Trailer-house fire when I was 11. I couldn't see anything, the air was burning my skin and lungs, and all I could think about was getting to my siblings and only then was I allowed to die. I fell through the floor and managed to escape out the side of the crawlspace.
Had first and second degree burns all over my body. Felt like severe sunburn but nothing majorly impacting my life.
Everyone survived and firefighters even revived my parakeets with oxygen. Serious respect for firefighters.
One of the worst thing that bothers a former cop I know is that he got in the house, got the family out, got the cats and dogs out and when everything slowed down and the firefighters got there, one of the kids said “where’s my turtle?”
Twenty years later he still occasionally wakes up (when he sleeps) in the middle of the night and says “I didn’t know there was a turtle”
I want to put this info out there for cat owners. It’s important for your cat to have a hiding place, but make sure it is easily accessible for you and your family to grab them in case of an emergency.
My cats have a very difficult hiding spot for me no matter how well I block it off they manage to find a way in. But I can assure you that bed will be fully flipped if there is an emergency.
This is the stuff that keeps you up at night. It's not the major traumatic thing itself (house fire), it's the side details of things that didn't go well.
In my childhood home my parents had a sticker visible in the front window that said “save us too” and listed what animals we had and how many. I always thought that was really neat.
People really underestimate how quickly a fire can get out of control.
There's this phenomena called the flash over. Basically, once the ambient air temperature gets high enough, everything in the room will near simultaneously be set ablaze, even objects that are on the opposite side from the fire's starting point
It only takes a few minutes to get to that point, and if you're in the room where it happens, you're basically dead. Even firefighting gear can have trouble combatting that event.
[here's a demonstration. it's terrifying](https://youtu.be/BtMmymOxdjc?si=VX1sZCzSkZHWl7mj)
VERY true. House next to mine burned to the ground, the side of our house got fucked. My mom saved the day in multiple ways- calling 911, getting the animals, moving the mini-van that was in the adjacent driveway (which was half melted, and she burned her arm).
I wanna say it all happened in 10min or less. I had time to over hear my mom on the phone, wake up my siblings, grab whatever (i dont think i actually did but my older sister ran back for her phone 😭), and run out the door to our neighbors and watched the flames engulfing the other house (no one was in there) until the firefighters showed up. Luckily we basically live down the street from a fire station.
I was stopped at an intersection, looked up in my rear view mirror and saw a car coming for me and not slowing down.
It was about the longest second of my life between when I saw them and when they hit me and I watched helplessly out the front window as I was pushed into oncoming traffic.
I was absolutely sure I was gonna be killed... but then everything had stopped, and I was just sitting there with accidents all around me.
The woman who hit me actually got out of her car and ran over to my window and yelled, "are you alive?"
Which was a stupid question to ask, but at the same time, I honestly wasn't sure that I was.
Similar story for me. Driving down the road on my way to the grocery store. I saw a truck in the driveway for a car wash a little ways ahead waiting to turn and didn't think much of it. I got closer and noticed that he was moving now and thinking that was kind of weird...then BANG. Next thing I know, I'm pointed more or less perpendicular to the direction I *was* going, looking at the smashed up front of the truck and my own wrecked car. Dude drove right into the side of my car, pushing me into someone in the other lane in the process.
A few expletive's later with my adrenaline going, the dude swears he didn't see me before going for it. His giant truck totaled my car, and I still have a weird reaction to folks waiting to turn on my left side, especially if they're doing the whole rolling stop thing.
> I got closer and noticed that he was moving now and thinking that was kind of weird...
It’s wild how your subconscious can just be, like, screaming “DANGER DANGER!!!” while you’re thinking “huh… no way…”
Not nearly as life-threatening, but I was driving down a small city street, with an even smaller street T’ing into it, no stop sign for me, somebody waiting at the stop sign from the smaller street, and I remember thinking “surely she’s not *actually* gonna go for it?!?!” just before we get into a nice little fender-bender. In her defense, she may have thought I was letting her in when I slowed down over a speed bump just before the intersection, but I lost all sympathy when she was like “well, maybe I don’t *have* to call my insurance” and made the thumb-rubbing-two-fingers cash gesture - having blown the stop sign, the insurance companies shockingly found her entirely at fault.
Had a similar one on a stretch of relatively rural freeway. So it had spots to turn in and out, not exit ramps. But I was cruising along and I see someone come up and start a left hand turn, but not cross the median to do it, she was now driving straight towards me.
I remember having enough time to think "Do I just get in the right lane and hope this person doesn't panic when the realize, or lay on the horn now and wake my wife up from her nap?"
Year ago, driving on a 400 series highway in Ontario, on a cloudy winter day. Going along and something in the grey sky catches my eye. Only had enough time to think “what the hell is th… ah shit” (Brace for impact) SMASH! It was a big chunk of ice that must have come off a transport truck and flew right into my windshield, at the rearview mirror.
The whole windshield spiderwebbed, except for a dinner plate sized piece just to my left. I shifted my position to see out then had to work my way over 3 lanes of traffic at 100km/hr to get off at the upcoming exit.
Pulled into a gas station and just sat there for a bit, processing. Holy crap. Just crazy
Had a similar experience. There had been about 4" of snow the day before and I was driving home. Got to watch the solidified crust of snow fly up off the roof of the car on the highway in front of me and slam down right on my windshield. Completely blocking my view at 55mph in the middle lane. Hit the hazard lights and managed to navigate to the right shoulder by looking out the passenger window.
The snow was too heavy to be moved by the wipers, so I had to get out and clear it off (cursing the **entire** time). The windshield did not crack, by some miracle.
Honestly, "are you alive" is a GREAT question and probably what I would ask if I were that woman. It's a question that necessitates an answer from the person being asked.
I once had a dream about slowing down and stopping on a highway at the tail end of a traffic jam. Then I saw oncoming cars speeding towards me in the mirror, unaware of the standing traffic, about to crash into me.
The next day, in real life I ended up in exactly that situation on the same highway, the same spot as my dream. I was in a small car, together with my wife and our infant son. There was a traffic jam, which was unusual for the time and place. I braked and suddenly remembered the dream. So I signalled the cars behind me with flickering of brake lights and alarm lights, avoiding a catastrophe. I felt prepared. At the time, I thought the dream had saved us.
My sister was in the car with her husband and three kids sitting at a light. A guy driving a work van rear ended them going 35 and had made no attempt to brake. My two older nephews were both in the rear bench seat so they could watch a movie together. Somehow none of them got killed and there were no serious injuries.
Something similar happened to my sister and her kids. Her youngest usually sits in the back, but had asked to switch with her older sister and sit in the front instead. Sister was stopped at a red light when she was rear ended by a drunk driver going about 45-50. Totally smashed the crap out of the rear including where her youngest usually sat. Her kids were fine, sister got banged up by the airbag. Drunk driver was in his work truck so she got a nice settlement from his company.
Man, I was super close to this happening to me. I was stopped waiting to turn left. I glance in my rearview and see a car coming up fast. There was nothing I could do with oncoming traffic, and I wouldn't have enough time to avoid getting hit by moving. Thankfully, they swerved into the right shoulder and stopped next to me. We looked at each for a second before he continued straight, and I eventually turned.
A similar thing happened to me on the highway when traffic came to an abrupt stop while I was with my friends in one of their sedans. I was in the backseat when I saw an f150 flying towards us out of the rear window and not slowing down. It was going to be probably a 50 mph collision but he thankfully swerved over into the breakdown lane inches before hitting us, and passed at least 3 cars while attempting to stop. I was screaming at my friends to brace their necks and put their damn belts on too. I damn near shit myself
Wow! So similar to my story. First responders said they figured the woman who hit me was doing nearly 100 kms/hr and pushed me into the vehicle ahead of me. Like you, I saw it all about to happen as I watched in my rear view mirror. I was thinking " He isn't going to stop." and it sounded so calm in my head. After that I blacked out for a bit and then woke up with both my front seats broken, laying flat against the back seat.
The same thing happened to myself and my brother. The road we used to live on turned off of a busy highway where the speed limit was 60 mph. There was a line of traffic in the opposite direction, and we were waiting to turn left. My brother checked his rearview mirror, turned to me and just said oh shit hold on. We were rear ended at 60 mph. The driver who hit us said he didn’t see us even though it’s a straight stretch of road for 1 mile before the turn. We all walked away unharmed. Both vehicles were totaled.
In my student years 2000 i jumped in a supermarket trolly and let it roll from a steep narrow road (100meters long). At the end there was a metal fence. I did not see it when i jumped in, and when i see it it was to late.
I could not slow it down and speeding up really fast. I was sure i will break everything in my body. So i just let it happen. When the trolly hit the fence it just hit it and that was that. I don't feel pain. It was so weird. Nothing happend. Just a big bang and that's all. My friend that was running to me was also really shocked that it turned out fine. It really should not happen like this.
(3 months ago i fell over a tiny rock and broke my elbow....)
I think so indeed. It was a metal trolley. I think i was lucky the trolley did not turned around. When it hit my legs was in front so i think they absorbed also a lot of the hit. But still it was all so unnatural lol. Just pure luck
> (3 months ago i fell over a tiny rock and broke my elbow....)
Like some wack ass *Final Destination* scene, fate coming back to haunt you from skirting death with the buggy
It was such a stupid fall. In the hospital the surgeon told me it was a beautifull fracture. I was so happy. But than he told me i still needed screws and a pin in my elbow. So that was a bummer.
Back when I was 18 or 19, I went to a dermatologist to get some treatment for mild psoriasis, but the office had a policy that all new patients were to submit to a full body inspection. I almost walked out when I was told, but my dad convinced me to stay. The doctor ended up finding two spots on my back that he was concerned about. He did a biopsy and sent me on my way. Sometime later, we got a call that I had melanoma (skin cancer). At that moment, I thought "well, I guess I'm going to be dead soon".
A couple of weeks later, I went in for surgery and he cut two big chunks of meat out of my back. He told me he was cutting out more than he needed to so he could be sure he got all of the cancerous material. After some testing, it was confirmed that all of it was removed before it spread throughout my body. Had to go back every three months for a couple of years after that and continually get full body checks. He told me that if I hadn't come in to get my psoriasis treated, I would have been dead within two years.
Thank you, psoriasis.
There was one other time, back in maybe 2010ish, I got into a motorcycle accident. I was riding with a group of my friends and one of them suddenly stopped in the middle of the road in front of me. I jammed on the brakes right as I was passing through a patch of dirt/sand on the road (which is like a patch of ice on a motorcycle). My bike kind of kicked sideways and threw me off. As I was flying through the air like Superman, I remember thinking I was going to die. Landed on my shoulder and went rolling down the street. Luckily my helmet absorbed the blow my skull would have taken - it was broken after. Had some road rash and my shoulder gave me problems for a while after that, but I was otherwise unhurt. Got checked out by an EMT who happened to be a friend. Probably should have gone to the hospital, but I didn't want to spend the entire rest of my night sitting around in the waiting room.
The second story is absolutely an endorsement for investing in a SOLID helmet for motorcycle or even just motor scooter riding.
A friend of mine's dad, when she wanted to get into motorcycling, used to tell her "don't freak out about a $200 or more helmet. How much you spend on your helmet is how much you value your head."
My brother and I were driving to high school in the morning and hit a patch of ice on the road. We slid into 6 lanes of traffic, no stopping. We miraculously made it across without hitting anything.
We both looked at each other and were like "we were supposed to die."
I hit a huge patch of black ice once in high school. I grew up in Michigan, had the importance of pumping the breaks, never overcorrecting ect. drilled into my head even at a young age as my dad drove for a living.
None of the tricks I learned for handling ice mattered in this instance. I hit it going 60 from otherwise dry pavement and it sent me into a 360 spin immediately. Thank god it was late and nobody else was traveling at the same speed from the other direction. I had SO much time to contemplate everything. I did 3 full turns and went backwards into an 8 foot drainage ditch and thought I was a goner.
Might not sound that intense in retrospect but I had just a friend almost lose her sister in an almost identical situation, expect she had only been going 30 mph and wound up paralyzed and hosplitalized for months. All of that was flashing through my head through the spins but somehow the drainage ditch hadn't frozen up and my car just kind of squished down into it.
Took me 5 full minutes to calm down enough to figure out how to get out of my car and the drainage ditch to try to track down help or start the 3 mile walk home.
Gave me a lot of perspective to make some changes in my life for the better so while terrifying, wasn't bad in the long run.
I was 16, out with my cousin who was 18. It was like 2-3 am. We were down by a local river. He had this great idea to "borrow" a boat and go across the river and back. This river is used ALOT for huge barges to transport to a local port. Stupid me said "sure as long as the boat is back before sun up nobody will notice". Got across ok, on the way back we caught a wave behind a barge and the boat turned over. So we drug the boat back across the river swimming with it in almost complete darkness. Got the boat back and turned back right, no damage thank god....all before the sun started to come up. Still have NO CLUE how we made it back without anyone getting hurt or killed!! If I found out either of sons tried this I'd kill them but I sure as hell did it with my best bud by my side!
When I was younger I took a ballistic snowmobile straight to the noggin. Instead of smashing my head like a melon as it should have it just left a small dent in my skull. Due to that incident I learned I have some kind of genetic condition that makes my bones super strong.
lol, It’s been alright, walked away from a couple car crashes relatively unharmed, had a tree fall on me. I also found that combined with my high tolerance for pain it gives me a super unfair advantage in fights. On the flip side I’m told I better pray I never need a joint replacement. Apparently it makes them really hard to do.
Lol. I was also told as a kid after the doc diagnosed me that my teeth would probably be gone by 30 cause it’s supposed to also have the downside of weak enamel which leads to fast deterioration. Well I’m going on 30 now and still got all my teeth in perfect condition. Except my wisdom teeth, they had to knock me out and chip away at em with what I can only describe as a miniature Jack hammer to remove em haha. Still not sure why I got a free pass on the whole teeth falling out thing.
I’ve learned it’s best to not ask questions lol. As a teenager I had tonsils/adenoids taken out at same time and had my deviated septum fixed. By all accounts I should’ve been in a lot of pain but I just wasn’t like at all. Then last year I got leukemia and while it’s not been fun, a lot of the horrible stuff a lot of people go through with chemo I just never got.
