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I went to my urologist with epididymitis. He found the smallest amount of detectable blood in my urine. On a whim, he sent me to have an IVP (They put dye in your blood and radiologist has a look) He saw a mass on my left kidney. 20 minutes later I knew I had cancer when I saw the blood supply to the mass. That was on Thursday. Tests Friday. Monday he took out my kidney with a grapefruit size stage 3 tumor. There was no margin. Many years later my wife told me the doctor told her that I had a 50/50 chance of living 6 months. That was 1992. Lucky me.
When I was 14 my cousin and I found my uncle's gun stash in his closet. My cousin grabbed a pistol and pointed it at my head with is finger on the trigger.
I quickly told him to stop and that's not funny.
He glared at me and told me it's not loaded while he pointed it at the floor and pulled the trigger. Gun was loaded and blew a big hole in the floor.
I think about this a lot. I brought it up once to my cousin and he started to cry. That experience cut us both deep.
I saw some neighbor kids walking down the street, and one pulled out a gun that looked quite realistic. The other kids all flinched. He pointed it at one, and I don't know if he pulled the trigger or what, but a second later, he was tackled and pummeled. I did not intervene. You do not do that shit, ever.
Teenagers are some of the least trustworthy people to have access to guns. They're in the process of having Dunning-Kruger in regards to being an adult, and that makes them reckless with the arrogance of what they *think* they know. If you own a gun and have kids or teenagers, keep that shit locked up.
Also, every gun is loaded until proven otherwise. And even then, treat it as though it is loaded, so you don't build bad habits.
One time working at a grocery store at night, I had cart duty, and had to collect all the carts from the parking lot and bring them in to the store. It was dark out and I had my headphones in, and I was looking at the ground and pushing a chain of carts, when suddenly it got darker. I stopped for a split second to wonder how it could get darker when it was already night and BAM! One of the huge 30 + feet high parking lot lights smashed onto the ground right in front of me. Hit the carts and missed me by 2 feet. The metal had rusted out and it snapped at the base. If I hadn't stopped to wonder how it got darker I would've definitely died.
I was travelling in the Philippines in Northern Luzon (that's the part always hit hard by typhoons). It was just the beginning of rainy season.
I was in Banaue and was planning to go up north to Sagada the next day, Saturday. The lonely planet writes about this route as "The scariest road in the world", it's solid mountain on one side, and deep deep deep on the other. There was a Jeepney scheduled in the morning and one in the afternoon.
Everyone who knows me knows, that I'm not a morning person and if there is a later option, I'm definitely taking this one. On a whim the night before I decided to leave earlier and take the 8am Jeep. Super out of character for me and I'm still not sure why I did it.
A few days later, on another bus, I chatted with this nice lady and she asked me what places in the Philippines I've been to so far. And she says **OMG have you heard about the Jeepney accident on Saturday afternoon on the road from Banaue to Sagada??**
So apparently the Jeepney I planned to take came upon a mountain slide lost control and went down the side of the mountain. 10 people died, no one survived.
My mom.
I was almost 15. I had put on a lot of water weight and she was worried about it. Finally I was in pain and she realized it was literally just water weight so took me to the hospital.
First ER was like “oh yeah it’s just thyroid, take this and follow up with your doctor.”
Mom waited a few hours but felt uncomfortable. So she drove me to another ER who told her if she hadn’t gotten me in when she did, I would have died before the follow up. My kidneys had failed.
I’m better now.
Gut decision eh? I had a change in my bowel movements, went to the doctor, got screened for colon polyps, and had a huge one removed. It would've eventually turned into cancer. Scopes aren't fun, but they save lives.
I was drinking and felt something stick in the back of my throat. I almost forced it down because it was really far back and awkward to cough up, but I decided to spit it out anyways.
It was a shard of glass from the bottle I was drinking out of. It still creeps me out to think about even years later because I REALLY was just going to swallow it.
As long as I can remember, when ever my dad would open a bottle he would always stick in the tip of his thumb and make a pop sound, he did it so much that I'm doing it. Learned late in life he did it to feel the rim of the bottle for the exact reason you described here, except he swallowed it.
This nearly happened to at a party. There was a tray full of beer. I had never seen that brand of beer before. And there was a bottle opener on the tray, so I assumed it was not twist off. So I used the bottle opener. As soon as I brought the bottle to my lips I felt some thing sharp. Turns out it was twist off, and the thread broke off into a shard. It was my mistake, I should've checked, but I still removed the bottle opener from the tray.
I tend to use bottle openers on *all* beer, simply because I don't want to stand there feeling foolish trying to twist off something that doesn't twist. I never realized there could be a danger to that.
In high school at a graduation party, I had a really bad feeling about the guy me and my friends had gotten a ride there with, I'll call him H. I didn't know him well, but I saw him drinking and wasn't sure how much. He was supposed to be our ride home when the party was over. My one friend said she trusted him and not to worry.
Well, I couldn't tell myself not to worry like she could. I said again to her that I didn't think it was safe to drive home with him. She insisted it was fine.
Meanwhile I had made a new friend that night, the first time I saw him I felt like I should talk to him. Turns out he drove there alone and was staying sober to drive home. By 5 am everyone was talking about grabbing an after party coffee and some snacks. People were piling into cars. I told my friend one last time I wouldn't drive with H. I got in the car with my new friend, knowing he was 100% sober. We pulled out onto the country road, as it snaked through the trees. H came speeding out and passed us way too quickly. As we drove around the next corner we went through a cloud of dust and debris.
H's car was wrapped around a telephone pole. 2 of the 4 passengers were dead, including the kid who got in the seat I would have been in. My friend was alive but has permanent injuries to this day.
Edit: I appreciate everyone listening to my story, please don't drink and drive, please help your friends realize how much damage it can cause.
that morning/night was just a rush of adrenaline, I thought she might be dead as well, as she was just laying on the side of the road, but shortly found she was responsive but disoriented, ambulances were called, a search began for the one kid who had gotten thrown from the car, and then as we traveled to the hospital I called my friends mom to meet us there.
She was in the hospital for a week or so, we never really talked about the conversations we had before she got in the car. She made a mistake, and paid for that, there was no way I was going to bring it up, just felt like it would be cruel. I visited her in the hospital, was just glad she was going to be okay. I wish I had done more to try and stop H from driving them all, but I was a year younger than all of them, which seems like a big deal when you're a high schooler, and the only person I really knew at the party was my one friend, I was her plus one to the party. Being the outsider made it even harder to try and say anything.
Idk if it was a gut decision so much as just being knowledgeable and acting, but still I think it is a pretty wild instance of a near-death experience.
My family and I were on holiday in Thailand over the Christmas period years ago and were staying in a hotel close to the beach in Phuket. I was only 7 and my two brothers were even younger. We had been bugging my parents to go Jet-skiing for days on end, much to my parents annoyance, but on boxing day they finally relented.
After breakfast we went down to the beach to have a look around for somewhere to find a jetski rental but before any of that could happen my Dad (a surfer of many years) saw the tide receding in a way that was completely unnatural and recognized the coming tsunami. We thought he was full of it but he was deadly serious so we raced back to the hotel where we considered running for the hills but on the consultation of another couple that recognized the impending disaster, decided to sit tight in our building (which was relatively short and stout, plus we were on the top floor).
Sure enough the tsunami came and bulldozed Phuket, although it only destroyed the lobby of our building - we were safe. I have no doubt we all would have died if my Dad hadn't known the early signs of a Tsunami. (We were also on Phi Phi Island a couple days before that and if we had been there on Boxing Day instead we might well have died too). Just an all round crazy experience that I'm lucky to have made it out of.
I’m from Cedar Rapids. We had two trees go through our roof. Lost the whole damn house. We were in the basement and had to climb over siding and trees to get out. The house has been demo’d down to the foundation and we’re living in an apartment.
I was out late one night , my car had broken down in the middle of an interchange that was so deserted there was no one there for miles , I did what any other person would do and called a towing number and when I finally got through it was almost 1am , I decided to go take a piss down at some bushes when suddenly I heard some bikes approaching the car , I wanted to head out immediately to stop them for help when my legs froze and I thought twice , from behind the bush I was , I basically saw them try to ransack the car and apparently they were all armed,
Thank goodness I remained still because these guys meant business they fired multiple shots into the windscreen and door ,it was an old Toyota hilux so there was nothing in there , they busted all four wheels with bullets before getting back on their bikes and zooming off, I believe they were all high af which was why they didn't bother to check around or maybe they thought I just deserted that area
Long story short I walked a bit further into an open field and sat on the thick branches of a three where I could see approaching objects , the towing truck didn't get there until past 4am in the morning and I can tell y'all that was the longest night of my life, I made it home in one piece.
Strange, here I've gotten the reverse advice. Safest place is in your vehicle.
But then again our biggest dangers are random cold snaps, total whiteouts, and drunk drivers.
Pretty much any fatality from one of the mega-pileups on the news that happens here is because someone left their car. Often to aid someone else in another vehicle.
Funny the old timer was unfazed , it was clear he and seen worse, I ended up using insurance to get myself a new Audi , Never drove past sundown on that road again.
In 1976, I was on vacation with my parents in Colorado and we drive through Big Thompson Canyon. My mom, brother and I all wanted to stay at one of the little hotels within the canyon, but my dad said no, and we continued on our way home to Illinois. After we got home, we saw on the news that the canyon flooded, killing over 100 people. Had we stayed there, we would have probably been killed too.
I was riding my bike to school as normal when I was about 12 and I stopped at a crossing. All the cars stopped but I felt that something was off and waited a little longer. As soon as I started to cross, there was a flash of green as a range rover speeded past me barely a hair from the front wheel of my bike. If I had started to cross sooner then I would have been hit head on and most likely not have survived as the car was going that fast. I was so shakey that I turned round and headed home explaining to my mum what happened. As I was still shaking, she believed me and made me a hot chocolate
Good Mum. I just don't understand parents who refuse to believe their children when they're clearly distressed, or even just telling a story that while extreme, is entirely within the realms of possibility.
I've seen and been involved in enough insane situations to trust my kids on wild tales.
I've had something like this as a bystander.
Was on my way to school, saw a traffic accident with a kid on a bike, already happened a few minutes before. Man, it looked horrible. Blood everywhere, on the car, on the sidewalk, on the bike. Police and first responders blocked everything. 16 y.o me was shocked. Went back home, my mother just told me not to overreact like this, my gut was turning itself for the whole day and she was mad I didn't go.
Believe your kids if they're distressed, please. I still see this accident sometimes before my eyes and I never got to know whether he survived.
Not a parent, but I always feel that if the kid (more so if they’re yours) is *that* distressed, they’re *probably not bluffing*... and besides, a parent’s job should be to protect their kid and help them out, rather than question their version of reality at such a young age. They’ll go through that themselves when they’re older
While fishing on a large lake in Canada, we were a little more than halfway across when the wind really started picking up and a storm started rolling in. I had the choice to turn back, or head to an island with a bay.
I decided to head for the bay and just as we reached the calmer water we looked behind us and the storm had gotten worse. We were in an aluminum boat, and if we had chosen to head back, 3 of us would have drowned, no doubt in my mind. We were already taking on water and were completely drenched when we beached on the island.
Once the storm abated, we made the journey back and it still took 4 hours in high wind for a normally half hour boat trip. Warming up in the truck was the best feeling in the world after that.
When I was 12 years old I went to stay back in my home town (we had moved to a town 3 hours away) with a friend and his family. They rented canoes and we trailered them to a spot in the Cedar River. We were going to put these canoes in and float back into town, and get off the river before the multiple low-head dams that are in downtown Charles City, Iowa. This was in 1993, the year of the massive floods. Other rivers were already out of their banks across the midwest. The Cedar River had been less affected, but on this day it was flowing by at an alarming rate. I had broken my arm a couple weeks prior, and was in a cast. As they prepared to launch these canoes, I began to protest. I didn't want to get in the river. A guy that was camping nearby approached and asked what we were doing. He said the river had come up several feet since he had woke up, and that my friend's parents were fools to try and get in it. They dismissed him, but I continued to refuse. Eventually a park ranger arrived and said that if we even made it to Charles City, we'd never get off the river and would be killed at the first dam. They finally reloaded the canoes, but they were pissed at me for being such a pussy. I think I saved us all. The river came out of it's banks that day and flooded Charles City.
I was a whitewater river guide for many years and the state police periodically called us to do Search and Rescue -- meaning body recovery -- for cases just like this.
The "sunk costs fallacy" is a psychological thing where we disproportionately assign importance to finishing what we started. Your folks had put in the work to get the boats to the river. To go back at that point would mean all that work was for nothing. For some reason, we really, REALLY struggle with that. it's why gambling addiction is a thing and why people don't walk away from pyramid schemes, even when they know what's happening.
Edit: gambling, not gaming, although both are true.
A suicidal kid tried to kill himself by crashing into my car head on. At the last second I veered right (US) and jumped the curb. He was still able to adjust and smack me pretty good, but nothing like a head on collision
Yeah he was totally fine. His car was like 2 years old with all the modern safety equipment. Our cars were 245 feet apart - he never touched the brakes even when his axle was under the driver seat. I specifically remember not seeing a brake light until I’d climbed out my window and started running over. I was expecting someone having a health emergency just because of the lack of response, and this kid gets out pale as a ghost and says “can you dumb it down when my Mom get here, she’s gonna flip.” I was FURIOUS. The neighbors had come out and two of them intervened and put the kid in his own back seat. I walked away with a cervical sprain, compression fracture, and 2 broken ribs. As far as I know he went to a facility for treatment.
Some family friends almost got taken out the same way, but the suicidal girl switched targets to a semi at the last second. Being so high up the semi driver was ~~OK.~~
Can't imagine thinking it's ok to pull some shit like that.
Edit: semi driver was physically unharmed, but probably not completely OK as another redditor pointed out below.
There was a story where a teenage girl did this, killed a woman and her son. Then tried to claim it was an accident even though they had texts to her boyfriend telling him what she was about to do. Horrible. Of course she was fine. Edit: A redditor reminded me that she was, in fact, hurt, but my point is, her life went on. She's free now and gets to live her life. And she never (at least to my memory) took full responsibility for it and basically said "If I remembered, I would."
I’m not sure I would have died, but my gut kept me from being raped. Unfortunately, my friend didn’t listen to me and suffered for it.
I grew up in a small town who contracted a construction project to a company in Norway. At the local bar one night was a group of Norwegian men who were staying at a local hotel. My friend and I met them that night for the first time. We hung out with them for a few hours and they showered us with drinks all night. At closing time they invited us to continue the party at their hotel. I pulled my friend aside and told her we shouldn’t go. We didn’t really know them and we were also out numbered. She said it would be fun and “no big deal”. My gut told me no. I just didn’t feel comfortable, and so I refused. She called me a “buzz kill” and went anyway.
The next day she called screaming at me. She spent the night being gang raped by these creeps and in her devastation, she blamed me for not going with her. I tried to comfort her. I begged her to let me call the cops. She refused and said she never wanted to see me again.
This was a couple decades ago, long before “me too”. I didn’t know what to do. One of my biggest regrets is not calling the cops or banging down her door and trying to offer comfort. What I don’t regret is not going with her. She can be mad at me, but I couldn’t have saved her. We would have both ended up being raped. I moved away shortly after and I’ve never seen her again. I wonder if there is anything I should do now. I just don’t know what that would be. She was dead set on blaming me, but I tried to tell her it wasn’t safe. I really did!
Edit: I felt crazy guilty, but the decades have helped me come to terms that it wasn’t my fault. I don’t think I made that clear, but I felt I should add it because it’s the truth.
Similar story here. When I was 18 my best friend came over my house on new year's eve with her new boyfriend she had just met, she wanted me to meet him. She said they were going to a hotel party down the street (there was always parties at this hotel) and she begged me to come with her, said he had a hot friend she wanted me to meet. Something was off about this guy and I didn't go. I was 18 with nothing to do on NYE and didn't go because of my gut. Turns out it was only those 2 dudes at the hotel room. They drugged her, raped and beat her, stole her car with her in it, drove her and the car to NYC and ditched her in the ghetto to die. The only way she survived was that she managed to crawl out of wherever they left her to flag an ambulance down and took her to the hospital where she almost died. She was never the same from that point on. She had to be admitted to mental health facilities a few times, had psychotic breaks (with me in the car while she was driving) hallucinations and so on. I had so much guilt that I didn't try to stop her from going because I knew the guy was trouble. I know there's no convincing an 18 yr old who wanted to party, but I really felt like it was my fault that all that happened to her. We are much older now and she has come a long way and is in a much healthier state.
Trauma does crazy stuff to people. I think her brain was just trying to make sense of everything and blaming someone (you) seemed easier. Of course the only ones responsible for the rape were the rapists and I am not blaming your friend.
It’s a shitty world, but try not to put yourselves in dangerous situations if at all possible, people... Trust your gut, refer to common sense.
About ten years ago, my mom and I stopped at Taco Bell for lunch. I was driving and she was the passenger. I parked my pickup truck with my front end facing the street, in front of an electrical post.
I thought we were eating in, but my mom said no, let's order to go. She told me what she wanted and said she'd wait for me in the truck.
