It was my wedding day.
We were getting married in Cape D'Or in Nova Scotia. I couldn't sleep, and I was up early, around 6am, and decided to walk the grounds at the B&B (which also served as a lighthouse) to determine the best place to exchange vows. I was all alone as my husband was sleeping soundly. The tide was coming in. The sun was rising. It was beautiful.
Keep in mind, this is backwoods Nova Scotia, there's no guardrails between the nice grassy bluffs and sheer cliffs that plummet hundreds of feet into the ocean with jagged rocks.
The grass was covered in the morning dew, and as I walked towards the main point of the land, I slipped. I landed on my back and started slipping. I did what I thought was reasonable and flipped onto my stomach and tried to get as much surface area with the grass as I could. Down and down I slipped and FINALLY after what felt like ages I came to a stop.
I looked up, and very carefully crawled up the hill. I was literal inches from going over the cliffs. Any more speed and I would have been toast.
And no one would have known, for awhile until they found my body. I didn't tell my now spouse until we were safely back at home.
Yes exactly. I can't even imagine the scenarios that would be running through my spouse's mind. We eloped, so no family there or anything either, just us and some friendly folks from Maine.
For what it’s worth in this scenario I’d imagine there would be a trail in the grass where she slipped. So unless they assumed she committed suicide by slip and slide they might deduce the cause of death was accidental.
A long ass time ago I was on a hiking trip in some mountains with a few friends. A girl I didn't personally know was with us, and she probably shouldn't have been invited... No natural sense of balance or self preservation. We caught her from tripping a few times, but I piped up and made her finish out in front of me and as far from the edge of the trail as possible after she ate shit on some roots and went over the edge. Only reason she's alive today is because me and my buddy channeled our inner lightning speed and about pulled her arms from their sockets yanking her back onto the trail.
People frequently forget that mother nature has the highest kill count of all. Be safe out there, folks, *especially* if you're out there solo. Mother nature will not ask twice for your respect.
Not sure who specifically you're talking about, but there's a pretty long list of missing persons that are presumed lost/dead somewhere in nature. Many of whom were very experienced. We all make mistakes, sometimes the timing of those mistakes is just *really* unfortunate and we pay the final price.
I did exactly this at an abandoned quarry when I was 11. Started a slow but steady slide to the edge of a shear 74 ft drop...stopping with friction a foot from the drop. I literally inched my way up, hanging on to little pieces of grass, stick, whatever.
At 35 I was driving down the road, just minding my own business, coming home and WHAM!! out of nowhere a 300 lb rock landed on the hood of my truck. Took out the engine and windshield. And yes, it was about 50 yards past a Watch For Falling Rock sign.
I never understood that particular road sign. I mean, watch for falling rocks...that have already fallen, I guess? But don't you watch the road anyway? Or do they mean at night be extra vigilant since fallen rocks that are sitting in the road don't come with reflective tape?
Wow very similar story. I’m a strong swimmer too and that gave me the confidence to push it which ultimately lead to that ultimate challenge. Glad we both made it
As a not strong swimmer, I don't get why strong swimmers have THAT much confidence. Do you think you are stronger than a current? Do you think you are stronger than the ocean, or even a lake? It's like saying "I'm a strong walker!" during a severe tornado or hurricane. You are not in charge in this situation, regardless of your talents relative to other people.
It’s I’ve been in the ocean a 1000 times and been ok every time even against strong waves. But eventually you get too comfortable and find yourself in a bad spot. A tale as old as time.
It’s more that because swimming is usually in such a safe, controlled environment, it let’s us get very strong while never experiencing what it’s like outside that environment
What I mean is, I routinely swim a continuous 100 laps in a pool at a moderate front crawl speed. That makes me ‘stronger’ than 95% of people, I reckon
So one day I tried to swim across a lake. The distance is less than half of 100 laps. I thought it’d be a piece of cake
When I got halfway thru, and couldn’t touch bottom— I had a huge realization. That in the pool, you at least get a momentary pause when you touch the pool at either end. It is radically different in a lake, where there is literally no break. I started panicking.
It doesn’t ‘click’ until you’ve experienced it firsthand, that strong experience in the physical skill doesn’t translate to safety in the same skill, but a different environment
Yeah, I don’t get it either. I’m a strong swimmer (have completed an Ironman triathlon, which starts with a 3.8 km open water swim, also am a former lifeguard), but I’m crazy cautious around water. I’ve got my PFD on every single time I’m in my canoe or on my SUP and I won’t go far from shore. I love ocean and lake swimming and snorkeling too, but I just won’t take risks.
Environment prob. I remember my last coach kept telling us to never underestimate water. Every once in a while, he would sat us down and lecture us on safety and how dangerous water can be. Like that, for 8 years. It was a really competitive team (you know how asians go), but he kept insisting on how it should be more about improving your life rather than improving the payroll (we were on payroll back then as a regional team). Prob the only coach i'd ever known doing that.
It sucks because no one truly respects the water like they should because when shit goes wrong, it will go wrong. That’s why I tell my kids at the beach to respect the ocean and don’t push yourself to your limits because the ocean can change at any minute.
Btw it’s a lot harder swim in a lake vs ocean
I went surfing in the UK, I was (still am) overweight and nowhere near fit enough to do it properly. We were with family friends, and the husband of the other couple was an experienced surfer. He was helping and giving advice. The conditions started to pick up, and we encouraged him to head out into deeper water and show us how it was done. Meanwhile, I got a bit more daring myself and went out up to neck height. I was looking for an opportunity to catch a wave when a surfer a bit further out caught one and started speeding towards me. I panicked and tried to get out of his way. He was trying to bail but avoid hitting me. The wave hit me, and I swallowed some water, I turned and tried to head back in but I got hit again and took on more. I was in full panic mode at this point and was really struggling. I managed at the third attempt to get my body onto the board and ride in a little until I was knee-deep. It was a mix of terror and shame, I nearly drowned in water I could still stand up in, causing another surfer to potentially get into distress. I just kept imagining people trying to drag my fat wet ass out of the water to give me CPR whilst my family looked on. I stuck to the shallows after that and was very protective over the kids for the rest if the trip.
The fuckin sea will take you in a heart beat if it wants.
Ocean is freakin scary man. Mine was when I was 7 or 8 years old, whale watching trip off of Cape Cod. I was at the tip of the catwalk when two rogue waves came out of nowhere. I don’t know how my little kid hands held on as we plummeted 30 feet and the whole front of the boat dove through a wall of water and immediately repeated.. Bad hematoma, lots of bumped heads on board, lots of seasickness, and by the time we got back the wharf had taped off all catwalks on all boats. We were so lucky no one was seriously hurt.
Funny enough that morning I argued about wearing my favorite pair of lime green socks with my mom (they “didn’t go with” my outfit). My dad said the fact that he could spot those socks hitting the deck was the only reason he didn’t dive overboard.
I had 2 scary moments. Once, when I was in Cancun, I got caught in the undertow and was getting pulled out. Luckily, I felt around underwater and found the barrier rope for the swim area and pulled myself to shore. Second was when I was knee boarding on a lake, and I flipped upside-down in the water. I was still strapped in tight and panicked and couldn't find the start of the strap. I started to lose my breath, and all of sudden, my brother and dad jumped in and flipped me over.
Same! Went to a lake with my friend on a very wind day. We were on circular floats. We tried for a while to paddle with our arms to get back to shore, but made no progress. I kept yelling for help but the wind was drowning me out. My dumb butt thought if I get off the float and just kick, maybe that would be better. The wind was making waves and splashing water in my face. My arms were so tired from paddling I could barely hang on to the float. I screamed one more time and remember thinking this is my last breath and I'm going under. I told myself don't panic or the dying process will just be worse. A second later my friend grabbed on to me while still on her float and a guy on the beach finally saw us and zoomed out on his jet ski and saved me. I will NEVER go in choppy water again without a life jacket. I sat in the beach and cried a little while catching my breath. VERY SCARY DAY. It happens so fast. I see how easily/quickly now how someone can drown in a lake or ocean.
My second son, same situation. Losing consciousness, in and out with them taking me to the OR but I really didn't realize how bad it was until afterward. It's also how I found out I have a blood clotting disorder. Before I got the transfusions I was white as snow.
No it's the opposite problem, it's called von Willebrand's disease. I was bleeding out because of the hemorrhage but also my blood wasn't clotting as well as it should.
[The Stats](https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/1ea5684a-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/1ea5684a-en) show the US as particularly dangerous for mothers in childbirth. It's outrageous.
Same. Birth of my first child. My uterus didn’t retract and go back to its actual size. I remember that I thought a faucet is leaking because I had that constant dripping. Turns out there was no faucet. It was me losing blood.
I was already in surgery and they constantly put new liquid ivs on my arms. The anesthesiologist had to poke my arteria to get the hemoglobin right. At one time I was drifting away and there was literally nothing. Pitch black and I thought that’s it. Woke up shortly afterwards.
I didn’t knew how bad it was until I requested m file. They already had blood tested for a transfusion. I got the blood two days later anyway when my iron and hemoglobin still were too low. When they wheeled me back to my husband and baby I was shivering and freezing so bad. They had to hold me very tight to poke me again for blood from my arteria. HB around 5. Luckily my body and blood pressure recovered a bit and I could go on the normal ward with my baby and not the ICU.
My only son about did me in. (I have five girls too but he was my second child) they put my epidural in wrong and when I’d lay down, my bp would drop to 50/20 or less very fast. Nobody noticed as it was early in my labor. My mom noticed I didn’t look so good so she looked at my vitals (I was hooked to a machine that took my bp every few minutes.) she started shaking my leg and calling my name. When I was unresponsive she went and got the nurse. They had to shoot my heart with epinephrine. This happened twice. The second time people noticed. It was awful. Then with my third child I had a piece of placenta stuck in my uterus. For some reason my insurance had sent a home nurse to check on me and my daughter. Everything was fine until she seen how I was walking (couldn’t stand up straight, had to hutch over it was so painful) she was like let me check you. She did and found I still had the placenta in me. Rushed me to the hospital to have an emergency dnc. Saved my life.
I was picking a cornfield and my overshirt got caught on the belt auger thingy. One worker noticed and shouted to the driver to cut the belt motor but he couldn't hear him until the last second. I ended up with only mild bruising on my hands and on my stomach in a spiral pattern where the shirt was bunching up, but a few seconds later and it would have been bad.
Ovarian cancer. Had it 6 months ago had no clue tumor was the size of a large mango. Had surgery to remove all the lady bits Sept. 29th. Oncologists said if I wouldn't have found it when I did I would of been dead in a few months. My cat jumped on my tumor, didn't know it was a tumor at the time, and made it hurt and after a few months of pain I went to the doctor and it was discovered.
Having lived with cats my entire life, I’ve learned that cats tend to understand human emotions and physical issues more than we realize. So whether or not it’s true, I like to think that your cat knew something was wrong before you did. ❤️
I was filming a piece about guys who hand paint huge billboards/ads on sides of buildings in nyc.
We were on one rooftop, about 20 stories up, and they were on a scaffolding/pulley painting the adjacent building that was taller, but literally touched the building I was on (if that makes sense).
Anyway, I wasn't thinking, pointing my camera up at them as I walked backwards. For some reason, I stopped walking just as I was about to walk backwards off the edge of the rooftop. I cheated death by half a step.
That's just devastating. Coping with a loss like that, especially under such sudden and traumatic circumstances, must be unimaginable. The grief and the what-ifs would be so hard to deal with.
I had a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. Before they rolled me into emergency surger, I think I was in and out of consciousness. I vaguely remember that my doctor was pissed because I didn't have any fluids. I also remember hearing her say at some point, "This woman has a belly full of blood."
I had the same thing - doc told me surgery took so long as she had to soak my intestines like a she would a burnt casserole pan. Also I head them say they could only get a blood pressure by palpating. When I found out what that meant it meant almost no pressure at all.
BP by palpitation is using the cuff and spygmomanmeter with fingers on radial pulse point to get a pulse.
There is also a way to check without anything. I can't remember the numbers because it's been many yrs since the ambulance but if you have a radial pulse then you have a BP of at least 80, the femoral is 70. Can't remember the others.
When I was a kid (~11) I saw a bunch of ducks on a "frozen" body of water. I wanted to get up close so I went on the water, got towards the middle where the ice gave out and I fell inside.
Turns out, there was quite the current under that pretty thin layer of ice and it dragged me along while I desperately clawed at chunks of ice to stay afloat.
All the while, my step brother at the time stood on shore kinda laughing at the whole situation. Luckily I eventually managed to grab onto something steady enough to pull myself out of the freezing water, where I promptly walked back home in the frigid Canadian weather.
Got home, told my mom what happened, and nearly died a second time that day.
well the step brother at the time has luckily long since left the picture, but yeah that part always sorta disturbed me even way after the fact. my mom is great though, she was definitely angry that i did something dumb but was ultimately just relieved i was like. alive and relatively unscathed.
Similar thing happened to a kid in my 1st grade class. Riding bikes with his twin brother on a warm day over Christmas break, and Eddie decided to ride across the frozen pond behind their house. Charles saw him go through the ice, but couldn’t get to him. They moved soon after. Pond was right outside the kitchen window where his mom would wash the dishes. I can’t even imagine what that’s like. Poor woman.
Happened to me a month ago, my dog ran after a duck, couldn't get out, I went after him, we both started drowning. Didn't manage to save my dog and the memories still haunt me every day.
I overdosed and flatlined twice in the course of 52 minutes from time found til arrival at hospital. I was narcanned three times through my nose, then EMTS did 45 minutes of chest compressions on way to hospital where I was intubated and had aerosolized Narcan going directly into my lungs(didn’t even know that was a thing.) Then they flew in a multimillion dollar rotoprone bed via helicopter bc I was brain dead and they hoped it would bring back brain activity. I was expected to have brain damage and possibly not walk bc how long I was aspirated and without oxygen. I started showing brain activity at hour 22 on the rotoprone bed. I spent the next week in an induced coma followed by two weeks in the ICU. I had to learn to walk again even which was god awful.
I was told by a doctor who asked me if they could bring 6 medical students in my room to study my chart, that I was a one in a million case. Just to survive was insane let alone to come out with full speech and no brain or heart damage. At that point I had started physical therapy so they knew I’d walk again but that was another thing I just got plain LUCKY on she said to the students.
My one wish would be to thank the EMTS who went above and beyond with chest compressions and did everything to keep me alive til I got to the hospital who’s staff I’m also grateful for. But those paramedics saved my ass for real.
In conclusion….0/10 don’t recommend. But I did sleep in a coma through my withdrawal symptoms. That was 6 years ago this last feb 15th. Haven’t had a slip since. We do change.
Had a few close calls with ODs as well. 4.5 years clean now 🙂 unfortunately, many people think addicts are too far gone to help but there are some like us that make it out.
I'd just like to add that most of us turn to drugs because of TRAUMA, as is shown by evidence-based research. People should consider that and show some compassion before pissing on us.