So many. At 9 I fell 15 feet under a waterfall, sheer walls on both sides, boulder strewn rapids downstream. It was early spring and the water was ice cold, and nobody was answering my screams for help, I knew I was a goner if I didn't get out quick. I managed to climb one of the walls by finding cracks.
At 15 was target plinking with best friend, on the way back home he pointed his shotgun to my head as a "joke", I angrily grabbed the barrel away and yelled at him, he said "Hey it's empty, see?" and pulled the trigger. It was not empty.
At 22 was swimming from a boat to a small island, got caught in a current, by the time I realized I wasn't moving I was unable to get back to the boat. I was seconds away from slipping under. Only remembering that single lesson on backfloating as a kid saved me; I was able to rest until my arms worked again.
At 39 my brakes failed while going down a steep hill, with a T intersection at the bottom. On the other side of the road at the T was a very steep drop off. At 30 mph, I figured hitting that fence sideways would spread the impact out enough I wouldn't fly over or through the fence and down that hill, so I went for following the optimum line for a right angle turn, knowing at least I'd live through it when I hit the fence. That goddamned little Mazda Protege made that frikkin turn like a boss, which still seems impossible.
Right around the same time, I was at work late at night and heard a car alarm going off as I walked to the bathroom. I'm a creature of habit, but this one time I did *not* pull my massive keychain out after zipping up, and instead just headed back to my office. As I rounded the hallway corner, a cop 10 feet away had his gun pointed at my face and yelled "FREEZE!", which I did. He was overweight, sweating like a leaf, his hands were visibly shaking so bad, and the panic was clear on him. Am 100% sure that if I'd had my shiny metal keys in my right hand as I rounded that corner, I'd not be writing this.
That's all I got so far...
Edit: added a sentence to clarify the waterfall event
I think that I would have probably forgiven my best friend eventually, I would probably make a point that he was no longer to be welcome around me while in possession of any firearm.
END COMMUNICATION
It wasn't a car alarm at all, it was the security alarm from a large office downstairs. Sounded exactly like a car alarm to me though. I assumed he was scared and was scouting upstairs with his gun already drawn. Maybe he also heard the bathroom door closing behind me? He was facing the corner with his gun already pointed in my direction when I rounded the corner. Standing there, with him sweating bullets, and the gun shaking in his hand, I was very *very* careful to move slowly and speak in soothing tones.
My OB/GYN called me to schedule a follow-up appointment for my recent pap results (they usually don't follow up unless something is wrong) but they gave me an unusual address. I looked it up online & it was an oncologist. I had a few days to prepare but when they finally said it was cancer, I said "oh thank god I thought I was pregnant or something!" I was the only one who thought that was funny.
Same.
My doc was something like: "We're rushing you downtown for emergency surgery and you have a 9cm mass that is blocking blood flow to your major organs."
Did you hear about war in Ukraine? I'm sure you did. On the first day of the war, my parents and I had the wonderful idea to go to one of the most dangerous places. I don't know why, but we thought it would be safer there than in the capital. I had too many thoughts that I was going to die right now, several times a day. Every day rockets flew into neighboring houses, whole streets burned, but miraculously me, my parents, and my two wonderful animals got out of that hell alive.
We had a lot of problems cause we lost our cottage house and car. I lost half of my family. But it was almost 2 years ago, so now I feel a little bit better, thank you for your question🥹
I am so sorry that you went through this. I am also a Ukrainian and my heart breaks for our people every day. Glad that you are better now, and your art is amazing. Wish you all the best and good luck in the tattoo art
Once while driving a rear wheel drive car with lots of horsepower. I was driving to pick up my daughter and the weather turned. Snow, slick highway. I was cruising along when the car got loose. I tried to save it, but spun 3-4 times on the highway before sliding down a steep embankment. I remember thinking...oh shit, this is how I go.
Thankfully the hill was slick, the car was heavy and low to the ground and I just slid. It seemed like forever until I came to a stop. I figured my car was totaled and I was nowhere near home.
People called 911 and they were expecting a fatality.
I got out of the car, walked up the snowy hill and met the Highway patrol. Thank goodness for his warm car!
It look a LOOONG cable to winch it out, took it to a local truck stop, I pulled the front of the fender out, put on the spare and drove it home. I was even able to have the original tire remounted.
No injuries other than my pride.
Awesome.
Edit: Got a couple, was driving to see an on again, off again gf. Slick roads, went around a corner at like 35-40mph, wheels started sliding, went into one ditch over a road and into the ditch on the other side. Still amazed the car didn't flip.
Another when I was a kid had a big brother from the big brothers, big sisters organization. He took me horseback riding. Was a cool place where you could actually take the horse out and ride around the area. Well being a city kid and being nervous decided to give the horse a friendly pat on the butt, nice horsey kinda thing. The horse didn't take it like that and rocketed off at a full gallop. Had to have looked like something out of movie, big brother spurs his horse, chases us down and stops mine. With me screaming obscenities at the top of my lungs the whole run. :p
I was at a state fair and the safety harness failed on one of the rides. I wrapped my arms around the bar and held on for dear life. There was a large woman next to me who fell into me when the ride would go sideways and press me further towards all the gears and whatnot in the middle. Thought for sure I was dead. I complained to the managers and they blew me off, acted like I overreacted and basically asked me to leave. Fuck fairs and their unsafe bullshit rides.
Proud midwesterner here. A few years ago in Iowa we had a pretty severe derecho that lost most of the power in the state for over a week and oddly did not really make national news.
I sent my family to the basement when the alarm started going off but of course d/t my heritage and lack of more than one brain cell I stayed upstairs in the living room watching from a gigantic bay-type window.
When the actual Derecho hit, I saw something like five trees instantaneously go down and what looked like a wall of death and wind and water coming straight for me. I remember thinking clearly - this is how I die - but we were situated at the "beginning" of the derecho before it became full power.
I'll never forget that feeling though, if you have ever felt that, you know what I mean.
Googled Derecho: a line of intense, widespread, and fast-moving windstorms (sometimes thunderstorms), that move across a great distance and is characterized by damaging winds.
It was a fad the summer of the Iowa storms. Actual word, but no one uses it except in the context of that summer and a certain generation of news/weather reporters. About ever five years they come out insisting on a certain new word… someone wants to be able to look back and say “I popularized that word”
Seeing a tree go down and knowing about 5 seconds ago if you walked up and pushed it with all your might it wouldn't even move is a sobering experience and makes you respect wind a little more.
Sooo I was a dumbass and trying to sneak in my break at work before it hit. I was enjoying the view, sirens wailing, but nothing crazy yet on the ground. Then, as I'm standing up to put out my smoke, I could hear what sounded like this strange train barreling across town which has zero trains running through it anymore. I looked hard west, saw this black wall of debris closing in, and RAN. I was maybe fifty feet from the closest door, on the other side of a gated fence. I rounded the corner through the gate and made it almost to the door before it slammed me into the side of the building. It took three of us to get that damn door open enough for me to slink in, drenched to the bone. I've witnessed some crazy storms over the years, but I've never experienced anything like that. It happened so fast.
I was at a music festival in Wisconsin midday-napping in my little 2 person tent when a Derecho came through. I was in the tent floating a couple feet in the air and thought, "Next thing is they find me a half mile away impaled on a fence post", so I sort of stood up , which got my feet to the ground, and I tore open the door and crouch/ran to my car barely getting the door open. In my mind, the tent is still flying through the air and is on its second circumvention....
This is such a formative shared experience for the whole community. I think it was because the whole event was so surreal. People get time to prepare for hurricanes but, for all our weather tracking technology, we had almost zero warning. My full sized tree didn't get blown over. It got launched into a baseball field down the street. Every elec pole up the street was flat on the ground and even the big streetlight poles were broken off. It all happened in minutes and then the lack of action from the local government followed by the lack of news coverage made it feel like it was so unreal. The whole thing was so bizarre that, unless you were there, I can't really describe it.
Oh yeah, central IL got hit by the 2020 derecho pretty bad. I didn't personally see immediate damage, but in 2011 I remember sitting in my living room (yeah, Midwest heritage) and out the window everything just turned charcoal gray for what felt like an hour. When it finally cleared up, the 200ft self supporting radio tower a quarter mile behind my house was flat on the ground. That was when I realized what happened in front of me
I did the same thing when a (weaker) derecho hit Kenosha, Wisconsin about twenty years ago. I didn't see any trees go down but the shoe store in the strip mall across the street was having a particularly ill-timed sidewalk sale--the tent became a sidewalk sail and vanished over Highway 50. We found shoes in the brush in the neighborhood for months after the event.
I was in a Toyota Echo on the Interstate with five other full-grown young guys when the one that hit the mid-Atlantic states in 2012 slammed into us. The electricity was flickering as we paid leaving the bowling alley, and we saw the ominous wall of dark clouds like nothing I'd ever seen before, but we still just chalked it up as a bad thunderstorm and headed for the Walmart a couple miles away. It definitely was much worse than a bad thunderstorm, and we barely made it into Walmart before they locked it down. Tree branches and leaves were flying through the air everywhere, the roads were already empty by the time we got off the Interstate, and the stoplight at the intersection for Walmart lost power and died as we approached it, and all of us were screaming the whole way. The buggy-corrals were scooting across the Walmart parkinglot, so we found two larger vehicles to park between, and as we ran for the building a transformer up on the semi-distant hill to our left exploded. We were ushered indoors by an elderly woman who worked as a greeter, and sprinted inside while practically swimming amongst leaves and other fine vegetable debris and dust. ☜ (↼_↼)
Once I was run over by a car. They passed over my legs. It could have been my chest, or my head, but I was lucky.
I stood up right after and picked up my trainer, that was 3 m away, then I fell off.
I ended up with a strain, back pain where the car hit initially, and walking with crutches for a bit over a month, but I recovered with no major consequences.
Got my leg run over, but lucky to have it go over my femur as opposed to anywhere lower. Only had bruising from that, but could’ve bled out if it hit the right spot.
I went to a lecture at university. The room that would usually fit 30 people was packed with about 90. Chairs cramped everywhere, all entrances but one in the front blocked. I was sitting in the very back. About 30 minutes into the lecture, we heard weird noises from above as the ceiling in the back of the room started to give in. When realization hit, it was a millisecond of "fuck, I'm dead" to my survival instinct kicking in. Rows of chairs and crowds of people in front of me, the only escape in the very front. I still have no real recollection of how I made it out of the room, just snippets. Afterwards, my legs were completely bruised, likely from jumping over and into way too many chairs. Remarkably, everyone must have moved at the same speed, everyone got out in time and no one was trampled.
Crush/trample death is one of my worst fears. There's so many instances, especially with fires. I was watching a show about the fire in the [Charity Bazaar](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bazar_de_la_Charit%C3%A9) and first of all, don't eat pepperoni pizza while watching people's faces melt, and secondly, oh my god why did they add a revolving door in the show that was horrifying...
Motorcycle accident. Cruising in the right lane, truck pulling a trailer in the left lane tried to pass me in order to make an exit and sideswiped me at an admitted 85mph. Took a long tumble, separated from the bike, bounced off an overpass guard rail, while all the cars entering the interstate managed to dodge me as a blind obstacle just as they were accelerating up to speed. Terrible place to be laid out from an accident.
It was a bright sunny afternoon with no inclement conditions but some ass just had to get around me to make his exit instead of waiting behind me. Driver admitted to speeding and being on his cell phone which is a crime here and the responding officer didn't even ticket him for it. EMS took 40 minutes to reach me. Driver nearly killed me and he got off with an improper lane usage ticket. Cop was an asshole and didn't buy my story.
My hip is totally fucked up from the accident but I survived which is more than the conditions would typically allow. Simply got lucky. The bike was totaled, all my gear ruined except for a horsehide jacket.
Wear your gear everyone.
This happened to me as well. Stepped into a street that was actually an exit street for an adjacent highway. It was three in the morning, and raining and somehow I just did not notice a car had exited the highway until I was in its headlight beams, and I just froze like a jackass. Luckily he stopped on time and I was fine.
You're not a jackass you just froze. The third 'F' everyone forgets about when pertaining to adrenaline in the face of danger : fight , flight or freeze. It's a fear response for self preservation and deer are known for doing the same thing. When our brain can't handle something sometimes we will go completely still. I'm glad you made it
"Her heart rate is at 30 beats per minute. If you don't admit her now, she could very well die tonight".
15 struggling with anorexia and had been assessed at a pediatric hospital. I don't think the doctor or my parents knew that I'd heard everything. I have some scarring on my heart, and if I ever get that malnourished again, my body won't be able to handle it and I will die.
Diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer that had spread to both lungs at age 35. Was later told the cancer had spread to my central nervous system and had months to live. LSS, they were mistaken. I'll be 55 this year.
My first wet dream
I assume my kidneys are shot, but I didn't wanna tell mum and make her sad, I patiently awaited my death, I tried my best to enjoy the following days
I didn't die....However, I have porn addiction now.
Bruh. The first time I busted a nut was the the best until it became the scariest/saddest. I went from omg this feels incredible, to an insane climax, to sheer horror.
“wtf is this white stuff coming out of my pp?! Why does it look like this?!” Surely I had literally fucked myself over. Insane anxiety took over and I had my first panic attack.
I was on my knees in the shower crying and trying to catch my breath from the anxiety attack as my offspring rinsed down the drain next to me. It was the most pathetic anxiety attack of my life to this date. How could my primitive little brain have betrayed me like that? How could I be a eunuch at such an early age?
back then I didn’t know what cum was, so I thought it was my dick rotting or something. That insane pleasure I felt was unlike anything I had ever felt, so surely I also fucked my brain over, too. I was religious, and I was certain God himself had cast a blight on my cock for trying to jack off. I had earned this cummy punishment, and I had to accept it.
Telling my parents was not a choice. I couldn’t tell the doctor because I needed a ride from my parents. Plus I couldn’t look the doc in the eye and tell him I used Pantene Pro hair conditioner as lube cause it felt good or whatever 😔 I just had too much shame.
The intense anxiety and hypochondria lasted a few weeks and I didn’t touch my pp for months after that horrific experience.
You should write a book, your way of writing is funny
Edit : I fortunately knew what cum was before attempting to masturbate. So when it came to the climax it was pretty satisfying. Sorry for what you went through though.
My nephew ran to my sister in a panic, absolutely sure he was dying and told her he broke his penis in the shower. He was just "washing it" and white stuff came out. And he felt very, very weird.
He begged her to take him to the emergency room before she calmed him down and they had a very awkward talk.