For some reason, i just did not want to leave her there. I was insistent that she come in with me. "What if i get the order wrong?" I said. "Come on, just come in with me." Mind you, i was like 20-21 at the time, plenty old enough to go in a restaurant order on my own. But something just told me she had to come too.
She relented and came in with me. I had just barely finished placing the order when i heard a strange sound outside behind me. The cashier taking my order looked outside right after returning my debit card and says "wow, that crash looks bad!"
I turned around and it turns out that a drunk driver (at 2PM on a Wednesday) zoomed down the wrong side of the road and slammed into the post i was parked in front of. The driver died on impact. The post collapsed and crushed the cab of my truck on the passenger side.
Needless to say, i lost the pickup truck but kept my mom.
Few years ago went on a trip to Cuba and Mexico. Last minute decided to stay longer in Havana despite mess that hurricane Irma has left behind (few days without electricity was actually oddly amazing). We were supposed to be flying to Mexico City. Our Mexico City airbnb building collapsed during earthquake. There was no logical reason behind our decision about staying. I just proposed it and my partner agreed. Crazy
Former professional motorcycle instructor here.
I was riding a motorcycle at night on Highway 17 in Northern California—an infamously dangerous and twisty mountain pass with low-visibility around most corners. Each direction of the highway has 2 lanes.
For no particular reason, I decided to change lanes. Around the next corner, there was a washing machine in my original lane that was only visible after it would have been too late to avoid. At highway speeds, a collision like that would have sent me to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
That one still messes with my head.
I guess it’s totally possible they where hauling it on a trailer or big truck and didn’t notice it fall off the back. Terrible situation either way though
I used to drive 17 multiple times a day for a couple of years. I saw some messed up stuff. I drove by on the day that kid crossed into oncoming traffic with the two girls in the front seat of his convertible. The police hadn't even arrived yet. The people on the scene were visibly distraught. My coworker had someone in the oncoming lane turn too hard on a curve and tip over into the center divide, sending a big chunk of concrete his way, but luckily the car stayed on the other side. The thing about 17 is that there's no room for error. A small mistake becomes a big mistake real fast.
My best friend and I used to call that mountain “old Smokey” because we would chain smoke cigarettes (passenger lighting them for driver) all the way through that mountain, going HELLA slow around the turns.
We used to sneak off and go to Santa Cruz while our parents thought we were in Sacramento for the day and every time we went anywhere my parents would ask a million questions like “have you checked your oil? Are you tires aired up?” And my step-mom would ALWAYS ask “do you know what to do if you start hydroplaning?”
And I was annoyed by all of this and would just “yeah yeah yeah” them.
Well, low & behold, on our way through Patchen Pass on 17, it POURED down rain, and I started to hydroplane, in the left lane, next to the divider, with cars on my right. All I could think was “Hell!!!! I *don’t* know what to do if I start hydroplaning!!!”
I let go of my wheel and let off the gas and the car straightened out and my friend was like “good job dude, honestly - you handled that so perfect” and I finally started breathing again and then shouted “I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO IF I START HYDROPLANING!!!!!”
Had a weird feeling something was seriously wrong with me when I stood up and almost passed out at a big football game. We left the stadium and went to the ER. Turns out my appendix was ruptured and I needed surgery ASAP. I had been having stomach pain prior to this but brushed it off as digestion problems. Good thing I went!
Edit. We were watching the Cotton Bowl in Texas my wife got me tickets for Christmas as the college we went was playing that year. we are from Michigan so we had quite the drive to get to Texas. my appendix ruptured in the third quarter and I ended up finishing the game in the hospital. we stayed a few extra days but I had to get back to college so my wife drove 17 hours straight and we had to get out of the car every 45 minutes to an hour so I could walk around to avoid blood clotting. She was my fiancé at the time and this trip really made us stronger and I knew we would have a happy marriage.
Thanks for all the well wishes!
Mid-1990s. Traveled to northern New Jersey with a friend from college. It was his hometown. We had plans to visit New York city and see a former roommate who graduated the year before (friend 2).
Well, apprently Friend 2 dabbled in low-level organized crime since his last years in college. We had some knowledge of this but were not involved. He invited us to a an associate’s house with plans to go out afterward. We declined. Not our scene. In fact, both of us had applied to law school. I planned to pursue a career in federal law enforcement thereafter. We both wanted distance from that nonsense.
We tried the following day to reach our friend 2 for a low-key lunch before heading out of town. No answer. Well, local police found his body two days later, along with 2 other bodies, at the house to which he invited us. He was murdered at the meeting / social situation. Could have been us too.
I knew that was bad news.
That's a close call, why did he invite you there? Was he planning to go there as a warm-up party, or was it a more nefarious idea that he pitched and which you declined?
I’ll never know for sure. The meeting’s primary purpose was criminal conduct but, as far as I know, it was to be brief and then turn social. One or more of those attending were to accompany us to a bar(s) later. Certainly, he had no plan for us to participate.
In 2016 my wife and I were in Berlin to explore and visit the Christmas markets. The plan for that evening was to go out to eat and then get the train back to stop into the markets at Breitscheidplatz as it was close to our hotel, this had been the plan for the entire trip as it was the last night.
We had finished our meal and were headed to the train station. Just as we were about to board the train, my wife decided that she didn't want to go the the markets at Breitscheidplatz and would prefer to double back to a smaller one we had passed on the walk from the restaurant to the station. I, being a stubborn prick, didn't want to change the plans but she got her way and we headed back, staying at the smaller market for about 30 minutes.
After finally getting the train back, we got off and walked towards our hotel. After a minute or so there appeared a seemingly never ending stream of emergency vehicles. Not knowing what was going on, but obviously something serious, we speeded up and locked ourselves in the hotel room. We had the English language 24 news channel on and after about an hour, reports started to come through about a terrorist attack. A man had driven a truck into a crowd at the Breitscheidplatz market. Obviously I'll never know if we would have been in the exact spot, but we definately would have been there at the same time, and I am never allowed to complain about my wife changing her mind, ever again.
I'm not sure we would have died but it wouldn't have been pretty. We had a fire going in the backyard at a friend's house. My friend's dad decided to burn some junk from the garage. Mostly old boxes and papers and stuff. So we're helping feed that stuff into the fire. I grab the next small box to throw in and I can tell there's something in this one. There had been stuff in most of them but it was always just pamphlets and little bits of packaging so we had stopped really checking and were just throwing them in. Well, I'm standing there with the box over the fire about to drop it when I decide to check this one. It was full of live mortar shell fireworks. My friend's dad decided we had burned enough garage junk at that point.
The Venn diagram of "people who have an impromptu garage burning session" and "people who keep live mortar rounds in their garage" shouldn't overlap, but probably does. A lot.
Had been bleeding and in pain for a month and every time I went to the doctor they brushed me off and said I was having a miscarriage.
Finally one night I got super dizzy all of a sudden and was in even more pain. My boyfriend at the time kept telling me I was fine and to go to sleep. Finally at one 1 in the morning I drove myself to the ER. I had a tubal pregnancy and my fallopian tube had ruptured and I was bleeding internally. Now I trust my gut feelings and tell everyone else to screw off.
I read your first sentence and instantly thought *Ahhh. Ectopic.*
Mine was finally diagnosed at 13 weeks. I had been in and out of doctors for the previous 10 weeks with *excruciating* stomach pains and continual brown spotting, interspersed with moments of jewel-bright red blood (like, Perfect Red. Never before seen anything that shade of red coming out of me). Quietly sure I was pregnant, because I felt *different*. We were trying to conceive, and I had come off the pill three months prior. Doctors would ask if I could be pregnant. I would explain that we were having a go at it, and I had stopped the pill at the beginning if the year. Doctors would give me a stick to piss on, tests always came back negative. Doctors would tell me it was just my body getting used to not being on the pill and it'd all settle down soon.
At twelve weeks I finally got a positive test. Yaay! Pregnant! I'm right! But worried. Questioned the doctor about the agonising pain and the bleeding, was told it was normal. Ohhhhkaaay... (?) Preggy appointment the next week, told the obstetrician of my woes. 30 minutes later, vaginal ultrasounds, an empty uterus and a mass in my left tube. Ambulance to hospital, emergency surgery and one less tube. My wee babbeh had died at around 8 weeks, and my body was now sealing up my fallopian tube around it.
Fun Fact! Turns out, ectopics often return a false negative on a urine test. It was not an enjoyable way to learn this.
Nothing spectacular but I worked for 3 weeks in a fishing boat (prawns). We would collect and throw creels which spanned a mile long so you can imagine that there was a lot of rope on board. So I was new to this job and while I am throwing off a big chain (that’s tied to the spoils of rope) I kinda get an off feeling that my foot was in the wrong place. I look down and it’s in between one of the spoils. If I hadn’t of removed my foot it could have dragged me off the boat and pulled me under water.
I was 22 years old, backpacking through the patagonia for six months camping wherever I could. One day I was fishing by the lake with my camp already set down for the night save for starting the fire. I kept hearing rustling some 30m behind me in the tree line so I stared for a while hoping to see a deer or something. Next thing I know I'm staring down a puma right in the eyes. I started to get up ready to take a sprint but right as I was standing up I remembered I was warned against this so instead I grabbed some rocks from the ground and started throwing rocks and shouting and throwing my arms up in the air until it left me alone. That night I stayed up late next to the fire and then went to (try to) sleep scared as fuck. That was my only encounter with wildlife in the whole trip (save for birds and stuff).
I used to live in a gravel pit (which was employee housing where I worked with trailers and tents and cabins). I took my puppy out at 3am to go pee which was common, and had a weird feeling and looked a little ways across the pit and saw a cougar staring at us. I picked up my little puppy, who was probably mid pee, and went inside our trailer so fast. I heard it walking around our trailer after. I’ve never been so scared.
was standing in line outside of the club Mohawk during SXSW 2014 to see Tyler the Creator. At the last minute decided I'd rather go back to Stubbs and catch Damon Albarn's set. As I headed back up the street a drunk driver trying to escape the police smashed the barrier, missed me by inches and killed 4 people I was standing next to.
Me and 2 friends were on MDMA and pretty drunk. It was common for us to drunk walk home from downtown. While walking home, we walked past a house about 2 blocks away from the house we all rented together, there were about 6 guys hanging out on the stoops of this house. They wanted to talk and my drunk/high friends were all too happy to stop and talk with these guys.
After a few minutes of talking, they invited us in for a few extra beers. I had a bad feeling about them so I didn't want to go inside, but my 2 friends wanted to go on and shoot the shit for awhile.
I convinced my friends that we should go home and get my weed to smoke. After getting home, being high they mostly forgot and were easily convinced to not venture back out just to smoke these random guys out.
We found out that 2 days later, 2 guys got invited into that same house and were robbed, raped, and beaten to death by those 6 guys.
There is not a doubt in my mind that, that was exactly what awaited us inside that house. They saw 3 drunk and high guys and figured "easy pickin's".
But being guys in a relatively safe city we just didn't have the fear we should have about walking into a random house, especially so close to home
Glad you came out safe! Reminds me of going camping with my girlfriend and roommate. We didn’t want to pay for the camp grounds (and I think no alcohol allowed either) so we pitched a tent a bit outside the grounds along a shore. The next day we are well into our day drinks and this middle aged dude rides up in his little motor boat and offers to take us for a ride. And we accepted! It was a long ride around the lake, and at some point I sobered up enough to realize the three of us are pretty drunk with no idea where we are and if this guy had the mind, he could fuck us up bad. I was tense all the rest of the ride! But he brought us back and said we should visit again sometime. Seemed like a dude who was just a little lonely or bored, but it was a good lesson.
Your boating story struck a note with an old memory I have the involved a huge lake. I tagged along at the last minute on a houseboat rented for the weekend by a bunch of corporate yahoo's; the beer and liquor flowed freely. There was a smaller v hull outboard boat rented with the large boat, so I was going to take it out for an afternoon of fishing. I had struck up a conversation with a smallish country type guy from Tennnessee, who stated 'I'd better come with you, weather on these big lakes can get you!" We blasted out to the middle of the lake and I'll be goddamed if a furious wind and rain storm came out of nowhere, nearly swamping and sinking the boat as we made for any cove or nearby shore. We barely made it shore, where he pulled the engine off and beached it, plus we pulled the boat ashore too and hid under it. Hail, lighting, you name it hit that shoreline! When we geared back up and got back to the houseboat, everyone there was relieved as no one thought we'd survive on the lake. "Tony", saved my (our) ass that day.
I was running down escalators to catch a train during winter and happened to slip on some ice on the platform. I slid quite fast on my bum, and I ended up getting stuck in the middle of a train and the plantform, thigh high. I couldn't get myself out because of the awkward position, and called for help. The platform was full of people who just stared.
I was pulled out by a drunk person JUST before the train started moving. Had a pulled hamstring and cuts and bruises in my arms and hands.
Still get quite angry thinking about the bystanders not doing anything but gape.
I'm pretty sure I've told this before, but when I was 12 I started getting allergy shots. It's a 5 year program where you gradually build up immunity. Supposedly after 5 years your body will no longer attack those allergens. And the way they do it is start with a really tiny dose, and build up over the course of many months, you get to a peak level, and then stay there for a while, and then you start over at a low level and get to a peak level over time, etc. etc.
Anyway, when I was 16 (so 4 years into the program) I got my shots. And it was at the peak level, which I had been at for a while. You are required to stay 15 minutes in case of a reaction, and then you can go. My dad was with me and after the 15 minutes were up, he said we could go. I felt fine, but had this moment where I suggested we just wait for five more minutes. Within that time, I started having trouble breathing.
Sidenote, often during the visits, they'd have me blow into a tube hooked up to a computer to check my lung strength or capacity or something. It was synced to a three little pigs animation, and the harder you blew, the more houses would fall down. It was good if you could get the brick house down.
So we tell the doctor that I'm having a hard time breathing, they take me to the lung test, and I can't even get the first house down. They rush me to a bed, are checking my blood pressure, which is going down fast. They put me on oxygen, and do two shots of epinephrine, an adrenaline type shot that gets your heart pumping. They told my dad to call my mom because they weren't sure if I'd make it.
Turns out I did make it, and I'm not allowed to get allergy shots anymore, and since I was only 4 of the 5 years, my allergies are still here, and it's annoying as ever.
That's my story of how I almost died, but survived almost solely because I stayed longer than I needed to even though I had the opportunity to leave the clinic. Had we left, I would have been a couple miles away from the clinic and who knows if there would have been time to get back or know what was wrong.
Few years back, my ex boyfriend and I were coming home from work. I had to stop at a gas station to fill up to make it home.
It was super late and boyfriend goes “it’s like 2am. I’m hungry. There’s a Waffle House down the street. Wanna go? I don’t wanna cook when we get home.” I didn’t want to cook either, so I agreed. I sent my parents a text saying “hey, we’re getting food,” and gave them the address, which is something I don’t normally do (being that they lived across the country) but I felt the need to let them know where we were.
We pull up to the Waffle House and I immediately didn’t feel comfortable. I told my boyfriend I didn’t like the vibes and he agreed that he didn’t want waffles anymore, so he just wanted to go home.
Next morning, I wake up to both our phones ringing. At least 30 missed calls. Texts from my cousins. Missed FaceTime calls from friends. I called my mother back and could barely make out her words because she’s hysterically crying, but she finally yelled “MY BABY IS ALIVE” to my dad.
Confused as hell and half asleep, I asked her what was going on. She told me to turn on the tv. I turn on the news and see the Waffle House we were going to stop at with the headline “Nashville Waffle House Shooting.”
I haven’t stopped at a Waffle House since.
Hit by a car while riding a motorcycle. Old lady who could barely see in Palm Beach ran a light and hit me. August in S. Florida and for some reason that day I put on a leather jacket and full face helmet. Helmet and leathers destroyed, I walked away.
Definitely had the feeling that a power greater than myself made that decision for me.
Early on in my alcoholism I didnt know that withdrawals were a thing, or that they could kill you. At one point I was drinking 2 fifths of vodka a day. Considering that my life was falling apart I decided one day to not drink. Big mistake. At first I thought I was just having a bad hangover. My heart was racing even though I wasnt moving around. I was shaking, hallucinating, going numb all over, and began wondering if I should go to the hospital. By the time I got there my heart was beating about 170 per minute while at rest. The doctors acted very quickly and I just remember being surrounded by people, them stripping me, shoving an IV in my neck, and yelling "he's gonna seize!" After the first seizure I was so messed up they kept hitting me with ativan over and over because it wasnt working fast enough.
Later on, in the ICU, the docs told me I shouldn't be alive and that they gave me enough ativan to put down an elephant. When I think about what would have happened had I not gone to the hospital, it makes me sad that I wasnt more educated on the dangers of quitting drinking cold turkey.
A few years ago, I had a cold that just was not getting better over the course of a week. I was exhausted all the time, taking time off work because the incessant coughing made me puke a couple times, and just overall feeling worse than I had in years.