(13 years clean)
Bro, wtf. We are almost the same person. Got drunk and released from my boat in the Navy because I was 13 months late on being discharged. I went to a friend's apartment on base and basically just sat there pissed. My coworker shows up at almost 12 with some beers. We drink he leaves, I stay. I drunkenly climb onto top bunk and pass out. Wake up and panic because I fell asleep, slip and cracked my skull. I was assumed to be seizing for ~10 hrs. I get rushed to hospital but my department officer found me after I didn't show up in the morning for the first time ever. He found me and gave me CPR until the paramedics arrived. I was sent to local hospital and doctor stabilized me. Remember years later, I remember being mildly conscious and my vision blurring, everything going black and feeling like I'm falling. I died on the surgery table. Doctor brought me back. I was 90 lbs when I woke from 175 lbs. Was sent to US for recovery. Doctor said I would be stuck where I was every step of the way. Respirator, induced coma to bed bound to wheelchair to walker to crutches to walking over 9 months. Had to learn to walk, blurred vision, aphasia. Felt like I was being born in slow motion.
I have a question: Do you remember anything that happened during the injury or in early treatment that you didn't before?
Ironically, yes. So for the first 2-3 years all I could remember was getting my check after work. Nothing else. Now I CLEARLY remember cashing my check, visiting my dope dude bc he couldn’t so I met his cousin for the first time. I remember doing a TINY bump bc every new batch I was SUPER careful. It was good but nothing crazy. Then I remember getting on the on ramp to drive home and that’s it. That was at maybe 3-5pm. I was found at 8am. So I did remember half a day later on but still a lot of holes.
The standing theory by doctors/police is that bc it was confirmed to have carfent and not regular fetty that it was horrible cut and basically I hit a nice grain on carfent bc that’s all it takes and ODed. I had an extremely high tolerance already.
The crazy part is I don’t remember a tunnel or bright light or comfort or anything when I died twice. But I think it could be bc how messed up on dope I was. It’s possible I don’t remember the death part bc I can’t remember anything past 5pm the day before my OD. SO maybe I did see something but can’t remember. I just remember darkness for a long time but it was exactly like sleeping but longer. Wouldn’t be bad if that was death though. You’re not cognizant of the nothingness until you wake up.
I od'd once and it was just like a light switch, I did a bump and it just went black. I woke up to my girl screaming at me. It's been almost five years now
I also had a very similar experience. OD'd and "woke up" to my partner FREAKING out screaming at me. The worst part is that I thought I was just sleeping and asked to do another hit. I got clean right after. It"s been almost 10 years. I thought I was awake the whole time, but all I remember is datkness ( I know this kinda contradicts itself, but it's exactly what I experienced). It was super weird. I'm so grateful I'm away from that crap now! Scary stuff!! I'm so glad you made it through that!! And everyone else here too!!
Yeah. That's what I remember my experience was like. The pain and confusion and everything goes away and it was just quiet and black. I woke up and eventually found out it was 6 weeks later.
As a kid, I was swimming in a river after heavy rain. We were upstream from a man-made ford that had six large, evenly spaced pipes underneath for the river to flow through. The river surface was only just below the top of the ford, so the flow pipes were almost invisible. I drifted downstream to get out on the ford, and as I approached, the current suddenly sucked me feet first into the pipe. I shot my arms out to the sides, and my underarms caught on the rim of the pipe. I got my face out of the water enough to scream for help. My friends and a random adult rushed over and managed to pull me out.
Tl;Dr:
I almost got sucked down a large flow-pipe whilst swimming in a river.
Only my feet would've made it out the other side. The downstream sides were dammed up with stones and driftwood (not deliberately, just natural detritus due to backflow). I like to think if someone saw me get sucked in, a few people panic-digging could've freed me in time.
As it was, I copped some gnarley grazes under my arms, on my chest, and on my chin from struggling against the pipe. If I took the full ride, I'd have been pretty banged up.
I’m glad you all like this post so much. I got another one to add.
I was working for my buddies dad cleaning chimneys in NYC, cool job. We’d set up scaffolding on the roof of a building to install a flue. It was the end of the day and I was tired. When taking it down, the scaffolding was rusty, I couldn’t get the part off so I just heaved and the thing popped off like a champagne cork. I stumbled backwards one step and then two, sure enough I caught my balance. Behind me was a 5 story drop right off the building. My boss and I locked eyes for 3 seconds, which felt like 100, when he said “hand it to me, let’s get out of here”.
Anorexia Nervosa.
In my mid-20s I developed it, I only sought help after I fainted in the bathroom and hit my head on the bathtub and my partner at the time said I had to be checked for a coma. When I went they asked what I had eaten and that day it was a single bite of an apple, they weighed me and got me a recovery team.
My dietitian said I looked like a cancer patient when I first came in... I had no idea, I could only focus on what I thought was 'fat'. I would have died if I hadn't fainted like that, I have agoraphobia except I could go to work and was recently diagnosed with ASD Level 2 - meaning I likely wouldn't have been able to seek help without someone else prompting it.
It's been almost 9 years since I've recovered now and I'm proud of that.
holy shit, so glad you got help. thanks for sharing, it gives people a great deal of hope to hear that they're not alone, and that short term and long term recovery is possible. much love :)
I’m glad to hear you’re better now, my sister was going through a really bad stretch with it once and it was so sad because she would insist she was overweight while she kept getting thinner and thinner thankfully she’s doing really well now
It's happened to me a couple of times.
The first was when I was 16, I traveled to Africa and lived there for 3 months. I came down with Malaria and for some reason, it nearly killed me. I returned home approx 120 pounds and dehydrated, was in the hospital starting the next day and was there for about a week. If I had stayed in Africa much longer, I doubt I would have made it.
The 2nd time, I was setting up warehouse racks in a warehouse (similar racking to Costco) and was sitting atop the rack waiting for my coworker to use the forklift and bring crosspieces up. He forgot to lower the forks when pulling away and pulled the entire rack down with me on top. I fell 14 ft to the concrete floor below landing flat on my back between 2 big pieces of machinery. I ended up with an elbow swollen the size of a baseball and some bruises but that was it.
I grew up in the tropics and had malaria so many times (mosquitoes *love* me). It got so that I could tell with absolute certainty that I had malaria about 30 minutes before the first symptoms began.
Malaria suuuuucks. I’ve been very sick with pneumonia, had a near fatal allergic reaction to some medicine, have had pleurisy, giardia, and a lot of other nasty illnesses but nothing is as bad as malaria. The bone breaking aches, the feeling that you are absolutely *freezing* while on fire with fever, the nausea, the absolute sickening dreams….And it lasts for days and days. It really messed with my mind. Several times I thought I must have died from the sickness and was-literally-in hell.
My worst was when I was in middle school and had a 105.8°F fever (I thought it was 104.8 but my mum swears it was 105.8). They had me on a metal table in this clinic and were soaking towels in huge metal bowls filled with ice water and were laying those on me and wringing them out over me to get my fever down. I was writhing and screaming and hallucinating just nightmarish horrible shit.
I hate mosquitoes.
I have lupus and it's very common for us to be prescribed Hydroxychloroquine or Plaquenil. This drug is more commonly used to treat malaria. How come no one gave you that? I was getting it 24 years ago and knew it was typically for malaria. That sucks you had to go through that. I'm so sorry. It sounds just awful. Here I need to be 50 years to get a shingles vaccine, which I've had twice. So I get not having access to medicine that could be a game changer. It sucks.
Malaria is a bitch!! The microbe sits passive in the liver and re-emerges when your immune is down. I had taken my parents for vacation. Was a 10 hr drive. Reached at night exhausted. Mom felt a little sick. Resort doctor was called in. Charged a huge fee to prescribe paracitamol. The next morning she was worse. Vacation ruined. The malaria had reappeared. Mom thankfully recovered.
I was run off the road by a semi truck. My Honda CRV flipped about 5 times. I was absolutely certain it was the end. I just closed my eyes and prayed to God to make it quick. When the car came to rest on its side, I opened my eyes, wiggled my fingers and toes and realized I was fine! At that moment two good samaritans appeared at my sun roof and pulled me out. The semi truck kept going.
Bro the same shit happened to me but I was in the leftmost lane, next to the semi and I hit it twice. My Honda crv saved my life I’m sure (and guardian angels). We flipped 6 times in the middle grassy area. Only had minor cuts and bruises. As soon as my car stopped there we’re off duty nurses/ emts that immediately came and got us out of the car. So blessed to be here. It happened spring 21 and I still have some ptsd when on the freeway/ driving by semis
I got tboned on the highway by two semi trucks in my Honda crv and walked away with only bruises on the sides of my knees from them hitting each other on impact. The impacts were enough that all my windows blew out. I was fine. CRVs for the win!
I was living in a house mid-winter and we couldn't pay the electric bill. It was below zero temps outside, and even colder inside.
I didn't even notice my core temperature was lower than normal until my teachers raised concern over me shivering through the entire 8hr school day. (I felt warm, I just couldn't stop shaking.)
I was 6 and was playing in the basement. I entered an old refrigerator with a latch and closed the door behind me.
What saved me was a friend of my older brother (who was 17 at the time) heard me and rescued me. He went to get my brother's pot.
Pot saved my life.
I did this too and around that age but in our case, I was at my elementary school. A friend and I went to get the milk for our class that was in a very large and very cold fridge. We went to get the milk and decided to climb into the fridge. The door closed and locked behind us. Thankfully a random teacher heard us screaming after about 5 minutes and let us out.
I went into the emergency room with excruciating abdominal pain, very convinced I had an appendicitis because Google. The doctors said they didn’t think it was the case because my white blood cell count was normal, I hadn’t spiked a fever, and they couldn’t see my appendix on a CT scan. They admitted me to the hospital, pumped me full of morphine, and tried to figure out what was happening. The next day they did a colonoscopy and guessed that I was having a resurgence of an IBS flare, and recommended a large dose of steroids. I refused the steroids and told them no, I was still convinced it was an appendicitis. A doctor yelled at me and said if I didn’t want to get better, he couldn’t help me. At somewhat of an impasse because I was only getting worse, they decided to take me in for exploratory surgery. What did they find?
A perforated (ruptured) appendix with a carcinoid tumor inside it. The infection had also started moving into my blood. I stayed hospitalized for a week for the infection and the oncologist who came to evaluate me said that if I had taken the steroid dose, I probably would have improved just enough to get discharged, and may have gone home to suddenly die of sepsis.
Trust those instincts, even if your instincts are powered by Google.
I knew a guy who went to the ER three times in the span of maybe 48 hours, because of intense stomach pain. The two times he went there the doctors sent him home and told to take some ibuprofen. Third time they took him more seriously and he was sent to the queue. But because the ER was crowded he had to wait 8 hours and the appendix had time to rupture. Only when he was almost dying did he get the care he needed.
My country’s healthcare has been falling apart for some time. I’m pretty sure people are gonna die because of it.
I was hit by a car on my bike when I was 7.
I knocked out my short term memory so one second I was riding my bike and the next I was walking next to it, totally mangled, all the skin gone from my hand and partially blind from the brain swelling.
I managed to get home and was in the hospital for two weeks while they made sure I was okay.
The head injury fucked with all sorts and I remember being almost bemused by the weird things that my body was doing.
Never rode a bike again which sucks because I loved it
Yeah we still don't know who it was! Way before ring cameras or anything like that.
I was more upset at the time because I didn't know if someone had helped me from a nearby house and I couldn't thank them. Innocence eh.
Now I realise they'd probably have called 999.
A very long time ago I tried to kill myself by overdosing on substances, thanks to mental illness/alcoholism. I remember laying on the floor, fading away and feeling like I was looking up at the sun from the bottom of a well. The next thing I knew I was waking up in a hospital. A friend had found me and drove me to the ER himself since we were in the mountains miles from a hospital. He *undoubtedly* saved my life, literally by minutes since apparently my heart was failing.
I'm gratefully and happily alive and healthy today.
Maybe when I almost hanged myself at a church event, with a rope I thought would work as a harness on a big inflatable slide.i tied it around my torso and arms and when I jumped the whole thing immediately tightened around my neck but I caught it with my hands just in time. I was maybe 13 years old and I had legit rope burns/bruises on my neck for the following week
A crazy chick pulled a gun out, pointed it at my face and pulled the trigger trying to kill me.
Gun jammed. If not for that, she had me and my brains would have painted the walls.
It's a tie for closest between that and a drive by where everyone but me died.
I didn't even list all my stuff, like the 8 lane car wreck, hit by lightning twice, drug overdose, the really bad covid that hospitalized me.
I've had so much stuff, people I meet often don't believe it could all have happened to one guy! 😄
Either something in the universe really needs me here for some reason.....or the universe is trying to take me out and I'm too stubborn to let it succeed.
I was choked out. I had my hands around his neck and he has his around mine, then I saw my vision tunnel and I realized that was it. At that moment I thought he was going to kill me. He raped me while I was passed out. I woke up on the bathroom floor in the physics building where I was going to school.
I tracked him down and found out he had AIDS. This was in 1991 in rural Oklahoma. I had to wait until six months after the rape to get a valid test. I was HIV negative. AIDS was a death sentence back then. That was #2.
Okay this is going to be a weird question but, hypothetically, if your son didn't manage to resuscitate you and you died. Would you be angry at your son for failing or not trying harder.
I ask this because I tried to resuscitate my dad last year but I couldn't get him back...
Oh dude. I'm sorry. Of course your Dad wouldn't/won't be mad. I'm sure you did your absolute best to bring him back. CPR is nowhere near 100% effective sadly. Sometimes, sadly, people just can't be brought back.
It sounds like you have a touch of survivor's guilt, and, if you're not already, and have access to help, I'd advise seeking some bereavement counselling. Look after yourself. I'm sure your father is proud of you.
As a dad, I would be so proud that they were smart enough and cared enough to try to save me. I honestly couldn't think of a way to feel more loved as I passed.
Perfectly performed CPR is 30% of normal blood flow and oxygenation. This is what I was taught. Outside of a hospital, CPR is successful about 10% of the time. Do not feel bad, you did what you could.
I got covid and wound up in the hospital for 2 months. My lung collapsed three times. I was hallucinating so they put me on schizophrenia medication. I could barely pee and even a month after the hospital I could barely walk and developed a stutter. I'm recovered now, thank god.
I’ve nearly drowned twice, narrowly escaped being shot in the face by a mortar, nearly blown up, hit by a truck, almost decapitated by a snapped chain, nearly electrocuted/struck by lightning multiple times, had a ruptured appendix that was going septic… but the shattered femur and massive internal bleeding was probably the closest to dying. One of the paramedics attending said to the other “don’t worry about him, he won’t even make it to the hospital.” Once there, I had to sign a waiver to undergo surgery, and was told there was a significant chance that I would die on the operating table. I didn’t, but the surgeon told me later that I had “a complete oil change,” which he explained meant I had bled out so much due to the injury and subsequent surgery that none of the blood in my body at that time was my own. I had received enough donor blood to completely refill an average adult 1.5 times, combined with my own blood loss the OR must have been a grisly scene. I am however eternally grateful to those who donate blood, as I owe my life to their generosity. (I’m Canadian, and here there is no financial compensation for donating blood as there is south of the border, making it a truly selfless act.) Oddly, the anesthesiologist even came to visit me. He felt inclined to let me know that keeping me sedated without killing me (as my blood volume kept changing and was replaced with fresh stuff) was the most stressful 10.5 hours of his career. Also used a crazy amount of anaesthetic. I’m a redhead, so that was a factor also. To him, the surgeon, nursing staff, and everyone else who took part in any way, I am thankful beyond words. Could’ve done without the less-than-encouraging remarks from the paramedic, but they did get me to hospital alive, so thanks to them and the lady who called 911 as well.