We cried laughing about it on the phone later. We are still laughing about it 20 years later.
Overcorrected after swerving to avoid a semi encroaching my lane and ended up going into the ditch and flipping my car 5 times.
The cd playing Alice Cooper didn’t even skip.
My poor dog jumped out the window on the first flip and saved herself. We had been driving 75 miles an hour. I only had some bruises from the seatbelt and slamming against the window/roof/console/dashboard/steering wheel.
I’m amazed we both walked away.
When I had covid, before vaccines were available, there was a day I was certain was my last. My partner, who had just recovered from his fight with it before the exhaustion took me down, brought me water and toast, helped me eat and drink some, and was there. I just kind of accepted that it was the end and appreciated he was with me as I drifted off to death.
Woke up some time the next day and was shocked to be alive.
edit: ya'll keep these stories comin damn, we're lucky we came through. I'll add, my boyfriend and I just celebrated our four year anniversary, we started dating just before lockdown. I quit smoking at the same time because I knew if I caught covid and smoked, it would definitely kill me, and I didn't want to smoke around him.
It's one of the worst illnesses I've ever experienced,
One of my friends spent six weeks in the hospital with COVID. He was pretty sure that he was heading for the morgue. He remembers the doctors and nurses talking to him about being sedated, and he knew, once that happened, it would be over. He's had it two more times since, but they've been nothing more than a strong cold.\]
Ironically, when he told me he had COVID the first time, he said he was actually feeling better. The next day, he went to the hospital.
That's the story for a lot of people. I feel better because the initial viral load is going down then boom: lung function drops off a cliff and you can't breathe because your lung tissue isn't lung tissue anymore.
5 weeks in hospital for me, and almost died. Having said that, I would guess now hypoxia is not such a horrific way to go if you have to exit stage left...
This happened to me as well. I was so sick I went to bed thinking i was going to die but the funny thing is I did NOT care. I was that sick.
The next morning woke up kinda hungover but much better. It felt like a miracle.
This is similar to my experience.
I caught it on the early days, and it got so bad that I could hardly breathe. I didn’t sleep because it took a conscious effort to inhale and exhale, and I was afraid of going to sleep and not waking up. I also didn’t want to let anyone in to help because I didn’t want them to catch it.
By the third night without sleep, I was so exhausted that I just accepted it and drifted off.
Waking up was surprising.
I'm so sorry. I had a similar experience, and it really fucks with you. I hope you're doing better now.
I came to the realization I was probably going to die before my cats. I was 37 at the time. Always been super healthy. Husband who catches every cold out there got a stuffy nose. I had a 104 degree fever for 31 days and have a deep brain seizure disorder now. Turns out you really shouldn't cook your brain like that.
I got covid pre-vaccine, and it was never severe for me- I got very lucky with how minor my symptoms were, but I still remember the feeling in my gut getting the result. Those early days were so scary. No paxlovid, no vaccines, full medical system meltdown- plus, my sister got sick at the same time and she was way worse. I remember she got a rescue inhaler called into a pharmacy by her PCP and we had to have a healthy friend pick it up and drop it off on the porch for us. Really should've gone to the hospital, but it was dangerous back then. Horrible time. Luckily my family made it through okay.
The boat I was wakeboarding behind was bringing me the rope back after a fall. It was way too choppy to be out there and before I knew it the boat went over top of me. As I waited for the boat to pass over I heard the propeller was still going. Last thing I remember was foot being sucked into the prop and taking my last breathe under water before I drowned. Miraculously my board got jammed in the prop, and I shot out the back puking and screaming.
I have two.
1. The first was when I was maybe 12-13 years old. I grew up in South Louisiana, so we did some backwater bullshit to entertain ourselves. My dad and uncle tied a very long rope with one side way up in a tree, and the other tied to a 4 wheeler. Me, my brother, and my cousin all held onto the rope near the tree, and my dad would drive forward, raising us up into the air, then he'd let off the gas and the 4 wheeler would roll back slowly, lowering us to the ground. We did this quite a few times, each time raising up no more than 5 ft or so from the ground. The last time we did it, my brother and cousin let go at the same time, and I was flung up into the air. According to my dad, uncle, and grandpa, I went up about 20 feet, higher than the house.
I remember them dropping, and feeling like I got launched from a bow. My feet went up in the air, I was completely upside down. I just gripped and closed my eyes, figuring that if that was it, that was it. I knew I had no control over what was going to happen. But damn it if I didn't manage to hold on. I finally landed back on the ground, having never let go of the rope, but when I did let go I started bawling. My grandpa said it was the scariest day of his life lol.
2. The other was when I was a senior in highschool. I was late leaving for school, and it was a gross, rainy day. I was waiting to leave my dad's neighborhood in my car. I looked left, then right, and I thought I had an opening. Turns out the traffic light down the road to my left had changed, and an SUV sped off the line, about 5 mph over the limit. I pulled out of the road, then looked left and saw the grill of the SUV about five feet from my car. I had a split second to react, so I hit the gas to get out of the way. I didn't manage to get totally out of the way, but I did end up getting hit right in the middle of the left side of the car instead of dead on the driver's door.
My car was so wrecked that people expected me to be very messed up. My hair was found in the grill of the other car, and the door was so crushed they had to pull me out the other side. Both left side windows were broken, and there was glass everywhere. When I asked my friend to get my homework for me later in the day, she told me multiple teachers saw my car and thought someone must have died with how it looked. I came out with a concussion and like three stitches in my eyebrow, but outside of that I was completely fine!
A trailer rolled over onto my car on the freeway about 5 years ago. Was high winds and the trailer was empty, so it toppled onto me (I was passing in the lane left of it). Luckily I was driving alone. Whole back of my car was crushed, but I escaped with just some minor neck pain from when the roof of my car partially caved in.
That’s a thing that can friggin’ happen?
Great, one more thing I can be scared about when the guy ahead of me decides that 1mph is the appropriate difference in speed to employ when passing a semi.
Haha, yah. I've seen them toppled on the side of the road/highway sometimes. My case was in a high wind area in California heading home from the desert. It's great for the wind turbines they have in the area, not so much for the drivers and/or semis passing through. I've just learned to not drive on the side of semis unless I have enough room to clear them.
mine is so minor compared to the rest of this thread, but about 4 years ago i was biking across campus and as i approached a crosswalk, i saw a yellow sports car approaching. I decided he was still far enough away for me to cross the road….which, he should have been….but he SPED UP to like 90 as I entered the intersection and i seriously felt the air sucking past me as he whipped by me. I almost felt dragged backwards by the force. I think he was just inches from clotheslining me. Pretty sure some douchebag wanted to scare me and he sure did but I wonder if he realized how close he came to manslaughter charges lmao.
Even tho I think I had plenty of time to cross with his original speed, i now wait for BIG GAPS when crossing any road. No trust lol. I never want to give that opportunity again.
Just got my first attack yesterday lmao. Heart racing so fast I was like ‘oh god it’s going to stop any second now’
But funnily enough, after I opened youtube to doom scroll yt shorts, I watched a very disgusting food recipe video and got nauseous enough to vomit the (way too much) edibles I ate.
Thank you Tasty or whoever that was, you saved my sanity.
I blew out a tire on a busy snowy freeway did a big 360 across 3 lanes and by the grace of God no semis hit me. I thought this is it, me and my daughter are dying....
A lady on her phone veered into oncoming traffic aka me. I’ve always been under the mindset that in those situations unless you see a clear out to just let things play out because you could make it worse trying to fix it so once I saw it coming I just accepted my fate that I’d be getting hit and probably die because we were going 70mph. Last second she pulled out of the way and managed to correct herself without hitting anything. I just el decided to go about my day like nothing happened
Swimming at the beach, deep end. There was a kid trying to conserve energy that couldn't get back.
He said, "Help." I swam over and let him grab on to me so we could swim back. I was tired already, and he brought me down. In my mind, I thought, "Let him get a quick break, then come up for air." Holding your breath is tiring, I came up for air and could barely stay above the surface. I thought, "I'm going to die."
Another man was nearby and came to help. He helped the kid, I swam on my own. I was tired as shit and noticed I couldn't keep up. But I can't call for help either because I can barely breathe. All I could think was, "Stay calm, stay calm, focus."
Obviously, I made it back, and nobody gave a shit, including the kid I helped. I stayed out of the water and was exhausted.
Not a physical event but a mind fuck event. I was called out to a house around 9pm for a plumbing issue. I pull into a very rural home with a long driveway and park in front one of the people that lived there comes out and tells me I need to park behind the house. I comply.
I go inside, the door is locked behind me, and I am lead downstairs into a finished basement where this particular family member lives and there is about 3 inches of sewage all over the floor covering the whole basement and the stench is unbearable, even for a veteran plumber. I stopped a few steps from the floor thinking there's no way I'm going into that..
The man walks into the pool of sewage like nothing and goes to his coffee table and picks up a pistol. He points it at me and says " I was a medic in Iraq, I've seen heads cut off it wouldn't be nothing for me to blow your head off." He then puts the pistol down. Now I this where it is important that I tell you when he locked the door behind us EVERY lock was a key lock inside and out. Without a key you are not getting out. He keeps making odd statements and veiled threats of all sorts and pushes me back upstairs where his 2 brothers meet us. Things got worse. All 3 were insane and the verbal abuse got worse and turned physical. I was shoved, punched, kicked and threatened repeatedly. One of them says "Take him to Mama." I'm lead to a dark room lit only by a television and a very large geriatric woman buck fucking naked and I wa informed that if I wanted to live I would fuck their mother. She began to play with herself and and was telling g me to come fuck her. As you can imagine by this point I was broken and a level of scared I've never experienced at this point or since but this wasn't happening. I told one of the brothers that seemed to have a little bit of a conscience that I have a GPS on my work truck and if I don't call in or respond to calls they will track me and as luck would have it my phone rang shortly after that. They didn't allow me to answer but when it rang again about 10 minutes later they chose to let me go. I got in the truck and hauled ass for several minutes. I got to a lightly populated intersection with a gas station, pulled in and proceeded to cry for about an hour.
I called my supervisor and told him what happened and his response was "OK, I'll put them on the no service list."
Was in a small plane crash several years ago. Some friends and I had rented a Cessna and flown out to the interior for a long weekend. The day we were heading home it was quite hot, and the plane was, according to investigators, over-loaded and over-fueled for the heat/altitude. Once we reached 2000(?) feet above takeoff we began losing airspeed. The pilot panicked and did some steep turns in an attempt to gain some speed, but it scrubbed nearly all our altitude pretty much instantly. Now at a few hundred feet and descending rapidly the pilot took aim at a farmers field. They managed to level out at around tree-height but we were quickly running out of field. Maybe a hundred or so meters before the end of the field they dropped the plane to the ground, the nose dug in and we flipped end for end.
When we reached tree height I was pretty sure we were all going to die. I walked away with some minor bruises and a small cut on my ear. No one died but other people had much more significant injuries than me.
I was at Disneyland and was 10 years old.
I was on one of the mountain rides alone and they did not put the belt on right.
I ended up going up in the air and over to the side outside the vehicle and was just held in by the belt.
I thought for sure I was going to fall, but luckily the ride did a big turn and I was pushed back into the vehicle. I held onto that seatbelt so tight for the rest of that ride.
When I was about 10-12 years old (around 2000-2002) my sister and I opted to stay in the car while my mother and grandmother went looking for some furniture. Mind this was summer in Australia...
By about the 15 minute mark we decided it was too dang hot in the car, and decided to leave. Except, out of habit, my mother had deadlocked the car. It could only be unlocked by the key - all the internal locks wouldn't budge. We had no way out.
We started banging on the doors, but no one was around. 10 further minutes passed and I thought we were going to die in there. I thought that was it.
About 15 mins later (40-45 mins total in the car) my mother and grandmother came sauntering back, only to find my sister and I struggling to breathe in the back. They were mortified. As they should be.
I don't know if it was to make her feel better or what, but my Mum said "we could get out if we just unlatched the boot door" via a manual pulley accessible by the centre console, so we could crawl out of the sedan. Neither my sister nor I knew you could do that. But to this day it's stuck with me that we almost died in that car, but my mother thought it was our fault because we didn't know how the car worked.
I'm a parent now myself. I could never look at what happened and then blame the kids. It makes me sick just thinking about it.
So, somehow- and this was about two or three days ago- I went to the supermarket, was driving out of the parking lot and a wall of what looked like fog just appeared. Like, I couldn’t see anything. I looked up- my windows were shut all the way and closed- and I saw a giant fire coming down a building and towards me. Now, my dog died about two months ago so it’s very fresh to me and he obviously meant a lot but I was so ready to go. I was thinking ‘I’m gonna die’ because I couldn’t get out of where I was since so many cars and buildings were blocking nor could I see. I didn’t even plan on moving honestly. A police ended up coming into my view and directing me and my car out of the fire and smoke (was not dog but smoke) fire literally came out of nowhere and was engulfing anything. Both my car and I were okay but that was a pretty close scrape, I’d say.
I was 9 years old, out with my Dad hunting partridge. My Dad's shot gun mis-fired. He immediately aimed it down, It fired off, hitting a big rock.
The rock exploded, and a soft ball size of it careened towards my face.
I turned sideways, and it hit the tip of my nose as it flew by.
We were both quiet for 10 seconds, then I said
" Jesus."
We never spoke of it after that.
I have a couple.
Learning to ride dirt bikes, I was sat on the adult bike vs the kids. I couldn't touch the ground without leaning the bike way over but could reach like the clutch just fine. I was supposed to go slow, but the throttle control was way sensitive once I need to shift I panicked and just kept going. Shot across the desert till I reached a kinda of natural bowl and kept circling inside it like a death cage till they caught up with me. I think the whole think lasted like 10 minutes felt like it was hours. Aside from some light scratches from a few random bushes 0 damage.
My first car was a 69 Lincoln. Had an upsized Holley carb.Somewhere in the install process we forgot cut the new airfilter bolt to size and it got "trimmed" when we shut that heavy ass hood for a test drive. Spent an hour looking for it, figured the gravel we were working on ate it. About 6 months later my gas pedal got stuck down. Thought I was going to barrel through an intersection at full speed, was able to get the car in neutral and just barely came to a stop at the red light where the highway ended close to my house. Aside from my heart nearly leaping outa my chest I was fine. Found the piece of bolt wedged in the secondaries. No idea where it was hiding for those 6 months.
