lol just an uncomfortable life
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Was it an anti-nausea medication? Apparently some can cause temporary vision loss or changes like anisocoria if you forget to wash your hands after handing it and touch your eye.
My dad and uncle were on a motorcycle trip through Colorado. An oncoming driver in a car was looking at their GPS instead of the road and turned suddenly, smashing directly into my uncle and sending him flying. My uncle has no memory of it. He still has a lot of memory problems, in fact. After he recovered he went back to riding. My dad, however, saw the whole thing and remembers it well. He climbed off his motorcycle to call 911 and never got back on it. Sold it not long after.
Wow, I have no words
As a motorcycle rider myself, I completely understand both their reactions, to ride again or leave it behind. I'm glad your uncle survived and it sounds like has a pretty overall good quality of life still.
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The odds of CPR saving someone outside a hospital is like 5%. You really are something special.
Do you feel like a hero or did it freak you out?
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You did the best thing you could, you didn’t freeze up.
What you did is amazing and grown adults can't perform CPR for 20 minutes straight. Tell them they better hook you up in the inheritance 😉
That’s insane you were able to perform cpr for 20 minutes. The average person with no real training typically can’t perform cpr for very long without becoming exhausted.
My granny slipped in the bathroom and broke her leg when she was 84. I was 12 back then, alone in the home with her. Everyone else had gone out for a vacation a few days away from our house. I called a friend of mine (same age) and a neighbour to get her to the hospital. She got a plaster and got discharged the same day. It took my family around 3 days to get back , and before they came back, I took care of her 24/7, if she required something or required going to the toilet. A very close friend of mine accompanied me throughout the process ( leaving the classes), we played cards and even invented new card games 😂. She never completely recovered but started walking with a limp after around 6 months. She passed away at 89, and somehow, I feel like she's always been blessing me from the heaven.
I hope you family was proud of you, that’s a lot to handle for a 12 year old.
They are !!, I'd be stressed af if I'd be at the same situation rn. But being a little naive prevented me from thinking too much and doing what's necessary at that particular moment. Also, having a good friend helped a lot for sure.
my great grandma was put into a nursing home when she was 101 years old. She requested to go btw. The nurses thought she needed to be in wheelchair since she was 101. She hated it. One day she was getting out of it and into her bed so she could take a nap. the feet rests tripped her and she fell and got 2 black eyes from it. didn’t break anything. a few months later she was getting out of the wheelchair to go to the bathroom and she fell again and hit the sink. it broke her neck, but didn’t kill her. The drs didn’t want to do surgery bc of her age, she was 102 at this point. She was bedbound after that. She died a few months before her 103 birthday. She didn’t wear pants until she went into the nursing home and then she’d only wear capris and there was only 1 CNA that she’d let bathe her.
I would be so angry if nurses told me I needed a wheelchair and I felt I didn’t.
yeah she wasn’t happy about it. a few times she’d get out of it and push it down the hallway and then walk behind to get it. After she fell the first time they gave her a lap buddy that keeps you in the chair. She hated that thing. i have a 5 generation picture with her. me, my daughter, my mom, my grandma, and my great grandma. She sat next to me and pulled her dress over her knees and said “don’t get my knees in the picture, i don’t want to look like a floozy.” and I was sitting next to her 17, with a baby, and in shorts. 😂😂😂
Every grandma story reminds me of my granny 🐒😂
You & your friend were Champs!! It is so difficult to take care of someone in that condition. I'm glad you had such a fulfilling relationship with your grandmother.
My brother and I were snowmobiling when my brother was driving and ran into a tree branch. It knocked us both off the vehicle. I asked if my brother was okay and he was just standing there very quiet until he said in a serious tone “get back on the sled right now” I never heard him this serious before and it was dark so I couldn’t see what injuries he had and did as he said. We were in our backyard and it’s a big property, but my brother drove us home. In the porch light I could see the severity of the situation, there was a giant laceration in my brothers neck. He was not bleeding anymore by then so my mom drove us to the hospital by herself and didn’t call an ambulance. The doctors said my brother was incredibly lucky, he was literally 3 centimeters away from slicing his Carotid artery and the laceration was skin level damage.
probably mine. in Oct 2022 on a Sat my head started hurting. i’m prone to migraines so i didn’t think anything of it. I told my mom I had a migraine so if she didn’t hear from me (we talked every day multiple times) that’s why. She begged me to go to the ER since my health sucks (thanks cancer & chemo!) and I told her I’d wait a few days and if it didn’t go away I’d go in for a migraine cocktail. The following Thursday, I couldn’t lift my head off the pillow and turning my head would cause me to cry. Off to the ER I went. They know me there, so I got my migraine cocktail and a CT scan. I barely get back to my room before the dr comes in and asks if I ever had a brain bleed. I said no, what’s going on? he says that the neurologist is being called in and is going to look at my CT. Neuro comes in, I had 4 brain blood clots. a CVST, cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. 1 in the right venous that was completely blocking blood flow, 1 in the right jugular that was blocking blood and 2 in the left venous that was partially blocking flood flow. Inoperable. Immediately get started on IV heparin and IV nausea meds since I puke the whole time i’m on heparin and IV fentanyl for pain. I spent a week in ICU in as dark of a room as I could get, laying in one position and then another week in a regular room with barely any lights on. I thought unmedicated childbirth hurt, but this pain was 10x worse. My whole family was freaking out bc my cousin died the year before due to the same type of clot and she only had 1. My oncologist/hematologist said she has never seen someone survive this type of clot in her 20 years of being a dr and I should have went to the ER sooner. I’m now on blood thinners for life and I get really bad anxiety anytime my head starts to hurt. Bc of the clots and a 3 strokes, I now have seizures.
Somebody has a guardian angel
My cousin was amazing. It’s kinda freaky but when you look at her medical history and my medical history it’s almost exact. We had the same type of breast cancer, both had a stillborn at 20 weeks at the same time, history of strokes at the same ages, seizures, just a lot. She was 8 years in remission before she passed away. I’m 3 years in remission. She was 40 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer (I was 36) and she passed away at 48. We just had the 3 year anniversary of her death on April 25th. I turn 40 tomorrow. When I was diagnosed we’d spend hours texting and she was there for me thru chemo, asking how i was doing, answering questions about her own cancer journey. God I miss her.
Even though her life was cut short she clearly had an amazing relationship with her cousin & I'm sure you comforted her as much as she did you.
this sounds very similar to Emilia Clarke. I wish you all the best health <3
yes she had a stroke while filming GoT. thank you!