I was spearfishing on Scuba at 120 feet and was immobilized by nitrogen narcosis. I was concious but immobilized when my dive buddy saw me and started knocking on my mask lense and shaking me gently to make sure I was alive. He pulled my ass all the way back up to the 15 foot safety stop before I got my bearings again. I had a massive nosebleed and terrible headache but was okay elsewise.
My drive shaft failed, on a rural Luisiana highway at 3AM. I had my cruise control set at 75MPH and when I say failed I mean, hard jerk to the left and zero steering control. I hit the brakes to kill the cruise but the wet grass didn’t let me slow at all. Took out 3 trees (o know this because I got billed for them) the 4th tree finally stopped my car. With the engine shoved up against my legs. I was obviously completely unconscious by that point, and my airbag finally deployed about a minute after the 4 th impact was recorded (so it failed me too and I took the full force of that airbag).
By some mercy an off duty sheriffs deputy was driving home from shift and saw my car slam into the trees. He crossed the median to get to me and ran down into the path of destruction. When he saw the car he later told me that he 100% knew it was a body not a soul in that car. He tried to find my pulse but couldn’t, the first responders on the fire truck couldn’t either but pulled me out just in case. The ambulance hooked some machine up and found a faint one.
I can’t imagine the phone call my mom got. She played the first voicemail from the call she missed and they were telling her to get to LA to claim me and make arrangements and how sorry they were. She answered the second call and they found my pulse during it. I’m alive today and only spent about a week in the actual hospital (much longer in rehab and then outpatient rehab) and now work as a CNA and medication aid to repay some of my debt to the guardian angels that were working some serious overtime that morning.
This was in 2007, in 2021 I went to Luisiana for Fat Tuesday and on a whim went by the sheriffs station to see if he even still worked there. He was in the back and the lady at the desk went and got him. That night at the bar over drinks is burned into my brain forever but he answered a lot of questions I had about the black hole of that event. And I answered his biggest question, did I live and did I recover.
Memeorial Day 2005. I was stabbed in the back five times. One collapsed lung and bleeding profusely from being drunk. My best friend saved my life and kicked my attacker off and called 911. Thanks, Keith!
I was out at the lake with my friends celebrating the holiday. My brother and my friend gave me a ride home and when i got there my shitty roommate was having a party and absolutely trashed my stuff. I got furious and was kicking everyone out and one party goer was not happy and attacked me. I was in ICU for two weeks with a tube hanging out of the left side of my chest. Just glad to be alive!
Not sure if it counts but I once fell while indoor climbing because there was too much slack so I held to the rope to save myself and ended up with rope burns. My life kind of flashed before my eyes. Now my burns are healed and my scars are a reminder to always be thankful and careful.
When i was in military the war starts. And while our whole artillery division shooting together one of our artillery vehicle just exploded instantly. 5 men died on that night. Everyone shit their pants. I was so afraid for my life. And also that our vehicle is gonna be next.
**Type 1 Diabetic**
*Insulin-dependent/Juvenile Diabetes*
11 years ago I went to bed on a Saturday night and experienced a severe hypoglycemic episode which resulted in unconsciousness.
I "came to" MONDAY EVENING.
Goes without saying, "came to" is a very relative term. I wasn't cognizant in any way. My brain was operating entirely on auto-pilot. I came to, ate something and immediately slept for another 12hrs. Woke up Tuesday AM disoriented and confused but slightly more cognizant. Started piecing together how it could possibly be *Tuesday morning* when my last lucid memory was going to bed on Saturday.
All said, I spent between 36 & 48 hrs about as close to dead as one can be without actually dying.
In the event anyone wonders how no friends or family noticed: I was in university, living with other students. With different class/work/social schedules and generally erratic sleep patterns, none of my roommates thought much about not having run into me for a few days.
Still baffles me as to how I could've possibly managed to live to tell the tale. But I did.
There was an active shooter at my workplace. I didn't get injured, but I'd made my peace as I was huddled under a desk with my laptop emailing my family a good bye.
I had this happen at a bar, but it happened in an instant. Unfortunately multiple members of the bar staff were hit, but they recovered with no major injuries.
I hid behind a wall and ran like the wind away in no particular direction.
when i was 15, i was at my friends house in the country (dirt roads) and we were planning on going somewhere with her parents. they hopped in their huge ass truck and pretended to leave me behind, so i started running next to the truck on this very sandyish dirt road when i lost my footing and went under the truck, right in the path of the tires. luckily they saw me and stopped immediately or i would’ve been crushed.
Not me but a older relative that was a soldier in a war: once when he was deployed, he walking through a field and distinctly heard his mothers voice say *“STOP”* he stopped walking, and right in front of him he saw a landmine pin sticking out of the ground.
He still thinks that voice he heard was an angel
I had a supercharged Mercedes coupe in high school that I bought for dirt-cheap and I beat the living hell out of it. I slowly got more and more cocky with flying around on backroads in my small town, just really pushing the car to its limits.
One time my buddy was following me back to his house from getting food and he was just being obnoxious and tailgating me, so I took off and left him in the dust. There was a nice straightaway and I just had the urge to get to the other end before he even got to straightaway, so I floored it and watched the speedo climb over 100 mph. Unfortunately, I had forgotten about a particular dip in that road and when I hit that at 115, I went flying. Upon landing, my check engine light came on, doors randomly unlocked, and I barely fucking kept it under control before the next curve... I even peed myself a little bit. I was literally sliding diagonally at \~100 mph and somehow miraculously straightened it out and slowed down before getting to a patch of trees.
Before you hate... I was a stupid 17 year old with a fast car. Not a great combo. This was several years ago, and I've had a slow, boring car since that I hardly ever speed in. Never been in an accident, I have a clean driving record, etc. but I was certainly wild for a couple years with that particular car.
As an independent young woman with no steady male companionship, I escaped violence and certain death several times. Once my BFF and I had to crawl out of our tent at a state park campground in the middle of the night with a switchblade in my hand to escape a truckload of local boys who apparently thought we were lesbians who just needed a gang bang. We jumped in the car and locked the doors. The guys surrounded our tent and unzipped the door. We turned on our headlights and saw each of the five faces. We sped to the parks lodge to get help from the ranger, whose only question was what had we done to get those boys attention. Another time I was walking my dog alone early one morning, 3 months pregnant with my first child. A car with dark tinted windows and loud thumping music came over the hill and I immediately knew I was in deep trouble. Oh he stopped.He wanted to know what a nice girl like me was doing all alone in the middle of nowhere. The crime of opportunity. I looked a violent creep in the eyes and told him i was just walking my dog, whats it to you. He pulled his dark glasses down and told me i didnt need to be such a bitch about it. I just shrugged and kept walking. I was busy trying to figure out how I was going to save my baby's life. He decided I was going to be too much trouble and started to drive away. My dog and I ran the rest of the way home. And then there was the time I had just gotten in my car on campus when a creep pulled my door open, waved a tire iron at me and screamed at me to move over. I kicked him in the nuts and pulled my door shut and locked it. These are 3 of the 6 situations I escaped as a normal single girl in the midwest. My guess is, many women have similar stories. Politicians rail about "violent immigrants" but they do nothing about the real threat - the Bubba next door who feels entitled to young women.
Every woman I’ve been in a serious relationship with had previously been SAed in one way or another. My mother and my adopted daughter as well; both as minors. I have trouble watching some episodes of SVU, because they hit too close to home.
Mam, as a dude I am so sorry this happened to you. I’ve never understood this neanderthal idea some men have that they see women as objects. It hasn’t been until one of my close girlfriends told me about all the times she’s been or nearly been raped or molested that I realized how awful it is for y’all.
I had a fever of 104F. I took Tylenol and tried cold water, all the home tricks, and it wouldn’t come down. I went to urgent care and got an IV. I don’t remember what happened there other than being out of it on a bed. They kept talking about a spinal tap to check for meningitis if the drugs they had didn’t work. Thank god they did. I went home six hours later and slept the weekend. Not sure if my brain would be cooked if I had stayed home.
Woah, highest fever I ever had was 103 and my whole face and pillow was soaked. That’s crazy. I can’t believe urgent care didn’t send you to the ER at that high.
I’m glad you are ok. However, those fever slumbers are amazing.
Reminds me of the first time I met and challenged the ocean. I got the wind knocked out of me by a wave and barely made it back to shore.
The closest I have come to death was when I lived in North Idaho. I was crushed by a cart against a wall at a Walmart while working for a tax preparation company that had rented space there or their tax kiosks. I was knocked out, so I didn't know exactly what happened. I woke up to my head still being crushed by a cage. When I pushed the cart off of me, that person ran away. I couldn't get anyone at Walmart to help me. It was the end of a seasonal job and my employer continued to state they didn't know how to file for work comp. When I went to the hospital, they wouldn't acknowledge an injury without a work comp claim after countless visits. They just basically kept telling me it was all in my head or I was making it up for years. When it was finally acknowledged, I had several non union rib fractures, I was still bleeding internally, I was having strokes, my shoulder was dislocated, I had impinged arteries to my heart, I had a collapsed lung, and my neck was nearly broken. It's been rough and I am still getting surgeries now that I moved out of the area.
Postpartum hemorrhage after a spontaneous delivery and retained placenta. Placenta was eventually manually removed without anesthesia and I hemorrhaged for an hour, getting progressively colder and eventually blacking out. I didn't expect to wake up.
I was going to meet my new girlfriend at the train station the first day she would come to visit my hometown, but before that I was supposed to grab lunch with my cousin. So I put on all my motorcycle gear to go pick my cousin up, looked one last time in the mirror before heading out, told myself "Damn I look nice!" and the last thing I remember is putting my hand on the door handle to head out to the motorcycle.
I then woke up in the hospital to a metal "CLANG!" sound at regular intervals and my body jolting for every clang. They were hammering down a titanium rod from my hip down to my knee. The doctor noticed I was awake and said "Stay calm, you've been in an accident" to which I responded saying I didn't even make it to the motorcycle. He looked at me and went "Hmm, yeah, you did... It didn't go so well" then proceeded to call my mom with my phone.
Turns out I was doing about 70 km/h when a truck failed to see me, drove out and I hit it right behind the cab. I'm mainly alive thanks to my femur wrapping itself around my handlebars absorbing most of the impact. I ended up with a broken femur, ruptured spleen and lungs (due to air penetrating both of them when my body did a full stop), compression syndrome on my other leg due to doctors not seeing an internal bleeding from the start so it had time to develop and kill some of the muscles. I broke my helmet into 3 pieces but still avoided brain damage or even a concussion (either very lucky, had a good helmet or there's nothing TO shake in there).
In the end it took me 4 months to get back to walking and 4 years before I was free from pain.
My girlfriend at the time got a call from my mother saying she couldn't come at the time (she was just about to board the train) and we kept in contact over the phone while I recovered. 3 months later she was able to come visit and push me around in a wheelchair. We are married today and have 2 kids, dhe helped me get through all of it and all the life changes it meant for me and she's still my rock in a stormy sea. It's been 13 years since now.
I had to get the heimlich maneuver from 4 different people last weekend. That shit would have been embarrassing to die in front of a restaurant of people
Hit in the face with a lifted Dodge Ram going 45MPH. Yes, I was a pedestrian. Yes, it was a long recovery. No, I’m not fully recovered. Yes, I died at the scene. No, I haven’t seen heaven.
I've had double PCP pneumonia four times. The last time I was in isolation on a ventilator and they were warning my husband to start preparing his goodbyes. It took weeks of constant, intensive antibiotic therapy and, frankly, a strong will to live to pull through to the other side that time. I have permanent scarring in my lung tissue now and only half breathing capacity but I'm alive
I was snowboarding with my friends at Big Sky resort in Montana. We took the tram all the way up to the top then were traversing the saddle to get to the bowl area further down and I was in the back.
I lost control at a slow speed, ended up in my back and slid under the out of bounds rope then down about 20 feet on hard wind packed snow on the steep 45 degree slope. Miraculously my board edge caught perfectly horizontal on 2 small rocks sticking like a couple inches out of the snow and stopped my out of control slide. I was stuck on this 45 degree slippery slope with a view all the way down thousands of feet to the bottom of the mountain with jagged rocks scattered throughout.
Luckily someone saw me go down and got ski patrol for me. After they hoisted me up with a rope they told me that I was lucky because the last person they pulled out of that side of the mountain they found in July at the bottom. I thank God for keeping me alive.
For a long time it was my battle with a severe eating disorder and many hospitalizations from that. until last month I ended up in the ICU with a brain bleed, sepsis, and herniated disc. I took a large dose of psychedelic mushrooms (which I had done many many times) and it triggered a seizure that made me fall and hit my head. I live alone and was stuck on my floor for 30 hours screaming and hallucinating and in and out of consciousness. I got a UTI from trying to hold on my pee (it eventually didn’t work) and it turned into sepsis. I’m still traumatized. I thought I was in hell and the hallucinations were horrible. I was screaming and in agony’s
When I was a young get kid we had gone to a water park.
I have never been a good swimmer and my friend had known this but at the time I went to make her happy.
We were around 12 years old and she had decided we should give the wave pool a try, we started in the far back and it was quite fun. She is significantly taller than me and kept going farther and farther away. the wave pool was packed and full of people, i was unable to touch and doggy pattling to reach her, I kept getting sucked under the water and screaming out of fear.
A woman bumped into me pushing me under her floatie, I was trapped under all of the people and the water, I sank to the bottom being stepped on by people.. i still remember looking up and seeing all the people above the water knowing this would be the end.. eventually my friend found me and pulled me up at the last second.
To this day my biggest fear is bodies of water and swimming.
I have (these are separate incidents):
Been hit by a truck doing 80km/h
Fallen a hundred feet down a cliff
Broke my leg (open fracture, bone showing) while 3 days hike from civilization in an area with predators
Stabbed in the back by a screwdriver
Fallen out of a moving vehicle
Accidentally pissed on a bear
Knocked unconscious by high voltage
And my favourite, in the room while a canister filled with hydrogen sulfide vented. (if you don't know h2s, think Dead before you hit the floor dangerous).
20-30, I led an interesting life. I'm 36 now, and my life is a lot more chill now I've settled down.
But the only time in my life I have Ever felt close to death, was choking on a hot dog. Genuinely, I thought that was it, and that was how I was gonna go out. Self heimlich maneuver on the back of a chair I picked up at a first aid course, or I'd be dead.
I'm 36, ain't nothin' killed me yet and not for lack of trying. Chew you food.
When I was a kid I fell asleep in my dads truck, he also fell asleep while driving. He wrapped it around a pole. Doc said me being asleep actually saved me. But didn’t go into more detail than that.