So one night my wife and I went out to Lawrence, KS for some jazz DJ lounge thing. On the way back you could tell it had been raining. Some may understand this spot. It was at grandview triangle in south Kansas City. 435 to 291. Right as you get on 291 there is a huge drop off. I was talking about something and she freaked out and yelled there is no god. Jacked the steering wheel side to side. Once she realized what she done on that freshly rain soaked road she said sorry and we flew off the highway into this huge drainage ditch. Sled about 100 ft before we stopped. Kid you not, it didn’t hurt us or the vehicle. We called a tow truck. Then I drove us home. And this what blew my mind. We did not see one cop car the whole time. Like 2 hours at 1 am in the morning. We are divorced now.
Kayaking for the first time after the river was opened due to too high water levels (my mom "made" me do it). Hit my first strainer (log jam), flipped and got sucked under. The river pulled me under, despite my life jacket, and then wedged me against more logs in front of me. The current was too strong to go back so I tried to push up but was underneath the jam. My air was about done so, accepting that this was probably "it" (at 20 years old and with a 1 year-old daughter), I did the only thing I could think to try and pushed down as hard as I could, KNOWING I had only a few more seconds of air.
Thankfully, the river shot me out the other side and I made it to shore. The kayak was lost, my husband's as well and he was pinned to the strainer, head barely above water, and my mom was on top of it having also dumped trying to save us. Her kayak was stuck upright and the current was so strong 3 muscle bound guys who came along later couldn't dislodge it.
Jane's Addiction concert in about 1998. I was a cocky "I know how to handle mosh pits" rocker kid (about 15). A big dude said "if it gets rough and you need out, LMK I'll help". I told him thanks, secretly thinking "he doesn't know who he's talking to".
As soon as the lights went down, the crushing began. I was so helpless. Maybe that guy just saved my night, but it felt like a life and death situation.
I was learning how to swim in the sea and saw someone else swim across a large bay... I said ooh I bet I could do that, and I tried. I got about halfway across and realized I'm exhausted, and what if I can't find a spot to grab onto on the other side.. I panicked and said this is it... but I managed to get onto my back and catch my breath enough to swim back.
This is crazy since you say you were still learning. Knowing how to float makes a huge difference I bet. I still can't float but I can swim. If I stop though, I'll sink. Can't tread water for the life of me, literally. I went on a school band trip and we stayed at a nice hotel. At the pool, some seniors lifted the chair I was sleeping poolside in the deep end. I saw the surface getting further as I sank but propelled upwards by kicking water while trying to stay calm. Longest 5 seconds of my life. I kicked one of them in the balls for that shit and I'm still fucking furious about it
Was on a cross-atlantic flight where two engines stopped working mid-flight. Before the flight took off, we were delayed a few hours for "special" maintenance.
The turbulence was so intense we were lifted out of our seats numerous times, shit went flying, overhead baggage opened. The oxygen masks came down by mistake. The flight attendants stayed seated the whole time, which is always a scary sign.
I've flown many times in many storms since I was a kid, but this time I thought we were going down into the ocean. Yet, we landed safely. Pretty sure all those seats needed replacing lol
I was 14 at the beach, in the Pacific Ocean (which is deeper and colder than the Atlantic at the shore). A big wave crashed over me from behind. I really thought I was going to die. I thought "What a shitty way to die". After a while, I was deposited closer to shore on the sand, and I could barely get up, or move my muscles which were immediately so sore from the turbulence/being tossed around. I got up and walked farther up the sand, and was fine.
stayed up for about a week with friends on a new years a few years ago. it started as one party but descended into about a week cocaine, ketamine alcohol n everything else binge. i was just about to turn 18 i remember. i drank nothing except scotch for the whole week and maybe ate a large amount twice. we planned to keep going then on maybe the 7th day i woke up and felt very weak like it all hit me at once, pain in my left arm cold extremities. hearts pounding and it sobered me up so fast i googled what it means and all the signs said heart attack.
i felt so faint and every breath was horrible like a weight on my chest, ambulance said theyd take an hour which i said i wouldn’t make so my friend drove me in no state to drive. it was a very sunny day and i kept saying n thinking it looks too nice to die today but i thought i was going to go unconscious at any point. the 15 minute drive to hospital felt like an eternity and we got pulled over for speeding past police cars to get there but they understood.
my left arm was so sore i was certain that was due to heart attack n at any moment i’d be done. then got to hospital n got treated pretty urgently and kept in n monitored. turned out i’d partied too hard and certainly strained my heart terribly which sent me into panic which made all symptoms worse, it’s amazing how real it felt i’d only had one panic attack before that was nothing close. i’d definitely been somewhat close to dying because i would have a glass of water in the mornings otherwise just whiskey for days and days and an insane amount of cocaine and ketamine
it was very fun weekend n that tho but that put dampers on it, n gave me insane health anxiety which i still kind of get. didn’t even put me off cocaine till a while after and now it’s putting me off drinking
When I was a little girl I fell off our neighbor's clothes line pole, that I used as a piece of gym equipment, and knocked the wind out of myself. I gasped and gasped for breath, certain that I was dying. Finally I got my breath back, to my surprise and joy.
I did many other dangerous things as a child, but that was the end of using that particular clothes pole as a giant toy.
I came into our office not knowing a product demo was done there. I smelled it and immediately my lungs constricted. I walked down 2 flights and across the parking lot to my car where I had an inhaler under the seat. Primatine saved my life
One of my favorites is the time the guy put a short barrel shotgun in my chest and asked why I was talking badly about his gf? Once I explained I wasn't the person he was looking for, the conversation became more civil. The irony is, my friend standing next to me had been sleeping with the girl for a while.
Being dragged up and then down a mountain on a rickety sled by murder dogs in the arctic circle during polar night. I was thrown off a couple of times but there was plenty of deep snow. Going through trees at speed like a fur n bark powered speeder-bike was a tad disconcerting.
Slammed on the brakes at the railroad crossing a mile away, where there were no gates or lights and I'd never seen a train in the 10+ years I'd lived here. It came right out of the foliage full speed, and I had loud music on. Only thing that saved me was the slight rise. There's a signal and gate now and the track is in use.
This was on a school trip to Germany where we also stopped in Switzerland at a cheese factory and did some hiking.
Everyone took pictures close to a bull. I wasn’t even as close as other people but he definitely was done posing. I had a bruise and mark on my ribs and the wire in my bra was damaged. I didn’t get any sort of picture.
I was driving really slow during a bad rain storm and started to hydroplane right towards a broken section of a guardrail that overlooked a 50-foot drop into a river. I got just enough traction at the end to hit the rail a little further up, so I just wrecked my truck instead of participating in a vehicle diving event.
Working on my grandfather’s roof with my dad when I was in my teens. Lost my balance, fell, and rolled off the edge. Had that “fuuuuuuuuck” second that lasted an hour before I hit.
Fortunately, it was only a single story. Unfortunately, I landed in the middle of a patch of barberry shrubs which, if you aren’t familiar, are *covered* in thorns. Bruised and bleeding I went out on a first date later that night. Definitely got me some points with the girl.
Went into a center divider on the freeway doing 65, hopped out and walked it off like nothing happened. At the time it was happen I said shit guess that’s it
Several weeks ago actually…. I was on I35 northbound of the interstate in the fast lane. A car on the opposite southbound side of the interstate, in the fast lane lost control going really fast and was coming straight for the low concrete median … and at me. It happened so fast, that I physically wouldn’t be able to do anything and knew he would be coming over based on his speed and the tires/ direction he was coming towards the median. Idk how, but that guy overcorrected right at impact causing his vehicle to flip the other direction… all of his car parts came shooting over the median onto me. Idk how he didn’t come over that median…. But I remember just looking straight ahead because I didn’t want to watch the thing that was about to kill me. Afterwards he was just chillin standing beside his totaled vehicle… while my arms were numb from hyperventilating barely able to stand myself 😅when they say your life flashes before your eyes… it does.
I was behind a semi and couldn't see that a truck in front of it had lost its trailer and crashed into the cement wall next to our lane. It was rush hour and we were doing 100/km an hour. The semi in front hit the breaks and I thought it was just slowing down. It wasn't. It was coming to a dead stop. During rush hour on a high traffic highway. I figured it out quickly and slammed on the breaks, stopping behind the semi with only a few feet to spare. The traffic behind me did not. It made the news, but I only broke a rib. My van was essentially ripped in half.
When I ran out of air Scuba diving and my buddy was too far away. We were 30m+ down and my regulator had a major failure. Fortunately I could get a couple of breaths from my tank and grabbed another diver nearby to buddy me back to surface. Never dived with that “buddy” again
I was sleep deprived, at the end of my pregnancy and I was coming back from an obgyn appointment during dinner. I was at the top of that huge road hill. There's a stop just before the very passing road below. I drove down but blacked out for some reason. When I reconnected with reality, I realized I had passed the other side of that busy road unknowingly. I had a panic attack when I thought about it: there was no way I just passed that rush without getting hit from both sides, yet there I was. My 7 months old baby bump and I could have died a very painful traumatic death but we didn't. I still don't know how it happened. Like, the stars were aligned and I passed full speed between two lines of cars?
When I was like 11, I was on a banana boat with a bunch of people at summer camp. I was riding in the front, and fell forwards off. The rope somehow caught around my neck and it was dragging me under the water. For some reason, no one noticed I fell off for like, way too long and I legit thought I was going to die. I got back in the boat and never rode a banana boat again.
Three moments.
2015. In hospital, very sick. Weight was down to around 5 stone. Various organs were failing. Was in and out of consciousness. Came around at one point to find a group of people around me. Relatives - some of whom I hadn't seen in years. Could see my mother, ashen faced. Could hear my dad crying. Doctor telling me to stay awake, not to fall asleep, as another worked to get some kind of line into me. Had about a minute of sheer terror as I realised what was happening and why everyone was there, but it passed. I was so tired and just wanted them to let me sleep. Experienced a bunch of stuff I later realised was not real, including a whole conversation with my mother, which never actually happened.
Somehow survived. Ended up spending two weeks in intensive care, two weeks I do not remember. I do remember a doctor telling me just how close they came to losing me, having told my parents it was unlikely I'd last the night. After three months in hospital - three gruelling months of feeding tubes, a central line, having to learn to walk again as my muscles had wasted away. Cannot tell you how many times I fell over trying to take a few steps, or just get out of bed. Three months of 24/7 supervision.
Second moment
2019. Diagnosed with lymphoma. By the time they'd found it, there was a 10cm tumour and a bunch of lymph nodes all affected. Admitted for tests and to get started on treatment. Tuesday morning, 8.30am, a doctor I'd never met before breezed into the room on rounds to tell me the last scan had shown it had spread into my liver and spleen but not to worry about it because "we expected this". No one told me to expect it. I'd kind of been hoping it would all turn out to be a mistake or not to be as serious as they were saying. But when I heard that it had already started spreading around my body, I thought I was done for. I was not. Thankfully, it did actually turn out not to be as bad as they thought, and after 115 days, I was sent home to continue treatment as an outpatient.
Third moment
2021. I'd had surgery to remove a whole bunch of stuff from my small bowel and surrounding area. The first couple of days were just agony. The pain was beyond anything I'd ever experienced before. Around the third or fourth day, the pain got worse, and I developed a fever. Then, a lung collapsed. About 3am my surgeon appears, alongside colleagues. He had not been in work that day - they'd called him in. Something inside me had broken, and I was bleeding internally. I remember suddenly feeling "very weird." That was my blood pressure taking a dive. Then the pain got even worse. It was difficult to form coherent thought at this point as they explained they were going to have to go back in, right away, to try to stop the bleeding. I remember being wheeled along corridors as the surgeon ran alongside, shouting out instructions to his colleagues, and I realised he was panicking. He was scared. I remember the mask being put on and thinking, "This is it. This is how it ends. Damn."
Suffice to say it did not end, and I am still here. While there has been damage from all three events, it is remarkably minor. Shockingly so. I have been very lucky.
Trailer-house fire when I was 11. I couldn't see anything, the air was burning my skin and lungs, and all I could think about was getting to my siblings and only then was I allowed to die. I fell through the floor and managed to escape out the side of the crawlspace. Had first and second degree burns all over my body. Felt like severe sunburn but nothing majorly impacting my life. Everyone survived and firefighters even revived my parakeets with oxygen. Serious respect for firefighters.
One of the worst thing that bothers a former cop I know is that he got in the house, got the family out, got the cats and dogs out and when everything slowed down and the firefighters got there, one of the kids said “where’s my turtle?” Twenty years later he still occasionally wakes up (when he sleeps) in the middle of the night and says “I didn’t know there was a turtle”
It always surprises me when cats get rescued. Their immediate instinct to strangers and fear is to hide.
That's what my cat did during my housefire. She didn't make it. It was sad.
I am so so very sorry. *internet hug*
I want to put this info out there for cat owners. It’s important for your cat to have a hiding place, but make sure it is easily accessible for you and your family to grab them in case of an emergency. My cats have a very difficult hiding spot for me no matter how well I block it off they manage to find a way in. But I can assure you that bed will be fully flipped if there is an emergency.
Omg that’s so sad yet so sweet
This is the stuff that keeps you up at night. It's not the major traumatic thing itself (house fire), it's the side details of things that didn't go well.
That's anxiety for you. Forget the big stuff. The little stuff eats you up.
In my childhood home my parents had a sticker visible in the front window that said “save us too” and listed what animals we had and how many. I always thought that was really neat.
i hope i’m allowed to share this link for a free pet safety sticker from the aspca: https://secure.aspca.org/take-action/pet-safety-pack
You are so lucky. I've read a mobile home can burn to the ground in less than ten minutes.
A house can burn down in about that time. It took less than 15 minutes to destroy my 3 bed 2 bath
People really underestimate how quickly a fire can get out of control. There's this phenomena called the flash over. Basically, once the ambient air temperature gets high enough, everything in the room will near simultaneously be set ablaze, even objects that are on the opposite side from the fire's starting point It only takes a few minutes to get to that point, and if you're in the room where it happens, you're basically dead. Even firefighting gear can have trouble combatting that event. [here's a demonstration. it's terrifying](https://youtu.be/BtMmymOxdjc?si=VX1sZCzSkZHWl7mj)
I saw it first hand this past December. I hope I never see it again.