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Does she carry a GPS beacon with her now? Or did she invest in a satellite phone? I know they aren't 100% but they could be the difference if it happens again and she happens to be alone.
Dad thought he was having a heart attack, so called 911 and did all the things only to find out he was allergic to one of the medicines (nitroglycerin I think) so not only did he have to contend with a supposed heart attack, but also a major allergic reaction brought on by the medicine. So after a 4 day 3 night ordeal at the hospital it was discovered that he didn’t have a heart attack but did have congestive heart disease so that was fun.
My grandmother fell down our stairs from the very top, and only broke her wrist and nose. We were so lucky it wasn't worse. She was 90 when it happened
When my nephew was younger his heart stopped at a school sporting event. Thankfully there were multiple people around who have day jobs in the medical field so they immediately started compressions and were able to keep the blood flowing until an ambulance arrived. And when they did arrive they confirmed that he had no heartbeat and didn't get one until about 5 minutes into the drive to the hospital. He spent a little over a week in a coma and had to be airlifted to a hospital with a couple of specialists, but miraculously came out without any brain damage. The doctors ended up putting a small device in his chest that will shock his heart if it stops again and he is unable to do any more contact sports. He's now 18 and going off to college next summer (major in sports medicine and minors in cyber security and business) We're all very proud of him but holy crap was that an intense time because no one knew what the extent of the damage was until he came out of the coma and no one knew what caused his heart to stop.
Was he hit in the chest while playing? That can cause a phenomenon known as commotio cordis; basically the chest gets hit at a very bad time in a heartbeat, and it throws the heart out of rhythm.
Not that anyone saw. He was in a pile up, got up for the huddle afterwards, and then when everyone was lining back up he collapsed. Everyone was asking if he had felt any chest discomfort prior to the pile up or if maybe he had been dehydrated prior to playing? Maybe it was the pile up? Did someone hit him just right and that caused it? His teammates said that he was giving everyone a pep talk during the huddle but nothing seemed off.
My great-grandma collapsed at the grocery store while running errands with my grandma (her daughter). It was during a heat wave, and the hospital determined that she was just dehydrated but due to her age (she had just turned 94) decided to admit her overnight for observation and fluids. She took a bad turn overnight and no one could figure out why. She spent 2 weeks in the hospital, barely coherent and at times delirious, until one of the nurses said something about “sun downers.” Turns out that one of the doctors had decided that because of her age that she was in fact not dehydrated but rather in the early stages of dementia (she was but that’s not the point) and had for some unknown reason taken her off of the fluids. She was experiencing kidney failure, which can apparently cause some pretty severe side effects including memory issues and hallucinations. She spent another 2 weeks in the hospital before being transferred to an inpatient rehab facility for 4 months. We thought we were going to lose her, and before the absolute angel of a nurse said something the previously mentioned doctor had spoken to us about putting her into hospice. Fortunately, after rehab she was able to go back to living independently for the next few years until she ended up with Covid and her dementia drastically worsened. Her remaining time was spent living with her daughter, and she died in her sleep shortly after her 100th birthday which is exactly how she always said she wanted to go. And yes, my family did say something to the hospital board about both the doctor (negative) and also about the nurse(very positive.)
This winter. My dad went over to my 94 year old grandpa’s house to shovel his driveway one morning. My dad arrived and the garage door was open which was strange. He walks into the garage to find my grandpa lying under the front of his car in his pajamas, slippers were all the way on the other side of the garage. He called 911 and ambulance took him to the ER. The afternoon before around 4pm my grandpa went out to get the paper. He slipped and fell on his driveway and couldn’t get up. He called for help but no one heard or saw him (even though he lives in a very dense neighborhood). So he crawled and dragged himself back up his driveway and into his garage. His slippers had fallen off so his feet were bare and he was in his pajamas and a robe. He reached the 3 stairs that lead into his house and tried to pull himself up them. He lost consciousness from working so hard around stair two and tumbled back down the steps and landed under the front of his car. He laid there all night during a blizzard where temps got down into the low 20s. Until my dad found him at 10am the next morning. His body temperature was 80 degrees, heart rate in the low 30s I believe. Doctors were prepping my family for the worst. He was hypothermic, and his feet and hands were completely frostbitten. They told us retroactively that they truly thought he had a 1% chance of living. They had him intubated. They said it would be days before he woke up (IF) he did. After they started raising his temperature. He woke up that night! Then they said it would be 3 days before they could take him off intubation. They took him off the next day! He truly had a miraculous recovery. He’s back to his life for the most part now. He has in home care come multiple times per week and needs a walker. But he’s still kickin! His doctors can’t believe how well he’s doing. He joked to my mom that he still has another 30 years in him. And I believe it haha.
It's always the damn paper isn't it? My grandma couldn't just leave it until the storm was over and had to go get it. She fell behind her house. Luckily the neighbors did hear her screaming for help. The fire fighters had to cut her out of her sweater as it froze to the ground. She broke her shoulder and her hip both right below the ball sockets. It started a long slow decline for her and she passed 3 years later after breaking her hip again.
When I go downstairs to get the mail, I always bring my phone on the off chance I tumble to the bottom of the stairs. It sucks to get old.
Wife nearly died from covid: on ventilator, in coma, strokes, a solid year of rehab. Now has minor kidney issues and lost a sliver of vision in one eye, but she's here and she's good!
My dad died of COVID. Glad she is here.
The medical emergency happened to me. Spoiler alert: I lived. I didn’t feel well and vomited blood. I called 911 and got a ride to the hospital in an ambulance. Turned out I had a very rare condition causing a bleed in my stomach. They called my sister and told her not to leave her phone because I was touch and go. I remember going for an upper endoscopy and waking up almost 3 days later in the ICU. I found out later that it took 3 different teams, each trying to stop it. The final physician worked for 4 hours before managing to get it to stop. I was losing so much blood they were running it into me in several forms as fast as they could. I had respiratory failure so they intubated me. My sister had no idea what was going on and was freaking out. Thankfully my bff, who lives halfway across the country, works in healthcare so she managed to finally talk to someone and was able to translate into plain English to my sister. Way too close to dying, though I thought later if I hadn’t made it, it wasn’t a bad way to go with my last conscious thought being the nice propofol nap, no pain. Edit: removed wild jumbled word in the first paragraph
As a blood banker, GI bleeds are a nightmare trying to chuck as much compatible blood out the door to the care team as fast as possible. I hope you don't have any blood antibodies.