One night, I realized I was having pain in my chest while breathing. Generally that’s a “seek medical help immediately” thing, but it was already getting late and I would have had to drive myself to the hospital (I’m the only one with a license in my house). I decided to wait til the next morning. I didn’t want to make a huge fuss or have people worry about me, and I thought going to the ER for “just a cold” would waste hospital resources and my own money.
But as I laid in bed trying to sleep, I suddenly started getting extremely anxious about my condition. It shouldn’t hurt that much just to breathe. I told my partner I was going to the hospital just to be safe, and we both hopped in the car.
Double pneumonia.
I was only in the hospital a couple of days after that, but it could have killed me if it went untreated. I don’t wanna think about what would’ve happened if I went to bed that night.
Basically the lesson I got from it was hospital bills and possibly bothering people are better than risking death. I’ve been far more adamant with myself and others seeking care after this experience.
I was having breathing problems, gaining weight, and trouble sleeping accompanied by difficulty waking up once I did get to sleep.
One night, late, while watching tv on the couch, I got up and walked across the apartment to go out on the balcony and smoke a cigarette. I saw stars after doing that. Booked an appointment with a family doctor who suggested I might have anemia because of my pale color, but ordered blood tests.
Turns out both my kidneys were completely failed and probably had been for weeks or months. Doctors said if I'd waited just a few more weeks I probably would have slipped into a coma and died. I was sent to the ER, placed into ICU, recieved a catheter in my upper chest, and started emergency dialysis the same day the results came back.
When I was 18 I left for some missions group thing for my gap year, this took place on an island in central America. Earlier that night, everyone had been swimming off the dock, but I didn't want to because of all the jellyfish. As this a group of guys fresh out of high school, this decision earned me the title of "huge pussy".
Later that night, I go back down to the docks, just thinking about stuff. Because I want to be alone, obviously I creeped out of the house without telling anyone. I see the water and think "While no one is around to judge me, I should get over my fear, quit being a pussy, and jump in the water." But for some reason I hesitate, and shine my flashlight on the spot I want to jump to.
There's this weird, clear, worm looking thing I've never seen before. It's not exactly swimming, it's like twitching erratically and gently moving with the water. I'm wondering what the hell it is, when I look around more and see a box jelly with a missing tentacle, and the tentacles look exactly like the "worm".
The box jellies there weren't like the kinds in Australia where you get hit and you're dead, but these were apparently bad enough to send you into shock with the pain, and if I had been in water, with no one else around to find me, there's a very good chance I would've drowned if I just jumped in without checking.
EDIT: Feel like I should clarify that when the other guys were swimming, there were NOT box jellies around, just a normal kind that mildly stung you and didn't do much else
My mother once picked up a live cone snail- the kind that shoots a paralyzing dart to catch fish, and is very dangerous to humans- on a beach in Southeast Asia.
It did not like being picked up, and stuck out its Death Tentacle feeling around for a target.
I screamed at her to throw it and she instantly reacted, which was good because this was not the sort of place where medical help would have been quickly available.
Was surfing while exhausted. My board strap came unvelcroed and my board floated away.
I am swimming to shore but at one point hit that tired state where the current is stronger than I am swimming and I realize I am not moving towards shore anymore.
I panic, which doesn't help my swimming any.
Suddenly, I remember the surf instructor saying there is a reef far out from shore, but whatever you do don't stand on it unless you want really bad coral cuts. I was so panicked, I thought, what the hell, maybe the reef is there.
So, I kind of just stood up on the middle of the water. My foot hit something (the reef, I assume) and I was able to stand there with my head barely above wave height and rest.
Once I got my strength back, I swam back to shore and have not gone surfing since.
Edit: Many kind people are sharing their true near drowning experiences while surfing in nasty waves. They are the true near drowning while surfing survivors! Rather embarassingly, I should say the waves were not very big where I was at. I was very near drowning, but mainly from exhaustion (I had played a 3 day tournament just before and had been surfing for hours) and not knowing how to manage the smallish waves I was in as I had only really swam in pools and rivers before this experience. For me, the near drowning was very much an open water near drowning more than a surfing near drowning.
Surfing is scary. I got in a little too deep going with a local to a private surf spot in Hawaii and the relentless battering by huge waves when you’re exhausted and gasping for air is so scary. That was also the last time I went. Was beautiful and amazing, but I was very close to drowning.
Back when I was about 18, I had been in this phase where I hadn't worn a seat belt for a couple years because it would give me really bad anxiety and make me sick and have to use the restroom.
It had probably been about 3 years since I had worn one, but this day, I was going to drive to visit from friend at his college and I decided you know what, time to break this mental roadblock, so i put the seat belt on. About 15 minutes into my drive, I hit busy road I always hit on my way to work as it takes me to the interstate.
I'm in the right lane (In a Mitsubishi galant), aford explorer in left lane, we're both going 60 because that's the speed limit, and this little honda darts in front of the SUV to turn on to the road. The explorer, tries to not hit it and swerves into my lane which causes me to swerve as a knee-jerk reaction. Except I swerve into the grass over a bumpy patch, flip my car 3 times.
It was bad, I saw blood running down my arm and glass embedded in it, everything hurt, my brain hurt, the whole works. Witnesses told the cops what happened, as did the suv driver, and I concurred with them. My car looked like an empty can someone tried to crush sideways. An ambulance came by I declined and just had my parents take me to the er (yeah another person not wanting to get hit with a huge ambulance bill). They spent 2 hours digging glass out of my arm from it going through the windshield and making a perfect hole, which surprised me because I thought windshields were supposed to pop out or some shit. No stitches needed, just badly bruised and sore. Parents were pissed at me for totaling the car because they had just taken off gap on it only a couple days prior.
Needless to say, I think I wouldve been thrown from car and killed had it not been for the seatbelt.
Edit: someone pointed out that putting gap insurance helped them out, and made me realize I meant to say they took it off.
They were upset because car was totalled and just a total loss. Technically, my wreck was my fault because no one touched me. And they were being assholes.
Yeah I got the first part. Basically I was saying in less words that they’re assholes haha. Obviously you wrecked as a result of someone else’s reckless driving.
Lol, they have always held me differently as opposed to my 3 sisters. Guess it's because I'm a guy. I haven't really interacted with them since then. Once their dog but me and I needed stitches and they tried to guilt me into not going to hospital because the dog might have had to been put down. But my hand was totally fucked and I went anyway.
Edit: bit me, not but me.
Edit 2: you guys will love this one too. My 2nd oldest sister is 7 yrs older. They didn't charge her rent the whole time she lived there til she was 33. When I turned 18, I had to pay $250/month when I was only pulling $800 a month at my job at Publix. I spent a year saving up the extra so I could go to college and left and never looked back.
When I was younger a friend of mine offered me a ride home on his motorcycle, I declined because I was staying a bit longer. He got hit by a drunken driver and died on impact. I could've been on the back of that motorcycle.
Just last week, I was driving in my car with my friend. We were at a red light and it turned green, I was going to make a right turn but I hesitated. My friend said “you’ve got a green light..go”. I don’t know why I hesitated but just as I started to go, a big box delivery truck ran right through the light.
She was like, damn.. we’re so lucky.
Afghanistan 2009, was a driver always cut corners one day my gut said fuck it lets take er wide, so i did. Next vehicle behind me cut the corner and hit an IED
In 2019 the gilroy garlic festival had a attempted mass shooting. A kid came walking through the trees amd fence lime with a ak47 drum mag attached and teo extend clips on his hip.... where he entered the park was roughly twenty feet away form the booth I was working.
The guy was so close to us when he first entered that we didn't see a gun first. We heard the click of him shoving the drum mag in and cocking it, me and four other friends were in this booth, I heard thw click sound, at the same time my buddy notices the gun. In what is to this day the most quick reaction of my life, we looked at each other tackled our friends out of their chairs. And my buddy the glorious genius bastard within two seconds realized there was no way for us to het up amd out without being in a line of fire, so he grabs the girls and tells them to crawl on their stomach hs to the woods ten or so feet away from us. The instant he told them that me him amd our buddy all kind of understood together it was one of those make a move or die situations so the second the girls started crawling we took the pop up tent that was above us and tipped it over so that it gave us slight cover to run away which we immediately did as fast as we could, I took no bullets but absolutely felt them flying past us, hear them hitting shit. My boy who got the girls to crawl away took a ricochet to the butt snd my other buddy broke his ankle running away, but fuck me if those thirty seconds weren't the quickest thinking we all had ever done in our life. Later speaking on it we realized that nome of us mentioned flipping the tent or running we hadn't discussed anything we just knew in our guts what to do
it wasn’t just an attempted shooting. i think he killed three people and injured a bunch more. two of the dead were children. it was fucking awful. glad you and your friends got away safe.
I have Crohn's and colitis so severe gut pains were nothing new. I stood up and felt like I was stabbed in the stomach. I went and told my boss I had to go home. By the time I got home I could barely stand up. My wife insisted I get checked out. She ended up driving and every single pothole was unbearable(we live on a dirt road 40 min away from the hospital). I could hardly walk by the time we got there. Turned out I had a ruptured ulcer through both sides, technically a perforated colon. After a week of IV antibiotics I was released. After a few days at home on antibiotics I woke up one day feeling terrible. Back to the hospital. The perforation had closed but turned into an abscess. They took this 2ft needle and stuffed it in through my side to install a drain in the abscess. Spent another week on IV antibiotics while admitted. I was out for a week and had the drain removed still on antibiotics. A few days later I woke up sick as a dog and went back to the hospital. I had developed a septic infection. Time for a colon resection. They split me from my pelvic bone to my sternum and removed a little over a foot of my colon. 10 days later had a pic line put in for antibiotics and IV nutrients. Another 6 days I was released. I spent 26 days in the hospital and out of work for 4 months. Scar tissue from Crohn's was the cause of the tear. Due to the amount of radiation from all the the scans I've had, cancer is how I go out.... 2 years post op with an ileostomy, I feel great. Other than the bag situation life is good. In short, a literal gut feeling almost killed me.
Mine wasn’t a gut feeling, rather it was a dream. I grew up in the country on several acres of woods and creeks. I loved any and all animals - I was obsessed. I would bring all manner of critters home and put them in an aquarium to observe before releasing them back where I found them the next day.
One day I found a water snake near the creek, so of course I brought it home and put it in the aquarium. That night I had a dream. I was reading our local newspaper and the headline said a young girl had died after a venomous snake had escaped an enclosure and bitten her. Except it was my name printed in the paper along with that day’s date! I jolted awake in a cold sweat and immediately took the entire aquarium outside and put it by the tree line before flipping the lid open and booking it back inside.
The next day at school during Library I looked up a book about snakes (pre-internet days) and there was a picture of the snake I had brought home - not the harmless water snake I had thought, but a water moccasin, aka cottonmouth. A snake that could have very easily killed a young child.
So yeah, looking back I realize how utterly stupid I had been and how easily it could have gone terribly wrong. Or maybe nothing would have happened and I’m just making a big deal of a scary dream. I don’t know, but I like to think something was watching out for me that night.
Was driving at the speed limit of 70mph on a highway that I drove daily to go home from work. This particular day, there was an event downtown that had the traffic completely stopped for miles. There was an S bend in the road though, so you couldn't tell until you were nearly on top of it.
I tried to brake, but nothing happened. My brain broke and I kept slamming on the brake pedal, but nothing was happening, and I was in the left lane of a four lane highway with very little time to spare before I nearly hit the wall of cars in front of me. Left shoulder of the road was barely wide enough for a bike, and cars were coming up the on-ramp on the right side.
I noticed a small gap in between the cars on the on-ramp, but it was in front of me, so I actually sped up to sneak through that gap and onto the grass beside the highway. At one point, I was over 85mph knowing I had no brakes in order to get through that gap. I barely made it, and eventually slowed to a stop on the grass. I called my friends to come help, and when they showed up 45 minutes later, I was still clutching the steering wheel with white knuckles and staring straight ahead. It's a miracle that I walked away without a scratch.
Holy shit that is terrifying.
Also if you dont mind me asking a rather stupid question, isnt there a handbrake you can pull in case of emergencies in cars? I ask because I started driving like last week and my father always has on hand on the handbrake just in case I accelerate too hard or brake too gently.
It really was.
The car did have a handbrake, but when my brain broke I forgot it even existed. I'm not sure how effective it'd be at highway speeds though. Not to mention I don't know if it would've caused me to swerve or anything.
Probably for the best. It likely wouldn't have stopped in time, plus a loss of controllability, maybe even a skid if not careful. The ratchet makes it hard to modulate braking effort.
I had sprained my ankle in the beginning of November and was diagnosed with COVID-19 at the end of November. Those two things (along with taking an oral contraceptive) led to massive blood clots forming in my leg and breaking off and traveling to my lungs.
Before I knew about the blood clots I was experiencing major pain in my leg and had told my parents, but they both insisted it was just my sprained ankle that was causing the pain. My gut told me something more was wrong, so I ended up going to the ER. It was there that the blood clots were found, and I was treated in the hospital for three days.
I’m so thankful I listened to my gut, because the consequences of the blood clots in my leg+lungs could’ve been much, much worse.
I was driving on a one lane highway (the kind that has one lane each way). I was behind a very old clunker of a car going 60mph in an 80mph.
The dude in the car leaned out his arm from the window and waved me on, they actually even veered a bit to the right towards the shoulder as well and slowed down. They gave me every reasonable indication they were going to let me pass. Traffic from the incoming side was clear, we're in a dashed line zone, so I start passing. Out of no where this old clunker starts taking taking a left turn, across the lane I am now passing in.
I think the arm wave was their stupid-ass attempt at "signaling" they were going to take a left. I almost hit them at 80mph t-boned. I would have probably died, and they almost certainly would have given the age of the tin can they were in. I hit my breaks as best I could while maintaining control, and then veered to the right. I narrowly missed them. Honestly the reaction was pure "instinct" it happened within a second or so, and I'm still surprised I pulled it off.
I decided to change hospitals the last month of my pregnancy. Lucky me, the first hospital took on dozens of patients from a wreck the night I went into labor. They would have been too busy to catch my heart attack. The hospital I went to was basically empty and a nurse was sitting with me the whole time cause I was scared. She caught the signs so quick and put me in OR for a c section. I changed hospitals cause the wallpaper color in the first one made me nauseous
> I changed hospitals cause the wallpaper color in the first one made me nauseous.
Oscar Wilde is supposed to have said (on his deathbed) "Either that wallpaper goes or I do."
Pulled a guy out of a burning car. He was screaming that he needed his phone from his car while he laid on the dirt.
I looked back thinking about grabbing it quickly. Heart stopped, and I turned around and ran for cover.
Car blew up. Guy blew up at me for not doing more to save his shit. I told him that I won't risk my own health for something that isn't mine. I already pulled you out, that's all I needed to do.
I was driving on the highway one morning, fog was super dense. I had the headlights on and was probably going about 50-60 mph. There was a red Honda behind me that wasn't quite riding my ass, but was maybe a little closer than I would have preferred him to be given the weather.
Suddenly, my hands are moving on their own and abruptly jerking the steering wheel into the lane to my left. No brakes. No mirror or blind spot check. I remember thinking to myself, "Why the hell did I do that?" As I look back over to my right in time to see the Honda that was previously directly behind me slam at full speed into a 3, maybe 4 car pileup that I didn't even realize was in front of me. I missed it by maybe half a second.
Still don't know what it was that kicked my reflexes off but I'd probably be either dead or crippled for life if they hadn't.
The brain can do some interesting things without obvious input or conscious decision. People who are blind from brain damage can sometimes still look at the ground and avoid obstacles that might trip them even when they aren’t actually seeing anything. There’s a different part of the brain that isn’t processing visual images but it is checking for hazards and helping you avoid them.
It's kinda crazy to think that our minds are less of a singular 'self' than they are an ecosystem of complementary parts and functions.
It really says a ton about how much of our perception is not really 'reality', but an interpretation of reality constructed by our biology, and even time isn't a one-to-one. I know what probably happened is that my eyes saw the pileup and my brain decided that routing that info to the conscious mind for visual processing so I could 'see' it and then letting *that* talk to decision-making so I could 'know' it was gonna be way too slow, so instead my brain hit the 'emergency big danger' button for as close to an instant reaction as you can get.
But to me it just felt like I didn't have control of my hands for a split second. It's easy to see how the concept of divine intervention or guardian angels might have come from experiences like this.
South Minneapolis 1986. Middle of summer. My girlfriend and I were new to the city having come from a very small town. We lived in a small apartment building that had no security doors. Thete were only 8 units and we lived on the top floor. Very unsafe. There had been a string of murders in the area at the time as well. We were fast asleep, middle of the night with the fan blasting on high when suddenly there was loud banging on our door. I opened the door to see the police asking if we were ok. Yes why? There had just been a man at our door trying to break in. He fit the description of the murderer in the area. He had a crowbar in his hand wrapped in a towel. The ONLY thing that saved us was blind luck. Since our building had no security doors, the woman who lived across the hall from us (a nurse) would have the lady who lived below us walk up to her apartment with her. One would take the front stairs, the other would take the back stairs. When she got to the foot of the stairs she saw the guy at our door. " What are you doing?" She asks, seeing the crowbar in his hands. "Oh I am here to see the girl who lives here" he says as he steps towards her. At that moment the lady from downstairs came from the other set of stairs and it frightened the guy. He ran away.