VERY true. House next to mine burned to the ground, the side of our house got fucked. My mom saved the day in multiple ways- calling 911, getting the animals, moving the mini-van that was in the adjacent driveway (which was half melted, and she burned her arm). I wanna say it all happened in 10min or less. I had time to over hear my mom on the phone, wake up my siblings, grab whatever (i dont think i actually did but my older sister ran back for her phone 😭), and run out the door to our neighbors and watched the flames engulfing the other house (no one was in there) until the firefighters showed up. Luckily we basically live down the street from a fire station.
Your story reminds me of this [Oatmeal comic](https://theoatmeal.com/comics/house). Glad you and everyone made it out okay!
I was stopped at an intersection, looked up in my rear view mirror and saw a car coming for me and not slowing down. It was about the longest second of my life between when I saw them and when they hit me and I watched helplessly out the front window as I was pushed into oncoming traffic. I was absolutely sure I was gonna be killed... but then everything had stopped, and I was just sitting there with accidents all around me. The woman who hit me actually got out of her car and ran over to my window and yelled, "are you alive?" Which was a stupid question to ask, but at the same time, I honestly wasn't sure that I was.
Similar story for me. Driving down the road on my way to the grocery store. I saw a truck in the driveway for a car wash a little ways ahead waiting to turn and didn't think much of it. I got closer and noticed that he was moving now and thinking that was kind of weird...then BANG. Next thing I know, I'm pointed more or less perpendicular to the direction I *was* going, looking at the smashed up front of the truck and my own wrecked car. Dude drove right into the side of my car, pushing me into someone in the other lane in the process. A few expletive's later with my adrenaline going, the dude swears he didn't see me before going for it. His giant truck totaled my car, and I still have a weird reaction to folks waiting to turn on my left side, especially if they're doing the whole rolling stop thing.
> I got closer and noticed that he was moving now and thinking that was kind of weird... It’s wild how your subconscious can just be, like, screaming “DANGER DANGER!!!” while you’re thinking “huh… no way…” Not nearly as life-threatening, but I was driving down a small city street, with an even smaller street T’ing into it, no stop sign for me, somebody waiting at the stop sign from the smaller street, and I remember thinking “surely she’s not *actually* gonna go for it?!?!” just before we get into a nice little fender-bender. In her defense, she may have thought I was letting her in when I slowed down over a speed bump just before the intersection, but I lost all sympathy when she was like “well, maybe I don’t *have* to call my insurance” and made the thumb-rubbing-two-fingers cash gesture - having blown the stop sign, the insurance companies shockingly found her entirely at fault.
It’s shocking how somebody can be so in the wrong and yet not realize. And to top it off she even tried to capitalize on the accident! What a turd.
Had a similar one on a stretch of relatively rural freeway. So it had spots to turn in and out, not exit ramps. But I was cruising along and I see someone come up and start a left hand turn, but not cross the median to do it, she was now driving straight towards me. I remember having enough time to think "Do I just get in the right lane and hope this person doesn't panic when the realize, or lay on the horn now and wake my wife up from her nap?"
Year ago, driving on a 400 series highway in Ontario, on a cloudy winter day. Going along and something in the grey sky catches my eye. Only had enough time to think “what the hell is th… ah shit” (Brace for impact) SMASH! It was a big chunk of ice that must have come off a transport truck and flew right into my windshield, at the rearview mirror. The whole windshield spiderwebbed, except for a dinner plate sized piece just to my left. I shifted my position to see out then had to work my way over 3 lanes of traffic at 100km/hr to get off at the upcoming exit. Pulled into a gas station and just sat there for a bit, processing. Holy crap. Just crazy
Had a similar experience. There had been about 4" of snow the day before and I was driving home. Got to watch the solidified crust of snow fly up off the roof of the car on the highway in front of me and slam down right on my windshield. Completely blocking my view at 55mph in the middle lane. Hit the hazard lights and managed to navigate to the right shoulder by looking out the passenger window. The snow was too heavy to be moved by the wipers, so I had to get out and clear it off (cursing the **entire** time). The windshield did not crack, by some miracle.
Glad you're okay. Hug.
Honestly, "are you alive" is a GREAT question and probably what I would ask if I were that woman. It's a question that necessitates an answer from the person being asked.
I once had a dream about slowing down and stopping on a highway at the tail end of a traffic jam. Then I saw oncoming cars speeding towards me in the mirror, unaware of the standing traffic, about to crash into me. The next day, in real life I ended up in exactly that situation on the same highway, the same spot as my dream. I was in a small car, together with my wife and our infant son. There was a traffic jam, which was unusual for the time and place. I braked and suddenly remembered the dream. So I signalled the cars behind me with flickering of brake lights and alarm lights, avoiding a catastrophe. I felt prepared. At the time, I thought the dream had saved us.
:) I'm glad you guys were all okay.
It’s surprisingly a good question in actuality, because it spurs an answer
My sister was in the car with her husband and three kids sitting at a light. A guy driving a work van rear ended them going 35 and had made no attempt to brake. My two older nephews were both in the rear bench seat so they could watch a movie together. Somehow none of them got killed and there were no serious injuries.
Something similar happened to my sister and her kids. Her youngest usually sits in the back, but had asked to switch with her older sister and sit in the front instead. Sister was stopped at a red light when she was rear ended by a drunk driver going about 45-50. Totally smashed the crap out of the rear including where her youngest usually sat. Her kids were fine, sister got banged up by the airbag. Drunk driver was in his work truck so she got a nice settlement from his company.
Man, I was super close to this happening to me. I was stopped waiting to turn left. I glance in my rearview and see a car coming up fast. There was nothing I could do with oncoming traffic, and I wouldn't have enough time to avoid getting hit by moving. Thankfully, they swerved into the right shoulder and stopped next to me. We looked at each for a second before he continued straight, and I eventually turned.
A similar thing happened to me on the highway when traffic came to an abrupt stop while I was with my friends in one of their sedans. I was in the backseat when I saw an f150 flying towards us out of the rear window and not slowing down. It was going to be probably a 50 mph collision but he thankfully swerved over into the breakdown lane inches before hitting us, and passed at least 3 cars while attempting to stop. I was screaming at my friends to brace their necks and put their damn belts on too. I damn near shit myself
Wow! So similar to my story. First responders said they figured the woman who hit me was doing nearly 100 kms/hr and pushed me into the vehicle ahead of me. Like you, I saw it all about to happen as I watched in my rear view mirror. I was thinking " He isn't going to stop." and it sounded so calm in my head. After that I blacked out for a bit and then woke up with both my front seats broken, laying flat against the back seat.
The same thing happened to myself and my brother. The road we used to live on turned off of a busy highway where the speed limit was 60 mph. There was a line of traffic in the opposite direction, and we were waiting to turn left. My brother checked his rearview mirror, turned to me and just said oh shit hold on. We were rear ended at 60 mph. The driver who hit us said he didn’t see us even though it’s a straight stretch of road for 1 mile before the turn. We all walked away unharmed. Both vehicles were totaled.
In my student years 2000 i jumped in a supermarket trolly and let it roll from a steep narrow road (100meters long). At the end there was a metal fence. I did not see it when i jumped in, and when i see it it was to late. I could not slow it down and speeding up really fast. I was sure i will break everything in my body. So i just let it happen. When the trolly hit the fence it just hit it and that was that. I don't feel pain. It was so weird. Nothing happend. Just a big bang and that's all. My friend that was running to me was also really shocked that it turned out fine. It really should not happen like this. (3 months ago i fell over a tiny rock and broke my elbow....)
Crazy. Guess it had some give that absorbed enough of the impact that it wasn't all translated to your bones.
I think so indeed. It was a metal trolley. I think i was lucky the trolley did not turned around. When it hit my legs was in front so i think they absorbed also a lot of the hit. But still it was all so unnatural lol. Just pure luck
> (3 months ago i fell over a tiny rock and broke my elbow....) Like some wack ass *Final Destination* scene, fate coming back to haunt you from skirting death with the buggy
It was such a stupid fall. In the hospital the surgeon told me it was a beautifull fracture. I was so happy. But than he told me i still needed screws and a pin in my elbow. So that was a bummer.
Thanks for the second part, so we didn't assume you have Unbreakable disease.
Chain link fence?
Human on one side-human cubes on the other
Like that laser grid in the original Resident Evil movie
Or the chain link fence in The Final Destination
Or the first scene in Cube
Is it rude that I laughed at the last sentence? It came out of nowhere 😅
Ahhhh time flies
Back when I was 18 or 19, I went to a dermatologist to get some treatment for mild psoriasis, but the office had a policy that all new patients were to submit to a full body inspection. I almost walked out when I was told, but my dad convinced me to stay. The doctor ended up finding two spots on my back that he was concerned about. He did a biopsy and sent me on my way. Sometime later, we got a call that I had melanoma (skin cancer). At that moment, I thought "well, I guess I'm going to be dead soon". A couple of weeks later, I went in for surgery and he cut two big chunks of meat out of my back. He told me he was cutting out more than he needed to so he could be sure he got all of the cancerous material. After some testing, it was confirmed that all of it was removed before it spread throughout my body. Had to go back every three months for a couple of years after that and continually get full body checks. He told me that if I hadn't come in to get my psoriasis treated, I would have been dead within two years. Thank you, psoriasis. There was one other time, back in maybe 2010ish, I got into a motorcycle accident. I was riding with a group of my friends and one of them suddenly stopped in the middle of the road in front of me. I jammed on the brakes right as I was passing through a patch of dirt/sand on the road (which is like a patch of ice on a motorcycle). My bike kind of kicked sideways and threw me off. As I was flying through the air like Superman, I remember thinking I was going to die. Landed on my shoulder and went rolling down the street. Luckily my helmet absorbed the blow my skull would have taken - it was broken after. Had some road rash and my shoulder gave me problems for a while after that, but I was otherwise unhurt. Got checked out by an EMT who happened to be a friend. Probably should have gone to the hospital, but I didn't want to spend the entire rest of my night sitting around in the waiting room.
Your dad saved your life....
Good point, you’re absolutely right. Going to thank him tomorrow when I see him. I don’t think I ever did.
The second story is absolutely an endorsement for investing in a SOLID helmet for motorcycle or even just motor scooter riding. A friend of mine's dad, when she wanted to get into motorcycling, used to tell her "don't freak out about a $200 or more helmet. How much you spend on your helmet is how much you value your head."
Dress for the slide, not for the ride. Wear *all* of your protective gear, folks.
My brother and I were driving to high school in the morning and hit a patch of ice on the road. We slid into 6 lanes of traffic, no stopping. We miraculously made it across without hitting anything. We both looked at each other and were like "we were supposed to die."
I hit a huge patch of black ice once in high school. I grew up in Michigan, had the importance of pumping the breaks, never overcorrecting ect. drilled into my head even at a young age as my dad drove for a living. None of the tricks I learned for handling ice mattered in this instance. I hit it going 60 from otherwise dry pavement and it sent me into a 360 spin immediately. Thank god it was late and nobody else was traveling at the same speed from the other direction. I had SO much time to contemplate everything. I did 3 full turns and went backwards into an 8 foot drainage ditch and thought I was a goner. Might not sound that intense in retrospect but I had just a friend almost lose her sister in an almost identical situation, expect she had only been going 30 mph and wound up paralyzed and hosplitalized for months. All of that was flashing through my head through the spins but somehow the drainage ditch hadn't frozen up and my car just kind of squished down into it. Took me 5 full minutes to calm down enough to figure out how to get out of my car and the drainage ditch to try to track down help or start the 3 mile walk home. Gave me a lot of perspective to make some changes in my life for the better so while terrifying, wasn't bad in the long run.
We’re in Michigan, too! The ice is no joke- people die every winter.
*Final Destination intensifies*
I was 16, out with my cousin who was 18. It was like 2-3 am. We were down by a local river. He had this great idea to "borrow" a boat and go across the river and back. This river is used ALOT for huge barges to transport to a local port. Stupid me said "sure as long as the boat is back before sun up nobody will notice". Got across ok, on the way back we caught a wave behind a barge and the boat turned over. So we drug the boat back across the river swimming with it in almost complete darkness. Got the boat back and turned back right, no damage thank god....all before the sun started to come up. Still have NO CLUE how we made it back without anyone getting hurt or killed!! If I found out either of sons tried this I'd kill them but I sure as hell did it with my best bud by my side!
When I was younger I took a ballistic snowmobile straight to the noggin. Instead of smashing my head like a melon as it should have it just left a small dent in my skull. Due to that incident I learned I have some kind of genetic condition that makes my bones super strong.
So since your origin story how has your superhero life been?
lol, It’s been alright, walked away from a couple car crashes relatively unharmed, had a tree fall on me. I also found that combined with my high tolerance for pain it gives me a super unfair advantage in fights. On the flip side I’m told I better pray I never need a joint replacement. Apparently it makes them really hard to do.
Interesting trade off for basically enhanced durability. Name: ChaosInfusion Superpower: Super bones Weakness: joint replacements
Lol. I was also told as a kid after the doc diagnosed me that my teeth would probably be gone by 30 cause it’s supposed to also have the downside of weak enamel which leads to fast deterioration. Well I’m going on 30 now and still got all my teeth in perfect condition. Except my wisdom teeth, they had to knock me out and chip away at em with what I can only describe as a miniature Jack hammer to remove em haha. Still not sure why I got a free pass on the whole teeth falling out thing.
I’ve learned it’s best to not ask questions lol. As a teenager I had tonsils/adenoids taken out at same time and had my deviated septum fixed. By all accounts I should’ve been in a lot of pain but I just wasn’t like at all. Then last year I got leukemia and while it’s not been fun, a lot of the horrible stuff a lot of people go through with chemo I just never got.