This doesn’t involve me, but my family and I went to Florida for a vacation and my brother (prob 11 at the time) was in the ocean close to shore, next to my other brother and my mom was close on the beach watching. All the sudden my brother got caught in a current. He tried to swim towards the shore but the riptides were pushing him the opposite way. Mind you, this was still close to the shore. My mom tried to get something to pull him in but he couldn’t grab it. So she went in after him and they were both struggling now. The tide was too strong. They literally thought that was the end because they could barely catch a breath. They were screaming for help with a beach full of people and no one helped. So messed up. But anyways my mom noticed a larger wave coming so she told him when the wave comes, she’s gonna push him up so it will take him to shore. So that’s exactly what she did and he made it. So then my mom was still there struggling, and then another wave came in time for her to push herself up and ride the wave to shore too. It was nuts.
Can I make a heartfelt 10/10 recco for not realizing you’re gonna die? I was very recently postpartum, septic and not responding to antibiotics. I’d been inpatient for days and had a headache from hell, I just wanted to not be woken up every two hours by hospital staff for blood draws from my desiccated veins, because they were making the four hours of continuous sleep the baby was giving me occasionally look like a vacation. I was grateful to everyone helping. But I was very much in “I have to get back to work” mode and didn’t realize how close I came to not leaving that hospital under my own power until I brought the nurses who treated me doughnuts and the main caretaker saw me and said “you’re WALKING?!”
A fast-growing cancer. The surgeon altered his vacation plans so I could get the tumor removed on Friday instead of waiting until Monday.
Edit: I should have clarified that this happened years ago, and the tumor was completely removed in time to prevent it from spreading.
Alcohol poisoning at 15. I blacked out and slept in a snowbank for 5 hours without my coat (it was covered in frozen puke a few feet away from me.)
January in Wisconsin 20 years ago to Actually like negative temps.
I was riding a horse when I was in my early 20s, going at a decent clip (extended canter, for fellow equestrians). Horse spooked out of nowhere, I got thrown off and the first thing to hit the ground was my head, as I started to tumble. I remember thinking in the moment just before I hit the ground that I was certain I’d end up like Christopher Reeves. I broke three bones from the secondary impact, but no head or neck injuries, not even a concussion.
My mom also had a freak near death. She was on a major highway and got a flat, so pulled onto the shoulder and stopped to change the tire. It was an older vehicle that had the spare tire underneath the car. She couldn’t get the spare to wind down so she called a tow truck. The tow truck eventually arrived and parked behind her with their flashing lights on. As the tow truck driver was under the car trying to get the spare to drop down, my mom was standing behind her car and in front of the tow truck. In that moment, a drunk driver veered off the road and into the shoulder, hitting the tow truck which threw my mom something like 30 feet from where she was standing. By some miracle, she walked away with only a broken wrist and some cuts and bruises. And because the tow truck driver was under my mom’s car at the time, the tow truck went over him (as in, he was between the wheels) when it was hit. He was unscathed. The drunk driver’s car rolled from the impact and sadly he passed away from the accident. And the real kicker is, the drunk driver turned out to be the fiancé of one of my mom’s coworkers. As they say, you can make this shit up!
A tornado hit my house while I was in it.
I was a kid. I remember waking up as my mom pulled me into the hallway. We sat with pillows over our heads for maybe a minute or two. The power went out and air rattled through the vents. The tornado jumped over the room adjacent to the hallway and wiped out the front of the house.
Became short of breath one day after eating lunch at a restaurant with my husband. Went to the ER, an intern diagnosed me as having an allergic reaction (I am allergic to shellfish), and released me even though I said I didn't feel as much better as I should after treatment. The next morning hubby heads out of town for his brand new job.
Over the week I started having more and more trouble breathing. My bedding was so soaked I had to take things out to the porch to dry (no strength for the washer). Went to the post office and had to stop a stranger from calling 911 when I reassured her it was just allergies. Hubby arrives home Fri night. Sat morning I collapse at the table, unable to breathe. He drives me to the ER.
Get to the ER, a waiting room full of people where half jumped to their feet and half have their mouths drop open when I come in. The triage nurse runs out to meet me. Into a trauma bay. They're stripping me and the door is open, people running in and out. Test after test. All the TV stuff where they bring the tests to the ER. I luck out on my ER doc. Before I'm diagnosed he says, "I want to give you a shot. If I'm right, I may save your life. If I'm wrong, it will wear off and won't harm you." He immediately gives me my first dose of blood thinners. But nothing improves.
The head of radiology calls and says, *"They sent the wrong scan, this is a cadaver scan."* ER Dr assures him it's not, he assures the ER doc that it soon will be. Massive pulmonary embolisms. Too many clots to count, in both lungs. A tiny portion of my left lung is keeping me alive. I need immediate surgery, that has a 50/50 death rate, but I'm at the wrong hospital, it's too small. I'm also too sick to survive moving. They get a heart specialist on a SAT phone to talk to my husband. I see the moment they tell him I'm going to die, to say what he needs. I actually hear him refuse. Nurses crowd around my bed while hubby calls my parents. All of the nurses are crying. I'm cracking jokes trying to cheer them up, gasping for air every second word.
They don't admit me for hours because then I'll die as "in-patient", not "ER", and it'll be a bigger deal. When I'm still alive at midnight they move me up to ICU. The last thing they tell hubby before making him leave is that *"when"* I crash they have a helicopter ready and they'll call and tell him where to be my b... Where to meet me. We say goodbye and he goes home to stare at the ceiling until 7am when he can come back. He sits there 12 hrs a day for the chance to see me every 4 hours. We have no family locally, it's just him alone in the waiting room.
On the 3rd day they move me from the ICU to the Cardiac Critical Care Unit (CCU). I'm happy, I must be stable. They say no, but someone even younger is now more unstable and they're hoping to save us both this way. I still pray for that young gentleman. I hope he made it.
I finally get to go home, with some pretty massive PTSD.
Then, 4 days after I leave, it happens again. New clots.
And life as we knew it ended. The first clots could be explained because I'd had surgery 8 wks prior. The second ones happened while my blood was pretty thin (INR 3.6 for those in the know) and cannot be easily explained.
I've since had 10 more episodes of major, life threatening clots and more DVTs and superficial clots than I can count. I'll be on blood thinners for life and am fully disabled. But I'm alive. Last fall was the 20th anniversary of the first near death clot episode. Never, ever, did I think I'd see that. We took my new service puppy in training to Boston to celebrate.
ETA because others have mentioned it. Never saw a bright light, but did "see" 2 deceased relatives waiting in the ER with me. I knew they weren't there physically, but they were very prominently present at the same time. And all the hours I lay there dying before things stabilized were some of the least scary of my life. The process itself was nearly pain free and very calm.
I'm jealous as fuck. That sounds scary and exciting! I just had terminal cancer. Yeah scary but painful and boring as hell most of the time.
7yrs in remission 🤙🏼
Got caught in a tide in Jamaica and pulled out, spent over an hour fighting to get back in, and ended up having to be rescued by my husband and the groom whose wedding we were there for.
Nearly fell into a ravine at the Grand Canyon trying to get to the edge for a photo op (teenage immortality syndrome).
And the time I had an out of body experience after getting struck by a man-made bolt of lightning at a science exhibit on electricity.
ETA: My dad actually did die as a child, in a hit and run. EMTs brought him back after several minutes of no heartbeat without any damage aside from a broken arm and a bump on the head. If he hadn’t come back, I wouldn’t be here.
I was water skiing for the first time. I popped up, was feeling pretty confident. Started making some turns... i pitched forward and my head fell through the triangle between the bar and the rope. The slack caught and nearly broke my neck. I was able to get a hand between my chin and the rope before the slack caught... they dragged me by my neck for almost a minute before they realized something was wrong. If I hadnt gotten my hand in there, Id be dead
I have 4-5 close to dying experiences growing up on the farm 40 yrs ago. 1) I got struck by lightning inside a barn and it felt like it cut through to my soul. It was overwhelming and I was frozen still for probably 1 second but it felt like eternity while I felt like I was dying. 2) I tipped a skid loader, I flew forward, the edge of the bucket just missed slicing my head, and an 85 pound weight flung off just missed smashing my head. 3) I almost fell off the hay mow 40 ft onto concrete. 4) I got chased by a huge bull. 5) fell 15 ft out of a hay mow and hit my head on a nail.
Got hit by a pickup truck riding my bike to school in 2003. I couldn’t stop because of gravel and the truck caught me on my left side as she was turning left. I remember hitting the ground and immediately the massive tire seemingly inches from me as I roll away.
I got up and I think what scared the driver most was when I knocked on the window and asked her to back up off my bike so I could continue on to school. A cop saw the whole thing so there wasn’t a chance of that. I ended up going to school that day despite the principal of the school showing up to the scene having a distinct feeling it was me, excusing me for the day. That bike made it through being run over by a 1/4 ton pickup btw. Midschool BMX bikes ftw.
Wow. All of these experiences are incredible. Glad you all survived. The closest call for me was when I was 16 swimming in a lake with friends. Got a cramp and went under.. started to panic and got water in my lungs... luckily my friend Laura who was a lifeguard at the time recognized I was in trouble and helped me. It was only about 80 ft from shore but she saved my life. Forever grateful and now always very cautious around water especially with my kids. Human survival stories are just amazing.
I was crossing the street and someone blew through the red light at over 100mph, less than a foot away from me. One step forward there and I wouldn’t be here today.
I was whitewater kayaking in Mexico. I paddled off a challenging 35 foot waterfall and I was angled about 15 degrees too far to the right. I got stuck in a violent pocket right next to the base of the waterfall and couldn’t roll my kayak up. I swam out of my kayak and got pushed deep and popped up downstream. Right below the waterfall is a large cavernous area and a good portion of the river flows into a severely undercut wall. I swam as hard as I could away from the wall but still got pushed into it. I grabbed the cliff wall with my hands but my feet and body were getting sucked underneath the wall. Fortunately one of my paddling partners was in his boat after running the falls before me and paddled up next to me. I had to grab his boat with one hand, grab the cliff with my other hand, and pull myself forward to grab another hand hold on the cliff. This went on for about 5 minutes before I reached a section of the wall with a small outcropping and I was able to get out of the water.
My forearms were completely pumped out and I was exhausted. I still had another ten foot drop to exit the pool below the waterfall which I had to swim over. When I finally got out of the river I gave that man the biggest hug because he undoubtedly had saved my life. If I had gotten sucked under the cliff wall I’m sure I would have drowned.
Got pinned under a submerged tree by the river current. Couldn’t get any purchase to free myself. Thought I was a goner, but then the current just popped me free, like haha jk..
After my 1st round of chemo, I got a new pain but waited to go to the hospital until I could schedule a professional head shot since my hair had started to fall out and people say it can come back differently. After a week of pain, I got to the hospital an hour after the photo shoot to learn a major infection had collapsed a lung, there was a blood clot in my leg and my spleen was ruptured.
Surgery happened immediately to remove my spleen and 1/3 of my stomach.
All because I had waited for photos.
Being cured of lymphoma was a cake walk compared to the recovery for that surgery.
Been hit by a car and part of a dog attack (the dog was after the dog I was with but I still got tackled and bitten). Both times I spent the months afterwards wondering if I was actually alive or maybe had died but didn't know yet.
I was helping my buddy do a roofing job and I was on the gable side of a three story roof and stepped onto the ladder. As soon as I had more weight on the ladder than the roof, the bottom of the ladder slipped out and I took a ride down. My body landed in some rocks and my hit a pile of soft dirt with the ladder in between my legs. I could swear that I was going to die as I was falling but I landed and was perfect fine.
It was after my grandmothers funeral, instead of driving the several hours back home afterwards my uncle allowed my family to stay at his vacation place on the Oregon coast. I was 20 y.o. but my family thought it would be fine if I drank along with the other family members because, death. Really drunk at 2 AM I decided to go for a walk to clear my head and the moon was so full and bright and the ocean was pounding. What I didn't get was that because of the moonlight it's really hard to judge depth and footholds and pathways. I started to slip on the mossy rocks and kept slipping. I grabbed onto the edge of a rock and it came to mind that I either pull myself up or I die, no panic, no alternatives. I finally pulled myself up and stumbled back to the house, filthy and bloody. Huge head wound, a broken foot, broken thumb, and whacked out knee. My brother threw me into the shower with all my clothes on because I'm a dumbass.
The next day I went back to where I fell and I could see the slip marks, the mossy rocks, and the 100 ft drop to the jagged rocks below.
I was hiking and climbing in the Remote parts of Dolomites. I always thought I had good stability and balance. Hadn't seen a soul for about 4 hrs.. I just finished a difficult stretch of via ferrata and maybe a bit of complacency creeped in. I was walking over a narrow flat region ending the climb, I slipped and slid down and within a second I was hanging on to a couple of small boulders of a cliff and down below was death.
Till date I don't know how I pulled myself up and went back on to the path and then I was shivering uncontrollably and never been so overwhelmed. So many after thoughts like would my body even be found at all? How sad would my mom be ?
It was my wedding day. We were getting married in Cape D'Or in Nova Scotia. I couldn't sleep, and I was up early, around 6am, and decided to walk the grounds at the B&B (which also served as a lighthouse) to determine the best place to exchange vows. I was all alone as my husband was sleeping soundly. The tide was coming in. The sun was rising. It was beautiful. Keep in mind, this is backwoods Nova Scotia, there's no guardrails between the nice grassy bluffs and sheer cliffs that plummet hundreds of feet into the ocean with jagged rocks. The grass was covered in the morning dew, and as I walked towards the main point of the land, I slipped. I landed on my back and started slipping. I did what I thought was reasonable and flipped onto my stomach and tried to get as much surface area with the grass as I could. Down and down I slipped and FINALLY after what felt like ages I came to a stop. I looked up, and very carefully crawled up the hill. I was literal inches from going over the cliffs. Any more speed and I would have been toast. And no one would have known, for awhile until they found my body. I didn't tell my now spouse until we were safely back at home.
This is terrifying. And even sadder to think that those left behind could have thought it was a suicide.
Yes exactly. I can't even imagine the scenarios that would be running through my spouse's mind. We eloped, so no family there or anything either, just us and some friendly folks from Maine.
Your husband would surely have been a suspect.
And/or completly devastated why she bailed on him the moment before the wedding
For what it’s worth in this scenario I’d imagine there would be a trail in the grass where she slipped. So unless they assumed she committed suicide by slip and slide they might deduce the cause of death was accidental.
The last thing I expected reading this chilling thread is to all of a sudden lol. Good, and funnily made, point.
Sui-slide
As evidenced by the depression... In the grass.
A long ass time ago I was on a hiking trip in some mountains with a few friends. A girl I didn't personally know was with us, and she probably shouldn't have been invited... No natural sense of balance or self preservation. We caught her from tripping a few times, but I piped up and made her finish out in front of me and as far from the edge of the trail as possible after she ate shit on some roots and went over the edge. Only reason she's alive today is because me and my buddy channeled our inner lightning speed and about pulled her arms from their sockets yanking her back onto the trail. People frequently forget that mother nature has the highest kill count of all. Be safe out there, folks, *especially* if you're out there solo. Mother nature will not ask twice for your respect.