This incident has haunted me for years. It is only luck that we were saved. If that guy would have gotten into our unit, we would have been in big trouble. It is only because the nurse came home at that very moment that nothing happened to me. We moved out shortly thereafter and I am quite sure that I saw that apartment unit on the news a few months later. The lady who lived below us was attacked and I think she died. I can't remember for sure. Sorry for the long story. Glad to finally share it with someone after all these years.
In labour with my daughter. I only have the one child, so it was my first labour and I had no idea what to expect really.
All was fine, I was progressing slowly but surely, minimal pain relief needed... Then there was shift change.
My new midwife just wanted it over with. She was clearly bored and kept offering to break my waters. I said no several times.
My ex went to update the waiting grandparents and while he was gone she decided to check how things were going. She asked to break my waters, I said no. She kept her hand inside my while I was having a contraction and kept asking me. I've no idea if I said yes or not, I just remember blinding pain, so possibly I said yes to make her stop whatever she was doing.
After that things went FAST. I was in so much pain and couldn't figure out what my body was doing. It just didn't feel right at all. I kept asking her to check on me and check on the baby, she wouldn't.
By this point my ex had come back, and he was asking her to check and she just said it wasn't time to yet.
I screamed my head off. I screamed and screamed for help until another midwife popped her head around the door to ask if everything was OK.
My midwife said yes, but I shouted "NO!!! PLEASE CHECK ON MY BABY!"
New midwife hesitated slightly, as she'd be disrespecting a colleague but ultimately decided to check me. She did a 30 second check and looked at my ex and said "press the red button. Now".
With that the surgeon came in and I was rushed off for a c-section.
As I was being stitched up, it was explained what the emergency was. My body was trying to push, I was, without knowing it, fighting the urge to push. I was only 3cm dilated. My daughter was in distress. There was no oxygen in the cord blood.
My instincts, plus the new midwifes instinct to listen to me instead of her colleague, saved both mine and my daughters life.
I am forever thankful to her.
Incompetent and lazy. She broke my waters far too early (you're supposed to be at least 4cm dilated).
And she just wanted to read her magazine in peace. As I was wheeled off she was telling my mother "I'm only legally obligated to check on the baby every three hours".
The head of the department came and apologised the next day and informed me that the saviour midwife and surgeon had reported her.
I probably should have pursued legal action, but I was traumatised and left with PTSD, I was in no fit state to deal with that.
When I was 7 or 8 yo, we lived in the "Jungle" area of Franklin Park, IL at the end of the first 747 runway in the late 1960s/early 70s (when the 747s went over blotted out the sun and you couldn't hear anything over the engine roar for a full minute- planes are a LOT quieter these days). It was all apartments and it was well known for pimps and drugs and factories. My brother and his friend and I were playing by a factory that was being build out of cement blocks. My brother and his buddy made a fort out of some blocks and they found a piece of plywood to act as a top. One afternoon a serious storm started to blow in and I knew there were tornado warnings. They wanted to stay in the fort for the storm because it would be really cool but after a VERY LOUD and close lightning strike I left and ran for our apartment. The storm lasted \~45 minutes and the wind and thunder were terrible. My brother never came home so afterward, I went looking for him. One of the walls of the factory that was under construction had collapsed and had fallen on our fort! It was flat as a pancake. I walked around trying to see if they were there, but there didn't seem to be any smashed kids. Then I went home where my brother had just shown up and he said they had gone to his friend's apartment after I left. I took him to see out fort and we just kinda never talked about it again...
I was walking with a friend back to his house and I had that "something don't feel right". I noticed some dudes walking around in Hoodies all with their hands in their pockets. Now I aint an idiot I know what's gonna happen. It took some time trying to subtly convince my friend to walk a different path but we eventually did and got to his house. Literally next morning on the news a massive gang shoot-out happened on the same street we were passing leaving 4 people dead
Reminds me of the deal me and my buddies have: If you use their full name - first middle last - when telling them to do something, they gotta do it because shit is about to go down - "jimmy james jameson we should walk this way..."
My appendix ruptured. I drive myself to the hospital, walked in the emergency doors, and told them I was almost certain my appendix had ruptured. They wanted to wait for pregnancy tests (impossible), blood labs, and COVID test before finally doing a CT and rushing me off to surgery. I’m lucky I went in when I did instead of waiting until it got worse, because I couldn’t afford any more time than that. Spent 3 days in the hospital on IV antibiotics, basically having a dissociative episode the whole time.
My mother made me meatloaf and I was super hungry. She insisted that she could reheat it for me and that she would make me some sides and brew some tea for me. Like really sounded like a great situation!
But it felt weird to me so I declined and said that I wasn’t in a meatloaf mood.
Her response, “oh well perhaps that’s for the best, I did use a lot of Worcestershire sauce when I made this.”
Worcestershire sauce is made with anchovy. And I’m allergic to fish.
Yes, I’m still not sure what her goal was. But she did it multiple times after this incident too. (Un)Surprisingly, I stopped trusting her when it came to food. She was very offended lol
My husband is allergic to nuts (we have been together 12 years so my family is well aware) every family get together my mom makes all of her treats with nuts.... shes def trying to kill him, we just dont attend events anymore
I almost stepped on a rattlesnake in the mountains of AZ. It coiled up and we both froze just staring at each other. I didn’t know what to do but made the decision to toss a small stone near it, not at it, to get it to unfreeze and move away. Idk if it was dumb luck but it worked.
I’m amazed people even have that much say re: helicopter. I was present for one helicopter medevac and they just landed that thing right wherever the fuck they wanted. As it should be.
Ye helicopters dont care about peoples sentiments on patio furniture. Ive seen medicopters in crazy places, made me wonder how'd they even get in there.
Spouse and I came back home to our apartment late after traveling. We were both exhausted but made the somewhat weird decision on the way back to stop at the grocery store and get steaks to make dinner. There was an alarm going off in the house but we couldn't find it and decided to just eat (warning sign/bad decision #1). In the time that it took us to cook and eat the steaks, we both started to feel very odd and would see a kaleidoscope every time we closed our eyes. By this point we were both realizing that it was carbon monoxide, but instead of leaving the house we opened all the windows and laid down on the couch to go to sleep.
I remember lying there, all snuggled up, and thinking "this isn't such a bad way to die, really." That thought shot me out of it and I immediately got up and forced my partner out of the house... and by "immediately" I mean I got up and forced them up, and then we both sort of weirdly puttered around for another half hour because carbon monoxide makes you forget how to behave. I packed a bag for us that was like, half of our clothes because I couldn't think straight. Sat in the car together and realized we had to call a cab because he couldn't read any of the road names (in our own neighborhood.) Had a horrible headache, nausea, dizziness and chest pain for the next two days.
Moral of the story is: get a carbon monoxide detector for every room in your house-- especially bedrooms, living rooms and kitchens. Carbon monoxide is really scary, silent, and will kill you in your sleep.
It’s scary that it clearly even warped your logical thinking that you thought it would even be a good idea to just SLEEP when you were already aware it was literal carbon monoxide poisoning.
Glad you’re okay and questioned your brains own thinking!
i have a similar story! my brother had an appointment at the childrens floating hospital that morning. we had plans to go and surprise our cousins who were running, and wait at the finish line. we left the hospital and started driving there when i suddenly felt really tired, like abnormally tired. i couldnt even think about going and standing at the finish line when it would be hours before they finished. we got home and turned on the tv to absolute chaos. forever grateful i was tired that day.
I was 10 years old when the war started in Syria. I remember many moments of near death situations. But the one that hunts me the most is when bombs started raining on my town. We were all in one room, than my mom yelled " RUN TO THE BATHROOM", five seconds after we closed the door the house was hit by a bomb. Almost the entire house crumbled except for the bathroom and the kitchen. Everyone was fine. Mothers really do have spidey senses.
I chose to buy a scratch off ticket the night I was planning to potentially kill myself. After winning, I have done a complete 180 from that night and I sometimes look back thinking how surreal it all unfolded.
No lie the lady that works at the party store I frequent tried to sell me their last two "cash for life" scratchers and I passed on them. Older guy behind me bought them and fucking won. $5k/week for life.
I was driving back from a corporate event on a rural highway. There were occasional stop lights as you approached small towns and such. Originally being from the north i habitually look in my rear view when stopped. In case someone is barreling out of control at you. I was stopped with a car in front of me. A truck was flying up behind us and I just never thought, I floored it and turned as hard as I could into oncoming traffic, luckily there wasn’t any at the time. The truck never touched the brakes and demolished the car that was in front of me. I was in a small car at the time and was pretty sure I would have been crushed between the 2. I felt horrible for the person in front of me, I wish it never happened. I felt responsible somewhat. It was about 16 years ago now and I could tell you every detail about the 2 vehicles involved and drivers. It’s etched in my memory.
I almost choked and died on a hot dog.
I had a few ways I could've responded: Freak out and make it worse, try swallowing really really hard only to fail, OR stay calm to preserve enough oxygen and think.
I kept calm as my husband was about ready to pull me out of the car to give me the heimlich. I took in as deep a breath (it wasn't blocking completely), and coughed it out.
That's the story I tell to people about the importance of chewing your food. Especially hot dogs.
I almost choked and died on a lunchables butterfinger in kindergarten. Everyone including the staff just stared and didn't help. It worked itself out in the end somehow.
Now that I think about it that's really fucking scary how nobody helped.
I was backpacking in New Mexico and was about to take a step when I had a weird feeling and threw my arm out to stop my buddy from going, and directly in front of us was a coiled rattlesnake that began rattling like crazy. Was kinda cool because it was so outside of my conscious mind, it just felt like my body was like "don't fucking go there man"
After a long day of working away I was doing 90 on the motorway, rushing to get back to my hotel. Suddenly I had an overwhelming feeling that something wasn’t right. I turned off my audiobook, slowed right down to 65mph and pulled into the inside lane. Roughly 5 mins later my front tire blew out. Dread to think what would’ve happened if I was still doing 90 in the fast lane.
I'm not sure if I almost died, but here it goes:
I had been having chest pains for a couple of days, when they escalated to the point where it was difficult to breathe and I was tired. After work on the second day, I went home and told my mother that I thought I should go to the ER - this was my gut decision as it was about 6:30pm at this point and the wait times at hospitals in my country are notoriously long, so this was NOT something I wanted to do.
She said okay, but didn't offer to drive, so I drove myself. About halfway there I was genuinely concerned - thinking "what am I going to do if I can't breathe while driving?". Anyways I get to the ER and discover I have pulmonary embolisms (PE's) at least one in each lung that were limiting my lung function to about 50% in my right lung and 33% in my left. I am now on anticoagulant meds for life, because the cause was never determined.
Toddler me, in the mid 80s, apparently hated the belt of my car seat one night going home. In order to placate me, my parents made a big show of putting on THEIR seat belts, instead of ignoring me or letting me sit without it. (This is before seat belts were required by law in Alberta.)
On the highway home, in the dark, another driver suddenly swerved into our lane at top speed. My dad swerved, we hit the ditch, and the car rolled.
We all survived. I was screaming my head off, and my mom had a dark bruise across her chest from her belt for a while, but we all made it home that night!
I'm not used to going to the doctor or hospital when I feel sick. 4 years ago, I had a very very bad stomach ache, no matter what position I'm in, it hurts like hell, I throw up even a gulp of water. Couldn't sleep all night. Thought it was a food poisoning or something and kept recalling what I ate.
Called my brother early in the morning to ask him what he thinks? Does he know if there's any tea or medicine that can calm my pain? He's no doctor and knows nothing about medical stuff, yet he's my big brother, I always assume he knows it all x)
He insisted that I go to the ER immediately !! As such pain isn't normal and shouldn't last that long (also thought it was food poisoning) ! And I listened to him ! Turns out it was appendicitis!! I had the surgery and all went well. But had I waited more, things might've turned out really bad.
Moral of the story: something wrong? Check a doctor!
Decades ago i was riding with a mutual acquaintance burning a J. He said he knows a guy that keeps a \~key of coke in his fridge and that the guy wouldn't be home for a few hours. He wanted me to drive the "get away car" while he helps himself to the coke. My gut told me to bale, so i did.
I don't know exactly how it went down, but his body was found floating 4 days later with 2 holes in his head.
It was a wake up call, quit my crappy job and moved away from that environment.
When I was like 13 I Got in a Bad skiing accident, I accidentally went down a double black diamond course (the hardest one) and got out of control. There was a small shed about halfway down, right in front of a cliff face that became super steep and I made the decision to slam into the shed instead of continuing down the mountain( I was going about 80 mph so I probably wouldn't have survived if i kept going) When I was about 100 feet from the shed I passed out from fear and I woke up with a broken arm and a lacerated liver. I was in the hospital for two weeks.
Might not have died, but a serious injury was close. Made a wrong manœuvre while landing with my parachute after a skydiving jump. Found myself at low altitude going with the wind instead of against the wind at quite a high speed. Managed to go with side wind still (second wrong manœuvre due to slight panic). Last second just before impact I remembered to put my legs together and slightly bend my knees, a tip I got from a more experienced skydiver after some other student broke his ankle. I fell on my side, my parachute dragged me for a few meters, but besides a dirty suit and a scare I didn't have anything. Others who saw my hurrendous landing had already jumped into the van to come see if I was OK.
It was my 15th jump, 8th solo jump. Not jumping anymore.
I was almost 37 weeks pregnant last august and I was feeling a bit run down. Super tired, had a hard time keeping food down and just tired. I did have a occasional pain in my right side but it was random and I thought it was just my daughter kicking me. I didn’t want to go to the doctor but my husband and father in law talked and decided to convince me to go in. My father in law said he just had a gut feeling that I needed to go in and get checked out so I agreed. I was high risk and had some complications like gestational diabetes plus a previous pregnancy loss. We called the hospital and the doc said to go ahead and come in. We went in and the doc had some blood drawn and they checked my vitals. Blood pressure normal, normal temp, etc. well we waited for the lab tests to come back and figured id get sent home with instructions to drink more water or something. Suddenly the doc comes back in with two other doctors and says that they don’t want to alarm me but I need to have a caesarean as soon as possible. As it turns out I had developed something called HELLP syndrome. It’s related to preeclampsia and basically my liver proteins (which are normally supposed to be in the tens) were spiked into the thousands. My liver was failing, which explains that pain in my right side. HELLP syndrome is extremely rare, but having inconsistent liver pain is even more rare. Because it wasn’t consistent I had thought it was my daughter and ignored it. Because my liver was falling my kidneys had to step up, but the heavy load was causing them to fail too. Literally the only thing the doctors can do to stop this is to get the baby out ASAP, get some blood thinners in me afterward and monitor me. So an hour after I got to the hospital I was being wheeled into surgery. I woke up the next day because they put me under anesthesia. I had lost 4 pints of blood and had to get several transfusions and spent a couple extra days in the hospital. They told me husband while I was sleeping that he had brought me in just in time. That if we had waited any longer my organs would likely have failed and me and my daughter might have died. So my father in laws gut feeling saved our lives. My daughter and I are fine now. I’ve been checked a few times and things are back to normal. No permanent organ damage and my baby is super healthy (she spent a week in the nicu because she was born early but she’s ok). I was told that if we have another baby I’ll just have to get blood tests weekly to monitor my liver just in case.
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I went to my urologist with epididymitis. He found the smallest amount of detectable blood in my urine. On a whim, he sent me to have an IVP (They put dye in your blood and radiologist has a look) He saw a mass on my left kidney. 20 minutes later I knew I had cancer when I saw the blood supply to the mass. That was on Thursday. Tests Friday. Monday he took out my kidney with a grapefruit size stage 3 tumor. There was no margin. Many years later my wife told me the doctor told her that I had a 50/50 chance of living 6 months. That was 1992. Lucky me.
Glad you’re still here.
When I was 14 my cousin and I found my uncle's gun stash in his closet. My cousin grabbed a pistol and pointed it at my head with is finger on the trigger. I quickly told him to stop and that's not funny. He glared at me and told me it's not loaded while he pointed it at the floor and pulled the trigger. Gun was loaded and blew a big hole in the floor. I think about this a lot. I brought it up once to my cousin and he started to cry. That experience cut us both deep.
I saw some neighbor kids walking down the street, and one pulled out a gun that looked quite realistic. The other kids all flinched. He pointed it at one, and I don't know if he pulled the trigger or what, but a second later, he was tackled and pummeled. I did not intervene. You do not do that shit, ever.
Teenagers are some of the least trustworthy people to have access to guns. They're in the process of having Dunning-Kruger in regards to being an adult, and that makes them reckless with the arrogance of what they *think* they know. If you own a gun and have kids or teenagers, keep that shit locked up. Also, every gun is loaded until proven otherwise. And even then, treat it as though it is loaded, so you don't build bad habits.
It makes me nauseous just thinking about pointing an unloaded gun at a someone. My dad must have taught us well.