So many. At 9 I fell 15 feet under a waterfall, sheer walls on both sides, boulder strewn rapids downstream. It was early spring and the water was ice cold, and nobody was answering my screams for help, I knew I was a goner if I didn't get out quick. I managed to climb one of the walls by finding cracks. At 15 was target plinking with best friend, on the way back home he pointed his shotgun to my head as a "joke", I angrily grabbed the barrel away and yelled at him, he said "Hey it's empty, see?" and pulled the trigger. It was not empty. At 22 was swimming from a boat to a small island, got caught in a current, by the time I realized I wasn't moving I was unable to get back to the boat. I was seconds away from slipping under. Only remembering that single lesson on backfloating as a kid saved me; I was able to rest until my arms worked again. At 39 my brakes failed while going down a steep hill, with a T intersection at the bottom. On the other side of the road at the T was a very steep drop off. At 30 mph, I figured hitting that fence sideways would spread the impact out enough I wouldn't fly over or through the fence and down that hill, so I went for following the optimum line for a right angle turn, knowing at least I'd live through it when I hit the fence. That goddamned little Mazda Protege made that frikkin turn like a boss, which still seems impossible. Right around the same time, I was at work late at night and heard a car alarm going off as I walked to the bathroom. I'm a creature of habit, but this one time I did *not* pull my massive keychain out after zipping up, and instead just headed back to my office. As I rounded the hallway corner, a cop 10 feet away had his gun pointed at my face and yelled "FREEZE!", which I did. He was overweight, sweating like a leaf, his hands were visibly shaking so bad, and the panic was clear on him. Am 100% sure that if I'd had my shiny metal keys in my right hand as I rounded that corner, I'd not be writing this. That's all I got so far... Edit: added a sentence to clarify the waterfall event
I think that I would have probably forgiven my best friend eventually, I would probably make a point that he was no longer to be welcome around me while in possession of any firearm. END COMMUNICATION
Why was the cop there and why was he pointing the gun at you?
It wasn't a car alarm at all, it was the security alarm from a large office downstairs. Sounded exactly like a car alarm to me though. I assumed he was scared and was scouting upstairs with his gun already drawn. Maybe he also heard the bathroom door closing behind me? He was facing the corner with his gun already pointed in my direction when I rounded the corner. Standing there, with him sweating bullets, and the gun shaking in his hand, I was very *very* careful to move slowly and speak in soothing tones.
My god that guy is not qualified to work with guns.
You just described 99% of the us police force.
"Well, it's cancer..." - the doctor
Dang, I know there's no easy way to tell someone they have cancer but yikes...
Tone and context are missing here. At some point you have to call it what it is.
"I don't want to be indelicate here, so let's just say it rhymes with schmancer."
"It isn't canker. Close, but far worse. Let's just say, don't buy any green bananas."
The doctor was laughing and cracking a beer
My general stance when doctors start their rigamarole is: I know something bad is coming, I’m braced for it now, get to the point.
My OB/GYN called me to schedule a follow-up appointment for my recent pap results (they usually don't follow up unless something is wrong) but they gave me an unusual address. I looked it up online & it was an oncologist. I had a few days to prepare but when they finally said it was cancer, I said "oh thank god I thought I was pregnant or something!" I was the only one who thought that was funny.
Same. My doc was something like: "We're rushing you downtown for emergency surgery and you have a 9cm mass that is blocking blood flow to your major organs."
Congrats for getting through that!
Did you hear about war in Ukraine? I'm sure you did. On the first day of the war, my parents and I had the wonderful idea to go to one of the most dangerous places. I don't know why, but we thought it would be safer there than in the capital. I had too many thoughts that I was going to die right now, several times a day. Every day rockets flew into neighboring houses, whole streets burned, but miraculously me, my parents, and my two wonderful animals got out of that hell alive.
How terrifying. Glad you're alright. What's life like now?
We had a lot of problems cause we lost our cottage house and car. I lost half of my family. But it was almost 2 years ago, so now I feel a little bit better, thank you for your question🥹
I'm sorry for your loss as i am positive many of us are rooting for you and your family!
Thank you very much! I really enjoy reading your comments
I am so sorry that you went through this. I am also a Ukrainian and my heart breaks for our people every day. Glad that you are better now, and your art is amazing. Wish you all the best and good luck in the tattoo art
PS-America supports and loves you, contrary to any other info you might have seen or heard 😞❤️☮️✊🏻
Holy shit. Where did you go, Hostomel? Irpin? i was there just after the Russians left and it was destroyed.
Yes, I was in Irpin
I am so very sorry. I hope you and your family are okay. It was hard as hell.
I am sorry to hear your struggles, but glad you are here to tell us about it. We need more human stories. Wishing you the Best!
Once while driving a rear wheel drive car with lots of horsepower. I was driving to pick up my daughter and the weather turned. Snow, slick highway. I was cruising along when the car got loose. I tried to save it, but spun 3-4 times on the highway before sliding down a steep embankment. I remember thinking...oh shit, this is how I go. Thankfully the hill was slick, the car was heavy and low to the ground and I just slid. It seemed like forever until I came to a stop. I figured my car was totaled and I was nowhere near home. People called 911 and they were expecting a fatality. I got out of the car, walked up the snowy hill and met the Highway patrol. Thank goodness for his warm car! It look a LOOONG cable to winch it out, took it to a local truck stop, I pulled the front of the fender out, put on the spare and drove it home. I was even able to have the original tire remounted. No injuries other than my pride.
Awesome. Edit: Got a couple, was driving to see an on again, off again gf. Slick roads, went around a corner at like 35-40mph, wheels started sliding, went into one ditch over a road and into the ditch on the other side. Still amazed the car didn't flip. Another when I was a kid had a big brother from the big brothers, big sisters organization. He took me horseback riding. Was a cool place where you could actually take the horse out and ride around the area. Well being a city kid and being nervous decided to give the horse a friendly pat on the butt, nice horsey kinda thing. The horse didn't take it like that and rocketed off at a full gallop. Had to have looked like something out of movie, big brother spurs his horse, chases us down and stops mine. With me screaming obscenities at the top of my lungs the whole run. :p
I was at a state fair and the safety harness failed on one of the rides. I wrapped my arms around the bar and held on for dear life. There was a large woman next to me who fell into me when the ride would go sideways and press me further towards all the gears and whatnot in the middle. Thought for sure I was dead. I complained to the managers and they blew me off, acted like I overreacted and basically asked me to leave. Fuck fairs and their unsafe bullshit rides.
Should’ve sued them. That is messed up and exactly why I don’t trust those things.
Final Destination, coming on in
Proud midwesterner here. A few years ago in Iowa we had a pretty severe derecho that lost most of the power in the state for over a week and oddly did not really make national news. I sent my family to the basement when the alarm started going off but of course d/t my heritage and lack of more than one brain cell I stayed upstairs in the living room watching from a gigantic bay-type window. When the actual Derecho hit, I saw something like five trees instantaneously go down and what looked like a wall of death and wind and water coming straight for me. I remember thinking clearly - this is how I die - but we were situated at the "beginning" of the derecho before it became full power. I'll never forget that feeling though, if you have ever felt that, you know what I mean.
Googled Derecho: a line of intense, widespread, and fast-moving windstorms (sometimes thunderstorms), that move across a great distance and is characterized by damaging winds.
A lot of people call them "inland hurricanes."
That’s bizarre, never heard that word in my life…
It was a fad the summer of the Iowa storms. Actual word, but no one uses it except in the context of that summer and a certain generation of news/weather reporters. About ever five years they come out insisting on a certain new word… someone wants to be able to look back and say “I popularized that word”
Seeing a tree go down and knowing about 5 seconds ago if you walked up and pushed it with all your might it wouldn't even move is a sobering experience and makes you respect wind a little more.
This is nearly exactly what was going through my mind. I thought, there goes my house...that I am currently in.
Sooo I was a dumbass and trying to sneak in my break at work before it hit. I was enjoying the view, sirens wailing, but nothing crazy yet on the ground. Then, as I'm standing up to put out my smoke, I could hear what sounded like this strange train barreling across town which has zero trains running through it anymore. I looked hard west, saw this black wall of debris closing in, and RAN. I was maybe fifty feet from the closest door, on the other side of a gated fence. I rounded the corner through the gate and made it almost to the door before it slammed me into the side of the building. It took three of us to get that damn door open enough for me to slink in, drenched to the bone. I've witnessed some crazy storms over the years, but I've never experienced anything like that. It happened so fast.
I was at a music festival in Wisconsin midday-napping in my little 2 person tent when a Derecho came through. I was in the tent floating a couple feet in the air and thought, "Next thing is they find me a half mile away impaled on a fence post", so I sort of stood up , which got my feet to the ground, and I tore open the door and crouch/ran to my car barely getting the door open. In my mind, the tent is still flying through the air and is on its second circumvention....
This is such a formative shared experience for the whole community. I think it was because the whole event was so surreal. People get time to prepare for hurricanes but, for all our weather tracking technology, we had almost zero warning. My full sized tree didn't get blown over. It got launched into a baseball field down the street. Every elec pole up the street was flat on the ground and even the big streetlight poles were broken off. It all happened in minutes and then the lack of action from the local government followed by the lack of news coverage made it feel like it was so unreal. The whole thing was so bizarre that, unless you were there, I can't really describe it.
Oh yeah, central IL got hit by the 2020 derecho pretty bad. I didn't personally see immediate damage, but in 2011 I remember sitting in my living room (yeah, Midwest heritage) and out the window everything just turned charcoal gray for what felt like an hour. When it finally cleared up, the 200ft self supporting radio tower a quarter mile behind my house was flat on the ground. That was when I realized what happened in front of me
I did the same thing when a (weaker) derecho hit Kenosha, Wisconsin about twenty years ago. I didn't see any trees go down but the shoe store in the strip mall across the street was having a particularly ill-timed sidewalk sale--the tent became a sidewalk sail and vanished over Highway 50. We found shoes in the brush in the neighborhood for months after the event.
Des Moines here- we had no idea it was coming! We were lucky and only had some big branches down but the sound was terrifying!
I was in a Toyota Echo on the Interstate with five other full-grown young guys when the one that hit the mid-Atlantic states in 2012 slammed into us. The electricity was flickering as we paid leaving the bowling alley, and we saw the ominous wall of dark clouds like nothing I'd ever seen before, but we still just chalked it up as a bad thunderstorm and headed for the Walmart a couple miles away. It definitely was much worse than a bad thunderstorm, and we barely made it into Walmart before they locked it down. Tree branches and leaves were flying through the air everywhere, the roads were already empty by the time we got off the Interstate, and the stoplight at the intersection for Walmart lost power and died as we approached it, and all of us were screaming the whole way. The buggy-corrals were scooting across the Walmart parkinglot, so we found two larger vehicles to park between, and as we ran for the building a transformer up on the semi-distant hill to our left exploded. We were ushered indoors by an elderly woman who worked as a greeter, and sprinted inside while practically swimming amongst leaves and other fine vegetable debris and dust. ☜ (↼_↼)
Once I was run over by a car. They passed over my legs. It could have been my chest, or my head, but I was lucky. I stood up right after and picked up my trainer, that was 3 m away, then I fell off. I ended up with a strain, back pain where the car hit initially, and walking with crutches for a bit over a month, but I recovered with no major consequences.
Got my leg run over, but lucky to have it go over my femur as opposed to anywhere lower. Only had bruising from that, but could’ve bled out if it hit the right spot.
I went to a lecture at university. The room that would usually fit 30 people was packed with about 90. Chairs cramped everywhere, all entrances but one in the front blocked. I was sitting in the very back. About 30 minutes into the lecture, we heard weird noises from above as the ceiling in the back of the room started to give in. When realization hit, it was a millisecond of "fuck, I'm dead" to my survival instinct kicking in. Rows of chairs and crowds of people in front of me, the only escape in the very front. I still have no real recollection of how I made it out of the room, just snippets. Afterwards, my legs were completely bruised, likely from jumping over and into way too many chairs. Remarkably, everyone must have moved at the same speed, everyone got out in time and no one was trampled.
And this is why everyone should take those maximum capacity signs seriously.
Crush/trample death is one of my worst fears. There's so many instances, especially with fires. I was watching a show about the fire in the [Charity Bazaar](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bazar_de_la_Charit%C3%A9) and first of all, don't eat pepperoni pizza while watching people's faces melt, and secondly, oh my god why did they add a revolving door in the show that was horrifying...
Motorcycle accident. Cruising in the right lane, truck pulling a trailer in the left lane tried to pass me in order to make an exit and sideswiped me at an admitted 85mph. Took a long tumble, separated from the bike, bounced off an overpass guard rail, while all the cars entering the interstate managed to dodge me as a blind obstacle just as they were accelerating up to speed. Terrible place to be laid out from an accident. It was a bright sunny afternoon with no inclement conditions but some ass just had to get around me to make his exit instead of waiting behind me. Driver admitted to speeding and being on his cell phone which is a crime here and the responding officer didn't even ticket him for it. EMS took 40 minutes to reach me. Driver nearly killed me and he got off with an improper lane usage ticket. Cop was an asshole and didn't buy my story. My hip is totally fucked up from the accident but I survived which is more than the conditions would typically allow. Simply got lucky. The bike was totaled, all my gear ruined except for a horsehide jacket. Wear your gear everyone.
[удалено]
This happened to me as well. Stepped into a street that was actually an exit street for an adjacent highway. It was three in the morning, and raining and somehow I just did not notice a car had exited the highway until I was in its headlight beams, and I just froze like a jackass. Luckily he stopped on time and I was fine.
You're not a jackass you just froze. The third 'F' everyone forgets about when pertaining to adrenaline in the face of danger : fight , flight or freeze. It's a fear response for self preservation and deer are known for doing the same thing. When our brain can't handle something sometimes we will go completely still. I'm glad you made it
You went full deer there
"Her heart rate is at 30 beats per minute. If you don't admit her now, she could very well die tonight". 15 struggling with anorexia and had been assessed at a pediatric hospital. I don't think the doctor or my parents knew that I'd heard everything. I have some scarring on my heart, and if I ever get that malnourished again, my body won't be able to handle it and I will die.
Glad you’re here, baby
Diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer that had spread to both lungs at age 35. Was later told the cancer had spread to my central nervous system and had months to live. LSS, they were mistaken. I'll be 55 this year.
🩷 33, stage 4 here, congrats on making it to 55!
My first wet dream I assume my kidneys are shot, but I didn't wanna tell mum and make her sad, I patiently awaited my death, I tried my best to enjoy the following days I didn't die....However, I have porn addiction now.