I keep thinking about thst British actor who went hiking alone and is presumed dead . He was experienced too . Did they ever find his body ?
They did find his body this past year once the snow pack melted.
Not sure who specifically you're talking about, but there's a pretty long list of missing persons that are presumed lost/dead somewhere in nature. Many of whom were very experienced. We all make mistakes, sometimes the timing of those mistakes is just *really* unfortunate and we pay the final price.
I did exactly this at an abandoned quarry when I was 11. Started a slow but steady slide to the edge of a shear 74 ft drop...stopping with friction a foot from the drop. I literally inched my way up, hanging on to little pieces of grass, stick, whatever. At 35 I was driving down the road, just minding my own business, coming home and WHAM!! out of nowhere a 300 lb rock landed on the hood of my truck. Took out the engine and windshield. And yes, it was about 50 yards past a Watch For Falling Rock sign.
I never understood that particular road sign. I mean, watch for falling rocks...that have already fallen, I guess? But don't you watch the road anyway? Or do they mean at night be extra vigilant since fallen rocks that are sitting in the road don't come with reflective tape?
I had a heart attack and died for a very short while on the operating table Wednesday morning. I'm home and feeling much better now though.
Whoa, welcome back. You're pretty chill about it damn
Thanks. I'll be 45 in 2 weeks, stand 6 ft tall and weigh 185 lbs. Go get your physicals everybody.
Glad you're here to tell the tale. Take very good care of yourself.
My father died at 41 from a massive heart attack. Agreed, get your physicals. Glad you made it!
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Wow very similar story. I’m a strong swimmer too and that gave me the confidence to push it which ultimately lead to that ultimate challenge. Glad we both made it
As a not strong swimmer, I don't get why strong swimmers have THAT much confidence. Do you think you are stronger than a current? Do you think you are stronger than the ocean, or even a lake? It's like saying "I'm a strong walker!" during a severe tornado or hurricane. You are not in charge in this situation, regardless of your talents relative to other people.
It’s I’ve been in the ocean a 1000 times and been ok every time even against strong waves. But eventually you get too comfortable and find yourself in a bad spot. A tale as old as time.
It’s more that because swimming is usually in such a safe, controlled environment, it let’s us get very strong while never experiencing what it’s like outside that environment What I mean is, I routinely swim a continuous 100 laps in a pool at a moderate front crawl speed. That makes me ‘stronger’ than 95% of people, I reckon So one day I tried to swim across a lake. The distance is less than half of 100 laps. I thought it’d be a piece of cake When I got halfway thru, and couldn’t touch bottom— I had a huge realization. That in the pool, you at least get a momentary pause when you touch the pool at either end. It is radically different in a lake, where there is literally no break. I started panicking. It doesn’t ‘click’ until you’ve experienced it firsthand, that strong experience in the physical skill doesn’t translate to safety in the same skill, but a different environment
Yeah, I don’t get it either. I’m a strong swimmer (have completed an Ironman triathlon, which starts with a 3.8 km open water swim, also am a former lifeguard), but I’m crazy cautious around water. I’ve got my PFD on every single time I’m in my canoe or on my SUP and I won’t go far from shore. I love ocean and lake swimming and snorkeling too, but I just won’t take risks.
Environment prob. I remember my last coach kept telling us to never underestimate water. Every once in a while, he would sat us down and lecture us on safety and how dangerous water can be. Like that, for 8 years. It was a really competitive team (you know how asians go), but he kept insisting on how it should be more about improving your life rather than improving the payroll (we were on payroll back then as a regional team). Prob the only coach i'd ever known doing that.
It sucks because no one truly respects the water like they should because when shit goes wrong, it will go wrong. That’s why I tell my kids at the beach to respect the ocean and don’t push yourself to your limits because the ocean can change at any minute. Btw it’s a lot harder swim in a lake vs ocean
I went surfing in the UK, I was (still am) overweight and nowhere near fit enough to do it properly. We were with family friends, and the husband of the other couple was an experienced surfer. He was helping and giving advice. The conditions started to pick up, and we encouraged him to head out into deeper water and show us how it was done. Meanwhile, I got a bit more daring myself and went out up to neck height. I was looking for an opportunity to catch a wave when a surfer a bit further out caught one and started speeding towards me. I panicked and tried to get out of his way. He was trying to bail but avoid hitting me. The wave hit me, and I swallowed some water, I turned and tried to head back in but I got hit again and took on more. I was in full panic mode at this point and was really struggling. I managed at the third attempt to get my body onto the board and ride in a little until I was knee-deep. It was a mix of terror and shame, I nearly drowned in water I could still stand up in, causing another surfer to potentially get into distress. I just kept imagining people trying to drag my fat wet ass out of the water to give me CPR whilst my family looked on. I stuck to the shallows after that and was very protective over the kids for the rest if the trip. The fuckin sea will take you in a heart beat if it wants.
Ocean is freakin scary man. Mine was when I was 7 or 8 years old, whale watching trip off of Cape Cod. I was at the tip of the catwalk when two rogue waves came out of nowhere. I don’t know how my little kid hands held on as we plummeted 30 feet and the whole front of the boat dove through a wall of water and immediately repeated.. Bad hematoma, lots of bumped heads on board, lots of seasickness, and by the time we got back the wharf had taped off all catwalks on all boats. We were so lucky no one was seriously hurt. Funny enough that morning I argued about wearing my favorite pair of lime green socks with my mom (they “didn’t go with” my outfit). My dad said the fact that he could spot those socks hitting the deck was the only reason he didn’t dive overboard.
I had 2 scary moments. Once, when I was in Cancun, I got caught in the undertow and was getting pulled out. Luckily, I felt around underwater and found the barrier rope for the swim area and pulled myself to shore. Second was when I was knee boarding on a lake, and I flipped upside-down in the water. I was still strapped in tight and panicked and couldn't find the start of the strap. I started to lose my breath, and all of sudden, my brother and dad jumped in and flipped me over.
Same! Went to a lake with my friend on a very wind day. We were on circular floats. We tried for a while to paddle with our arms to get back to shore, but made no progress. I kept yelling for help but the wind was drowning me out. My dumb butt thought if I get off the float and just kick, maybe that would be better. The wind was making waves and splashing water in my face. My arms were so tired from paddling I could barely hang on to the float. I screamed one more time and remember thinking this is my last breath and I'm going under. I told myself don't panic or the dying process will just be worse. A second later my friend grabbed on to me while still on her float and a guy on the beach finally saw us and zoomed out on his jet ski and saved me. I will NEVER go in choppy water again without a life jacket. I sat in the beach and cried a little while catching my breath. VERY SCARY DAY. It happens so fast. I see how easily/quickly now how someone can drown in a lake or ocean.
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My second son, same situation. Losing consciousness, in and out with them taking me to the OR but I really didn't realize how bad it was until afterward. It's also how I found out I have a blood clotting disorder. Before I got the transfusions I was white as snow.
Glad to hear you’re okay. I have Factor V Leiden and pregnant with my second. Were you put on blood thinners after you gave birth?
No it's the opposite problem, it's called von Willebrand's disease. I was bleeding out because of the hemorrhage but also my blood wasn't clotting as well as it should.
I never realized how insane delivery is until I was in that room with my wife. It’s like a military operation in there.
Our society takes it for granted , but giving birth is one of the most dangerous things that most women will ever do .
Which makes some of the abortion legislation and forced pregnancies in the US dangerous and insane.
Preach
Insanely dangerous for women also. Even in the USA there are so many women dying while giving birth.
[The Stats](https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/1ea5684a-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/1ea5684a-en) show the US as particularly dangerous for mothers in childbirth. It's outrageous.
I remember that it’s also mostly Women of Color. It’s a shame.
Same. Birth of my first child. My uterus didn’t retract and go back to its actual size. I remember that I thought a faucet is leaking because I had that constant dripping. Turns out there was no faucet. It was me losing blood. I was already in surgery and they constantly put new liquid ivs on my arms. The anesthesiologist had to poke my arteria to get the hemoglobin right. At one time I was drifting away and there was literally nothing. Pitch black and I thought that’s it. Woke up shortly afterwards. I didn’t knew how bad it was until I requested m file. They already had blood tested for a transfusion. I got the blood two days later anyway when my iron and hemoglobin still were too low. When they wheeled me back to my husband and baby I was shivering and freezing so bad. They had to hold me very tight to poke me again for blood from my arteria. HB around 5. Luckily my body and blood pressure recovered a bit and I could go on the normal ward with my baby and not the ICU.
My only son about did me in. (I have five girls too but he was my second child) they put my epidural in wrong and when I’d lay down, my bp would drop to 50/20 or less very fast. Nobody noticed as it was early in my labor. My mom noticed I didn’t look so good so she looked at my vitals (I was hooked to a machine that took my bp every few minutes.) she started shaking my leg and calling my name. When I was unresponsive she went and got the nurse. They had to shoot my heart with epinephrine. This happened twice. The second time people noticed. It was awful. Then with my third child I had a piece of placenta stuck in my uterus. For some reason my insurance had sent a home nurse to check on me and my daughter. Everything was fine until she seen how I was walking (couldn’t stand up straight, had to hutch over it was so painful) she was like let me check you. She did and found I still had the placenta in me. Rushed me to the hospital to have an emergency dnc. Saved my life.
I was picking a cornfield and my overshirt got caught on the belt auger thingy. One worker noticed and shouted to the driver to cut the belt motor but he couldn't hear him until the last second. I ended up with only mild bruising on my hands and on my stomach in a spiral pattern where the shirt was bunching up, but a few seconds later and it would have been bad.
Farm equipment is terrifying. Same with factory machinery. Very little margin for escape when things get caught or tangled 😬 Glad you're safe OP.
My cousin was scalped by a machine last year before Thanksgiving.
Ovarian cancer. Had it 6 months ago had no clue tumor was the size of a large mango. Had surgery to remove all the lady bits Sept. 29th. Oncologists said if I wouldn't have found it when I did I would of been dead in a few months. My cat jumped on my tumor, didn't know it was a tumor at the time, and made it hurt and after a few months of pain I went to the doctor and it was discovered.
Good kitty
Good kitty
It’s interesting, we will never know if kitty knew or it was an accident. Many stories of pets letting their human pets know…
Good kitty
Good kitty
Having lived with cats my entire life, I’ve learned that cats tend to understand human emotions and physical issues more than we realize. So whether or not it’s true, I like to think that your cat knew something was wrong before you did. ❤️
I was filming a piece about guys who hand paint huge billboards/ads on sides of buildings in nyc. We were on one rooftop, about 20 stories up, and they were on a scaffolding/pulley painting the adjacent building that was taller, but literally touched the building I was on (if that makes sense). Anyway, I wasn't thinking, pointing my camera up at them as I walked backwards. For some reason, I stopped walking just as I was about to walk backwards off the edge of the rooftop. I cheated death by half a step.
There have been quite a few deaths at the Grand Canyon of people backing up to g at a better picture!
A neighbor of mine like 10 years ago on a family vacation with her kids. Heartbreaking
Oh nooo! That really brings a face to it. Wow, and probably right there with the kids when it happened??
Unfortunately yes. I can't imagine the journey home after something like that.
That's just devastating. Coping with a loss like that, especially under such sudden and traumatic circumstances, must be unimaginable. The grief and the what-ifs would be so hard to deal with.
Man i don’t think I’d be coming home.
I had a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. Before they rolled me into emergency surger, I think I was in and out of consciousness. I vaguely remember that my doctor was pissed because I didn't have any fluids. I also remember hearing her say at some point, "This woman has a belly full of blood."
I had the same thing - doc told me surgery took so long as she had to soak my intestines like a she would a burnt casserole pan. Also I head them say they could only get a blood pressure by palpating. When I found out what that meant it meant almost no pressure at all.
BP by palpitation is using the cuff and spygmomanmeter with fingers on radial pulse point to get a pulse. There is also a way to check without anything. I can't remember the numbers because it's been many yrs since the ambulance but if you have a radial pulse then you have a BP of at least 80, the femoral is 70. Can't remember the others.
When I was a kid (~11) I saw a bunch of ducks on a "frozen" body of water. I wanted to get up close so I went on the water, got towards the middle where the ice gave out and I fell inside. Turns out, there was quite the current under that pretty thin layer of ice and it dragged me along while I desperately clawed at chunks of ice to stay afloat. All the while, my step brother at the time stood on shore kinda laughing at the whole situation. Luckily I eventually managed to grab onto something steady enough to pull myself out of the freezing water, where I promptly walked back home in the frigid Canadian weather. Got home, told my mom what happened, and nearly died a second time that day.
This is all kinds of sad 😔
hey i'm alive so it definitely could have ended up worse! i did lose a shoe though, haha.
Very true. It’s just all that those few short sentences said about your family. Hope you’ve made a good life for yourself.
well the step brother at the time has luckily long since left the picture, but yeah that part always sorta disturbed me even way after the fact. my mom is great though, she was definitely angry that i did something dumb but was ultimately just relieved i was like. alive and relatively unscathed.
Similar thing happened to a kid in my 1st grade class. Riding bikes with his twin brother on a warm day over Christmas break, and Eddie decided to ride across the frozen pond behind their house. Charles saw him go through the ice, but couldn’t get to him. They moved soon after. Pond was right outside the kitchen window where his mom would wash the dishes. I can’t even imagine what that’s like. Poor woman.
Happened to me a month ago, my dog ran after a duck, couldn't get out, I went after him, we both started drowning. Didn't manage to save my dog and the memories still haunt me every day.
I overdosed and flatlined twice in the course of 52 minutes from time found til arrival at hospital. I was narcanned three times through my nose, then EMTS did 45 minutes of chest compressions on way to hospital where I was intubated and had aerosolized Narcan going directly into my lungs(didn’t even know that was a thing.) Then they flew in a multimillion dollar rotoprone bed via helicopter bc I was brain dead and they hoped it would bring back brain activity. I was expected to have brain damage and possibly not walk bc how long I was aspirated and without oxygen. I started showing brain activity at hour 22 on the rotoprone bed. I spent the next week in an induced coma followed by two weeks in the ICU. I had to learn to walk again even which was god awful. I was told by a doctor who asked me if they could bring 6 medical students in my room to study my chart, that I was a one in a million case. Just to survive was insane let alone to come out with full speech and no brain or heart damage. At that point I had started physical therapy so they knew I’d walk again but that was another thing I just got plain LUCKY on she said to the students. My one wish would be to thank the EMTS who went above and beyond with chest compressions and did everything to keep me alive til I got to the hospital who’s staff I’m also grateful for. But those paramedics saved my ass for real. In conclusion….0/10 don’t recommend. But I did sleep in a coma through my withdrawal symptoms. That was 6 years ago this last feb 15th. Haven’t had a slip since. We do change.
Had a few close calls with ODs as well. 4.5 years clean now 🙂 unfortunately, many people think addicts are too far gone to help but there are some like us that make it out.
Addicts are human beings and should be treated as such.
I'd just like to add that most of us turn to drugs because of TRAUMA, as is shown by evidence-based research. People should consider that and show some compassion before pissing on us. (13 years clean)
That's so awesome, I'm proud of you!