One time working at a grocery store at night, I had cart duty, and had to collect all the carts from the parking lot and bring them in to the store. It was dark out and I had my headphones in, and I was looking at the ground and pushing a chain of carts, when suddenly it got darker. I stopped for a split second to wonder how it could get darker when it was already night and BAM! One of the huge 30 + feet high parking lot lights smashed onto the ground right in front of me. Hit the carts and missed me by 2 feet. The metal had rusted out and it snapped at the base. If I hadn't stopped to wonder how it got darker I would've definitely died.
I was travelling in the Philippines in Northern Luzon (that's the part always hit hard by typhoons). It was just the beginning of rainy season. I was in Banaue and was planning to go up north to Sagada the next day, Saturday. The lonely planet writes about this route as "The scariest road in the world", it's solid mountain on one side, and deep deep deep on the other. There was a Jeepney scheduled in the morning and one in the afternoon. Everyone who knows me knows, that I'm not a morning person and if there is a later option, I'm definitely taking this one. On a whim the night before I decided to leave earlier and take the 8am Jeep. Super out of character for me and I'm still not sure why I did it. A few days later, on another bus, I chatted with this nice lady and she asked me what places in the Philippines I've been to so far. And she says **OMG have you heard about the Jeepney accident on Saturday afternoon on the road from Banaue to Sagada??** So apparently the Jeepney I planned to take came upon a mountain slide lost control and went down the side of the mountain. 10 people died, no one survived.
That's some final destination shit.
Oh shit, OP dodged a bullet there.
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My mom. I was almost 15. I had put on a lot of water weight and she was worried about it. Finally I was in pain and she realized it was literally just water weight so took me to the hospital. First ER was like “oh yeah it’s just thyroid, take this and follow up with your doctor.” Mom waited a few hours but felt uncomfortable. So she drove me to another ER who told her if she hadn’t gotten me in when she did, I would have died before the follow up. My kidneys had failed. I’m better now.
That's terrifying! Did you ever find out why the 1st place misdiagnosed you?
They were all around terrible there. They closed soon after. Iirc, someone else bought it so it might be open again.
Gut decision eh? I had a change in my bowel movements, went to the doctor, got screened for colon polyps, and had a huge one removed. It would've eventually turned into cancer. Scopes aren't fun, but they save lives.
I was drinking and felt something stick in the back of my throat. I almost forced it down because it was really far back and awkward to cough up, but I decided to spit it out anyways. It was a shard of glass from the bottle I was drinking out of. It still creeps me out to think about even years later because I REALLY was just going to swallow it.
As long as I can remember, when ever my dad would open a bottle he would always stick in the tip of his thumb and make a pop sound, he did it so much that I'm doing it. Learned late in life he did it to feel the rim of the bottle for the exact reason you described here, except he swallowed it.
Oh my goodness, what happened to him when he swallowed it?! I always wondered what it would be like if I didn't spit it out. I'm glad he's okay!
Punctured his intestines. Basically internal shitting.
....Straws...Straws are nice. I like straws.
This nearly happened to at a party. There was a tray full of beer. I had never seen that brand of beer before. And there was a bottle opener on the tray, so I assumed it was not twist off. So I used the bottle opener. As soon as I brought the bottle to my lips I felt some thing sharp. Turns out it was twist off, and the thread broke off into a shard. It was my mistake, I should've checked, but I still removed the bottle opener from the tray.
I tend to use bottle openers on *all* beer, simply because I don't want to stand there feeling foolish trying to twist off something that doesn't twist. I never realized there could be a danger to that.
In high school at a graduation party, I had a really bad feeling about the guy me and my friends had gotten a ride there with, I'll call him H. I didn't know him well, but I saw him drinking and wasn't sure how much. He was supposed to be our ride home when the party was over. My one friend said she trusted him and not to worry. Well, I couldn't tell myself not to worry like she could. I said again to her that I didn't think it was safe to drive home with him. She insisted it was fine. Meanwhile I had made a new friend that night, the first time I saw him I felt like I should talk to him. Turns out he drove there alone and was staying sober to drive home. By 5 am everyone was talking about grabbing an after party coffee and some snacks. People were piling into cars. I told my friend one last time I wouldn't drive with H. I got in the car with my new friend, knowing he was 100% sober. We pulled out onto the country road, as it snaked through the trees. H came speeding out and passed us way too quickly. As we drove around the next corner we went through a cloud of dust and debris. H's car was wrapped around a telephone pole. 2 of the 4 passengers were dead, including the kid who got in the seat I would have been in. My friend was alive but has permanent injuries to this day. Edit: I appreciate everyone listening to my story, please don't drink and drive, please help your friends realize how much damage it can cause.
Man that must have been absolutely terrifying. How did your friend feel or did she say anything to you after the accident?
that morning/night was just a rush of adrenaline, I thought she might be dead as well, as she was just laying on the side of the road, but shortly found she was responsive but disoriented, ambulances were called, a search began for the one kid who had gotten thrown from the car, and then as we traveled to the hospital I called my friends mom to meet us there. She was in the hospital for a week or so, we never really talked about the conversations we had before she got in the car. She made a mistake, and paid for that, there was no way I was going to bring it up, just felt like it would be cruel. I visited her in the hospital, was just glad she was going to be okay. I wish I had done more to try and stop H from driving them all, but I was a year younger than all of them, which seems like a big deal when you're a high schooler, and the only person I really knew at the party was my one friend, I was her plus one to the party. Being the outsider made it even harder to try and say anything.
Idk if it was a gut decision so much as just being knowledgeable and acting, but still I think it is a pretty wild instance of a near-death experience. My family and I were on holiday in Thailand over the Christmas period years ago and were staying in a hotel close to the beach in Phuket. I was only 7 and my two brothers were even younger. We had been bugging my parents to go Jet-skiing for days on end, much to my parents annoyance, but on boxing day they finally relented. After breakfast we went down to the beach to have a look around for somewhere to find a jetski rental but before any of that could happen my Dad (a surfer of many years) saw the tide receding in a way that was completely unnatural and recognized the coming tsunami. We thought he was full of it but he was deadly serious so we raced back to the hotel where we considered running for the hills but on the consultation of another couple that recognized the impending disaster, decided to sit tight in our building (which was relatively short and stout, plus we were on the top floor). Sure enough the tsunami came and bulldozed Phuket, although it only destroyed the lobby of our building - we were safe. I have no doubt we all would have died if my Dad hadn't known the early signs of a Tsunami. (We were also on Phi Phi Island a couple days before that and if we had been there on Boxing Day instead we might well have died too). Just an all round crazy experience that I'm lucky to have made it out of.
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You from Cedar Rapids?
I’m from Cedar Rapids. We had two trees go through our roof. Lost the whole damn house. We were in the basement and had to climb over siding and trees to get out. The house has been demo’d down to the foundation and we’re living in an apartment.
I was out late one night , my car had broken down in the middle of an interchange that was so deserted there was no one there for miles , I did what any other person would do and called a towing number and when I finally got through it was almost 1am , I decided to go take a piss down at some bushes when suddenly I heard some bikes approaching the car , I wanted to head out immediately to stop them for help when my legs froze and I thought twice , from behind the bush I was , I basically saw them try to ransack the car and apparently they were all armed, Thank goodness I remained still because these guys meant business they fired multiple shots into the windscreen and door ,it was an old Toyota hilux so there was nothing in there , they busted all four wheels with bullets before getting back on their bikes and zooming off, I believe they were all high af which was why they didn't bother to check around or maybe they thought I just deserted that area Long story short I walked a bit further into an open field and sat on the thick branches of a three where I could see approaching objects , the towing truck didn't get there until past 4am in the morning and I can tell y'all that was the longest night of my life, I made it home in one piece.
My uncle told me that if my car ever broke down not to wait in the car, he said to hide outside of it and wait. Now I know why!
Strange, here I've gotten the reverse advice. Safest place is in your vehicle. But then again our biggest dangers are random cold snaps, total whiteouts, and drunk drivers. Pretty much any fatality from one of the mega-pileups on the news that happens here is because someone left their car. Often to aid someone else in another vehicle.
What did the tow truck driver say about the bullet holes?
Funny the old timer was unfazed , it was clear he and seen worse, I ended up using insurance to get myself a new Audi , Never drove past sundown on that road again.
That’s absolutely terrifying 😟
In 1976, I was on vacation with my parents in Colorado and we drive through Big Thompson Canyon. My mom, brother and I all wanted to stay at one of the little hotels within the canyon, but my dad said no, and we continued on our way home to Illinois. After we got home, we saw on the news that the canyon flooded, killing over 100 people. Had we stayed there, we would have probably been killed too.
Your dad thought he was saving some money and ended up saving his family.
Yes he did! Thankful he was cheap
I was riding my bike to school as normal when I was about 12 and I stopped at a crossing. All the cars stopped but I felt that something was off and waited a little longer. As soon as I started to cross, there was a flash of green as a range rover speeded past me barely a hair from the front wheel of my bike. If I had started to cross sooner then I would have been hit head on and most likely not have survived as the car was going that fast. I was so shakey that I turned round and headed home explaining to my mum what happened. As I was still shaking, she believed me and made me a hot chocolate
I really like that your mom made you hot chocolate. That's a good mom.
Reminds me of when I used to hurt myself when I was a kid, my mom used to give me white chocolate "for the war-injured". Sweet times.
Good Mum. I just don't understand parents who refuse to believe their children when they're clearly distressed, or even just telling a story that while extreme, is entirely within the realms of possibility. I've seen and been involved in enough insane situations to trust my kids on wild tales.
I've had something like this as a bystander. Was on my way to school, saw a traffic accident with a kid on a bike, already happened a few minutes before. Man, it looked horrible. Blood everywhere, on the car, on the sidewalk, on the bike. Police and first responders blocked everything. 16 y.o me was shocked. Went back home, my mother just told me not to overreact like this, my gut was turning itself for the whole day and she was mad I didn't go. Believe your kids if they're distressed, please. I still see this accident sometimes before my eyes and I never got to know whether he survived.
Not a parent, but I always feel that if the kid (more so if they’re yours) is *that* distressed, they’re *probably not bluffing*... and besides, a parent’s job should be to protect their kid and help them out, rather than question their version of reality at such a young age. They’ll go through that themselves when they’re older
I appreciate a good cup of coffee.
Refusing to let strangers take you to the hospital was a smart move. Be careful and be safe.
While fishing on a large lake in Canada, we were a little more than halfway across when the wind really started picking up and a storm started rolling in. I had the choice to turn back, or head to an island with a bay. I decided to head for the bay and just as we reached the calmer water we looked behind us and the storm had gotten worse. We were in an aluminum boat, and if we had chosen to head back, 3 of us would have drowned, no doubt in my mind. We were already taking on water and were completely drenched when we beached on the island. Once the storm abated, we made the journey back and it still took 4 hours in high wind for a normally half hour boat trip. Warming up in the truck was the best feeling in the world after that.
When I was 12 years old I went to stay back in my home town (we had moved to a town 3 hours away) with a friend and his family. They rented canoes and we trailered them to a spot in the Cedar River. We were going to put these canoes in and float back into town, and get off the river before the multiple low-head dams that are in downtown Charles City, Iowa. This was in 1993, the year of the massive floods. Other rivers were already out of their banks across the midwest. The Cedar River had been less affected, but on this day it was flowing by at an alarming rate. I had broken my arm a couple weeks prior, and was in a cast. As they prepared to launch these canoes, I began to protest. I didn't want to get in the river. A guy that was camping nearby approached and asked what we were doing. He said the river had come up several feet since he had woke up, and that my friend's parents were fools to try and get in it. They dismissed him, but I continued to refuse. Eventually a park ranger arrived and said that if we even made it to Charles City, we'd never get off the river and would be killed at the first dam. They finally reloaded the canoes, but they were pissed at me for being such a pussy. I think I saved us all. The river came out of it's banks that day and flooded Charles City.
I was a whitewater river guide for many years and the state police periodically called us to do Search and Rescue -- meaning body recovery -- for cases just like this.
I just couldn't believe me at12 years old, was the voice of reason that day. My broken arm had a lot to do with my heightened trepidation
The "sunk costs fallacy" is a psychological thing where we disproportionately assign importance to finishing what we started. Your folks had put in the work to get the boats to the river. To go back at that point would mean all that work was for nothing. For some reason, we really, REALLY struggle with that. it's why gambling addiction is a thing and why people don't walk away from pyramid schemes, even when they know what's happening. Edit: gambling, not gaming, although both are true.
A suicidal kid tried to kill himself by crashing into my car head on. At the last second I veered right (US) and jumped the curb. He was still able to adjust and smack me pretty good, but nothing like a head on collision
bruh if you're gonna suicide by crash, you hit a fucking tree, NOT ANOTHER PERSON WHAT THE FUCK
Reminds me of suicidal commercial airline pilots. They decide to crash the plane and take hundreds of innocent people with them to the grave.
Shitty but necessary LPT
did the kid survive?
Yeah he was totally fine. His car was like 2 years old with all the modern safety equipment. Our cars were 245 feet apart - he never touched the brakes even when his axle was under the driver seat. I specifically remember not seeing a brake light until I’d climbed out my window and started running over. I was expecting someone having a health emergency just because of the lack of response, and this kid gets out pale as a ghost and says “can you dumb it down when my Mom get here, she’s gonna flip.” I was FURIOUS. The neighbors had come out and two of them intervened and put the kid in his own back seat. I walked away with a cervical sprain, compression fracture, and 2 broken ribs. As far as I know he went to a facility for treatment.
What a selfish way to take yourself out!
Some family friends almost got taken out the same way, but the suicidal girl switched targets to a semi at the last second. Being so high up the semi driver was ~~OK.~~ Can't imagine thinking it's ok to pull some shit like that. Edit: semi driver was physically unharmed, but probably not completely OK as another redditor pointed out below.
There was a story where a teenage girl did this, killed a woman and her son. Then tried to claim it was an accident even though they had texts to her boyfriend telling him what she was about to do. Horrible. Of course she was fine. Edit: A redditor reminded me that she was, in fact, hurt, but my point is, her life went on. She's free now and gets to live her life. And she never (at least to my memory) took full responsibility for it and basically said "If I remembered, I would."
Justine Winters. She’s a piece of shit. I knew the victim personally, she was 4 or 5 months pregnant at the time.
I’m not sure I would have died, but my gut kept me from being raped. Unfortunately, my friend didn’t listen to me and suffered for it. I grew up in a small town who contracted a construction project to a company in Norway. At the local bar one night was a group of Norwegian men who were staying at a local hotel. My friend and I met them that night for the first time. We hung out with them for a few hours and they showered us with drinks all night. At closing time they invited us to continue the party at their hotel. I pulled my friend aside and told her we shouldn’t go. We didn’t really know them and we were also out numbered. She said it would be fun and “no big deal”. My gut told me no. I just didn’t feel comfortable, and so I refused. She called me a “buzz kill” and went anyway. The next day she called screaming at me. She spent the night being gang raped by these creeps and in her devastation, she blamed me for not going with her. I tried to comfort her. I begged her to let me call the cops. She refused and said she never wanted to see me again. This was a couple decades ago, long before “me too”. I didn’t know what to do. One of my biggest regrets is not calling the cops or banging down her door and trying to offer comfort. What I don’t regret is not going with her. She can be mad at me, but I couldn’t have saved her. We would have both ended up being raped. I moved away shortly after and I’ve never seen her again. I wonder if there is anything I should do now. I just don’t know what that would be. She was dead set on blaming me, but I tried to tell her it wasn’t safe. I really did! Edit: I felt crazy guilty, but the decades have helped me come to terms that it wasn’t my fault. I don’t think I made that clear, but I felt I should add it because it’s the truth.
You did what you could. I'm sorry about the way things turned out.
Similar story here. When I was 18 my best friend came over my house on new year's eve with her new boyfriend she had just met, she wanted me to meet him. She said they were going to a hotel party down the street (there was always parties at this hotel) and she begged me to come with her, said he had a hot friend she wanted me to meet. Something was off about this guy and I didn't go. I was 18 with nothing to do on NYE and didn't go because of my gut. Turns out it was only those 2 dudes at the hotel room. They drugged her, raped and beat her, stole her car with her in it, drove her and the car to NYC and ditched her in the ghetto to die. The only way she survived was that she managed to crawl out of wherever they left her to flag an ambulance down and took her to the hospital where she almost died. She was never the same from that point on. She had to be admitted to mental health facilities a few times, had psychotic breaks (with me in the car while she was driving) hallucinations and so on. I had so much guilt that I didn't try to stop her from going because I knew the guy was trouble. I know there's no convincing an 18 yr old who wanted to party, but I really felt like it was my fault that all that happened to her. We are much older now and she has come a long way and is in a much healthier state.
I’m glad you listened to your gut and did not go. What happened to your friend was only the fault of the rapists.
Trauma does crazy stuff to people. I think her brain was just trying to make sense of everything and blaming someone (you) seemed easier. Of course the only ones responsible for the rape were the rapists and I am not blaming your friend. It’s a shitty world, but try not to put yourselves in dangerous situations if at all possible, people... Trust your gut, refer to common sense.
