Close Calls With Death

[nowaysj]

i have quick reaction time and tend not to panic so i saw it coming right at the nick of time and jumped back

Right! One night in college, I was walking alongside this busy street when I hear screeching over my left shoulder. I turn and look and this big old classic Mercedes is in a skid. The traffic was stopped immediately to my left side and the Mercedes didn't have time to break, so they jerked to the right, clipped the back side of a BMW 740, and came flying up onto the sidewalk. I dove forward while looking backwards and could see all these shards of glass glowing through the air, and dimming as the filaments in the Mercedes' headlights burned out. The Mercedes came to rest like a foot behind me.

I really feel like many other people would have died in that situation. It was so close. What is it that saves us though?

The other night I was hiking with my daughter, the sun set early on us (god damned seasons) and we were stuck on the mountain in the darkness. I had this little 3 dollar led flashlight that doesn't put out much light at all. We were cooking along when my 7 yo does this wiggle in mid stride kind of jumps and starts yelling, "snake, snake!" My daughter had almost stepped on this 18 inch baby rattle snake. She's 56 pounds and I don't know if I could have gotten her to a hospital in time. It was that close. What saved her?

[nowaysj]

To my amazement, as I go down the ravine where the car was stranded, some 25 meters below the lonely tree that halted us was an electric plant. If the car had hit that structure, I'm sure we would have blown up into a hundred pieces...

that is what I'm talking about. It is like a perfect storm for your death, but one solitary meaningless thing saves your life. It gives you pause.

[oprs]

My daughter had almost stepped on this 18 inch baby rattle snake. She's 56 pounds and I don't know if I could have gotten her to a hospital in time. It was that close. What saved her?

Cant even imagine this happening to my little one, grim.

Have battled pneumonia plenty of times, have had a staph infection on my heart, plenty of close calls with vehicles but i think anyone driving has had these.

Swallowed a thumb tack once.
Not really a close call with death but I wanted to die when My testicles got tangled in my sac thing and the immense pain that followed

Should have died a couple times being drunk also
Got a nice little scar on my eyebrow where I blacked out drunk mid step and face bombed a window sill, couple more inches and i probably would have broken my neck
Belly flopped off a 2 story house on accident and landed in the grass, narrowly missing a concrete patio with a concrete wall around it. I still shiver at this one for how lucky I really was

nothing good enough for a big post so i lumped them together
DSFCCWDCREW UNITE

[Soul_Of_Seun]

Several severe asthma attacks which I was saved by my rescue inhaler each time.

I almost drown at my little league coaches' pool party. It was one of the first times I was in a pool (age 8 or 9 I believe). I didn't know pools had a deep end. I wallowed in and immediately sunk. I was bobbing just below the surface getting critical gasps of air as I flailed my arms in a panic. Everybody else thought I was joking including my mom. One of the coaches dove in and grabbed me.

I was attacked by an entire nest of wasps at age 9. I was playing on a hill when I felt a prick on my leg. Looked back and thought it was a thorn but saw nothing and continued walking up the hill. Felt another prick, saw a wasp. I don't know how much time passed but maybe only a few seconds until I felt a rush of wasps and numerous stings as I flailed my arms and started running down the hill. I ended up tripping and rolling all the way down. That probably saved my life as it got many of the wasps off me. I had maybe 20 or more stings can't remember. Just went home in tears. Obviously not allergic.

Seems like everybody is breaking the one post rule eh?

[nowaysj]

i still feel a bit traumatized by it, even as i'm older. whenever i'm walking with people close to me before we cross the road i have a habit of yelling ''WATCH FOR CARS!'' lol.

This is the definition of live and learn though, innit? Living through these things is how you grow to appreciate risk. The trick is living through them.

In college my buddy got a nasty cut on his calf from an old rusty 5 gallon paint bucket. You could open the cut up and see all this white tissue in there. He didn't want to go to the ER, but finally later that night he went. I went along to keep him company. While we were waiting (for hours) this drunk group of frat bros comes in. They're all freaking out and carrying on. My buddy and I listen to them engage in a debate about who is going to call this dude's parents.

They were drinking at this bar on the edge of campus, they were leaving, their buddy tripped, fell to the ground (which was made of brick) hit his head, and died on the spot. Listening to this guy tell his friend's parents that their son was dead was some heavy shit. As a parent, my appreciation of risk has changed greatly. Raising a child, it is mind blowing, the amount of care that you expend. Everything that I do is for the betterment of my daughter. So much care and sacrifice, so much focus. It is immense beyond my ability to appreciate before I had this girl. And all these years of intense focus could just vanish in a trip?

But what the fuck? I've tripped like... probably a good 50 times in my life, never even close to killing myself. What causes that one dude to die for something close to nothing, while joeki rockets off the Japanese Alps into an electrical power station only to be stopped by one lonely tree?

[nowaysj]

[LACE]

i just don't know. your a gem of a guy though nowaysj.

on the other hand, i think you've brought us all near death survivors here in this thread because we cheated our time to pass on, so now we'll be picked off one by one according to the rules of some movie i saw.. =D

[nowaysj]

Hopefully in really dramatic fashions, at least.

[LACE]

thread needs a soundtrack

[NiGHTS_24]

I was in the shower and the whole shower unit had been damaged(i didnt know ) and there was a electric current running down the shower. You could feel it when you put your hand close to unit. Only found out how dangerous its was after but the most fucked thing was i had another two before i got it checked .