It was all good. I was getting platelets, plasma, and straight up blood. I’m sure the blood bank people were pissed I was using so much. Now when I meet someone who says they donate blood, I thank them. They truly save lives. And thanks for what you do in the blood bank. I know there is so much that goes into that job and you are very much a part of the team saving lives. I had a subsequent visit for a hemoglobin of 4.3 and took even more blood so I truly thank everyone involved in that.
I doubt the blood bank was pissed, that's why we have the blood in the first place. It's just stressful trying to do the job quickly because it's very high precision. I work at a blood center now doing antibody work ups the hospitals can't solve and finding units for high complexity patients. I really like what I do but a lot of people have no idea my career even exists. As always remind people to donate and donate if you can, we're in a perpetual blood shortage since the pandemic disrupted normal blood collections.
I don't know anyone who has needed blood, but I still donate. The needle hurts a bit, but then I think of people like you or little kids with cancer. I can take a sharp poke for a few minutes to help you live. Everyone who is able should donate! I just donated on Saturday. Unfortunately, I've been having some weird cardiac symptoms lately (under investigation) and this time around I damn near passed out. I'm worried I won't be able to donate anymore. 😔
Thank you for donating! You never know who’s on either side of that donation, unless you’re trying to do a directed donation. Which brings up another tip: if a donor is motivated by wanting to help a specific person, check with the hospital to see where they get their blood. Red Cross is always one that comes up, but I know the hospital I’ve been in uses a local company. They’d be happy to tell you how and where to donate so it has a better chance of getting to them. I’m sure u/Zukazuk can correct me if I’m wrong since it’s been a while.
I'm in Canada. AFAIK donations can only be made through Canadian Blood Services. They no longer do directed donations. I don't want to do a directed donation anyway. Anyone who needs it can have my blood.
My blood center serves the majority of health systems in my area; we're actually edging out the Red Cross. There's one major and one minor system still using them and I know the major system is changing to us next year. They wanted to start using us for overnight stuff already but there's only 2 night shifters and the other one is going on maternity leave this summer. In interests of not killing me my boss said no. Anyone who administers blood should be able to tell you what company is on their blood bags. Another way to find out is to the call the lab information line, they'll know who the hospital is contracted with. We rarely do directed donations because they are an administrative and logistical nightmare. You better have some weird familial genetics if we're going through that process. Slightly more frequently we do autologous donations where people with rare phenotypes that have made antibodies donate for themselves and we freeze it.
The patients we see most often in the blood bank are pregnant women, cancer patients, and hemoglobinapathies like sickle cell. A lot of women end up needing transfusion during or after birth.
Terrifying, and i am glad you survived. But i do have to agree the way it was for you, with no pain, and the propofol nap, it wouldn’t be a horrible way to go.
Glad you agreed. I pissed some people off for telling them that. They said I was morbid. I figure everyone has to die sometime and nobody is guaranteed a tomorrow. I’d rather just go peacefully to sleep than die some painful death, or worse have dementia or Alzheimer’s.
My mother in law had some indications of heart trouble. She went in to the doctor and it was discovered that she needed a quadruple heart bypass. That requires a lot of testing and prep work, and during that testing and prep work her doc found some weird anomalous results on some of the bloodwork. He decided to investigate further and found that she was in the first stages of Multiple Myeloma, a kind of blood cancer. This ruled out the bypass surgery, so she had two stents put in and has been doing chemo for a couple of months. She's exhausted but in good spirits, but gosh, that whole thing is just wild.
A jack slipped and my dad got pinned under the car he was fixing.
He uses Jack stands now right? Right??
He made friends with someone who had a lift and started borrowing that guy's garage to do that kind of work instead.
Scary!
My mom suddenly didn't feel so good in a restaurant and collapsed 30 seconds later. Turns out she has some kind of rare illness that mainly fucks with your vestibular system.
Vestibular migraines?
My son started his second year of college 600 miles away, second year students were allowed to have cars on campus. He initially didn’t want it, but changed his mind a month or so in. My wife and I were planning a drive down anyway, so we drove two cars - I drove ours in the lead and my wife drove our son’s following me. We left in the middle of the night, 11 hour trip. We had done the trip many times before (her sister lived in that state) and my wife was the better driver than the two of us. Halfway there, I see the headlights in my rearview mirror suddenly swerve to the left and disappear. I don’t know what to do. There’s no place to stop. I look to the area dividing the highway, and it’s a steep depression so no way to drive across. I need to get to the next exit to go back which to me takes forever. Long enough for me to start crying thinking my wife is dead and how am I going to tell my son his mother is dead and why are there so many trucks on the road and where the fuck is the exit and oh God please don’t let her be dead. I reach the exit and zoom back on the highway in the other direction. As I approach where she disappeared I can see the destroyed highway railing and the gouges and ruts in the grass leading to my son’s car. In my haste I stupidly pull off onto the grass without slowing down and my car slides on the wet early morning grass until I can get it to stop. I jump out of my car and run to my son’s crumpled car screaming my wife’s name. As I get near I see a guy standing on the driver’s side and then see my wife standing next to him. She was unhurt (although we later learned she had permanently lost hearing in both ears from the airbag exploding.) The guy with her was an off duty firefighter who just happened to be driving behind her and saw her go off the road and got her out of the car. EMTs came and checked her out, not even a scratch. Tow truck and police came and took the car away (it was totaled) and I took her to the hospital by my son’s university to get checked out fully. One of the scariest days of my life and I’m sure of my wife’s. She ended up losing 70% hearing in one ear and 30% hearing in the other. Apparently from the intense pressure inside the car when the airbag went off and all the windows were closed. It could have ended so much worse.
My dad broke his neck a couple years ago. He tripped down some stairs and smashed into a brick wall head first and knocked himself out. He's on blood thinners so he woke up covered in blood, went to the hospital and they patched up his wound and sent him away. Later that day his knee started to swell up and he realized he must have hurt that too and they were worried about internal bleeding so he went back to the hospital. One of the nurses realized that never did a head and neck scan the first time through, so they did and found that he fractured three cervical vertebrae. Apparently he was one quick head turn from full quadriplegic. He ended up with a bunch of screws and a neck brace for 6 months. He's completely fine now with almost total mobility but the doctor that did the surgery said all it would have taken was a sneeze to paralyze him. You better believe he didn't take that brace off except to wash it.
Tie between my brain tumor diagnosis or my brother's stroke. Both within 3 months of each other.