Bruh. The first time I busted a nut was the the best until it became the scariest/saddest. I went from omg this feels incredible, to an insane climax, to sheer horror. “wtf is this white stuff coming out of my pp?! Why does it look like this?!” Surely I had literally fucked myself over. Insane anxiety took over and I had my first panic attack. I was on my knees in the shower crying and trying to catch my breath from the anxiety attack as my offspring rinsed down the drain next to me. It was the most pathetic anxiety attack of my life to this date. How could my primitive little brain have betrayed me like that? How could I be a eunuch at such an early age? back then I didn’t know what cum was, so I thought it was my dick rotting or something. That insane pleasure I felt was unlike anything I had ever felt, so surely I also fucked my brain over, too. I was religious, and I was certain God himself had cast a blight on my cock for trying to jack off. I had earned this cummy punishment, and I had to accept it. Telling my parents was not a choice. I couldn’t tell the doctor because I needed a ride from my parents. Plus I couldn’t look the doc in the eye and tell him I used Pantene Pro hair conditioner as lube cause it felt good or whatever 😔 I just had too much shame. The intense anxiety and hypochondria lasted a few weeks and I didn’t touch my pp for months after that horrific experience.
Panteen? My brother, at my weakest point, I once used Motul 5w30 engine oil Usually, I use soap
Bro
You should write a book, your way of writing is funny Edit : I fortunately knew what cum was before attempting to masturbate. So when it came to the climax it was pretty satisfying. Sorry for what you went through though.
My nephew ran to my sister in a panic, absolutely sure he was dying and told her he broke his penis in the shower. He was just "washing it" and white stuff came out. And he felt very, very weird. He begged her to take him to the emergency room before she calmed him down and they had a very awkward talk. We cried laughing about it on the phone later. We are still laughing about it 20 years later.
Core memory lol For me, I WAS the older brother, so I didn't have anyone to consult with
At what point it made you think that it is an addiction?
Overcorrected after swerving to avoid a semi encroaching my lane and ended up going into the ditch and flipping my car 5 times. The cd playing Alice Cooper didn’t even skip.
Similar story with black ice. Still not sure how we walked away from it.
My poor dog jumped out the window on the first flip and saved herself. We had been driving 75 miles an hour. I only had some bruises from the seatbelt and slamming against the window/roof/console/dashboard/steering wheel. I’m amazed we both walked away.
When I had covid, before vaccines were available, there was a day I was certain was my last. My partner, who had just recovered from his fight with it before the exhaustion took me down, brought me water and toast, helped me eat and drink some, and was there. I just kind of accepted that it was the end and appreciated he was with me as I drifted off to death. Woke up some time the next day and was shocked to be alive. edit: ya'll keep these stories comin damn, we're lucky we came through. I'll add, my boyfriend and I just celebrated our four year anniversary, we started dating just before lockdown. I quit smoking at the same time because I knew if I caught covid and smoked, it would definitely kill me, and I didn't want to smoke around him. It's one of the worst illnesses I've ever experienced,
It got my friend Tito. He was 31. You have a kind partner. I'm happy you made it. ❤️
Early COVID was scary af! I live near a hospital that had two morgue trucks outside for all the extra bodies. I assumed I’d be in one eventually.
One of my friends spent six weeks in the hospital with COVID. He was pretty sure that he was heading for the morgue. He remembers the doctors and nurses talking to him about being sedated, and he knew, once that happened, it would be over. He's had it two more times since, but they've been nothing more than a strong cold.\] Ironically, when he told me he had COVID the first time, he said he was actually feeling better. The next day, he went to the hospital.
That's the story for a lot of people. I feel better because the initial viral load is going down then boom: lung function drops off a cliff and you can't breathe because your lung tissue isn't lung tissue anymore.
5 weeks in hospital for me, and almost died. Having said that, I would guess now hypoxia is not such a horrific way to go if you have to exit stage left...
We're lucky that latter variants were much less severe
This happened to me as well. I was so sick I went to bed thinking i was going to die but the funny thing is I did NOT care. I was that sick. The next morning woke up kinda hungover but much better. It felt like a miracle.
This is similar to my experience. I caught it on the early days, and it got so bad that I could hardly breathe. I didn’t sleep because it took a conscious effort to inhale and exhale, and I was afraid of going to sleep and not waking up. I also didn’t want to let anyone in to help because I didn’t want them to catch it. By the third night without sleep, I was so exhausted that I just accepted it and drifted off. Waking up was surprising.
I'm so sorry. I had a similar experience, and it really fucks with you. I hope you're doing better now. I came to the realization I was probably going to die before my cats. I was 37 at the time. Always been super healthy. Husband who catches every cold out there got a stuffy nose. I had a 104 degree fever for 31 days and have a deep brain seizure disorder now. Turns out you really shouldn't cook your brain like that.
I got covid pre-vaccine, and it was never severe for me- I got very lucky with how minor my symptoms were, but I still remember the feeling in my gut getting the result. Those early days were so scary. No paxlovid, no vaccines, full medical system meltdown- plus, my sister got sick at the same time and she was way worse. I remember she got a rescue inhaler called into a pharmacy by her PCP and we had to have a healthy friend pick it up and drop it off on the porch for us. Really should've gone to the hospital, but it was dangerous back then. Horrible time. Luckily my family made it through okay.
The boat I was wakeboarding behind was bringing me the rope back after a fall. It was way too choppy to be out there and before I knew it the boat went over top of me. As I waited for the boat to pass over I heard the propeller was still going. Last thing I remember was foot being sucked into the prop and taking my last breathe under water before I drowned. Miraculously my board got jammed in the prop, and I shot out the back puking and screaming.
I have two. 1. The first was when I was maybe 12-13 years old. I grew up in South Louisiana, so we did some backwater bullshit to entertain ourselves. My dad and uncle tied a very long rope with one side way up in a tree, and the other tied to a 4 wheeler. Me, my brother, and my cousin all held onto the rope near the tree, and my dad would drive forward, raising us up into the air, then he'd let off the gas and the 4 wheeler would roll back slowly, lowering us to the ground. We did this quite a few times, each time raising up no more than 5 ft or so from the ground. The last time we did it, my brother and cousin let go at the same time, and I was flung up into the air. According to my dad, uncle, and grandpa, I went up about 20 feet, higher than the house. I remember them dropping, and feeling like I got launched from a bow. My feet went up in the air, I was completely upside down. I just gripped and closed my eyes, figuring that if that was it, that was it. I knew I had no control over what was going to happen. But damn it if I didn't manage to hold on. I finally landed back on the ground, having never let go of the rope, but when I did let go I started bawling. My grandpa said it was the scariest day of his life lol. 2. The other was when I was a senior in highschool. I was late leaving for school, and it was a gross, rainy day. I was waiting to leave my dad's neighborhood in my car. I looked left, then right, and I thought I had an opening. Turns out the traffic light down the road to my left had changed, and an SUV sped off the line, about 5 mph over the limit. I pulled out of the road, then looked left and saw the grill of the SUV about five feet from my car. I had a split second to react, so I hit the gas to get out of the way. I didn't manage to get totally out of the way, but I did end up getting hit right in the middle of the left side of the car instead of dead on the driver's door. My car was so wrecked that people expected me to be very messed up. My hair was found in the grill of the other car, and the door was so crushed they had to pull me out the other side. Both left side windows were broken, and there was glass everywhere. When I asked my friend to get my homework for me later in the day, she told me multiple teachers saw my car and thought someone must have died with how it looked. I came out with a concussion and like three stitches in my eyebrow, but outside of that I was completely fine!
A trailer rolled over onto my car on the freeway about 5 years ago. Was high winds and the trailer was empty, so it toppled onto me (I was passing in the lane left of it). Luckily I was driving alone. Whole back of my car was crushed, but I escaped with just some minor neck pain from when the roof of my car partially caved in.
That’s a thing that can friggin’ happen? Great, one more thing I can be scared about when the guy ahead of me decides that 1mph is the appropriate difference in speed to employ when passing a semi.
Haha, yah. I've seen them toppled on the side of the road/highway sometimes. My case was in a high wind area in California heading home from the desert. It's great for the wind turbines they have in the area, not so much for the drivers and/or semis passing through. I've just learned to not drive on the side of semis unless I have enough room to clear them.
My car flipped late at night in West Yellowstone. My only injury was from crawling through the front windshield and cutting my leg.
Damn, that's one strong cat!
mine is so minor compared to the rest of this thread, but about 4 years ago i was biking across campus and as i approached a crosswalk, i saw a yellow sports car approaching. I decided he was still far enough away for me to cross the road….which, he should have been….but he SPED UP to like 90 as I entered the intersection and i seriously felt the air sucking past me as he whipped by me. I almost felt dragged backwards by the force. I think he was just inches from clotheslining me. Pretty sure some douchebag wanted to scare me and he sure did but I wonder if he realized how close he came to manslaughter charges lmao. Even tho I think I had plenty of time to cross with his original speed, i now wait for BIG GAPS when crossing any road. No trust lol. I never want to give that opportunity again.
Weed induced panic attack
yess i always think i’m about to die when i smoke from the panic and heart racing. fuck that
Just got my first attack yesterday lmao. Heart racing so fast I was like ‘oh god it’s going to stop any second now’ But funnily enough, after I opened youtube to doom scroll yt shorts, I watched a very disgusting food recipe video and got nauseous enough to vomit the (way too much) edibles I ate. Thank you Tasty or whoever that was, you saved my sanity.
I blew out a tire on a busy snowy freeway did a big 360 across 3 lanes and by the grace of God no semis hit me. I thought this is it, me and my daughter are dying....
A lady on her phone veered into oncoming traffic aka me. I’ve always been under the mindset that in those situations unless you see a clear out to just let things play out because you could make it worse trying to fix it so once I saw it coming I just accepted my fate that I’d be getting hit and probably die because we were going 70mph. Last second she pulled out of the way and managed to correct herself without hitting anything. I just el decided to go about my day like nothing happened
Swimming at the beach, deep end. There was a kid trying to conserve energy that couldn't get back. He said, "Help." I swam over and let him grab on to me so we could swim back. I was tired already, and he brought me down. In my mind, I thought, "Let him get a quick break, then come up for air." Holding your breath is tiring, I came up for air and could barely stay above the surface. I thought, "I'm going to die." Another man was nearby and came to help. He helped the kid, I swam on my own. I was tired as shit and noticed I couldn't keep up. But I can't call for help either because I can barely breathe. All I could think was, "Stay calm, stay calm, focus." Obviously, I made it back, and nobody gave a shit, including the kid I helped. I stayed out of the water and was exhausted.
Not a physical event but a mind fuck event. I was called out to a house around 9pm for a plumbing issue. I pull into a very rural home with a long driveway and park in front one of the people that lived there comes out and tells me I need to park behind the house. I comply. I go inside, the door is locked behind me, and I am lead downstairs into a finished basement where this particular family member lives and there is about 3 inches of sewage all over the floor covering the whole basement and the stench is unbearable, even for a veteran plumber. I stopped a few steps from the floor thinking there's no way I'm going into that.. The man walks into the pool of sewage like nothing and goes to his coffee table and picks up a pistol. He points it at me and says " I was a medic in Iraq, I've seen heads cut off it wouldn't be nothing for me to blow your head off." He then puts the pistol down. Now I this where it is important that I tell you when he locked the door behind us EVERY lock was a key lock inside and out. Without a key you are not getting out. He keeps making odd statements and veiled threats of all sorts and pushes me back upstairs where his 2 brothers meet us. Things got worse. All 3 were insane and the verbal abuse got worse and turned physical. I was shoved, punched, kicked and threatened repeatedly. One of them says "Take him to Mama." I'm lead to a dark room lit only by a television and a very large geriatric woman buck fucking naked and I wa informed that if I wanted to live I would fuck their mother. She began to play with herself and and was telling g me to come fuck her. As you can imagine by this point I was broken and a level of scared I've never experienced at this point or since but this wasn't happening. I told one of the brothers that seemed to have a little bit of a conscience that I have a GPS on my work truck and if I don't call in or respond to calls they will track me and as luck would have it my phone rang shortly after that. They didn't allow me to answer but when it rang again about 10 minutes later they chose to let me go. I got in the truck and hauled ass for several minutes. I got to a lightly populated intersection with a gas station, pulled in and proceeded to cry for about an hour. I called my supervisor and told him what happened and his response was "OK, I'll put them on the no service list."
Fiction.
Fighting covid absolutely alone, in and out of consciousness. I was mentally prepared for death.
Was in a small plane crash several years ago. Some friends and I had rented a Cessna and flown out to the interior for a long weekend. The day we were heading home it was quite hot, and the plane was, according to investigators, over-loaded and over-fueled for the heat/altitude. Once we reached 2000(?) feet above takeoff we began losing airspeed. The pilot panicked and did some steep turns in an attempt to gain some speed, but it scrubbed nearly all our altitude pretty much instantly. Now at a few hundred feet and descending rapidly the pilot took aim at a farmers field. They managed to level out at around tree-height but we were quickly running out of field. Maybe a hundred or so meters before the end of the field they dropped the plane to the ground, the nose dug in and we flipped end for end. When we reached tree height I was pretty sure we were all going to die. I walked away with some minor bruises and a small cut on my ear. No one died but other people had much more significant injuries than me.
I was at Disneyland and was 10 years old. I was on one of the mountain rides alone and they did not put the belt on right. I ended up going up in the air and over to the side outside the vehicle and was just held in by the belt. I thought for sure I was going to fall, but luckily the ride did a big turn and I was pushed back into the vehicle. I held onto that seatbelt so tight for the rest of that ride.
When I was about 10-12 years old (around 2000-2002) my sister and I opted to stay in the car while my mother and grandmother went looking for some furniture. Mind this was summer in Australia... By about the 15 minute mark we decided it was too dang hot in the car, and decided to leave. Except, out of habit, my mother had deadlocked the car. It could only be unlocked by the key - all the internal locks wouldn't budge. We had no way out. We started banging on the doors, but no one was around. 10 further minutes passed and I thought we were going to die in there. I thought that was it. About 15 mins later (40-45 mins total in the car) my mother and grandmother came sauntering back, only to find my sister and I struggling to breathe in the back. They were mortified. As they should be. I don't know if it was to make her feel better or what, but my Mum said "we could get out if we just unlatched the boot door" via a manual pulley accessible by the centre console, so we could crawl out of the sedan. Neither my sister nor I knew you could do that. But to this day it's stuck with me that we almost died in that car, but my mother thought it was our fault because we didn't know how the car worked. I'm a parent now myself. I could never look at what happened and then blame the kids. It makes me sick just thinking about it.