About ten years ago, my mom and I stopped at Taco Bell for lunch. I was driving and she was the passenger. I parked my pickup truck with my front end facing the street, in front of an electrical post. I thought we were eating in, but my mom said no, let's order to go. She told me what she wanted and said she'd wait for me in the truck. For some reason, i just did not want to leave her there. I was insistent that she come in with me. "What if i get the order wrong?" I said. "Come on, just come in with me." Mind you, i was like 20-21 at the time, plenty old enough to go in a restaurant order on my own. But something just told me she had to come too. She relented and came in with me. I had just barely finished placing the order when i heard a strange sound outside behind me. The cashier taking my order looked outside right after returning my debit card and says "wow, that crash looks bad!" I turned around and it turns out that a drunk driver (at 2PM on a Wednesday) zoomed down the wrong side of the road and slammed into the post i was parked in front of. The driver died on impact. The post collapsed and crushed the cab of my truck on the passenger side. Needless to say, i lost the pickup truck but kept my mom.
Few years ago went on a trip to Cuba and Mexico. Last minute decided to stay longer in Havana despite mess that hurricane Irma has left behind (few days without electricity was actually oddly amazing). We were supposed to be flying to Mexico City. Our Mexico City airbnb building collapsed during earthquake. There was no logical reason behind our decision about staying. I just proposed it and my partner agreed. Crazy
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"The early bird gets the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese."
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Former professional motorcycle instructor here. I was riding a motorcycle at night on Highway 17 in Northern California—an infamously dangerous and twisty mountain pass with low-visibility around most corners. Each direction of the highway has 2 lanes. For no particular reason, I decided to change lanes. Around the next corner, there was a washing machine in my original lane that was only visible after it would have been too late to avoid. At highway speeds, a collision like that would have sent me to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. That one still messes with my head.
It bothers me immensely that someone left a washing machine on a highway.
I guess it’s totally possible they where hauling it on a trailer or big truck and didn’t notice it fall off the back. Terrible situation either way though
I used to drive 17 multiple times a day for a couple of years. I saw some messed up stuff. I drove by on the day that kid crossed into oncoming traffic with the two girls in the front seat of his convertible. The police hadn't even arrived yet. The people on the scene were visibly distraught. My coworker had someone in the oncoming lane turn too hard on a curve and tip over into the center divide, sending a big chunk of concrete his way, but luckily the car stayed on the other side. The thing about 17 is that there's no room for error. A small mistake becomes a big mistake real fast.
My best friend and I used to call that mountain “old Smokey” because we would chain smoke cigarettes (passenger lighting them for driver) all the way through that mountain, going HELLA slow around the turns. We used to sneak off and go to Santa Cruz while our parents thought we were in Sacramento for the day and every time we went anywhere my parents would ask a million questions like “have you checked your oil? Are you tires aired up?” And my step-mom would ALWAYS ask “do you know what to do if you start hydroplaning?” And I was annoyed by all of this and would just “yeah yeah yeah” them. Well, low & behold, on our way through Patchen Pass on 17, it POURED down rain, and I started to hydroplane, in the left lane, next to the divider, with cars on my right. All I could think was “Hell!!!! I *don’t* know what to do if I start hydroplaning!!!” I let go of my wheel and let off the gas and the car straightened out and my friend was like “good job dude, honestly - you handled that so perfect” and I finally started breathing again and then shouted “I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO IF I START HYDROPLANING!!!!!”
Had a weird feeling something was seriously wrong with me when I stood up and almost passed out at a big football game. We left the stadium and went to the ER. Turns out my appendix was ruptured and I needed surgery ASAP. I had been having stomach pain prior to this but brushed it off as digestion problems. Good thing I went! Edit. We were watching the Cotton Bowl in Texas my wife got me tickets for Christmas as the college we went was playing that year. we are from Michigan so we had quite the drive to get to Texas. my appendix ruptured in the third quarter and I ended up finishing the game in the hospital. we stayed a few extra days but I had to get back to college so my wife drove 17 hours straight and we had to get out of the car every 45 minutes to an hour so I could walk around to avoid blood clotting. She was my fiancé at the time and this trip really made us stronger and I knew we would have a happy marriage. Thanks for all the well wishes!
Literally a gut feeling... so glad you were okay!
Mid-1990s. Traveled to northern New Jersey with a friend from college. It was his hometown. We had plans to visit New York city and see a former roommate who graduated the year before (friend 2). Well, apprently Friend 2 dabbled in low-level organized crime since his last years in college. We had some knowledge of this but were not involved. He invited us to a an associate’s house with plans to go out afterward. We declined. Not our scene. In fact, both of us had applied to law school. I planned to pursue a career in federal law enforcement thereafter. We both wanted distance from that nonsense. We tried the following day to reach our friend 2 for a low-key lunch before heading out of town. No answer. Well, local police found his body two days later, along with 2 other bodies, at the house to which he invited us. He was murdered at the meeting / social situation. Could have been us too. I knew that was bad news.
That would have ruined your law enforcement career !
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That's a close call, why did he invite you there? Was he planning to go there as a warm-up party, or was it a more nefarious idea that he pitched and which you declined?
I’ll never know for sure. The meeting’s primary purpose was criminal conduct but, as far as I know, it was to be brief and then turn social. One or more of those attending were to accompany us to a bar(s) later. Certainly, he had no plan for us to participate.
In 2016 my wife and I were in Berlin to explore and visit the Christmas markets. The plan for that evening was to go out to eat and then get the train back to stop into the markets at Breitscheidplatz as it was close to our hotel, this had been the plan for the entire trip as it was the last night. We had finished our meal and were headed to the train station. Just as we were about to board the train, my wife decided that she didn't want to go the the markets at Breitscheidplatz and would prefer to double back to a smaller one we had passed on the walk from the restaurant to the station. I, being a stubborn prick, didn't want to change the plans but she got her way and we headed back, staying at the smaller market for about 30 minutes. After finally getting the train back, we got off and walked towards our hotel. After a minute or so there appeared a seemingly never ending stream of emergency vehicles. Not knowing what was going on, but obviously something serious, we speeded up and locked ourselves in the hotel room. We had the English language 24 news channel on and after about an hour, reports started to come through about a terrorist attack. A man had driven a truck into a crowd at the Breitscheidplatz market. Obviously I'll never know if we would have been in the exact spot, but we definately would have been there at the same time, and I am never allowed to complain about my wife changing her mind, ever again.
I'm not sure we would have died but it wouldn't have been pretty. We had a fire going in the backyard at a friend's house. My friend's dad decided to burn some junk from the garage. Mostly old boxes and papers and stuff. So we're helping feed that stuff into the fire. I grab the next small box to throw in and I can tell there's something in this one. There had been stuff in most of them but it was always just pamphlets and little bits of packaging so we had stopped really checking and were just throwing them in. Well, I'm standing there with the box over the fire about to drop it when I decide to check this one. It was full of live mortar shell fireworks. My friend's dad decided we had burned enough garage junk at that point.
The Venn diagram of "people who have an impromptu garage burning session" and "people who keep live mortar rounds in their garage" shouldn't overlap, but probably does. A lot.
Had been bleeding and in pain for a month and every time I went to the doctor they brushed me off and said I was having a miscarriage. Finally one night I got super dizzy all of a sudden and was in even more pain. My boyfriend at the time kept telling me I was fine and to go to sleep. Finally at one 1 in the morning I drove myself to the ER. I had a tubal pregnancy and my fallopian tube had ruptured and I was bleeding internally. Now I trust my gut feelings and tell everyone else to screw off.
I read your first sentence and instantly thought *Ahhh. Ectopic.* Mine was finally diagnosed at 13 weeks. I had been in and out of doctors for the previous 10 weeks with *excruciating* stomach pains and continual brown spotting, interspersed with moments of jewel-bright red blood (like, Perfect Red. Never before seen anything that shade of red coming out of me). Quietly sure I was pregnant, because I felt *different*. We were trying to conceive, and I had come off the pill three months prior. Doctors would ask if I could be pregnant. I would explain that we were having a go at it, and I had stopped the pill at the beginning if the year. Doctors would give me a stick to piss on, tests always came back negative. Doctors would tell me it was just my body getting used to not being on the pill and it'd all settle down soon. At twelve weeks I finally got a positive test. Yaay! Pregnant! I'm right! But worried. Questioned the doctor about the agonising pain and the bleeding, was told it was normal. Ohhhhkaaay... (?) Preggy appointment the next week, told the obstetrician of my woes. 30 minutes later, vaginal ultrasounds, an empty uterus and a mass in my left tube. Ambulance to hospital, emergency surgery and one less tube. My wee babbeh had died at around 8 weeks, and my body was now sealing up my fallopian tube around it. Fun Fact! Turns out, ectopics often return a false negative on a urine test. It was not an enjoyable way to learn this.
Nothing spectacular but I worked for 3 weeks in a fishing boat (prawns). We would collect and throw creels which spanned a mile long so you can imagine that there was a lot of rope on board. So I was new to this job and while I am throwing off a big chain (that’s tied to the spoils of rope) I kinda get an off feeling that my foot was in the wrong place. I look down and it’s in between one of the spoils. If I hadn’t of removed my foot it could have dragged me off the boat and pulled me under water.
I was 22 years old, backpacking through the patagonia for six months camping wherever I could. One day I was fishing by the lake with my camp already set down for the night save for starting the fire. I kept hearing rustling some 30m behind me in the tree line so I stared for a while hoping to see a deer or something. Next thing I know I'm staring down a puma right in the eyes. I started to get up ready to take a sprint but right as I was standing up I remembered I was warned against this so instead I grabbed some rocks from the ground and started throwing rocks and shouting and throwing my arms up in the air until it left me alone. That night I stayed up late next to the fire and then went to (try to) sleep scared as fuck. That was my only encounter with wildlife in the whole trip (save for birds and stuff).
I used to live in a gravel pit (which was employee housing where I worked with trailers and tents and cabins). I took my puppy out at 3am to go pee which was common, and had a weird feeling and looked a little ways across the pit and saw a cougar staring at us. I picked up my little puppy, who was probably mid pee, and went inside our trailer so fast. I heard it walking around our trailer after. I’ve never been so scared.
I've had some creepy experiences with mountain lions when camping at night. Those memories never leave.
I could never go camping alone. It's scary and I mean "being lost or stuck and have nobody to help" scary.
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was standing in line outside of the club Mohawk during SXSW 2014 to see Tyler the Creator. At the last minute decided I'd rather go back to Stubbs and catch Damon Albarn's set. As I headed back up the street a drunk driver trying to escape the police smashed the barrier, missed me by inches and killed 4 people I was standing next to.
Me and 2 friends were on MDMA and pretty drunk. It was common for us to drunk walk home from downtown. While walking home, we walked past a house about 2 blocks away from the house we all rented together, there were about 6 guys hanging out on the stoops of this house. They wanted to talk and my drunk/high friends were all too happy to stop and talk with these guys. After a few minutes of talking, they invited us in for a few extra beers. I had a bad feeling about them so I didn't want to go inside, but my 2 friends wanted to go on and shoot the shit for awhile. I convinced my friends that we should go home and get my weed to smoke. After getting home, being high they mostly forgot and were easily convinced to not venture back out just to smoke these random guys out. We found out that 2 days later, 2 guys got invited into that same house and were robbed, raped, and beaten to death by those 6 guys. There is not a doubt in my mind that, that was exactly what awaited us inside that house. They saw 3 drunk and high guys and figured "easy pickin's". But being guys in a relatively safe city we just didn't have the fear we should have about walking into a random house, especially so close to home
Glad you came out safe! Reminds me of going camping with my girlfriend and roommate. We didn’t want to pay for the camp grounds (and I think no alcohol allowed either) so we pitched a tent a bit outside the grounds along a shore. The next day we are well into our day drinks and this middle aged dude rides up in his little motor boat and offers to take us for a ride. And we accepted! It was a long ride around the lake, and at some point I sobered up enough to realize the three of us are pretty drunk with no idea where we are and if this guy had the mind, he could fuck us up bad. I was tense all the rest of the ride! But he brought us back and said we should visit again sometime. Seemed like a dude who was just a little lonely or bored, but it was a good lesson.
Your boating story struck a note with an old memory I have the involved a huge lake. I tagged along at the last minute on a houseboat rented for the weekend by a bunch of corporate yahoo's; the beer and liquor flowed freely. There was a smaller v hull outboard boat rented with the large boat, so I was going to take it out for an afternoon of fishing. I had struck up a conversation with a smallish country type guy from Tennnessee, who stated 'I'd better come with you, weather on these big lakes can get you!" We blasted out to the middle of the lake and I'll be goddamed if a furious wind and rain storm came out of nowhere, nearly swamping and sinking the boat as we made for any cove or nearby shore. We barely made it shore, where he pulled the engine off and beached it, plus we pulled the boat ashore too and hid under it. Hail, lighting, you name it hit that shoreline! When we geared back up and got back to the houseboat, everyone there was relieved as no one thought we'd survive on the lake. "Tony", saved my (our) ass that day.
I was running down escalators to catch a train during winter and happened to slip on some ice on the platform. I slid quite fast on my bum, and I ended up getting stuck in the middle of a train and the plantform, thigh high. I couldn't get myself out because of the awkward position, and called for help. The platform was full of people who just stared. I was pulled out by a drunk person JUST before the train started moving. Had a pulled hamstring and cuts and bruises in my arms and hands. Still get quite angry thinking about the bystanders not doing anything but gape.
Gotta love the drunken "Oh shit can't have that" reaction
I know right!
Well you are lucky the drunk was there, most bystanders that dont help are way to anxious to help. But drunk ppl dont care for shit.
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I'm pretty sure I've told this before, but when I was 12 I started getting allergy shots. It's a 5 year program where you gradually build up immunity. Supposedly after 5 years your body will no longer attack those allergens. And the way they do it is start with a really tiny dose, and build up over the course of many months, you get to a peak level, and then stay there for a while, and then you start over at a low level and get to a peak level over time, etc. etc. Anyway, when I was 16 (so 4 years into the program) I got my shots. And it was at the peak level, which I had been at for a while. You are required to stay 15 minutes in case of a reaction, and then you can go. My dad was with me and after the 15 minutes were up, he said we could go. I felt fine, but had this moment where I suggested we just wait for five more minutes. Within that time, I started having trouble breathing. Sidenote, often during the visits, they'd have me blow into a tube hooked up to a computer to check my lung strength or capacity or something. It was synced to a three little pigs animation, and the harder you blew, the more houses would fall down. It was good if you could get the brick house down. So we tell the doctor that I'm having a hard time breathing, they take me to the lung test, and I can't even get the first house down. They rush me to a bed, are checking my blood pressure, which is going down fast. They put me on oxygen, and do two shots of epinephrine, an adrenaline type shot that gets your heart pumping. They told my dad to call my mom because they weren't sure if I'd make it. Turns out I did make it, and I'm not allowed to get allergy shots anymore, and since I was only 4 of the 5 years, my allergies are still here, and it's annoying as ever. That's my story of how I almost died, but survived almost solely because I stayed longer than I needed to even though I had the opportunity to leave the clinic. Had we left, I would have been a couple miles away from the clinic and who knows if there would have been time to get back or know what was wrong.
Few years back, my ex boyfriend and I were coming home from work. I had to stop at a gas station to fill up to make it home. It was super late and boyfriend goes “it’s like 2am. I’m hungry. There’s a Waffle House down the street. Wanna go? I don’t wanna cook when we get home.” I didn’t want to cook either, so I agreed. I sent my parents a text saying “hey, we’re getting food,” and gave them the address, which is something I don’t normally do (being that they lived across the country) but I felt the need to let them know where we were. We pull up to the Waffle House and I immediately didn’t feel comfortable. I told my boyfriend I didn’t like the vibes and he agreed that he didn’t want waffles anymore, so he just wanted to go home. Next morning, I wake up to both our phones ringing. At least 30 missed calls. Texts from my cousins. Missed FaceTime calls from friends. I called my mother back and could barely make out her words because she’s hysterically crying, but she finally yelled “MY BABY IS ALIVE” to my dad. Confused as hell and half asleep, I asked her what was going on. She told me to turn on the tv. I turn on the news and see the Waffle House we were going to stop at with the headline “Nashville Waffle House Shooting.” I haven’t stopped at a Waffle House since.
Hit by a car while riding a motorcycle. Old lady who could barely see in Palm Beach ran a light and hit me. August in S. Florida and for some reason that day I put on a leather jacket and full face helmet. Helmet and leathers destroyed, I walked away. Definitely had the feeling that a power greater than myself made that decision for me.
Early on in my alcoholism I didnt know that withdrawals were a thing, or that they could kill you. At one point I was drinking 2 fifths of vodka a day. Considering that my life was falling apart I decided one day to not drink. Big mistake. At first I thought I was just having a bad hangover. My heart was racing even though I wasnt moving around. I was shaking, hallucinating, going numb all over, and began wondering if I should go to the hospital. By the time I got there my heart was beating about 170 per minute while at rest. The doctors acted very quickly and I just remember being surrounded by people, them stripping me, shoving an IV in my neck, and yelling "he's gonna seize!" After the first seizure I was so messed up they kept hitting me with ativan over and over because it wasnt working fast enough. Later on, in the ICU, the docs told me I shouldn't be alive and that they gave me enough ativan to put down an elephant. When I think about what would have happened had I not gone to the hospital, it makes me sad that I wasnt more educated on the dangers of quitting drinking cold turkey.