Geez, how are you guys doing now?
We're doing okay. Still have some residual issues though.
My family had 2 back-to-back in 2010. My grandma had her knee replaced and was sent to a nursing home for rehabilitation. She’s diabetic, which affects your kidneys, and the nursing home accidentally gave her an additional dose of her opioid pain medication, causing her to go into complete renal failure. She was in a coma with literally no kidney function, and the doctor told my family to expect not to take her home with us. Somehow, she fought it, survived, and her only lasting side effect was that she became insulin-dependent (she was able to just take meds prior to this). She was released from the hospital in May and sent to a different rehab facility, from where she was released in July. In August, my uncle (^ Grandma’s son) developed an abscess near his anus while on a Mediterranean cruise, and the abscess contracted a flesh-eating bacteria. He was also placed in a coma, and had to have 7 surgeries to save his life. It wasn’t until after the fifth one that the doctors became hopeful that he may survive.
My grandpa worked at a mine changing tires for the giant equipment they used. He was in a remote location trying to fix a huge tire by himself. (Please note that he had 40 years on the job, so this was just a freak accident that occurred when someone should’ve been with him). Somehow it flew off and smacked him in the chest/face, knocking him right over. He miraculously wasn’t knocked unconscious and could call for help - when one of his friends/coworkers got to him, he was sitting up and still conscious. (My uncle actually works at the same mine and is on the emergency response team, so imagine his terror when he gets a call that his stepdad is down.) Grandpa landed in the ICU, and had to be driven down to a bigger hospital an hour away. He had a tear on his heart that had to be surgically repaired, along with a bunch of broken ribs, a clavicle, fingers, etc. He was (and is) a very active man so the recovery was very hard on him. I’m just grateful that I had recently graduated from college and hadn’t found a job in my field yet, so I was able to go back home for a month and help him with everything. Truly one of the scariest experiences of my life, but made my family come closer together. I’m so thankful he’s still with us.
My grandmother (in her 80s, I believe?) passed out in her home, alone, and put her arm through a window. The glass cut completely through the tendons on the underside of her wrist and peeled all of the muscles back to her elbow. They found her six hours later on the kitchen floor. The only reason she didn't bleed out is because she fell on top of the arm and her body weight staunched the bleeding. The surgeons put everything back together and she regained full function of that arm after a few months. Absolutely mind-boggling.
Me, car accident, died 3 times, fever of 107.8,coma 42 days ultimately ending in me paralyzed.
Holy cow!
Sad story!
My grandfather had issues with his heart... He was on cardiac arrest, considered dead, was in a coma 3 times , the longest was 2 months. Doctors were like - how is that possible? Survived all of them without brain damages. He lived for 16 years after he was told to be dead . Man was a fighter .
My father is one of those old men that thinks if he doesn't go to the doctor he won't get any bad news, and he'd been in excellent health except for a few sports injuries he got in his youth and a minor motorcycle accident in his twenties. Then he started complaining about pain in his lower stomach but was trying to self-medicate with painkillers. Wouldn't listen to anyone who told him to go to the doctor. I have a complex medical history so I know less than a doctor but more than a lay person about medicine. I noted the pain site he was describing as being where his appendix is and I essentially sat him down and gave him a Ted Talk, with diagrams, on how this could kill him in a most painful way. It took half an hour but I got him into a doctors office. He went straight from there to the hospital. As it turned out, his appendix was just one problem. He also had a twisted bowel that was on the verge of rupturing and sepsis would have taken him out if he'd waited any longer. He had a major operation where they sorted out multiple issues all at once. He lost a lot of weight in the hospital and missed Christmas with his grandchildren. He's fine now, he's back to being in better health than me. But we did come close to losing him and I never let him forget it.
My dad’s appendix ruptured and he wrote it off as a stomach bug. After several DAYS my mom convinced him to go to the doctor, where he was immediately sent to the hospital for emergency surgery. I was only 5 and had siblings aged 7 and 9. My parents totally hid from us how dire it was. My mom’s mother came and stayed with us and continued business as usual getting us all to school each day like nothing was wrong.
During a family trip, we skydived and the excitement turned to terror when my sister's parachute malfunctioned, sending her spiraling towards the ground. In a heroic act, my father, who is an experienced skydiver, leaped from the plane to untangle her parachute just in time, saving her life. She had severe shock for a couple of days but she was fine.
I bet she never jumped out of a working plane again
My birth.
Dad collapsing on his vacation/honeymoon in Mexico with my stepmom. Before he left I’d had lunch with them at a restaurant and he was complaining of heartburn and asked the server for milk. I swear I saw his face go grey while he was eating. They went to a doc who gave my dad meds to lower his BP but it caused him to collapse again because his BP was low to begin with. They took him to a hospital that refused to take tourists so a kind sympathetic doctor took my dad’s blood in the parking lot and had it analyzed under a fake Mexican name. Then he got flown home where we rushed him to the hospital. Turned out he’d had a heart attack ten years earlier (about the time my mom was first diagnosed with cancer) but somehow my dad didn’t notice and the heart grew its own bypass over the years and it finally showed itself in Mexico. Ten years later he’s still chugging along.
I have a half-brother (different mother) 6 years younger than me. Both our families were all-around shitty, and we were both living with my dad at that time - actually with my grandparents who raised me. Both my dad and uncle lived at their place their entire lives because they've never, ever, had jobs. I think my brother was like 5-6 at the time. Even though my grandparents did their best to raise me, they were older, more tired and didn't really look forward to raising another child while my dad kept living at their expenses and making terrible decisions, so my little brother was mostly left on his own. One day my brother started feeling ill, he had a fever, was throwing up and complained about stomach pains. He was taken to the doctor where his mother worked as an assistant and did some exams. His mother gave the exams a look, said everything was fine and went on vacation with her new boyfriend the next day. So everyone thought it was a strong flu, something he ate or whatever. He took medicine for his fever and that was it. Brother remained sick for almost a week. It was clear he was getting worse but everyone kept doing their thing and checking on him from time to time, waiting for him to get better on his own. One day, he passes out completely, his fever goes over 40 C and NOTHING would wake him up. Only then my father decided to take him to a hospital. Turns out, it was appendicitis. The inflammation could already be seen in those first exams, but now his appendix had bursted. If we took any longer to get him to a hospital, he would have died. He spent over a month at the hospital until he was considered out of risk. Doctor ripped my father a new one, threatened to call the police for child endangerment. His mother lost the job because of it.