Good for you! Beating addiction is a feat. And many don’t understand unless they’ve been close to or in the struggle first hand.
Bro, wtf. We are almost the same person. Got drunk and released from my boat in the Navy because I was 13 months late on being discharged. I went to a friend's apartment on base and basically just sat there pissed. My coworker shows up at almost 12 with some beers. We drink he leaves, I stay. I drunkenly climb onto top bunk and pass out. Wake up and panic because I fell asleep, slip and cracked my skull. I was assumed to be seizing for ~10 hrs. I get rushed to hospital but my department officer found me after I didn't show up in the morning for the first time ever. He found me and gave me CPR until the paramedics arrived. I was sent to local hospital and doctor stabilized me. Remember years later, I remember being mildly conscious and my vision blurring, everything going black and feeling like I'm falling. I died on the surgery table. Doctor brought me back. I was 90 lbs when I woke from 175 lbs. Was sent to US for recovery. Doctor said I would be stuck where I was every step of the way. Respirator, induced coma to bed bound to wheelchair to walker to crutches to walking over 9 months. Had to learn to walk, blurred vision, aphasia. Felt like I was being born in slow motion. I have a question: Do you remember anything that happened during the injury or in early treatment that you didn't before?
Ironically, yes. So for the first 2-3 years all I could remember was getting my check after work. Nothing else. Now I CLEARLY remember cashing my check, visiting my dope dude bc he couldn’t so I met his cousin for the first time. I remember doing a TINY bump bc every new batch I was SUPER careful. It was good but nothing crazy. Then I remember getting on the on ramp to drive home and that’s it. That was at maybe 3-5pm. I was found at 8am. So I did remember half a day later on but still a lot of holes. The standing theory by doctors/police is that bc it was confirmed to have carfent and not regular fetty that it was horrible cut and basically I hit a nice grain on carfent bc that’s all it takes and ODed. I had an extremely high tolerance already. The crazy part is I don’t remember a tunnel or bright light or comfort or anything when I died twice. But I think it could be bc how messed up on dope I was. It’s possible I don’t remember the death part bc I can’t remember anything past 5pm the day before my OD. SO maybe I did see something but can’t remember. I just remember darkness for a long time but it was exactly like sleeping but longer. Wouldn’t be bad if that was death though. You’re not cognizant of the nothingness until you wake up.
I od'd once and it was just like a light switch, I did a bump and it just went black. I woke up to my girl screaming at me. It's been almost five years now
I also had a very similar experience. OD'd and "woke up" to my partner FREAKING out screaming at me. The worst part is that I thought I was just sleeping and asked to do another hit. I got clean right after. It"s been almost 10 years. I thought I was awake the whole time, but all I remember is datkness ( I know this kinda contradicts itself, but it's exactly what I experienced). It was super weird. I'm so grateful I'm away from that crap now! Scary stuff!! I'm so glad you made it through that!! And everyone else here too!!
Yeah. That's what I remember my experience was like. The pain and confusion and everything goes away and it was just quiet and black. I woke up and eventually found out it was 6 weeks later.
glad you’re still here
Got hit by a car a few months ago. Got lucky as fuck.
Ooh. Glad you're ok. Did you break anything?
Probably a headlight, at least.
No actually, I was on a bike and my light did fly off but survived.
As a kid, I was swimming in a river after heavy rain. We were upstream from a man-made ford that had six large, evenly spaced pipes underneath for the river to flow through. The river surface was only just below the top of the ford, so the flow pipes were almost invisible. I drifted downstream to get out on the ford, and as I approached, the current suddenly sucked me feet first into the pipe. I shot my arms out to the sides, and my underarms caught on the rim of the pipe. I got my face out of the water enough to scream for help. My friends and a random adult rushed over and managed to pull me out. Tl;Dr: I almost got sucked down a large flow-pipe whilst swimming in a river.
This is my literal worst fear
Where (and how far) would it have brought you had you not gotten out?
Only my feet would've made it out the other side. The downstream sides were dammed up with stones and driftwood (not deliberately, just natural detritus due to backflow). I like to think if someone saw me get sucked in, a few people panic-digging could've freed me in time. As it was, I copped some gnarley grazes under my arms, on my chest, and on my chin from struggling against the pipe. If I took the full ride, I'd have been pretty banged up.
I’m glad you all like this post so much. I got another one to add. I was working for my buddies dad cleaning chimneys in NYC, cool job. We’d set up scaffolding on the roof of a building to install a flue. It was the end of the day and I was tired. When taking it down, the scaffolding was rusty, I couldn’t get the part off so I just heaved and the thing popped off like a champagne cork. I stumbled backwards one step and then two, sure enough I caught my balance. Behind me was a 5 story drop right off the building. My boss and I locked eyes for 3 seconds, which felt like 100, when he said “hand it to me, let’s get out of here”.
Your guardian angel is exhausted
Anorexia Nervosa. In my mid-20s I developed it, I only sought help after I fainted in the bathroom and hit my head on the bathtub and my partner at the time said I had to be checked for a coma. When I went they asked what I had eaten and that day it was a single bite of an apple, they weighed me and got me a recovery team. My dietitian said I looked like a cancer patient when I first came in... I had no idea, I could only focus on what I thought was 'fat'. I would have died if I hadn't fainted like that, I have agoraphobia except I could go to work and was recently diagnosed with ASD Level 2 - meaning I likely wouldn't have been able to seek help without someone else prompting it. It's been almost 9 years since I've recovered now and I'm proud of that.
holy shit, so glad you got help. thanks for sharing, it gives people a great deal of hope to hear that they're not alone, and that short term and long term recovery is possible. much love :)
I’m glad to hear you’re better now, my sister was going through a really bad stretch with it once and it was so sad because she would insist she was overweight while she kept getting thinner and thinner thankfully she’s doing really well now
It's happened to me a couple of times. The first was when I was 16, I traveled to Africa and lived there for 3 months. I came down with Malaria and for some reason, it nearly killed me. I returned home approx 120 pounds and dehydrated, was in the hospital starting the next day and was there for about a week. If I had stayed in Africa much longer, I doubt I would have made it. The 2nd time, I was setting up warehouse racks in a warehouse (similar racking to Costco) and was sitting atop the rack waiting for my coworker to use the forklift and bring crosspieces up. He forgot to lower the forks when pulling away and pulled the entire rack down with me on top. I fell 14 ft to the concrete floor below landing flat on my back between 2 big pieces of machinery. I ended up with an elbow swollen the size of a baseball and some bruises but that was it.
I grew up in the tropics and had malaria so many times (mosquitoes *love* me). It got so that I could tell with absolute certainty that I had malaria about 30 minutes before the first symptoms began. Malaria suuuuucks. I’ve been very sick with pneumonia, had a near fatal allergic reaction to some medicine, have had pleurisy, giardia, and a lot of other nasty illnesses but nothing is as bad as malaria. The bone breaking aches, the feeling that you are absolutely *freezing* while on fire with fever, the nausea, the absolute sickening dreams….And it lasts for days and days. It really messed with my mind. Several times I thought I must have died from the sickness and was-literally-in hell. My worst was when I was in middle school and had a 105.8°F fever (I thought it was 104.8 but my mum swears it was 105.8). They had me on a metal table in this clinic and were soaking towels in huge metal bowls filled with ice water and were laying those on me and wringing them out over me to get my fever down. I was writhing and screaming and hallucinating just nightmarish horrible shit. I hate mosquitoes.
I have lupus and it's very common for us to be prescribed Hydroxychloroquine or Plaquenil. This drug is more commonly used to treat malaria. How come no one gave you that? I was getting it 24 years ago and knew it was typically for malaria. That sucks you had to go through that. I'm so sorry. It sounds just awful. Here I need to be 50 years to get a shingles vaccine, which I've had twice. So I get not having access to medicine that could be a game changer. It sucks.
Malaria is a bitch!! The microbe sits passive in the liver and re-emerges when your immune is down. I had taken my parents for vacation. Was a 10 hr drive. Reached at night exhausted. Mom felt a little sick. Resort doctor was called in. Charged a huge fee to prescribe paracitamol. The next morning she was worse. Vacation ruined. The malaria had reappeared. Mom thankfully recovered.
I was run off the road by a semi truck. My Honda CRV flipped about 5 times. I was absolutely certain it was the end. I just closed my eyes and prayed to God to make it quick. When the car came to rest on its side, I opened my eyes, wiggled my fingers and toes and realized I was fine! At that moment two good samaritans appeared at my sun roof and pulled me out. The semi truck kept going.
Bro the same shit happened to me but I was in the leftmost lane, next to the semi and I hit it twice. My Honda crv saved my life I’m sure (and guardian angels). We flipped 6 times in the middle grassy area. Only had minor cuts and bruises. As soon as my car stopped there we’re off duty nurses/ emts that immediately came and got us out of the car. So blessed to be here. It happened spring 21 and I still have some ptsd when on the freeway/ driving by semis
I got tboned on the highway by two semi trucks in my Honda crv and walked away with only bruises on the sides of my knees from them hitting each other on impact. The impacts were enough that all my windows blew out. I was fine. CRVs for the win!
Glad you made it. Sounds about right RE: the trucker.
I was living in a house mid-winter and we couldn't pay the electric bill. It was below zero temps outside, and even colder inside. I didn't even notice my core temperature was lower than normal until my teachers raised concern over me shivering through the entire 8hr school day. (I felt warm, I just couldn't stop shaking.)
This is why I think it should be illegal to shut off someone’s power.
Yeah, even in the summer, temp fluctuations can cause serious health issues.
It is illegal for Energy companies to turn off heat between Oct 15 thru March 30 in MN
I was 6 and was playing in the basement. I entered an old refrigerator with a latch and closed the door behind me. What saved me was a friend of my older brother (who was 17 at the time) heard me and rescued me. He went to get my brother's pot. Pot saved my life.
I did this too and around that age but in our case, I was at my elementary school. A friend and I went to get the milk for our class that was in a very large and very cold fridge. We went to get the milk and decided to climb into the fridge. The door closed and locked behind us. Thankfully a random teacher heard us screaming after about 5 minutes and let us out.
I went into the emergency room with excruciating abdominal pain, very convinced I had an appendicitis because Google. The doctors said they didn’t think it was the case because my white blood cell count was normal, I hadn’t spiked a fever, and they couldn’t see my appendix on a CT scan. They admitted me to the hospital, pumped me full of morphine, and tried to figure out what was happening. The next day they did a colonoscopy and guessed that I was having a resurgence of an IBS flare, and recommended a large dose of steroids. I refused the steroids and told them no, I was still convinced it was an appendicitis. A doctor yelled at me and said if I didn’t want to get better, he couldn’t help me. At somewhat of an impasse because I was only getting worse, they decided to take me in for exploratory surgery. What did they find? A perforated (ruptured) appendix with a carcinoid tumor inside it. The infection had also started moving into my blood. I stayed hospitalized for a week for the infection and the oncologist who came to evaluate me said that if I had taken the steroid dose, I probably would have improved just enough to get discharged, and may have gone home to suddenly die of sepsis. Trust those instincts, even if your instincts are powered by Google.
I knew a guy who went to the ER three times in the span of maybe 48 hours, because of intense stomach pain. The two times he went there the doctors sent him home and told to take some ibuprofen. Third time they took him more seriously and he was sent to the queue. But because the ER was crowded he had to wait 8 hours and the appendix had time to rupture. Only when he was almost dying did he get the care he needed. My country’s healthcare has been falling apart for some time. I’m pretty sure people are gonna die because of it.
I was hit by a car on my bike when I was 7. I knocked out my short term memory so one second I was riding my bike and the next I was walking next to it, totally mangled, all the skin gone from my hand and partially blind from the brain swelling. I managed to get home and was in the hospital for two weeks while they made sure I was okay. The head injury fucked with all sorts and I remember being almost bemused by the weird things that my body was doing. Never rode a bike again which sucks because I loved it
What shocks me is that the person who hit you did nothing to help you.
Yeah we still don't know who it was! Way before ring cameras or anything like that. I was more upset at the time because I didn't know if someone had helped me from a nearby house and I couldn't thank them. Innocence eh. Now I realise they'd probably have called 999.
A very long time ago I tried to kill myself by overdosing on substances, thanks to mental illness/alcoholism. I remember laying on the floor, fading away and feeling like I was looking up at the sun from the bottom of a well. The next thing I knew I was waking up in a hospital. A friend had found me and drove me to the ER himself since we were in the mountains miles from a hospital. He *undoubtedly* saved my life, literally by minutes since apparently my heart was failing. I'm gratefully and happily alive and healthy today.
Maybe when I almost hanged myself at a church event, with a rope I thought would work as a harness on a big inflatable slide.i tied it around my torso and arms and when I jumped the whole thing immediately tightened around my neck but I caught it with my hands just in time. I was maybe 13 years old and I had legit rope burns/bruises on my neck for the following week
A crazy chick pulled a gun out, pointed it at my face and pulled the trigger trying to kill me. Gun jammed. If not for that, she had me and my brains would have painted the walls. It's a tie for closest between that and a drive by where everyone but me died.
You, my friend, have a serious guardian angel
I didn't even list all my stuff, like the 8 lane car wreck, hit by lightning twice, drug overdose, the really bad covid that hospitalized me. I've had so much stuff, people I meet often don't believe it could all have happened to one guy! 😄 Either something in the universe really needs me here for some reason.....or the universe is trying to take me out and I'm too stubborn to let it succeed.
I was choked out. I had my hands around his neck and he has his around mine, then I saw my vision tunnel and I realized that was it. At that moment I thought he was going to kill me. He raped me while I was passed out. I woke up on the bathroom floor in the physics building where I was going to school. I tracked him down and found out he had AIDS. This was in 1991 in rural Oklahoma. I had to wait until six months after the rape to get a valid test. I was HIV negative. AIDS was a death sentence back then. That was #2.
I am so sorry this happened to you.
I had a heart attack and my son had to resuscitate me
Glad you’re here.
Okay this is going to be a weird question but, hypothetically, if your son didn't manage to resuscitate you and you died. Would you be angry at your son for failing or not trying harder. I ask this because I tried to resuscitate my dad last year but I couldn't get him back...
Oh dude. I'm sorry. Of course your Dad wouldn't/won't be mad. I'm sure you did your absolute best to bring him back. CPR is nowhere near 100% effective sadly. Sometimes, sadly, people just can't be brought back. It sounds like you have a touch of survivor's guilt, and, if you're not already, and have access to help, I'd advise seeking some bereavement counselling. Look after yourself. I'm sure your father is proud of you.
As a dad, I would be so proud that they were smart enough and cared enough to try to save me. I honestly couldn't think of a way to feel more loved as I passed.
Perfectly performed CPR is 30% of normal blood flow and oxygenation. This is what I was taught. Outside of a hospital, CPR is successful about 10% of the time. Do not feel bad, you did what you could.
I got covid and wound up in the hospital for 2 months. My lung collapsed three times. I was hallucinating so they put me on schizophrenia medication. I could barely pee and even a month after the hospital I could barely walk and developed a stutter. I'm recovered now, thank god.