[wobbles]

saved my little bro from drowning in a swimming pool at a resort in orlando

saved my drunken friend from getting hit by a bus

[Efrafa11]

Was getting a ride to school from my mom one snowy day and we were a bit ahead of this garbage truck when we begin to slide.
My mom instinctively jerks it the other way and we slid into the garbage truck going round 40.
On the drivers side were teetering between sliding in front of the big garbage truck wheel and whatever would have went with that
and sliding to safety.
Luckily, the ladder happened and we flew into a nice cushiony wood pole.
For a minute though, I thought for sure I was going to be crushed by a wheel.

othertimes: Almost od'd on robo as a teen and almost got shot by police when I got arrested.

[NilsFG]

I don't really have any near death experiences, although I almost got ran over by a big ass truck once. Don't know if I would've died but I would've broken some bones.
Was walking over a crosswalk, whilst the light was green for me, and this guy in his truck came speeding down the road and headed straight for me.
Didn't brake, he just kept on going. Drove through the red light. I had to jump but he still hit my backpack with his mirror. Fucking tnuc.

Not me but my brother. He fell in front of a car and sort of rolled out of the way just in time, otherwise he'd have been splatto.

My friend drunkenly fell down between a platform and a running train.

How the fuck did he survive that?

They were drinking at this bar on the edge of campus, they were leaving, their buddy tripped, fell to the ground (which was made of brick) hit his head, and died on the spot.

I've heard stories like that too... Awful way to go really, so meaningless and stupid.
Quite lucky me or my mates never got anything serious from falling down whilst intoxicated.

[ninjadog]

I was surfing and after the wave ended and I jumped off I did not feel the familiar pull of my leash. I popped up out of the water to see my board like 20 feet ahead of me, my fucking leash had come undone. So I began swimming as fast as I could to go get it. Every time I would get near it a wave would send the board further away from me. I sprint swan for what seemed like 10 minutes and was exhausted as fuck, dident help I was also in a rip taking me out to sea. I seriously had a thought that I was going to die and I dident give a fuck, I was too drained physically and mentally. Somehow I managed to carry on and I was making progress to reach my surfboard aka life preserver. This time I was maybe one more stroke away and woosh, another wave pushes it away. Swim swim swim got a hand on the board and another fucking wave rips it out. At this point I would have cried if I had the energy. Keep paddling some more and as if the ocean said lets stop fucking with this guy my hand grabbed the leash underwater. I pull the board close and an other wave breaks over me, but now the leash is wrapped around my neck. I get one tug that chokes me, but after that I finally get on my board. Catching a wave in a rip is not an easy task. Finally I make it to the shore, kiss the ground and just drop.

[nowaysj]

Similar experience off Venice beach. Every January in LA there is like one oddly hot weekend. I went to the beach with my buddy (same guy that cut his leg, matter of fact), no one was there. We went for a swim in really really chilly water. We were out there past the breakers, coming in, and Bam, in a rip. I guess I'd been in a few rip currents, but nothing too serious, but this was like getting vacuumed down and out to sea. We swam and swam... and swam and swam, and my buddy (who is a tough guy btw) finally gasps, "nwj, I don't think I'm gonna make it..." I tell the dude to just keep swimming. He did make it, lolz, has three kids now, but we were collapsed on the beach for a good few minutes, getting pushed around by the little waves unable to move.

Actually, not far from there, a little further south of Venice, I took my wife and daughter to the beach on Mother's day. It was my daughter's first time at the beach, she was about a year old. We walked out in the water carrying her and were dipping her feet into the water, she was loving it. She wanted to get into the water, so I lowered her down into the water, and as soon as her feet touched the sand under the water, she took off running, right out of my hands, instantly went underwater when I lost my grip on her... just as a little wave flowed in. For a second I lost my baby underwater. I looked down through the water and found her, she was facing up just staring at me, eyes wide open in the water. Holy fuck I grabbed that girl. The time looking into her eye was as long as the universe itself, like we were connected on some infinite axis running between all those that begot and their begotten.

[Terpit]

Ive been sick in my sleep too many times, sometimes ive been on my back aswell. lucky i guess.
And got hit by a mustang ages ago, had sprained knees and ankles and a big tyre burn on the top of my foot but it wasnt too serious.

Also, i found out yesterday that someone i went to school with and played rugby with died over the weekend, he was at an outdoors party, went in someone pool to cool off on his own (he wasnt very drunk btw) and a half hour later when people found him he was face down.
And, i know someone that was having a piss outside, and pissed on some sort of electrical box, started spazzing out, collapsed and couldnt move his legs so had to crawl back to the party to get people to call an ambulance, not sure how near death that is but its pretty scary.

[Terpit]

Some of you lot have had a ridiculous amount of close calls!

[nowaysj]

Had a similar experience on one of the most epically drunk nights of my life. The kind of night that bonds people for decades, like you and I will always have that night, that chick wearing tap shoes, tap dancing on the roof, the magic hair ball, the broken ceramic fireplace logs...

We decided at one point late in the evening to hit the hot tub in my apartment complex. We were all fall down drunk at this point. My buddy jumps into the hot tub, flies all the way across, lands shins first on the far side concrete edge of the tub. His shins were ripped open, looked like wet cotton balls were protruding from his shins. I got the bright idea to open an electrical box near the hot tub to Macgyver the hot tub on. I somehow unscrewed four screws, got this plate off, and started crossing wires, all the while standing in this puddle from the tub, when BAM 220v hits me. Felt like a car was driving through my body. Still lived to procreate. Sux that Darwin!

[Terpit]

Fucking hell!
And what do you mean by wet cotton balls protruding? he had an open fracture?

[nowaysj]

No, it was like... flesh... I don't know what it was, fascia? Fatty connective tissue? Remember my girlfriend (now wife sleeping next to me) poking her finger into the holes. Good times.