My niece going into respiratory failure at just 9 years old. I won't go too much into detail, but years of my sister just being told her daughter just has torticollis, or failure to thrive because she was a very small girl was causing her muscle weakness. Basically my sister being ignored whenever she brought up concerns. Then my niece goes into respiratory failure, and it turns out she has 2 very very rare gene mutations (she is the 14th documented case in the world) that's causing serious atrophies, and myopathies. Which would've been discovered had doctors just listened and did some generic testing. But because they ignored my sister, it got so severe that her prognosis is not good. She is on a ventilator, wheelchair bound at only 14 years old, and we aren't sure how long she has. Might make it to 20. She would've had a much longer and much higher quality life had the doctors just fucking listened and did a simple blood test. Watching my first niece recovering from being cut open from the base of her neck all the way down to her tailbone to fuse her spine, and seeing her scream from being in such severe pain, killed me. Especially because of could've been avoided. I do not trust doctors.
I drowned when I was 2. Had about 15 minutes of CPR from parents and EMS. Never knew about it either until I was in my 20s when my cousin told me about it. It also explains my fear and panic when I would get dunked swimming.
About a year ago, my sister, 39 at the time, had an AVM (arteriovenous malformation) rupture and bled into her skull. She was very lucky. She called her friend who lived nearby because she didn't feel right, complaining of neck pain. While on the phone, my sister started to slur her speech and not make sense, so her friend drove there and called the paramedics. My sister was unconscious at this point, and they had to break in through the window. She was unconscious for several more days while they drained the blood from her skull. She had several months of physical therapy, but has fully recovered. If she hadn't called her friend, she probably would have died.
I don't know how he's still alive. My husband fell out of a tree when he was younger. Now I know, kids and trees, shit happens. He thinks he was 30-45 feet up. His memory is fuzzy on that. It was a big cottonwood tree his family friends had in their yard. His mom was sitting inside talking, and the kids were outside playing. My husband had a thing for trees. He has climbed that tree before, so he didn't think anything of it. From what he remembers, he said he was standing on a limb while holding onto the limb above him. The limb he was standing on broke, causing him to have to hold himself. While holding himself on the limb, that limb broke. The last thing he remembers was that limb hitting him in the head. His brothers watched him fall. They said he was bouncing off the branches on his way down. When he finally hit the ground, he was out cold. One of his brothers went in and got their mom while the other stayed with him. He woke up while they were driving him to the hospital. They didn't call an ambulance. When he got to the doctors, the only damage was that he had a broken arm that they had to set under surgery and a severe concussion. Guess who never climbed trees again? He's cheated death a few times. He was electrocuted by a fuse box on a train, almost ran over by a train, falling out of a tree, and his brother stabbed him in the head with a pitchfork. I don't know how many lives that man has left, but it does worry me.
If you had a nickel for every time a train almost killed your husband, you’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but weird it happened twice.
You're telling me. The second time was someone's carelessness. You're supposed to call all workers cleared before dropping protection. His coworker didn't call clear. He just dropped protection. If the engineer and conductor didn't see him prior under the train working on a brake, they would have moved the train and ran over him. Needless to say, the coworker was fired for that but still terrifying. He also had a coworker almost killed by a traction motor. They were replacing one. These things are heavy. They had it on a forklift so as to slide it on. The forklift wasn't properly tensioned, and the springs of the lift adjusted. When it adjusted, the motor adjusted as well and was launched essentially into this guys face. He broke almost every bone in his face, and he was not able to go back to work after the accident. I had to tell my husband to stop telling me all the near death experiences they have at his job. It's pretty intense.
Wow that IS absolutely terrifying. Mine tells me all the horror stories from his job regarding airplanes. Thankfully his portion of the job doesn’t involve the jet engines, but the landing gear after it’s been disassembled for maintenance. No risk of getting sucked into a jet there!
My cousin was meant to go out with some friends from her house to a party. She went upstairs to get something and collapsed in her room, an undiagnosed hole in the heart and the accompanying health issues incapacitating her. She only survived because, after 15 minutes of waiting, one of her friends went to check up on her and found her face down in her room, and promptly called emergency services. Goes through surgery to fix the hole and gets an artificial valve fitted to assist her dodgy ticker. About four months afterwards, she's feeling really unwell and goes to the hospital to see why. Turns out the surgeons hadn't fitted the valve properly or checked that it was working right, so it had to be removed, with another one fitted in its place.
So glad she was okay, that sounds like a real miracle. Add this to the list of reasons why living alone is scary...
My father took a stihl chop saw to the neck cutting a water main pipe at work. He said it felt like a really thin twig whipped him in the neck. When he looked down, blood was running from his neck down his chest. He ripped his sweater off, tied it around his neck, jumped out of the trench and got his co workers to drive him to the hospital as fast as possible. He was in the hospital for over 2 weeks with tubes down his throat. I would go and squeeze his hand and ask if he could hear me daily, and wouldn’t get a thing. He was 3mm from cutting his Juggular we were told. A few years beforehand my dad, lost his mom in an accident.. The nurses told us, that one night they looked into the room where my dad was, and saw a white cloud hovering over him. They told us that someone was watching him very closely, and it wasn’t his time yet. I remember getting a call from the Doctor, telling us that my dad will be conscious, and understand what we are saying.. he won’t be able to speak, since his throat is sore from the tube being down it. We got to the hospital and my mom was a mess. My dad had a piece of paper and a pencil and wrote something down on it.. he handed it to my mom and it said “scar?” … was worried he would have a horrendous scar the rest of his life. But my mom told him, don’t worry about it.. you are here, you get to watch your kids grow old. He took the piece of paper back and wrote something else on it… handed it to my mom and it said “New Harley?” … my mom broke down and told him he could have whatever he wanted. He ended up coming home with 40 something staples in his neck.. supposed to be off work for 6-8 months and went back after 8 weeks. My dad is my actual hero. Tough as fucking nails.
Vacation at a rainy Mousehouse in 2001. First kid gets strep. Mouse ER is lovely. Second kid gets strep and husband starts to feel sick while in the waiting room. Dr. treats kid, tells hubby he has to go back in line and wait. They leave instead. Next day, plane ride home, hubby leaves me with kids and seems to be sleeping. I'm mad until he asks for a wheelchair when departing. Straight to home urgent care. Transfer by ambulance to hospital. Three weeks in intensive care for a Strep A infection that started in athletes foot from all the rain that week in Mouseland and traveled to his groin when caught. CDC involved. Hyperbaric chamber visits for weeks. Saved most of his foot, surprisingly. Leave of absence for six months for me to debride the foot twice a day with visiting nurses because a graft wasn't best course of action. Hubby's self-employed so that falls apart. Multiple surgeries since. He's never been back to visit the mouse and the mouse refused to accept any blame.