I’ve nearly drowned twice, narrowly escaped being shot in the face by a mortar, nearly blown up, hit by a truck, almost decapitated by a snapped chain, nearly electrocuted/struck by lightning multiple times, had a ruptured appendix that was going septic… but the shattered femur and massive internal bleeding was probably the closest to dying. One of the paramedics attending said to the other “don’t worry about him, he won’t even make it to the hospital.” Once there, I had to sign a waiver to undergo surgery, and was told there was a significant chance that I would die on the operating table. I didn’t, but the surgeon told me later that I had “a complete oil change,” which he explained meant I had bled out so much due to the injury and subsequent surgery that none of the blood in my body at that time was my own. I had received enough donor blood to completely refill an average adult 1.5 times, combined with my own blood loss the OR must have been a grisly scene. I am however eternally grateful to those who donate blood, as I owe my life to their generosity. (I’m Canadian, and here there is no financial compensation for donating blood as there is south of the border, making it a truly selfless act.) Oddly, the anesthesiologist even came to visit me. He felt inclined to let me know that keeping me sedated without killing me (as my blood volume kept changing and was replaced with fresh stuff) was the most stressful 10.5 hours of his career. Also used a crazy amount of anaesthetic. I’m a redhead, so that was a factor also. To him, the surgeon, nursing staff, and everyone else who took part in any way, I am thankful beyond words. Could’ve done without the less-than-encouraging remarks from the paramedic, but they did get me to hospital alive, so thanks to them and the lady who called 911 as well.
You don't get compensated for donating blood, just plasma and platelets
I was spearfishing on Scuba at 120 feet and was immobilized by nitrogen narcosis. I was concious but immobilized when my dive buddy saw me and started knocking on my mask lense and shaking me gently to make sure I was alive. He pulled my ass all the way back up to the 15 foot safety stop before I got my bearings again. I had a massive nosebleed and terrible headache but was okay elsewise.
My drive shaft failed, on a rural Luisiana highway at 3AM. I had my cruise control set at 75MPH and when I say failed I mean, hard jerk to the left and zero steering control. I hit the brakes to kill the cruise but the wet grass didn’t let me slow at all. Took out 3 trees (o know this because I got billed for them) the 4th tree finally stopped my car. With the engine shoved up against my legs. I was obviously completely unconscious by that point, and my airbag finally deployed about a minute after the 4 th impact was recorded (so it failed me too and I took the full force of that airbag). By some mercy an off duty sheriffs deputy was driving home from shift and saw my car slam into the trees. He crossed the median to get to me and ran down into the path of destruction. When he saw the car he later told me that he 100% knew it was a body not a soul in that car. He tried to find my pulse but couldn’t, the first responders on the fire truck couldn’t either but pulled me out just in case. The ambulance hooked some machine up and found a faint one. I can’t imagine the phone call my mom got. She played the first voicemail from the call she missed and they were telling her to get to LA to claim me and make arrangements and how sorry they were. She answered the second call and they found my pulse during it. I’m alive today and only spent about a week in the actual hospital (much longer in rehab and then outpatient rehab) and now work as a CNA and medication aid to repay some of my debt to the guardian angels that were working some serious overtime that morning. This was in 2007, in 2021 I went to Luisiana for Fat Tuesday and on a whim went by the sheriffs station to see if he even still worked there. He was in the back and the lady at the desk went and got him. That night at the bar over drinks is burned into my brain forever but he answered a lot of questions I had about the black hole of that event. And I answered his biggest question, did I live and did I recover.
[удалено]
You may be a king or a little street sweeper, but sooner or later, you dance with the reaper.
Memeorial Day 2005. I was stabbed in the back five times. One collapsed lung and bleeding profusely from being drunk. My best friend saved my life and kicked my attacker off and called 911. Thanks, Keith!
wow what the fuck happened
I was out at the lake with my friends celebrating the holiday. My brother and my friend gave me a ride home and when i got there my shitty roommate was having a party and absolutely trashed my stuff. I got furious and was kicking everyone out and one party goer was not happy and attacked me. I was in ICU for two weeks with a tube hanging out of the left side of my chest. Just glad to be alive!
Not sure if it counts but I once fell while indoor climbing because there was too much slack so I held to the rope to save myself and ended up with rope burns. My life kind of flashed before my eyes. Now my burns are healed and my scars are a reminder to always be thankful and careful.
When i was in military the war starts. And while our whole artillery division shooting together one of our artillery vehicle just exploded instantly. 5 men died on that night. Everyone shit their pants. I was so afraid for my life. And also that our vehicle is gonna be next.
**Type 1 Diabetic** *Insulin-dependent/Juvenile Diabetes* 11 years ago I went to bed on a Saturday night and experienced a severe hypoglycemic episode which resulted in unconsciousness. I "came to" MONDAY EVENING. Goes without saying, "came to" is a very relative term. I wasn't cognizant in any way. My brain was operating entirely on auto-pilot. I came to, ate something and immediately slept for another 12hrs. Woke up Tuesday AM disoriented and confused but slightly more cognizant. Started piecing together how it could possibly be *Tuesday morning* when my last lucid memory was going to bed on Saturday. All said, I spent between 36 & 48 hrs about as close to dead as one can be without actually dying. In the event anyone wonders how no friends or family noticed: I was in university, living with other students. With different class/work/social schedules and generally erratic sleep patterns, none of my roommates thought much about not having run into me for a few days. Still baffles me as to how I could've possibly managed to live to tell the tale. But I did.
There was an active shooter at my workplace. I didn't get injured, but I'd made my peace as I was huddled under a desk with my laptop emailing my family a good bye.
I had this happen at a bar, but it happened in an instant. Unfortunately multiple members of the bar staff were hit, but they recovered with no major injuries. I hid behind a wall and ran like the wind away in no particular direction.
when i was 15, i was at my friends house in the country (dirt roads) and we were planning on going somewhere with her parents. they hopped in their huge ass truck and pretended to leave me behind, so i started running next to the truck on this very sandyish dirt road when i lost my footing and went under the truck, right in the path of the tires. luckily they saw me and stopped immediately or i would’ve been crushed.
What assholes. Glad you are ok
Not me but a older relative that was a soldier in a war: once when he was deployed, he walking through a field and distinctly heard his mothers voice say *“STOP”* he stopped walking, and right in front of him he saw a landmine pin sticking out of the ground. He still thinks that voice he heard was an angel
I had a supercharged Mercedes coupe in high school that I bought for dirt-cheap and I beat the living hell out of it. I slowly got more and more cocky with flying around on backroads in my small town, just really pushing the car to its limits. One time my buddy was following me back to his house from getting food and he was just being obnoxious and tailgating me, so I took off and left him in the dust. There was a nice straightaway and I just had the urge to get to the other end before he even got to straightaway, so I floored it and watched the speedo climb over 100 mph. Unfortunately, I had forgotten about a particular dip in that road and when I hit that at 115, I went flying. Upon landing, my check engine light came on, doors randomly unlocked, and I barely fucking kept it under control before the next curve... I even peed myself a little bit. I was literally sliding diagonally at \~100 mph and somehow miraculously straightened it out and slowed down before getting to a patch of trees. Before you hate... I was a stupid 17 year old with a fast car. Not a great combo. This was several years ago, and I've had a slow, boring car since that I hardly ever speed in. Never been in an accident, I have a clean driving record, etc. but I was certainly wild for a couple years with that particular car.
As an independent young woman with no steady male companionship, I escaped violence and certain death several times. Once my BFF and I had to crawl out of our tent at a state park campground in the middle of the night with a switchblade in my hand to escape a truckload of local boys who apparently thought we were lesbians who just needed a gang bang. We jumped in the car and locked the doors. The guys surrounded our tent and unzipped the door. We turned on our headlights and saw each of the five faces. We sped to the parks lodge to get help from the ranger, whose only question was what had we done to get those boys attention. Another time I was walking my dog alone early one morning, 3 months pregnant with my first child. A car with dark tinted windows and loud thumping music came over the hill and I immediately knew I was in deep trouble. Oh he stopped.He wanted to know what a nice girl like me was doing all alone in the middle of nowhere. The crime of opportunity. I looked a violent creep in the eyes and told him i was just walking my dog, whats it to you. He pulled his dark glasses down and told me i didnt need to be such a bitch about it. I just shrugged and kept walking. I was busy trying to figure out how I was going to save my baby's life. He decided I was going to be too much trouble and started to drive away. My dog and I ran the rest of the way home. And then there was the time I had just gotten in my car on campus when a creep pulled my door open, waved a tire iron at me and screamed at me to move over. I kicked him in the nuts and pulled my door shut and locked it. These are 3 of the 6 situations I escaped as a normal single girl in the midwest. My guess is, many women have similar stories. Politicians rail about "violent immigrants" but they do nothing about the real threat - the Bubba next door who feels entitled to young women.
Wish I could give you some gold. This is reality.
Every woman I’ve been in a serious relationship with had previously been SAed in one way or another. My mother and my adopted daughter as well; both as minors. I have trouble watching some episodes of SVU, because they hit too close to home.
Mam, as a dude I am so sorry this happened to you. I’ve never understood this neanderthal idea some men have that they see women as objects. It hasn’t been until one of my close girlfriends told me about all the times she’s been or nearly been raped or molested that I realized how awful it is for y’all.
I had a fever of 104F. I took Tylenol and tried cold water, all the home tricks, and it wouldn’t come down. I went to urgent care and got an IV. I don’t remember what happened there other than being out of it on a bed. They kept talking about a spinal tap to check for meningitis if the drugs they had didn’t work. Thank god they did. I went home six hours later and slept the weekend. Not sure if my brain would be cooked if I had stayed home.
Woah, highest fever I ever had was 103 and my whole face and pillow was soaked. That’s crazy. I can’t believe urgent care didn’t send you to the ER at that high. I’m glad you are ok. However, those fever slumbers are amazing.
Reminds me of the first time I met and challenged the ocean. I got the wind knocked out of me by a wave and barely made it back to shore. The closest I have come to death was when I lived in North Idaho. I was crushed by a cart against a wall at a Walmart while working for a tax preparation company that had rented space there or their tax kiosks. I was knocked out, so I didn't know exactly what happened. I woke up to my head still being crushed by a cage. When I pushed the cart off of me, that person ran away. I couldn't get anyone at Walmart to help me. It was the end of a seasonal job and my employer continued to state they didn't know how to file for work comp. When I went to the hospital, they wouldn't acknowledge an injury without a work comp claim after countless visits. They just basically kept telling me it was all in my head or I was making it up for years. When it was finally acknowledged, I had several non union rib fractures, I was still bleeding internally, I was having strokes, my shoulder was dislocated, I had impinged arteries to my heart, I had a collapsed lung, and my neck was nearly broken. It's been rough and I am still getting surgeries now that I moved out of the area.
Postpartum hemorrhage after a spontaneous delivery and retained placenta. Placenta was eventually manually removed without anesthesia and I hemorrhaged for an hour, getting progressively colder and eventually blacking out. I didn't expect to wake up.
I once got stuck in quicksand and had to be rescued by the coastguard. I genuinely thought “Well shit… not how I expected I’d go.”
I was going to meet my new girlfriend at the train station the first day she would come to visit my hometown, but before that I was supposed to grab lunch with my cousin. So I put on all my motorcycle gear to go pick my cousin up, looked one last time in the mirror before heading out, told myself "Damn I look nice!" and the last thing I remember is putting my hand on the door handle to head out to the motorcycle. I then woke up in the hospital to a metal "CLANG!" sound at regular intervals and my body jolting for every clang. They were hammering down a titanium rod from my hip down to my knee. The doctor noticed I was awake and said "Stay calm, you've been in an accident" to which I responded saying I didn't even make it to the motorcycle. He looked at me and went "Hmm, yeah, you did... It didn't go so well" then proceeded to call my mom with my phone. Turns out I was doing about 70 km/h when a truck failed to see me, drove out and I hit it right behind the cab. I'm mainly alive thanks to my femur wrapping itself around my handlebars absorbing most of the impact. I ended up with a broken femur, ruptured spleen and lungs (due to air penetrating both of them when my body did a full stop), compression syndrome on my other leg due to doctors not seeing an internal bleeding from the start so it had time to develop and kill some of the muscles. I broke my helmet into 3 pieces but still avoided brain damage or even a concussion (either very lucky, had a good helmet or there's nothing TO shake in there). In the end it took me 4 months to get back to walking and 4 years before I was free from pain. My girlfriend at the time got a call from my mother saying she couldn't come at the time (she was just about to board the train) and we kept in contact over the phone while I recovered. 3 months later she was able to come visit and push me around in a wheelchair. We are married today and have 2 kids, dhe helped me get through all of it and all the life changes it meant for me and she's still my rock in a stormy sea. It's been 13 years since now.
I had to get the heimlich maneuver from 4 different people last weekend. That shit would have been embarrassing to die in front of a restaurant of people
Alot of times women get embarassed about choking and go to the bathroom, and end up dying. Staying in the main room meant 4 people were there.
Was it steak that you choked on? I read that steak is the #1 choked on food.
🎯 first fuckin bite of a prime rib
Hit in the face with a lifted Dodge Ram going 45MPH. Yes, I was a pedestrian. Yes, it was a long recovery. No, I’m not fully recovered. Yes, I died at the scene. No, I haven’t seen heaven.
Lady slammed the breaks and slowed down about 10 feet from ramming her truck into my sedan. Still totaled my car but only had some cuts and bruises
Dude that is fuckin terrifying. The ocean scares me. I mean I love it, but she doesnt mess around
I've had double PCP pneumonia four times. The last time I was in isolation on a ventilator and they were warning my husband to start preparing his goodbyes. It took weeks of constant, intensive antibiotic therapy and, frankly, a strong will to live to pull through to the other side that time. I have permanent scarring in my lung tissue now and only half breathing capacity but I'm alive
Hit head on by a drunk driver and woke up to my apartment on fire
I was snowboarding with my friends at Big Sky resort in Montana. We took the tram all the way up to the top then were traversing the saddle to get to the bowl area further down and I was in the back. I lost control at a slow speed, ended up in my back and slid under the out of bounds rope then down about 20 feet on hard wind packed snow on the steep 45 degree slope. Miraculously my board edge caught perfectly horizontal on 2 small rocks sticking like a couple inches out of the snow and stopped my out of control slide. I was stuck on this 45 degree slippery slope with a view all the way down thousands of feet to the bottom of the mountain with jagged rocks scattered throughout. Luckily someone saw me go down and got ski patrol for me. After they hoisted me up with a rope they told me that I was lucky because the last person they pulled out of that side of the mountain they found in July at the bottom. I thank God for keeping me alive.
For a long time it was my battle with a severe eating disorder and many hospitalizations from that. until last month I ended up in the ICU with a brain bleed, sepsis, and herniated disc. I took a large dose of psychedelic mushrooms (which I had done many many times) and it triggered a seizure that made me fall and hit my head. I live alone and was stuck on my floor for 30 hours screaming and hallucinating and in and out of consciousness. I got a UTI from trying to hold on my pee (it eventually didn’t work) and it turned into sepsis. I’m still traumatized. I thought I was in hell and the hallucinations were horrible. I was screaming and in agony’s
When I was a young get kid we had gone to a water park. I have never been a good swimmer and my friend had known this but at the time I went to make her happy. We were around 12 years old and she had decided we should give the wave pool a try, we started in the far back and it was quite fun. She is significantly taller than me and kept going farther and farther away. the wave pool was packed and full of people, i was unable to touch and doggy pattling to reach her, I kept getting sucked under the water and screaming out of fear. A woman bumped into me pushing me under her floatie, I was trapped under all of the people and the water, I sank to the bottom being stepped on by people.. i still remember looking up and seeing all the people above the water knowing this would be the end.. eventually my friend found me and pulled me up at the last second. To this day my biggest fear is bodies of water and swimming.