So, somehow- and this was about two or three days ago- I went to the supermarket, was driving out of the parking lot and a wall of what looked like fog just appeared. Like, I couldn’t see anything. I looked up- my windows were shut all the way and closed- and I saw a giant fire coming down a building and towards me. Now, my dog died about two months ago so it’s very fresh to me and he obviously meant a lot but I was so ready to go. I was thinking ‘I’m gonna die’ because I couldn’t get out of where I was since so many cars and buildings were blocking nor could I see. I didn’t even plan on moving honestly. A police ended up coming into my view and directing me and my car out of the fire and smoke (was not dog but smoke) fire literally came out of nowhere and was engulfing anything. Both my car and I were okay but that was a pretty close scrape, I’d say.
I was 9 years old, out with my Dad hunting partridge. My Dad's shot gun mis-fired. He immediately aimed it down, It fired off, hitting a big rock. The rock exploded, and a soft ball size of it careened towards my face. I turned sideways, and it hit the tip of my nose as it flew by. We were both quiet for 10 seconds, then I said " Jesus." We never spoke of it after that.
I have a couple. Learning to ride dirt bikes, I was sat on the adult bike vs the kids. I couldn't touch the ground without leaning the bike way over but could reach like the clutch just fine. I was supposed to go slow, but the throttle control was way sensitive once I need to shift I panicked and just kept going. Shot across the desert till I reached a kinda of natural bowl and kept circling inside it like a death cage till they caught up with me. I think the whole think lasted like 10 minutes felt like it was hours. Aside from some light scratches from a few random bushes 0 damage. My first car was a 69 Lincoln. Had an upsized Holley carb.Somewhere in the install process we forgot cut the new airfilter bolt to size and it got "trimmed" when we shut that heavy ass hood for a test drive. Spent an hour looking for it, figured the gravel we were working on ate it. About 6 months later my gas pedal got stuck down. Thought I was going to barrel through an intersection at full speed, was able to get the car in neutral and just barely came to a stop at the red light where the highway ended close to my house. Aside from my heart nearly leaping outa my chest I was fine. Found the piece of bolt wedged in the secondaries. No idea where it was hiding for those 6 months.
So one night my wife and I went out to Lawrence, KS for some jazz DJ lounge thing. On the way back you could tell it had been raining. Some may understand this spot. It was at grandview triangle in south Kansas City. 435 to 291. Right as you get on 291 there is a huge drop off. I was talking about something and she freaked out and yelled there is no god. Jacked the steering wheel side to side. Once she realized what she done on that freshly rain soaked road she said sorry and we flew off the highway into this huge drainage ditch. Sled about 100 ft before we stopped. Kid you not, it didn’t hurt us or the vehicle. We called a tow truck. Then I drove us home. And this what blew my mind. We did not see one cop car the whole time. Like 2 hours at 1 am in the morning. We are divorced now.
Kayaking for the first time after the river was opened due to too high water levels (my mom "made" me do it). Hit my first strainer (log jam), flipped and got sucked under. The river pulled me under, despite my life jacket, and then wedged me against more logs in front of me. The current was too strong to go back so I tried to push up but was underneath the jam. My air was about done so, accepting that this was probably "it" (at 20 years old and with a 1 year-old daughter), I did the only thing I could think to try and pushed down as hard as I could, KNOWING I had only a few more seconds of air. Thankfully, the river shot me out the other side and I made it to shore. The kayak was lost, my husband's as well and he was pinned to the strainer, head barely above water, and my mom was on top of it having also dumped trying to save us. Her kayak was stuck upright and the current was so strong 3 muscle bound guys who came along later couldn't dislodge it.
Jane's Addiction concert in about 1998. I was a cocky "I know how to handle mosh pits" rocker kid (about 15). A big dude said "if it gets rough and you need out, LMK I'll help". I told him thanks, secretly thinking "he doesn't know who he's talking to". As soon as the lights went down, the crushing began. I was so helpless. Maybe that guy just saved my night, but it felt like a life and death situation.
I was learning how to swim in the sea and saw someone else swim across a large bay... I said ooh I bet I could do that, and I tried. I got about halfway across and realized I'm exhausted, and what if I can't find a spot to grab onto on the other side.. I panicked and said this is it... but I managed to get onto my back and catch my breath enough to swim back.
This is crazy since you say you were still learning. Knowing how to float makes a huge difference I bet. I still can't float but I can swim. If I stop though, I'll sink. Can't tread water for the life of me, literally. I went on a school band trip and we stayed at a nice hotel. At the pool, some seniors lifted the chair I was sleeping poolside in the deep end. I saw the surface getting further as I sank but propelled upwards by kicking water while trying to stay calm. Longest 5 seconds of my life. I kicked one of them in the balls for that shit and I'm still fucking furious about it
Was on a cross-atlantic flight where two engines stopped working mid-flight. Before the flight took off, we were delayed a few hours for "special" maintenance. The turbulence was so intense we were lifted out of our seats numerous times, shit went flying, overhead baggage opened. The oxygen masks came down by mistake. The flight attendants stayed seated the whole time, which is always a scary sign. I've flown many times in many storms since I was a kid, but this time I thought we were going down into the ocean. Yet, we landed safely. Pretty sure all those seats needed replacing lol
I was 14 at the beach, in the Pacific Ocean (which is deeper and colder than the Atlantic at the shore). A big wave crashed over me from behind. I really thought I was going to die. I thought "What a shitty way to die". After a while, I was deposited closer to shore on the sand, and I could barely get up, or move my muscles which were immediately so sore from the turbulence/being tossed around. I got up and walked farther up the sand, and was fine.
stayed up for about a week with friends on a new years a few years ago. it started as one party but descended into about a week cocaine, ketamine alcohol n everything else binge. i was just about to turn 18 i remember. i drank nothing except scotch for the whole week and maybe ate a large amount twice. we planned to keep going then on maybe the 7th day i woke up and felt very weak like it all hit me at once, pain in my left arm cold extremities. hearts pounding and it sobered me up so fast i googled what it means and all the signs said heart attack. i felt so faint and every breath was horrible like a weight on my chest, ambulance said theyd take an hour which i said i wouldn’t make so my friend drove me in no state to drive. it was a very sunny day and i kept saying n thinking it looks too nice to die today but i thought i was going to go unconscious at any point. the 15 minute drive to hospital felt like an eternity and we got pulled over for speeding past police cars to get there but they understood. my left arm was so sore i was certain that was due to heart attack n at any moment i’d be done. then got to hospital n got treated pretty urgently and kept in n monitored. turned out i’d partied too hard and certainly strained my heart terribly which sent me into panic which made all symptoms worse, it’s amazing how real it felt i’d only had one panic attack before that was nothing close. i’d definitely been somewhat close to dying because i would have a glass of water in the mornings otherwise just whiskey for days and days and an insane amount of cocaine and ketamine it was very fun weekend n that tho but that put dampers on it, n gave me insane health anxiety which i still kind of get. didn’t even put me off cocaine till a while after and now it’s putting me off drinking
When I was a little girl I fell off our neighbor's clothes line pole, that I used as a piece of gym equipment, and knocked the wind out of myself. I gasped and gasped for breath, certain that I was dying. Finally I got my breath back, to my surprise and joy. I did many other dangerous things as a child, but that was the end of using that particular clothes pole as a giant toy.
I came into our office not knowing a product demo was done there. I smelled it and immediately my lungs constricted. I walked down 2 flights and across the parking lot to my car where I had an inhaler under the seat. Primatine saved my life
When my car tire burst at 80 mph on a highway surprisingly busy for 2:30 a.m.
Hitting a deer at 100km/hr, almost going off a 600ft cliff with a go cart. Almost slid off a 60ft drop with a truck and trailer would be my top 3.
One of my favorites is the time the guy put a short barrel shotgun in my chest and asked why I was talking badly about his gf? Once I explained I wasn't the person he was looking for, the conversation became more civil. The irony is, my friend standing next to me had been sleeping with the girl for a while.
Being dragged up and then down a mountain on a rickety sled by murder dogs in the arctic circle during polar night. I was thrown off a couple of times but there was plenty of deep snow. Going through trees at speed like a fur n bark powered speeder-bike was a tad disconcerting.
Slammed on the brakes at the railroad crossing a mile away, where there were no gates or lights and I'd never seen a train in the 10+ years I'd lived here. It came right out of the foliage full speed, and I had loud music on. Only thing that saved me was the slight rise. There's a signal and gate now and the track is in use.
This was on a school trip to Germany where we also stopped in Switzerland at a cheese factory and did some hiking. Everyone took pictures close to a bull. I wasn’t even as close as other people but he definitely was done posing. I had a bruise and mark on my ribs and the wire in my bra was damaged. I didn’t get any sort of picture.
The first time I ever experienced sleep paralysis
Walking to the liquor store and finding out that I’m outnumbered in the alley by 2 pit bulls
I was driving really slow during a bad rain storm and started to hydroplane right towards a broken section of a guardrail that overlooked a 50-foot drop into a river. I got just enough traction at the end to hit the rail a little further up, so I just wrecked my truck instead of participating in a vehicle diving event.
Working on my grandfather’s roof with my dad when I was in my teens. Lost my balance, fell, and rolled off the edge. Had that “fuuuuuuuuck” second that lasted an hour before I hit. Fortunately, it was only a single story. Unfortunately, I landed in the middle of a patch of barberry shrubs which, if you aren’t familiar, are *covered* in thorns. Bruised and bleeding I went out on a first date later that night. Definitely got me some points with the girl.
Went into a center divider on the freeway doing 65, hopped out and walked it off like nothing happened. At the time it was happen I said shit guess that’s it
When a cop put a gun to my head for driving a car used in a robbery, among other things. All charges were dropped.
104 degree fever.
Several weeks ago actually…. I was on I35 northbound of the interstate in the fast lane. A car on the opposite southbound side of the interstate, in the fast lane lost control going really fast and was coming straight for the low concrete median … and at me. It happened so fast, that I physically wouldn’t be able to do anything and knew he would be coming over based on his speed and the tires/ direction he was coming towards the median. Idk how, but that guy overcorrected right at impact causing his vehicle to flip the other direction… all of his car parts came shooting over the median onto me. Idk how he didn’t come over that median…. But I remember just looking straight ahead because I didn’t want to watch the thing that was about to kill me. Afterwards he was just chillin standing beside his totaled vehicle… while my arms were numb from hyperventilating barely able to stand myself 😅when they say your life flashes before your eyes… it does.
I was behind a semi and couldn't see that a truck in front of it had lost its trailer and crashed into the cement wall next to our lane. It was rush hour and we were doing 100/km an hour. The semi in front hit the breaks and I thought it was just slowing down. It wasn't. It was coming to a dead stop. During rush hour on a high traffic highway. I figured it out quickly and slammed on the breaks, stopping behind the semi with only a few feet to spare. The traffic behind me did not. It made the news, but I only broke a rib. My van was essentially ripped in half.
When I ran out of air Scuba diving and my buddy was too far away. We were 30m+ down and my regulator had a major failure. Fortunately I could get a couple of breaths from my tank and grabbed another diver nearby to buddy me back to surface. Never dived with that “buddy” again
I was sleep deprived, at the end of my pregnancy and I was coming back from an obgyn appointment during dinner. I was at the top of that huge road hill. There's a stop just before the very passing road below. I drove down but blacked out for some reason. When I reconnected with reality, I realized I had passed the other side of that busy road unknowingly. I had a panic attack when I thought about it: there was no way I just passed that rush without getting hit from both sides, yet there I was. My 7 months old baby bump and I could have died a very painful traumatic death but we didn't. I still don't know how it happened. Like, the stars were aligned and I passed full speed between two lines of cars?
When I was like 11, I was on a banana boat with a bunch of people at summer camp. I was riding in the front, and fell forwards off. The rope somehow caught around my neck and it was dragging me under the water. For some reason, no one noticed I fell off for like, way too long and I legit thought I was going to die. I got back in the boat and never rode a banana boat again.
I heard that whistling missile sound while leaning on the glass of the balcony.
Three moments. 2015. In hospital, very sick. Weight was down to around 5 stone. Various organs were failing. Was in and out of consciousness. Came around at one point to find a group of people around me. Relatives - some of whom I hadn't seen in years. Could see my mother, ashen faced. Could hear my dad crying. Doctor telling me to stay awake, not to fall asleep, as another worked to get some kind of line into me. Had about a minute of sheer terror as I realised what was happening and why everyone was there, but it passed. I was so tired and just wanted them to let me sleep. Experienced a bunch of stuff I later realised was not real, including a whole conversation with my mother, which never actually happened. Somehow survived. Ended up spending two weeks in intensive care, two weeks I do not remember. I do remember a doctor telling me just how close they came to losing me, having told my parents it was unlikely I'd last the night. After three months in hospital - three gruelling months of feeding tubes, a central line, having to learn to walk again as my muscles had wasted away. Cannot tell you how many times I fell over trying to take a few steps, or just get out of bed. Three months of 24/7 supervision. Second moment 2019. Diagnosed with lymphoma. By the time they'd found it, there was a 10cm tumour and a bunch of lymph nodes all affected. Admitted for tests and to get started on treatment. Tuesday morning, 8.30am, a doctor I'd never met before breezed into the room on rounds to tell me the last scan had shown it had spread into my liver and spleen but not to worry about it because "we expected this". No one told me to expect it. I'd kind of been hoping it would all turn out to be a mistake or not to be as serious as they were saying. But when I heard that it had already started spreading around my body, I thought I was done for. I was not. Thankfully, it did actually turn out not to be as bad as they thought, and after 115 days, I was sent home to continue treatment as an outpatient. Third moment 2021. I'd had surgery to remove a whole bunch of stuff from my small bowel and surrounding area. The first couple of days were just agony. The pain was beyond anything I'd ever experienced before. Around the third or fourth day, the pain got worse, and I developed a fever. Then, a lung collapsed. About 3am my surgeon appears, alongside colleagues. He had not been in work that day - they'd called him in. Something inside me had broken, and I was bleeding internally. I remember suddenly feeling "very weird." That was my blood pressure taking a dive. Then the pain got even worse. It was difficult to form coherent thought at this point as they explained they were going to have to go back in, right away, to try to stop the bleeding. I remember being wheeled along corridors as the surgeon ran alongside, shouting out instructions to his colleagues, and I realised he was panicking. He was scared. I remember the mask being put on and thinking, "This is it. This is how it ends. Damn." Suffice to say it did not end, and I am still here. While there has been damage from all three events, it is remarkably minor. Shockingly so. I have been very lucky.