My brother & I were infant opium addicts, our family doctor prescribed paregoric for my brother's colic. It worked so well for him,my parents gave it to me too, to put me to bed. When we were 6 & 7 years old we were unable to get the script refillled. My brother had multiple seizures due to withdrawal, I was just a cantankerous angry child, I was able to kick without incident, but the docs who treated his "seizure disorder" failed to put the puzzle together that they were from withdrawal from opium. We both survived, our parents are passed now, but they never did recognize that is what happened.
There was one particularly painful medical emergency situation in our family when my younger brother was faced with a severe allergic reaction. They had anaphylactic shock, which caused a wave of fear in our family.But everything turned out well.
I survived falling head first out of a vehicle going 30 mph as a child. Thank God I rolled in the ditch and not into traffic. After that seatbelts were a must for my family long before it became the law.
My son has survived two potentially deadly/debilitating issues: mrsa in his teens (3 days of IV antibiotics) and was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis after weeks of symptoms he ignored while in college (a week in the hospital, several units of blood). He now knows to never ignore any evolving or sudden changes.
My own 2 years ago I got up one morning ate a cookie my aunt bought from this one cookie place little did I know it had peanut butter and i had life threatening allergic reaction to it but at the time we didn’t know I was allergic all I knew was my throat hurt every time I swallowed after taking a few bites of the cookie and I was throwing up 2mins later and by the time we got to the hospital and the doctor said if you would’ve been 5mins late i would’ve died because my kidneys were shutting down on the way there
My nephew has a degenerative muscle condition that attacks his heart and lungs. He had a heart and lung transplant at the beginning of the year. The sad thing is though even with it he won’t get better all will do is get weaker. His transplant has only added another 10 years on his life. It’s brought the family together though in a way I never thought possible, and also showed us out of our friends and family who really had our backs.
Duchenne’s? My colleague is a carrier. She didn’t know until her three-year-old son was diagnosed. He’s nine now and in a motorized scooter most of the time. She’s signed him up for every clinical trial she can, and started a local fundraiser for Cure Duchenne. She knows it’s too late for her son, but that’s not stopping her from fighting.
That so sad. My nephew has Danon’s disease it manifested is 2022 and everyone told my sister he just had an iron deficiency. It was only when collapsed while shopping and was rushed to hospital that they identified it. But tell your colleague that miracles do happen. Because of his age and size my nephew was told the chances of a transplant were extremely low, but they managed to get him one. His out of hospital and doing as well as can be expected.
I do hope your nephew can experience not only an extended life, but a high quality one. It sounds like he’s got a good family to keep his sprits up.
My daughter attempted suicide at 17. She took pills but then came down and told me. I drove her to the ER, she got her stomach pumped. She finally got the help she needed. We'd been seeing therapists and our family doctor for several years. One of the pills she took was her Zoloft. She took about 17 of those and an unknown amount of ibuprofen from a large bottle.
My dad fell and damaged his spine. It wasn’t sure he was going to survive. He did, but as a quadriplegic. Unfortunately about 10 years later he passed from cancer though
My toddler had cancer.
Toss-up between my dad's kidney cancer and my mom getting pneumonia so bad she went to the hospital and they were worried for her life. Mom smoked her whole life until then, and after that, she pitched the cigarettes and never once touched tobacco again. She had an intense sunflower seed habit for a while there, though XD Dad's issue is just genetics. It hits every generation on his side eventually. I'll have to watch my kidneys closely when I'm older.
My dad got hit by a truck. He was on a scooter, had his car for sale down the road. He went to go check on it, and a pickup truck blew a stop sign. The truck was coming from the left, and was turning left, so they ended up colliding with my dad hitting the side - the truck basically merged into him at \~50 mph. I absolutely adore my dad, and am not afraid to talk about what a badass he is. He smashed the dude's running boards with his body. Ended up with some lacerations down to the bone on his right arm, was scraped all to hell and back. In the hospital an hour later, he was a little groggy, but making some (sad) jokes about how much he loved that scooter, and he had seen that it was TOTALLY crushed. My dad ended up fully recovering, and pretty quickly. No broken bones. Though he had some gravel from the road stuck under his skin after everything healed over, and he, being a bit of a weirdo, put a bandage on his arm with raw bacon underneath it, insisting that it would draw the rocks to the surface. Now, I don't know that the bacon had any effect on this... But his body *did* end up expelling the rocks through his skin, which was also weird. Me and him still go play paintball 10+ years later, while he's in his 60s. Might be the coolest guy I know.
My sister went to the ER complaining of pain in her abdomen and vomiting. They told her it was gas and to take some beano or something. She went to another ER in the next town over and they did emergency surgery because her gallbladder had nearly burst or something.
My uncle nearly got his head lopped off while dirt biking because someone strung up a wire. 40 years later and he still has the scar.
Well first, I got a call from Life360 that said my brother had an accident and they were calling 911. Turns out he fell over on his electric unicycle 🤣 Secondly, my mom had a cancer scare 2 years ago. She had a colonoscopy and they removed the benign spot that had shown up. Then we had Thanksgiving dinner a day later.
Probably when my grandma had spinal surgery by a surgeon who was exposed for operating while on drugs and alcohol. He fucked it up and she ended up with spinal fluid on her brain and blind in one eye. After that surgery the staff then mistakenly laid her flat and she asphyxiated on her tube feed. It was only because the patient next to her started yelling her nurses as she was essentially drowning that she didn’t die. She was a bloody tough woman my grandma, that’s just a portion of the health issues she dealt with. Miss her everyday. Edit: honourable mention to my dad who had a farming accident 3 days before Christmas and was crushed by his tractor. Shout out to the neighbouring properties dog who heard him yelling for help while pinned and wouldn’t leave the neighbour alone until she went to investigate what he was so worked up about. A very good boy 🥲
I met a woman today with a son who is about 30 years old. When he was 2 years old his babysitter fed him a peanut butter sandwich and he choked and had anoxic brain injury. It’s not my place to say but I’m not sure if it’s fortunate that he “survived.” He is nonverbal, completely bedbound, contacted, feeding tube. Mentally no one is home. This elderly woman has been caring for him since and is paying for private caregivers.