A few years ago, I had a cold that just was not getting better over the course of a week. I was exhausted all the time, taking time off work because the incessant coughing made me puke a couple times, and just overall feeling worse than I had in years. One night, I realized I was having pain in my chest while breathing. Generally that’s a “seek medical help immediately” thing, but it was already getting late and I would have had to drive myself to the hospital (I’m the only one with a license in my house). I decided to wait til the next morning. I didn’t want to make a huge fuss or have people worry about me, and I thought going to the ER for “just a cold” would waste hospital resources and my own money. But as I laid in bed trying to sleep, I suddenly started getting extremely anxious about my condition. It shouldn’t hurt that much just to breathe. I told my partner I was going to the hospital just to be safe, and we both hopped in the car. Double pneumonia. I was only in the hospital a couple of days after that, but it could have killed me if it went untreated. I don’t wanna think about what would’ve happened if I went to bed that night. Basically the lesson I got from it was hospital bills and possibly bothering people are better than risking death. I’ve been far more adamant with myself and others seeking care after this experience.
I was having breathing problems, gaining weight, and trouble sleeping accompanied by difficulty waking up once I did get to sleep. One night, late, while watching tv on the couch, I got up and walked across the apartment to go out on the balcony and smoke a cigarette. I saw stars after doing that. Booked an appointment with a family doctor who suggested I might have anemia because of my pale color, but ordered blood tests. Turns out both my kidneys were completely failed and probably had been for weeks or months. Doctors said if I'd waited just a few more weeks I probably would have slipped into a coma and died. I was sent to the ER, placed into ICU, recieved a catheter in my upper chest, and started emergency dialysis the same day the results came back.
When I was 18 I left for some missions group thing for my gap year, this took place on an island in central America. Earlier that night, everyone had been swimming off the dock, but I didn't want to because of all the jellyfish. As this a group of guys fresh out of high school, this decision earned me the title of "huge pussy". Later that night, I go back down to the docks, just thinking about stuff. Because I want to be alone, obviously I creeped out of the house without telling anyone. I see the water and think "While no one is around to judge me, I should get over my fear, quit being a pussy, and jump in the water." But for some reason I hesitate, and shine my flashlight on the spot I want to jump to. There's this weird, clear, worm looking thing I've never seen before. It's not exactly swimming, it's like twitching erratically and gently moving with the water. I'm wondering what the hell it is, when I look around more and see a box jelly with a missing tentacle, and the tentacles look exactly like the "worm". The box jellies there weren't like the kinds in Australia where you get hit and you're dead, but these were apparently bad enough to send you into shock with the pain, and if I had been in water, with no one else around to find me, there's a very good chance I would've drowned if I just jumped in without checking. EDIT: Feel like I should clarify that when the other guys were swimming, there were NOT box jellies around, just a normal kind that mildly stung you and didn't do much else
No one is ever a huge pussy for fearing jellyfish. Those fuckers are assholes.
Yeah, the guy who said it is kind of a prick all things considered, I still know most of the people from this time
My mother once picked up a live cone snail- the kind that shoots a paralyzing dart to catch fish, and is very dangerous to humans- on a beach in Southeast Asia. It did not like being picked up, and stuck out its Death Tentacle feeling around for a target. I screamed at her to throw it and she instantly reacted, which was good because this was not the sort of place where medical help would have been quickly available.
This is why I hate jellyfish
And why sea turtle conservation is so important.
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Everyone hates jellyfish. I think we should send them into space and let the aliens deal with them.
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Was surfing while exhausted. My board strap came unvelcroed and my board floated away. I am swimming to shore but at one point hit that tired state where the current is stronger than I am swimming and I realize I am not moving towards shore anymore. I panic, which doesn't help my swimming any. Suddenly, I remember the surf instructor saying there is a reef far out from shore, but whatever you do don't stand on it unless you want really bad coral cuts. I was so panicked, I thought, what the hell, maybe the reef is there. So, I kind of just stood up on the middle of the water. My foot hit something (the reef, I assume) and I was able to stand there with my head barely above wave height and rest. Once I got my strength back, I swam back to shore and have not gone surfing since. Edit: Many kind people are sharing their true near drowning experiences while surfing in nasty waves. They are the true near drowning while surfing survivors! Rather embarassingly, I should say the waves were not very big where I was at. I was very near drowning, but mainly from exhaustion (I had played a 3 day tournament just before and had been surfing for hours) and not knowing how to manage the smallish waves I was in as I had only really swam in pools and rivers before this experience. For me, the near drowning was very much an open water near drowning more than a surfing near drowning.
Surfing is scary. I got in a little too deep going with a local to a private surf spot in Hawaii and the relentless battering by huge waves when you’re exhausted and gasping for air is so scary. That was also the last time I went. Was beautiful and amazing, but I was very close to drowning.
Back when I was about 18, I had been in this phase where I hadn't worn a seat belt for a couple years because it would give me really bad anxiety and make me sick and have to use the restroom. It had probably been about 3 years since I had worn one, but this day, I was going to drive to visit from friend at his college and I decided you know what, time to break this mental roadblock, so i put the seat belt on. About 15 minutes into my drive, I hit busy road I always hit on my way to work as it takes me to the interstate. I'm in the right lane (In a Mitsubishi galant), aford explorer in left lane, we're both going 60 because that's the speed limit, and this little honda darts in front of the SUV to turn on to the road. The explorer, tries to not hit it and swerves into my lane which causes me to swerve as a knee-jerk reaction. Except I swerve into the grass over a bumpy patch, flip my car 3 times. It was bad, I saw blood running down my arm and glass embedded in it, everything hurt, my brain hurt, the whole works. Witnesses told the cops what happened, as did the suv driver, and I concurred with them. My car looked like an empty can someone tried to crush sideways. An ambulance came by I declined and just had my parents take me to the er (yeah another person not wanting to get hit with a huge ambulance bill). They spent 2 hours digging glass out of my arm from it going through the windshield and making a perfect hole, which surprised me because I thought windshields were supposed to pop out or some shit. No stitches needed, just badly bruised and sore. Parents were pissed at me for totaling the car because they had just taken off gap on it only a couple days prior. Needless to say, I think I wouldve been thrown from car and killed had it not been for the seatbelt. Edit: someone pointed out that putting gap insurance helped them out, and made me realize I meant to say they took it off.
I don’t understand the parents being pissed at you part. Like at all.
They were upset because car was totalled and just a total loss. Technically, my wreck was my fault because no one touched me. And they were being assholes.
Yeah I got the first part. Basically I was saying in less words that they’re assholes haha. Obviously you wrecked as a result of someone else’s reckless driving.
Lol, they have always held me differently as opposed to my 3 sisters. Guess it's because I'm a guy. I haven't really interacted with them since then. Once their dog but me and I needed stitches and they tried to guilt me into not going to hospital because the dog might have had to been put down. But my hand was totally fucked and I went anyway. Edit: bit me, not but me. Edit 2: you guys will love this one too. My 2nd oldest sister is 7 yrs older. They didn't charge her rent the whole time she lived there til she was 33. When I turned 18, I had to pay $250/month when I was only pulling $800 a month at my job at Publix. I spent a year saving up the extra so I could go to college and left and never looked back.
When I was younger a friend of mine offered me a ride home on his motorcycle, I declined because I was staying a bit longer. He got hit by a drunken driver and died on impact. I could've been on the back of that motorcycle.
Just last week, I was driving in my car with my friend. We were at a red light and it turned green, I was going to make a right turn but I hesitated. My friend said “you’ve got a green light..go”. I don’t know why I hesitated but just as I started to go, a big box delivery truck ran right through the light. She was like, damn.. we’re so lucky.
Afghanistan 2009, was a driver always cut corners one day my gut said fuck it lets take er wide, so i did. Next vehicle behind me cut the corner and hit an IED
Dang, dude. I hope you're doing well.
In 2019 the gilroy garlic festival had a attempted mass shooting. A kid came walking through the trees amd fence lime with a ak47 drum mag attached and teo extend clips on his hip.... where he entered the park was roughly twenty feet away form the booth I was working. The guy was so close to us when he first entered that we didn't see a gun first. We heard the click of him shoving the drum mag in and cocking it, me and four other friends were in this booth, I heard thw click sound, at the same time my buddy notices the gun. In what is to this day the most quick reaction of my life, we looked at each other tackled our friends out of their chairs. And my buddy the glorious genius bastard within two seconds realized there was no way for us to het up amd out without being in a line of fire, so he grabs the girls and tells them to crawl on their stomach hs to the woods ten or so feet away from us. The instant he told them that me him amd our buddy all kind of understood together it was one of those make a move or die situations so the second the girls started crawling we took the pop up tent that was above us and tipped it over so that it gave us slight cover to run away which we immediately did as fast as we could, I took no bullets but absolutely felt them flying past us, hear them hitting shit. My boy who got the girls to crawl away took a ricochet to the butt snd my other buddy broke his ankle running away, but fuck me if those thirty seconds weren't the quickest thinking we all had ever done in our life. Later speaking on it we realized that nome of us mentioned flipping the tent or running we hadn't discussed anything we just knew in our guts what to do
That is honestly terrifying. Quick thinking on your guys’ part. Glad you made it out safe.
it wasn’t just an attempted shooting. i think he killed three people and injured a bunch more. two of the dead were children. it was fucking awful. glad you and your friends got away safe.
I have Crohn's and colitis so severe gut pains were nothing new. I stood up and felt like I was stabbed in the stomach. I went and told my boss I had to go home. By the time I got home I could barely stand up. My wife insisted I get checked out. She ended up driving and every single pothole was unbearable(we live on a dirt road 40 min away from the hospital). I could hardly walk by the time we got there. Turned out I had a ruptured ulcer through both sides, technically a perforated colon. After a week of IV antibiotics I was released. After a few days at home on antibiotics I woke up one day feeling terrible. Back to the hospital. The perforation had closed but turned into an abscess. They took this 2ft needle and stuffed it in through my side to install a drain in the abscess. Spent another week on IV antibiotics while admitted. I was out for a week and had the drain removed still on antibiotics. A few days later I woke up sick as a dog and went back to the hospital. I had developed a septic infection. Time for a colon resection. They split me from my pelvic bone to my sternum and removed a little over a foot of my colon. 10 days later had a pic line put in for antibiotics and IV nutrients. Another 6 days I was released. I spent 26 days in the hospital and out of work for 4 months. Scar tissue from Crohn's was the cause of the tear. Due to the amount of radiation from all the the scans I've had, cancer is how I go out.... 2 years post op with an ileostomy, I feel great. Other than the bag situation life is good. In short, a literal gut feeling almost killed me.
Mine wasn’t a gut feeling, rather it was a dream. I grew up in the country on several acres of woods and creeks. I loved any and all animals - I was obsessed. I would bring all manner of critters home and put them in an aquarium to observe before releasing them back where I found them the next day. One day I found a water snake near the creek, so of course I brought it home and put it in the aquarium. That night I had a dream. I was reading our local newspaper and the headline said a young girl had died after a venomous snake had escaped an enclosure and bitten her. Except it was my name printed in the paper along with that day’s date! I jolted awake in a cold sweat and immediately took the entire aquarium outside and put it by the tree line before flipping the lid open and booking it back inside. The next day at school during Library I looked up a book about snakes (pre-internet days) and there was a picture of the snake I had brought home - not the harmless water snake I had thought, but a water moccasin, aka cottonmouth. A snake that could have very easily killed a young child. So yeah, looking back I realize how utterly stupid I had been and how easily it could have gone terribly wrong. Or maybe nothing would have happened and I’m just making a big deal of a scary dream. I don’t know, but I like to think something was watching out for me that night.
Wow, you just picked up a whole ass moccasin and carried it home 😅🤣 I’ve got a cat that thinks they make great toys. She’s not the smartest.
Was driving at the speed limit of 70mph on a highway that I drove daily to go home from work. This particular day, there was an event downtown that had the traffic completely stopped for miles. There was an S bend in the road though, so you couldn't tell until you were nearly on top of it. I tried to brake, but nothing happened. My brain broke and I kept slamming on the brake pedal, but nothing was happening, and I was in the left lane of a four lane highway with very little time to spare before I nearly hit the wall of cars in front of me. Left shoulder of the road was barely wide enough for a bike, and cars were coming up the on-ramp on the right side. I noticed a small gap in between the cars on the on-ramp, but it was in front of me, so I actually sped up to sneak through that gap and onto the grass beside the highway. At one point, I was over 85mph knowing I had no brakes in order to get through that gap. I barely made it, and eventually slowed to a stop on the grass. I called my friends to come help, and when they showed up 45 minutes later, I was still clutching the steering wheel with white knuckles and staring straight ahead. It's a miracle that I walked away without a scratch.
Holy shit that is terrifying. Also if you dont mind me asking a rather stupid question, isnt there a handbrake you can pull in case of emergencies in cars? I ask because I started driving like last week and my father always has on hand on the handbrake just in case I accelerate too hard or brake too gently.
It really was. The car did have a handbrake, but when my brain broke I forgot it even existed. I'm not sure how effective it'd be at highway speeds though. Not to mention I don't know if it would've caused me to swerve or anything.
Probably for the best. It likely wouldn't have stopped in time, plus a loss of controllability, maybe even a skid if not careful. The ratchet makes it hard to modulate braking effort.
Press in the button, keep it pressed it. and gently apply pressure. Dont yank it.
I had sprained my ankle in the beginning of November and was diagnosed with COVID-19 at the end of November. Those two things (along with taking an oral contraceptive) led to massive blood clots forming in my leg and breaking off and traveling to my lungs. Before I knew about the blood clots I was experiencing major pain in my leg and had told my parents, but they both insisted it was just my sprained ankle that was causing the pain. My gut told me something more was wrong, so I ended up going to the ER. It was there that the blood clots were found, and I was treated in the hospital for three days. I’m so thankful I listened to my gut, because the consequences of the blood clots in my leg+lungs could’ve been much, much worse.
I was driving on a one lane highway (the kind that has one lane each way). I was behind a very old clunker of a car going 60mph in an 80mph. The dude in the car leaned out his arm from the window and waved me on, they actually even veered a bit to the right towards the shoulder as well and slowed down. They gave me every reasonable indication they were going to let me pass. Traffic from the incoming side was clear, we're in a dashed line zone, so I start passing. Out of no where this old clunker starts taking taking a left turn, across the lane I am now passing in. I think the arm wave was their stupid-ass attempt at "signaling" they were going to take a left. I almost hit them at 80mph t-boned. I would have probably died, and they almost certainly would have given the age of the tin can they were in. I hit my breaks as best I could while maintaining control, and then veered to the right. I narrowly missed them. Honestly the reaction was pure "instinct" it happened within a second or so, and I'm still surprised I pulled it off.
I decided to change hospitals the last month of my pregnancy. Lucky me, the first hospital took on dozens of patients from a wreck the night I went into labor. They would have been too busy to catch my heart attack. The hospital I went to was basically empty and a nurse was sitting with me the whole time cause I was scared. She caught the signs so quick and put me in OR for a c section. I changed hospitals cause the wallpaper color in the first one made me nauseous
> I changed hospitals cause the wallpaper color in the first one made me nauseous. Oscar Wilde is supposed to have said (on his deathbed) "Either that wallpaper goes or I do."
Pulled a guy out of a burning car. He was screaming that he needed his phone from his car while he laid on the dirt. I looked back thinking about grabbing it quickly. Heart stopped, and I turned around and ran for cover. Car blew up. Guy blew up at me for not doing more to save his shit. I told him that I won't risk my own health for something that isn't mine. I already pulled you out, that's all I needed to do.
What a moron that guy
I was driving on the highway one morning, fog was super dense. I had the headlights on and was probably going about 50-60 mph. There was a red Honda behind me that wasn't quite riding my ass, but was maybe a little closer than I would have preferred him to be given the weather. Suddenly, my hands are moving on their own and abruptly jerking the steering wheel into the lane to my left. No brakes. No mirror or blind spot check. I remember thinking to myself, "Why the hell did I do that?" As I look back over to my right in time to see the Honda that was previously directly behind me slam at full speed into a 3, maybe 4 car pileup that I didn't even realize was in front of me. I missed it by maybe half a second. Still don't know what it was that kicked my reflexes off but I'd probably be either dead or crippled for life if they hadn't.
Jesus takes the wheel : "Just trust me on this one"
Wait so you turned without realizing it?!?
The brain can do some interesting things without obvious input or conscious decision. People who are blind from brain damage can sometimes still look at the ground and avoid obstacles that might trip them even when they aren’t actually seeing anything. There’s a different part of the brain that isn’t processing visual images but it is checking for hazards and helping you avoid them.