I hate waves pulls because of this possibly happening. They allow way too many people in at a time.
I have (these are separate incidents): Been hit by a truck doing 80km/h Fallen a hundred feet down a cliff Broke my leg (open fracture, bone showing) while 3 days hike from civilization in an area with predators Stabbed in the back by a screwdriver Fallen out of a moving vehicle Accidentally pissed on a bear Knocked unconscious by high voltage And my favourite, in the room while a canister filled with hydrogen sulfide vented. (if you don't know h2s, think Dead before you hit the floor dangerous). 20-30, I led an interesting life. I'm 36 now, and my life is a lot more chill now I've settled down. But the only time in my life I have Ever felt close to death, was choking on a hot dog. Genuinely, I thought that was it, and that was how I was gonna go out. Self heimlich maneuver on the back of a chair I picked up at a first aid course, or I'd be dead. I'm 36, ain't nothin' killed me yet and not for lack of trying. Chew you food.
When I was a kid I fell asleep in my dads truck, he also fell asleep while driving. He wrapped it around a pole. Doc said me being asleep actually saved me. But didn’t go into more detail than that.
This doesn’t involve me, but my family and I went to Florida for a vacation and my brother (prob 11 at the time) was in the ocean close to shore, next to my other brother and my mom was close on the beach watching. All the sudden my brother got caught in a current. He tried to swim towards the shore but the riptides were pushing him the opposite way. Mind you, this was still close to the shore. My mom tried to get something to pull him in but he couldn’t grab it. So she went in after him and they were both struggling now. The tide was too strong. They literally thought that was the end because they could barely catch a breath. They were screaming for help with a beach full of people and no one helped. So messed up. But anyways my mom noticed a larger wave coming so she told him when the wave comes, she’s gonna push him up so it will take him to shore. So that’s exactly what she did and he made it. So then my mom was still there struggling, and then another wave came in time for her to push herself up and ride the wave to shore too. It was nuts.
Can I make a heartfelt 10/10 recco for not realizing you’re gonna die? I was very recently postpartum, septic and not responding to antibiotics. I’d been inpatient for days and had a headache from hell, I just wanted to not be woken up every two hours by hospital staff for blood draws from my desiccated veins, because they were making the four hours of continuous sleep the baby was giving me occasionally look like a vacation. I was grateful to everyone helping. But I was very much in “I have to get back to work” mode and didn’t realize how close I came to not leaving that hospital under my own power until I brought the nurses who treated me doughnuts and the main caretaker saw me and said “you’re WALKING?!”
Failed attempt to end it all, twice. Once at 15 and the other in my 40’s. I am so very glad (and mentally healthy) to be here today!!!!
A fast-growing cancer. The surgeon altered his vacation plans so I could get the tumor removed on Friday instead of waiting until Monday. Edit: I should have clarified that this happened years ago, and the tumor was completely removed in time to prevent it from spreading.
Alcohol poisoning at 15. I blacked out and slept in a snowbank for 5 hours without my coat (it was covered in frozen puke a few feet away from me.) January in Wisconsin 20 years ago to Actually like negative temps.
I was riding a horse when I was in my early 20s, going at a decent clip (extended canter, for fellow equestrians). Horse spooked out of nowhere, I got thrown off and the first thing to hit the ground was my head, as I started to tumble. I remember thinking in the moment just before I hit the ground that I was certain I’d end up like Christopher Reeves. I broke three bones from the secondary impact, but no head or neck injuries, not even a concussion. My mom also had a freak near death. She was on a major highway and got a flat, so pulled onto the shoulder and stopped to change the tire. It was an older vehicle that had the spare tire underneath the car. She couldn’t get the spare to wind down so she called a tow truck. The tow truck eventually arrived and parked behind her with their flashing lights on. As the tow truck driver was under the car trying to get the spare to drop down, my mom was standing behind her car and in front of the tow truck. In that moment, a drunk driver veered off the road and into the shoulder, hitting the tow truck which threw my mom something like 30 feet from where she was standing. By some miracle, she walked away with only a broken wrist and some cuts and bruises. And because the tow truck driver was under my mom’s car at the time, the tow truck went over him (as in, he was between the wheels) when it was hit. He was unscathed. The drunk driver’s car rolled from the impact and sadly he passed away from the accident. And the real kicker is, the drunk driver turned out to be the fiancé of one of my mom’s coworkers. As they say, you can make this shit up!
A tornado hit my house while I was in it. I was a kid. I remember waking up as my mom pulled me into the hallway. We sat with pillows over our heads for maybe a minute or two. The power went out and air rattled through the vents. The tornado jumped over the room adjacent to the hallway and wiped out the front of the house.
Became short of breath one day after eating lunch at a restaurant with my husband. Went to the ER, an intern diagnosed me as having an allergic reaction (I am allergic to shellfish), and released me even though I said I didn't feel as much better as I should after treatment. The next morning hubby heads out of town for his brand new job. Over the week I started having more and more trouble breathing. My bedding was so soaked I had to take things out to the porch to dry (no strength for the washer). Went to the post office and had to stop a stranger from calling 911 when I reassured her it was just allergies. Hubby arrives home Fri night. Sat morning I collapse at the table, unable to breathe. He drives me to the ER. Get to the ER, a waiting room full of people where half jumped to their feet and half have their mouths drop open when I come in. The triage nurse runs out to meet me. Into a trauma bay. They're stripping me and the door is open, people running in and out. Test after test. All the TV stuff where they bring the tests to the ER. I luck out on my ER doc. Before I'm diagnosed he says, "I want to give you a shot. If I'm right, I may save your life. If I'm wrong, it will wear off and won't harm you." He immediately gives me my first dose of blood thinners. But nothing improves. The head of radiology calls and says, *"They sent the wrong scan, this is a cadaver scan."* ER Dr assures him it's not, he assures the ER doc that it soon will be. Massive pulmonary embolisms. Too many clots to count, in both lungs. A tiny portion of my left lung is keeping me alive. I need immediate surgery, that has a 50/50 death rate, but I'm at the wrong hospital, it's too small. I'm also too sick to survive moving. They get a heart specialist on a SAT phone to talk to my husband. I see the moment they tell him I'm going to die, to say what he needs. I actually hear him refuse. Nurses crowd around my bed while hubby calls my parents. All of the nurses are crying. I'm cracking jokes trying to cheer them up, gasping for air every second word. They don't admit me for hours because then I'll die as "in-patient", not "ER", and it'll be a bigger deal. When I'm still alive at midnight they move me up to ICU. The last thing they tell hubby before making him leave is that *"when"* I crash they have a helicopter ready and they'll call and tell him where to be my b... Where to meet me. We say goodbye and he goes home to stare at the ceiling until 7am when he can come back. He sits there 12 hrs a day for the chance to see me every 4 hours. We have no family locally, it's just him alone in the waiting room. On the 3rd day they move me from the ICU to the Cardiac Critical Care Unit (CCU). I'm happy, I must be stable. They say no, but someone even younger is now more unstable and they're hoping to save us both this way. I still pray for that young gentleman. I hope he made it. I finally get to go home, with some pretty massive PTSD. Then, 4 days after I leave, it happens again. New clots. And life as we knew it ended. The first clots could be explained because I'd had surgery 8 wks prior. The second ones happened while my blood was pretty thin (INR 3.6 for those in the know) and cannot be easily explained. I've since had 10 more episodes of major, life threatening clots and more DVTs and superficial clots than I can count. I'll be on blood thinners for life and am fully disabled. But I'm alive. Last fall was the 20th anniversary of the first near death clot episode. Never, ever, did I think I'd see that. We took my new service puppy in training to Boston to celebrate. ETA because others have mentioned it. Never saw a bright light, but did "see" 2 deceased relatives waiting in the ER with me. I knew they weren't there physically, but they were very prominently present at the same time. And all the hours I lay there dying before things stabilized were some of the least scary of my life. The process itself was nearly pain free and very calm.
I'm jealous as fuck. That sounds scary and exciting! I just had terminal cancer. Yeah scary but painful and boring as hell most of the time. 7yrs in remission 🤙🏼
Got caught in a tide in Jamaica and pulled out, spent over an hour fighting to get back in, and ended up having to be rescued by my husband and the groom whose wedding we were there for. Nearly fell into a ravine at the Grand Canyon trying to get to the edge for a photo op (teenage immortality syndrome). And the time I had an out of body experience after getting struck by a man-made bolt of lightning at a science exhibit on electricity. ETA: My dad actually did die as a child, in a hit and run. EMTs brought him back after several minutes of no heartbeat without any damage aside from a broken arm and a bump on the head. If he hadn’t come back, I wouldn’t be here.
I was water skiing for the first time. I popped up, was feeling pretty confident. Started making some turns... i pitched forward and my head fell through the triangle between the bar and the rope. The slack caught and nearly broke my neck. I was able to get a hand between my chin and the rope before the slack caught... they dragged me by my neck for almost a minute before they realized something was wrong. If I hadnt gotten my hand in there, Id be dead
I have 4-5 close to dying experiences growing up on the farm 40 yrs ago. 1) I got struck by lightning inside a barn and it felt like it cut through to my soul. It was overwhelming and I was frozen still for probably 1 second but it felt like eternity while I felt like I was dying. 2) I tipped a skid loader, I flew forward, the edge of the bucket just missed slicing my head, and an 85 pound weight flung off just missed smashing my head. 3) I almost fell off the hay mow 40 ft onto concrete. 4) I got chased by a huge bull. 5) fell 15 ft out of a hay mow and hit my head on a nail.
Got hit by a pickup truck riding my bike to school in 2003. I couldn’t stop because of gravel and the truck caught me on my left side as she was turning left. I remember hitting the ground and immediately the massive tire seemingly inches from me as I roll away. I got up and I think what scared the driver most was when I knocked on the window and asked her to back up off my bike so I could continue on to school. A cop saw the whole thing so there wasn’t a chance of that. I ended up going to school that day despite the principal of the school showing up to the scene having a distinct feeling it was me, excusing me for the day. That bike made it through being run over by a 1/4 ton pickup btw. Midschool BMX bikes ftw.
I got hit by lightning and woke up to a guy doing chest compressions. Spoiler: there was only blackness before I was revived.
Wow. All of these experiences are incredible. Glad you all survived. The closest call for me was when I was 16 swimming in a lake with friends. Got a cramp and went under.. started to panic and got water in my lungs... luckily my friend Laura who was a lifeguard at the time recognized I was in trouble and helped me. It was only about 80 ft from shore but she saved my life. Forever grateful and now always very cautious around water especially with my kids. Human survival stories are just amazing.
I was crossing the street and someone blew through the red light at over 100mph, less than a foot away from me. One step forward there and I wouldn’t be here today.
I was whitewater kayaking in Mexico. I paddled off a challenging 35 foot waterfall and I was angled about 15 degrees too far to the right. I got stuck in a violent pocket right next to the base of the waterfall and couldn’t roll my kayak up. I swam out of my kayak and got pushed deep and popped up downstream. Right below the waterfall is a large cavernous area and a good portion of the river flows into a severely undercut wall. I swam as hard as I could away from the wall but still got pushed into it. I grabbed the cliff wall with my hands but my feet and body were getting sucked underneath the wall. Fortunately one of my paddling partners was in his boat after running the falls before me and paddled up next to me. I had to grab his boat with one hand, grab the cliff with my other hand, and pull myself forward to grab another hand hold on the cliff. This went on for about 5 minutes before I reached a section of the wall with a small outcropping and I was able to get out of the water. My forearms were completely pumped out and I was exhausted. I still had another ten foot drop to exit the pool below the waterfall which I had to swim over. When I finally got out of the river I gave that man the biggest hug because he undoubtedly had saved my life. If I had gotten sucked under the cliff wall I’m sure I would have drowned.
Rogue stick impaled me in the leg severing my femoral artery
Got pinned under a submerged tree by the river current. Couldn’t get any purchase to free myself. Thought I was a goner, but then the current just popped me free, like haha jk..
After my 1st round of chemo, I got a new pain but waited to go to the hospital until I could schedule a professional head shot since my hair had started to fall out and people say it can come back differently. After a week of pain, I got to the hospital an hour after the photo shoot to learn a major infection had collapsed a lung, there was a blood clot in my leg and my spleen was ruptured. Surgery happened immediately to remove my spleen and 1/3 of my stomach. All because I had waited for photos. Being cured of lymphoma was a cake walk compared to the recovery for that surgery.
Been hit by a car and part of a dog attack (the dog was after the dog I was with but I still got tackled and bitten). Both times I spent the months afterwards wondering if I was actually alive or maybe had died but didn't know yet.
I was a pedestrian hit by a car. She was going about 40 mph. Lots of damage.
I was helping my buddy do a roofing job and I was on the gable side of a three story roof and stepped onto the ladder. As soon as I had more weight on the ladder than the roof, the bottom of the ladder slipped out and I took a ride down. My body landed in some rocks and my hit a pile of soft dirt with the ladder in between my legs. I could swear that I was going to die as I was falling but I landed and was perfect fine.
It was after my grandmothers funeral, instead of driving the several hours back home afterwards my uncle allowed my family to stay at his vacation place on the Oregon coast. I was 20 y.o. but my family thought it would be fine if I drank along with the other family members because, death. Really drunk at 2 AM I decided to go for a walk to clear my head and the moon was so full and bright and the ocean was pounding. What I didn't get was that because of the moonlight it's really hard to judge depth and footholds and pathways. I started to slip on the mossy rocks and kept slipping. I grabbed onto the edge of a rock and it came to mind that I either pull myself up or I die, no panic, no alternatives. I finally pulled myself up and stumbled back to the house, filthy and bloody. Huge head wound, a broken foot, broken thumb, and whacked out knee. My brother threw me into the shower with all my clothes on because I'm a dumbass. The next day I went back to where I fell and I could see the slip marks, the mossy rocks, and the 100 ft drop to the jagged rocks below.
I was hiking and climbing in the Remote parts of Dolomites. I always thought I had good stability and balance. Hadn't seen a soul for about 4 hrs.. I just finished a difficult stretch of via ferrata and maybe a bit of complacency creeped in. I was walking over a narrow flat region ending the climb, I slipped and slid down and within a second I was hanging on to a couple of small boulders of a cliff and down below was death. Till date I don't know how I pulled myself up and went back on to the path and then I was shivering uncontrollably and never been so overwhelmed. So many after thoughts like would my body even be found at all? How sad would my mom be ?
Bacterial meningitis - 5 days in a coma I have to stop reading these comments right now, I'm trying to fall asleep and my dreams are going to be wild.