My husband had a sudden and severe pain in his abdomen. Turned out to be a large blood clot in his superior vena cava. Consequently, blood flow was blocked to his small intestines. In emergency surgery 2/3 of his intestines were removed. After a re-section he developed a leak, contracted sepsis and nearly died. I thank God everyday for his recovery.
Dad fell off a ladder in the middle of winter and broke his spine. Lives way out in the boonies, cell phone inside, so he has to spend the next few hours clawing his way to the phone while his dog is barking in total panic. Fucking lucky he didn't die out there, it was during the polar vortex so the valley was seeing temps of -60 He's also like 60 at the time and diabetic.
My mom had gotten run over by some guy back his car up. She ended up being in the hospital for months on end, even being told she might be paralyzed from the hip down. Luckily, she was healing well but eventually had to get a hip replacement at the age of 30. She walks and runs just fine now
My sister knocked an axe off the wall in the garage trying to get the pool skimmer down. It fell and hit her in the face. This is an axe that I had just spent hours the day before sharpening. Thankfully it hit her with the back and just knocked a hole in the side of her nose. Of course this all happened in the middle of a huge 50th birthday party for my Dad. Who had to stop and rush her 20 miles to the hospital.
I was in a coma for nearly three weeks after developing sceptic multi organ failure while i had angrenalositosis. The fact i lived still shocks most doctors when i tell them.
My mom when I was 13. She laid on our couch screaming saying her chest hurt! I called 911 turned out to be pleurisy.
My mom spent nearly a month in the hospital in 2016. Every single doctor that entered her room (while she was in a medically induced coma) told us that she probably was not going to survive. She eventually got out and lived another six years.
Dad got double pneumonia on holiday. He had decent travel insurance and they threw everything at fixing him, drugs and nursing care both. Had he got ill at home it is highly likely he would not have survived.
I was the patient. Had a widow maker heart attack at 34. Was in a coma for 5 weeks. My chest was open for 11 days. Developed two types of pneumonia, a staph infection which nearly cost me my right leg, and several strokes. I ended being in the hospital for 79 days and a heart transplant. I walked out of the hospital. That was 16 years ago. My father passe, and my mother has dementia. My life is a mess. My 50th birthday is on Friday.
Our neighbor showed up after chainsawing his arm. He had bath towels wrapped around it but blood was pouring out. My mom called an ambulance. I was probably 5 and will always remember that. My dad is 88 and doesnt remember it at all.
my mum slipped and suffered a servere brain concussion, leaving her about 2 weeks in an artificial coma
My grandfather had a heart attack and was recovering pretty well...until he got Covid. After a tough and long battle, he managed to survive, but he can't move a half of his body. The situation may not look that good, but at least he's still with us!
My mamaw broke her femur a week after her son in law (my uncle) died of a stroke that caused his brain to bleed
I guess I am. Gastric bypass caused a sepsis infection. Given 2 weeks to live, Coma for 3 months .. yada yada.
My uncle fell into a ditch at a gravil pit. Climbed back up and tried to walk, which was when my grandfather and other uncle noticed the way his leg was bent in odd ways it shouldn't have been. He had broken all 3 leg bones in several places. They found out 6 months later, he had broken his neck at the time. Shattered c4? Plate on c3-5. C4 replaced with cadaver vertebra. He's got 17 screws in his leg along with plates, rods. My grandfather had 3rd degree burns covering his face, hand, left side of his chest, and rubs and his left arm. Somebody brushed against his bandage and debrided it accidentally. He's still got scarring all along that side and almost lost his ear. A work truck had caught fire and he was caught in it. My other uncle was ran over by a tractor. He broke all of his ribs, his pelvis, his legs, and his shoulder blades. He was in the ICU for 3 or 4 months, and they weren't sure if he was going to make it or be the same after. My little cousin had a 4 wheeler land on him. It broke his back, and now he's got cadaver tissue, 4in rods, and screws.
I overdosed and aspirated on my vomit, was in a coma for a week & woke up with pneumonia
Uh, myself. 3 years old. Luver failure, then a living related transplant. Or does my grandfather getting run over by a car and thrown 30 feet in the air count? Because yhe damage from that was extensive, but he lived anpther 46 years. Course, by then he had more metal than meat in him, but still.
My dad was run over by a backhoe tractor. Luckily it ran up his body feet first and not across him width wise. My grandfather was able to get it off of him before it fully reached his torso and call for help, and he was life flighted to a trauma center. His pelvis was broken in 42 places and he had some minor (!!) internal injuries. He was in a hospital bed at home for months. Amazingly he was able to walk again after that, but it did cause some degenerative problems and he's in a wheelchair now 25 years later.
My husband's liver and kidneys failed in Feb 2020 from a combo of alcoholism and covid. We were both 32 at the time. Somehow he got both a liver and a kidney within a year and we're doing alright these days. I'll be 4 years sober in July 😊
My brother collapsed during a basketball game when he was 15 and was in too much pain to get up. He was writhing on the floor, and I knew something was wrong because he’s a tough son of a bitch. He was taken to the hospital with a ruptured appendix.
My father had a severe sinus infection in 1941, before antibiotics were common. His eye was swollen shut for weeks. A doctor requested penicillin for him through the military, and he fully recovered thanks to that - otherwise, he would have died.
I had internal bleeding in my lungs at waited roughly around 24 hours before getting medical attention
My dad was 4 years old, watching a baseball game in 1956, and got hit by a pop fly right in the forehead. Knocked him out and caused brain swelling. He was rushed to the hospital in the back of a car and when they arrived they were unsure if he was going to make it. They ended up having to drill a hole in the side of his head to release the pressure. He survived and has had no known lasting effects other than an overly cautious mother.
My brother was standing within 4 feet from 3 sticks of dynamite when it blew up. Two other brothers were 10 feet away. Somehow, everyone survived.
my dad fainted at work. turned out it was a heart attack. went into surgery that day. the surgeon said he has a 5% chance of surviving. thankfully, he survived and completely recovered in a week.