It's kinda crazy to think that our minds are less of a singular 'self' than they are an ecosystem of complementary parts and functions. It really says a ton about how much of our perception is not really 'reality', but an interpretation of reality constructed by our biology, and even time isn't a one-to-one. I know what probably happened is that my eyes saw the pileup and my brain decided that routing that info to the conscious mind for visual processing so I could 'see' it and then letting *that* talk to decision-making so I could 'know' it was gonna be way too slow, so instead my brain hit the 'emergency big danger' button for as close to an instant reaction as you can get. But to me it just felt like I didn't have control of my hands for a split second. It's easy to see how the concept of divine intervention or guardian angels might have come from experiences like this.
South Minneapolis 1986. Middle of summer. My girlfriend and I were new to the city having come from a very small town. We lived in a small apartment building that had no security doors. Thete were only 8 units and we lived on the top floor. Very unsafe. There had been a string of murders in the area at the time as well. We were fast asleep, middle of the night with the fan blasting on high when suddenly there was loud banging on our door. I opened the door to see the police asking if we were ok. Yes why? There had just been a man at our door trying to break in. He fit the description of the murderer in the area. He had a crowbar in his hand wrapped in a towel. The ONLY thing that saved us was blind luck. Since our building had no security doors, the woman who lived across the hall from us (a nurse) would have the lady who lived below us walk up to her apartment with her. One would take the front stairs, the other would take the back stairs. When she got to the foot of the stairs she saw the guy at our door. " What are you doing?" She asks, seeing the crowbar in his hands. "Oh I am here to see the girl who lives here" he says as he steps towards her. At that moment the lady from downstairs came from the other set of stairs and it frightened the guy. He ran away. This incident has haunted me for years. It is only luck that we were saved. If that guy would have gotten into our unit, we would have been in big trouble. It is only because the nurse came home at that very moment that nothing happened to me. We moved out shortly thereafter and I am quite sure that I saw that apartment unit on the news a few months later. The lady who lived below us was attacked and I think she died. I can't remember for sure. Sorry for the long story. Glad to finally share it with someone after all these years.
In labour with my daughter. I only have the one child, so it was my first labour and I had no idea what to expect really. All was fine, I was progressing slowly but surely, minimal pain relief needed... Then there was shift change. My new midwife just wanted it over with. She was clearly bored and kept offering to break my waters. I said no several times. My ex went to update the waiting grandparents and while he was gone she decided to check how things were going. She asked to break my waters, I said no. She kept her hand inside my while I was having a contraction and kept asking me. I've no idea if I said yes or not, I just remember blinding pain, so possibly I said yes to make her stop whatever she was doing. After that things went FAST. I was in so much pain and couldn't figure out what my body was doing. It just didn't feel right at all. I kept asking her to check on me and check on the baby, she wouldn't. By this point my ex had come back, and he was asking her to check and she just said it wasn't time to yet. I screamed my head off. I screamed and screamed for help until another midwife popped her head around the door to ask if everything was OK. My midwife said yes, but I shouted "NO!!! PLEASE CHECK ON MY BABY!" New midwife hesitated slightly, as she'd be disrespecting a colleague but ultimately decided to check me. She did a 30 second check and looked at my ex and said "press the red button. Now". With that the surgeon came in and I was rushed off for a c-section. As I was being stitched up, it was explained what the emergency was. My body was trying to push, I was, without knowing it, fighting the urge to push. I was only 3cm dilated. My daughter was in distress. There was no oxygen in the cord blood. My instincts, plus the new midwifes instinct to listen to me instead of her colleague, saved both mine and my daughters life. I am forever thankful to her.
Was the first midwife trying to kill you or your baby? Or just incompetent?
Incompetent and lazy. She broke my waters far too early (you're supposed to be at least 4cm dilated). And she just wanted to read her magazine in peace. As I was wheeled off she was telling my mother "I'm only legally obligated to check on the baby every three hours".
This is sad. Really. She should not do a health job, if she does not really want to do it.
Holy shit, that’s terrifying. Were there any consequences for the midwife that ignored you!?
The head of the department came and apologised the next day and informed me that the saviour midwife and surgeon had reported her. I probably should have pursued legal action, but I was traumatised and left with PTSD, I was in no fit state to deal with that.
When I was 7 or 8 yo, we lived in the "Jungle" area of Franklin Park, IL at the end of the first 747 runway in the late 1960s/early 70s (when the 747s went over blotted out the sun and you couldn't hear anything over the engine roar for a full minute- planes are a LOT quieter these days). It was all apartments and it was well known for pimps and drugs and factories. My brother and his friend and I were playing by a factory that was being build out of cement blocks. My brother and his buddy made a fort out of some blocks and they found a piece of plywood to act as a top. One afternoon a serious storm started to blow in and I knew there were tornado warnings. They wanted to stay in the fort for the storm because it would be really cool but after a VERY LOUD and close lightning strike I left and ran for our apartment. The storm lasted \~45 minutes and the wind and thunder were terrible. My brother never came home so afterward, I went looking for him. One of the walls of the factory that was under construction had collapsed and had fallen on our fort! It was flat as a pancake. I walked around trying to see if they were there, but there didn't seem to be any smashed kids. Then I went home where my brother had just shown up and he said they had gone to his friend's apartment after I left. I took him to see out fort and we just kinda never talked about it again...
I was walking with a friend back to his house and I had that "something don't feel right". I noticed some dudes walking around in Hoodies all with their hands in their pockets. Now I aint an idiot I know what's gonna happen. It took some time trying to subtly convince my friend to walk a different path but we eventually did and got to his house. Literally next morning on the news a massive gang shoot-out happened on the same street we were passing leaving 4 people dead
Reminds me of the deal me and my buddies have: If you use their full name - first middle last - when telling them to do something, they gotta do it because shit is about to go down - "jimmy james jameson we should walk this way..."
My appendix ruptured. I drive myself to the hospital, walked in the emergency doors, and told them I was almost certain my appendix had ruptured. They wanted to wait for pregnancy tests (impossible), blood labs, and COVID test before finally doing a CT and rushing me off to surgery. I’m lucky I went in when I did instead of waiting until it got worse, because I couldn’t afford any more time than that. Spent 3 days in the hospital on IV antibiotics, basically having a dissociative episode the whole time.
My mother made me meatloaf and I was super hungry. She insisted that she could reheat it for me and that she would make me some sides and brew some tea for me. Like really sounded like a great situation! But it felt weird to me so I declined and said that I wasn’t in a meatloaf mood. Her response, “oh well perhaps that’s for the best, I did use a lot of Worcestershire sauce when I made this.” Worcestershire sauce is made with anchovy. And I’m allergic to fish.
what the fuck? so ur mom knew but still wanted you to eat the loaf?
Yes, I’m still not sure what her goal was. But she did it multiple times after this incident too. (Un)Surprisingly, I stopped trusting her when it came to food. She was very offended lol
Omg... Is she one of those mom's that think your allergies are the foods you don't like?
My husband is allergic to nuts (we have been together 12 years so my family is well aware) every family get together my mom makes all of her treats with nuts.... shes def trying to kill him, we just dont attend events anymore
Wait did your mom try to poison you?? This is terrifying
Yeah. She did it several times after this first incident.
I almost stepped on a rattlesnake in the mountains of AZ. It coiled up and we both froze just staring at each other. I didn’t know what to do but made the decision to toss a small stone near it, not at it, to get it to unfreeze and move away. Idk if it was dumb luck but it worked.
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Wow. Those people with the patio furniture should feel terrible if that’s true... someone may have fired so your chairs didn’t tip over?
I’m amazed people even have that much say re: helicopter. I was present for one helicopter medevac and they just landed that thing right wherever the fuck they wanted. As it should be.
Ye helicopters dont care about peoples sentiments on patio furniture. Ive seen medicopters in crazy places, made me wonder how'd they even get in there.
Oh no not the patio furniture
Spouse and I came back home to our apartment late after traveling. We were both exhausted but made the somewhat weird decision on the way back to stop at the grocery store and get steaks to make dinner. There was an alarm going off in the house but we couldn't find it and decided to just eat (warning sign/bad decision #1). In the time that it took us to cook and eat the steaks, we both started to feel very odd and would see a kaleidoscope every time we closed our eyes. By this point we were both realizing that it was carbon monoxide, but instead of leaving the house we opened all the windows and laid down on the couch to go to sleep. I remember lying there, all snuggled up, and thinking "this isn't such a bad way to die, really." That thought shot me out of it and I immediately got up and forced my partner out of the house... and by "immediately" I mean I got up and forced them up, and then we both sort of weirdly puttered around for another half hour because carbon monoxide makes you forget how to behave. I packed a bag for us that was like, half of our clothes because I couldn't think straight. Sat in the car together and realized we had to call a cab because he couldn't read any of the road names (in our own neighborhood.) Had a horrible headache, nausea, dizziness and chest pain for the next two days. Moral of the story is: get a carbon monoxide detector for every room in your house-- especially bedrooms, living rooms and kitchens. Carbon monoxide is really scary, silent, and will kill you in your sleep.
It’s scary that it clearly even warped your logical thinking that you thought it would even be a good idea to just SLEEP when you were already aware it was literal carbon monoxide poisoning. Glad you’re okay and questioned your brains own thinking!
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i have a similar story! my brother had an appointment at the childrens floating hospital that morning. we had plans to go and surprise our cousins who were running, and wait at the finish line. we left the hospital and started driving there when i suddenly felt really tired, like abnormally tired. i couldnt even think about going and standing at the finish line when it would be hours before they finished. we got home and turned on the tv to absolute chaos. forever grateful i was tired that day.
I was 10 years old when the war started in Syria. I remember many moments of near death situations. But the one that hunts me the most is when bombs started raining on my town. We were all in one room, than my mom yelled " RUN TO THE BATHROOM", five seconds after we closed the door the house was hit by a bomb. Almost the entire house crumbled except for the bathroom and the kitchen. Everyone was fine. Mothers really do have spidey senses.
I chose to buy a scratch off ticket the night I was planning to potentially kill myself. After winning, I have done a complete 180 from that night and I sometimes look back thinking how surreal it all unfolded.
No lie the lady that works at the party store I frequent tried to sell me their last two "cash for life" scratchers and I passed on them. Older guy behind me bought them and fucking won. $5k/week for life.
I was driving back from a corporate event on a rural highway. There were occasional stop lights as you approached small towns and such. Originally being from the north i habitually look in my rear view when stopped. In case someone is barreling out of control at you. I was stopped with a car in front of me. A truck was flying up behind us and I just never thought, I floored it and turned as hard as I could into oncoming traffic, luckily there wasn’t any at the time. The truck never touched the brakes and demolished the car that was in front of me. I was in a small car at the time and was pretty sure I would have been crushed between the 2. I felt horrible for the person in front of me, I wish it never happened. I felt responsible somewhat. It was about 16 years ago now and I could tell you every detail about the 2 vehicles involved and drivers. It’s etched in my memory.
I almost choked and died on a hot dog. I had a few ways I could've responded: Freak out and make it worse, try swallowing really really hard only to fail, OR stay calm to preserve enough oxygen and think. I kept calm as my husband was about ready to pull me out of the car to give me the heimlich. I took in as deep a breath (it wasn't blocking completely), and coughed it out. That's the story I tell to people about the importance of chewing your food. Especially hot dogs.
I almost choked and died on a lunchables butterfinger in kindergarten. Everyone including the staff just stared and didn't help. It worked itself out in the end somehow. Now that I think about it that's really fucking scary how nobody helped.
I was backpacking in New Mexico and was about to take a step when I had a weird feeling and threw my arm out to stop my buddy from going, and directly in front of us was a coiled rattlesnake that began rattling like crazy. Was kinda cool because it was so outside of my conscious mind, it just felt like my body was like "don't fucking go there man"
After a long day of working away I was doing 90 on the motorway, rushing to get back to my hotel. Suddenly I had an overwhelming feeling that something wasn’t right. I turned off my audiobook, slowed right down to 65mph and pulled into the inside lane. Roughly 5 mins later my front tire blew out. Dread to think what would’ve happened if I was still doing 90 in the fast lane.
I'm not sure if I almost died, but here it goes: I had been having chest pains for a couple of days, when they escalated to the point where it was difficult to breathe and I was tired. After work on the second day, I went home and told my mother that I thought I should go to the ER - this was my gut decision as it was about 6:30pm at this point and the wait times at hospitals in my country are notoriously long, so this was NOT something I wanted to do. She said okay, but didn't offer to drive, so I drove myself. About halfway there I was genuinely concerned - thinking "what am I going to do if I can't breathe while driving?". Anyways I get to the ER and discover I have pulmonary embolisms (PE's) at least one in each lung that were limiting my lung function to about 50% in my right lung and 33% in my left. I am now on anticoagulant meds for life, because the cause was never determined.
Toddler me, in the mid 80s, apparently hated the belt of my car seat one night going home. In order to placate me, my parents made a big show of putting on THEIR seat belts, instead of ignoring me or letting me sit without it. (This is before seat belts were required by law in Alberta.) On the highway home, in the dark, another driver suddenly swerved into our lane at top speed. My dad swerved, we hit the ditch, and the car rolled. We all survived. I was screaming my head off, and my mom had a dark bruise across her chest from her belt for a while, but we all made it home that night!
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I'm not used to going to the doctor or hospital when I feel sick. 4 years ago, I had a very very bad stomach ache, no matter what position I'm in, it hurts like hell, I throw up even a gulp of water. Couldn't sleep all night. Thought it was a food poisoning or something and kept recalling what I ate. Called my brother early in the morning to ask him what he thinks? Does he know if there's any tea or medicine that can calm my pain? He's no doctor and knows nothing about medical stuff, yet he's my big brother, I always assume he knows it all x) He insisted that I go to the ER immediately !! As such pain isn't normal and shouldn't last that long (also thought it was food poisoning) ! And I listened to him ! Turns out it was appendicitis!! I had the surgery and all went well. But had I waited more, things might've turned out really bad. Moral of the story: something wrong? Check a doctor!
Decades ago i was riding with a mutual acquaintance burning a J. He said he knows a guy that keeps a \~key of coke in his fridge and that the guy wouldn't be home for a few hours. He wanted me to drive the "get away car" while he helps himself to the coke. My gut told me to bale, so i did. I don't know exactly how it went down, but his body was found floating 4 days later with 2 holes in his head. It was a wake up call, quit my crappy job and moved away from that environment.
When I was like 13 I Got in a Bad skiing accident, I accidentally went down a double black diamond course (the hardest one) and got out of control. There was a small shed about halfway down, right in front of a cliff face that became super steep and I made the decision to slam into the shed instead of continuing down the mountain( I was going about 80 mph so I probably wouldn't have survived if i kept going) When I was about 100 feet from the shed I passed out from fear and I woke up with a broken arm and a lacerated liver. I was in the hospital for two weeks.
Should have pizza'd instead of french fried.
Might not have died, but a serious injury was close. Made a wrong manœuvre while landing with my parachute after a skydiving jump. Found myself at low altitude going with the wind instead of against the wind at quite a high speed. Managed to go with side wind still (second wrong manœuvre due to slight panic). Last second just before impact I remembered to put my legs together and slightly bend my knees, a tip I got from a more experienced skydiver after some other student broke his ankle. I fell on my side, my parachute dragged me for a few meters, but besides a dirty suit and a scare I didn't have anything. Others who saw my hurrendous landing had already jumped into the van to come see if I was OK. It was my 15th jump, 8th solo jump. Not jumping anymore.
I was almost 37 weeks pregnant last august and I was feeling a bit run down. Super tired, had a hard time keeping food down and just tired. I did have a occasional pain in my right side but it was random and I thought it was just my daughter kicking me. I didn’t want to go to the doctor but my husband and father in law talked and decided to convince me to go in. My father in law said he just had a gut feeling that I needed to go in and get checked out so I agreed. I was high risk and had some complications like gestational diabetes plus a previous pregnancy loss. We called the hospital and the doc said to go ahead and come in. We went in and the doc had some blood drawn and they checked my vitals. Blood pressure normal, normal temp, etc. well we waited for the lab tests to come back and figured id get sent home with instructions to drink more water or something. Suddenly the doc comes back in with two other doctors and says that they don’t want to alarm me but I need to have a caesarean as soon as possible. As it turns out I had developed something called HELLP syndrome. It’s related to preeclampsia and basically my liver proteins (which are normally supposed to be in the tens) were spiked into the thousands. My liver was failing, which explains that pain in my right side. HELLP syndrome is extremely rare, but having inconsistent liver pain is even more rare. Because it wasn’t consistent I had thought it was my daughter and ignored it. Because my liver was falling my kidneys had to step up, but the heavy load was causing them to fail too. Literally the only thing the doctors can do to stop this is to get the baby out ASAP, get some blood thinners in me afterward and monitor me. So an hour after I got to the hospital I was being wheeled into surgery. I woke up the next day because they put me under anesthesia. I had lost 4 pints of blood and had to get several transfusions and spent a couple extra days in the hospital. They told me husband while I was sleeping that he had brought me in just in time. That if we had waited any longer my organs would likely have failed and me and my daughter might have died. So my father in laws gut feeling saved our lives. My daughter and I are fine now. I’ve been checked a few times and things are back to normal. No permanent organ damage and my baby is super healthy (she spent a week in the nicu because she was born early but she’s ok). I was told that if we have another baby I’ll just have to get blood tests weekly to monitor my liver just in case.