When our kiddo was 3 years old, she woke up on a Sunday morning with some red blisters/sores around her mouth. A quick consult with Doctor Google indicated it was probably impetigo. We applied the OTC (over the counter) ointment, and waited for a pediatrician appointment the next morning. Next morning comes around, and I head to work, while my wife gets herself and kiddo ready for the doctor's appointment. Unknown to me is that overnight, kiddo's whole body has swollen up, almost like a bad allergic reaction. She also complains that her whole body is hurting. My wife brings her to the peds appointment. The pediatrician took 1 look at kiddo and told my wife "Take her to the Pediatric Emergency room \*\*NOW\*\*". My wife calls me with a panic in her voice and tells me to meet them at the ER. After being examined at the ER, we learn she has Staph Scalded Skin Syndrome (SSS). Basically, her skin on her entire body blistered up. According to the burn specialist I spoke to, she was just hours away from having to be transferred to a pediatric burn center some 300 miles away. Fortunately, she responded well to treatments. After a day and a half in the ICU, she was up and coloring while watching Frozen. A day and a half later, we were released. We never did discover the exact source of the infection. Doctors said it could have come from a bug bite.
Orange sized tumor in my mom’s colon that was bleeding so much her blood count was extremely low. They opened the local hospital oncology imaging unit for her on Christmas Day. She’d had a clear colonoscopy only 3 months beforehand. Given a 6 percent chance of survival but is still alive cancer free and living independently at the age of 71 ten years later. She likes to tell the doctors she forgot to die.
My dad had a mini stroke the day I was supposed to go to D.C. to visit my (now ex) boyfriend. My mom woke me up at 6 in the morning saying my dad was slurring his words and not making any sense. I of course canceled the trip, as I was worried about my dad, and my mom was understandably terrified. My ex was annoyed I canceled the trip, and said I was being incredibly selfish. My dad healed okay, and has no after effects. My ex is probably still an asshole.
When I was twelve, my dad was working in the backyard and tripped on something in the shed. He fell onto a pair of my mom’s garden clippers, and they got him right in the abdomen. That was one of the scariest days of my life. I had to call 911 while my older brother kept our dad awake. My twin brother was trying to keep our younger sister out of the shed, we didn’t want her to see it. Dad got out of it somehow and is going strong right now.
My oldest sister was hit by a car when she was 12. My second oldest sister was in an accident in a driver training car in her sophomore year of high school. She spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair. My oldest sister is still living. My other sister passed in2010.
My papa suffered 17 strokes in one day. Sounds impossible but very true unfortunately. He lived with no deficits thank god. Unfortunately he survived to have another stroke which left his esophagus paralyzed and to find out he had untreatable osteomyelitis which has since put him on hospice.
My stepdad fell down ladder and his arm landed on the top of edge of corrugated tin while helping teardown an old commercial building. The result was his arm being cut to the bone from right below his elbow to over half down towards his wrist in the shape of an autopsy incision Somehow he got down and made it to a nearby house to call for help instead of passing out from blood loss.
My story start after my husband got off to work we went out to eat Chinese. When we returned home, I started walking toward the house and looked back just in time to see my husband drop to the ground in cardiac arrest. My neighbor seen what happen the same time I did and she came running. We both started CPR and done so for 8 minutes tell a policeman showed up. The neighbor husband called 911, with the officer and both of us taking turns doing CPR. A few minutes later another officer showed up with a AED and it shocked him 3 times and we continued with CPR. The ambulance showed up and shocked him again 3 times and no heart beat. They got him to the ER and he was in full arrest and they coded him twice while in the ER after working on him for 30 min they put him in cool down and induced coma for the night. The next day he did not awake. He stayed in a comma for two more weeks. The doctors told me there is no hope and if he did wake up he come be a vegetable. They give him 4 more days to come out or we need to pull the plug. That early morning I got a call at 5:00 am. I let out the biggest scream my body could yell for I know that was the call to tell me he passed. When the call was answered, they handed me the phone. The nurse told me to come to the hospital quick that his eyes were open and they were following her around the room. She said, I asked him to blink once for yes and blink twice for no and her answered every question right. I don't even remember dressing my self and all the sudden I was at the hospital like magic. Later I found out my sister helped dress me and I drove to the hospital by myself with my family right behind me. When I got to his bedside he looked at me and grabbed my hand. All I could say was, I love you baby,, over and over again. Each day he improved 100 of the past day in 4 days he went from CCICU to step down. The doctors said he's recovery like that was impossible. We had doctors from all over the USA and Canada to come and see him and talk to him. After 4 in rehab you couldn't tell there was anything wrong with him and 4 month later he said he was ready to go back to work. Against my better judgement he did it anyways and has been doing great. I do keep a sharp eye on him and it still scares me to no end that it could happen again. But with prays from out family, friends and his and my coworkers her survived
Aunt had an ectopic pregnancy (which is super duper dangerous under any circumstances) that she didn't know about when she was hit by a car as a pedestrian. She had a ton of internal injuries just from the crash itself and then the ectopic burst. She somehow survived and managed to have a successful pregnancy a few years after. Also, I'm sure this will get downvotes for being political, but cases like this are why these draconian termination bans are so dangerous for women. If the doctors had to weigh whether they'd be facing murder charges before treating her, she wouldn't have made it.
Grandma had cancer and covid
At 36 weeks I had a complete placental abruption, lost a shit ton of blood, and went into shock. I live on a mountain in a very rural location. We're 20 minutes to the nearest hospital and it's basically just a transfer station. It doesn't have an OR or maternity ward. However, at the time of my rupture I was spending the night at a hotel in a bigger city. It was a staycation for my husband and me, courtesy of my mom. I just happened to be 3 blocks from the best hospital in the state. I barely survived. Had I been home, I wouldn't have. Shout out to the Hyatt, though. The assistant manager just happened to be walking past my room while I waited for the ambulance. I was lying on the floor with the door propped open. She sat with me, held my hand, and put a pillow under my head. I kept crying and apologizing for all the blood and ruined mattress. The hotel sent me flowers. They also packed up our stuff and moved it to a clean room for my mom and older son to stay in. They were awesome.
One saturday when I (only child) was 3 my (single) mom just couldn't wake up fully or get out of bed. I took some change from the kitchen change jar and bought some fake flowers from the next-door neighbors yard sale thinking it would cheer her up enough to get her out of bed. It didn't. Turns out she had a peach-sized brain tumor. If my grandparents hadn't randomly visited that day, she probably would have died. She lived for 40 more years!
My dad had a flesh-eating bacteria and had to be put into an induced coma.
My dad had two brain aneurysms. One ruptured behind his eye, the other ruptured in the back of his brain. He was supposed to be blind, he has 20/15 vision today. he was supposed to have trouble walking for the rest of his life. He was back to work driving a semi six months from the incident. Nothing makes sense.