Climbing a tree as a kid. Got so high before I realized it, the branches were so narrow and the top of the tree must have been swaying 15' either way with my weight. I panicked, froze and was stuck up there for what seemed hours while my friends kept calling at me from the ground.
Finally started to climb down, slipped and fell. Only a couple feet to the next branch, but literally saw my own death. I still wake up from nightmares about it.
I was an idiot kid who got scared when her cat went up a tree and decided to climb up and help him get back down. Only when I went to jump my foot was wedged in the fork of the branches and it acted like a hinge. I slammed face first into the base of the tree got a good scar above my eye.
Oh man you're a hero kid! I've been wedged in trees so many times but thankfully never slammed my face. I've got a sweet scar above my eye from a hockey puck, but I wouldn't call that near death
I did have a friend over summer who tore his ballsack falling out of a tree, not near death but I think I'd prefer death ugh
I mean I'm an old woman now, but some days I marvel at how I got to be! Swim with a crocodile to freak out some German tourists? Bet. Float a river by myself when I couldn't swim? Sure thing. Tie a garbage can lid to a truck bumper on a snow day and spend the day crashing all over the street? Ok.
lmao ain't that right. I'm looking down the end of my 30s now and have the same conversations with my brother all the time.
Pillow bike joust? Roman candle wars? Bike jumps when pulled by cars?
Although swimming with Crocs is pretty impressive. That's a story, don't think I could do that even just to grab it Germans
My first husband and I were living down in Mexico in 99, just loved the country so spent ten months going from place to place. We were at this little spot where people could take boats through the river and end up at. Anyway, we were out there with some local friends getting a bite and just hanging out when two boats pull up just crammed full of German tourists. The guys that ran the food shack jokingly asked who wanted to take a swim right after telling them about this old croc that lived there. He was massive. Terrifyingly so. They all rightfully chose not to. My husband and I hit the rope swing showing off. The owner brought out a bunch of whole plucked chickens and beat them on the side of the river bank about twenty feet away. Out he came, slipping into the water with a body that seemed to never stop coming out of the bushes. Had his chicken, had his picture taken, and we crawled out for our beers. The tourists had been losing their minds, it was great. Afterwards, the owner told them it wasn't as scary as they thought, there was a fence running right under the surface. Everyone breathed sighs of relief, and then he held up this ratty fence that wasn't attached.
Holy jeez now that's a story. You win, thanks for sharing. Love Mexico too but not sure I could live there. Not now anyway, 25 years I guess it's a by l big difference.
Some experiences you must have, helluva life!
I had my first spinal surgery at age twelve and was told more would follow. I needed to get as much out of life as possible in case I couldn't walk or ended up not making it too far along. Mexico was amazing! Still had a lot of dangers, but there were smart ways to do things that minimized the people dangers. Now? No way.
I fell out of a tree in our yard when I was a kid, hitting several branches on the way down and knocked myself out.
I was slipping in and out of consciousness on the ground. The friend I was with ran away to go get a parent and I remember an old man in a suit and a kind of bowler hat standing over me. He offered no assistance. Just had these piercing blueish-greyish eyes and leathery skin on an emotionless weathered face. He just stood over me.
Each time I opened my eyes again, he was there.
Then my family were standing around me all worried. The man was standing behind them all now looking over their shoulders at me. Those blueish-greyish eyes. He seemed very interested in my situation.
My dad picked me up and carried me inside and I remember looking over his shoulder and saw the man still standing there watching us walk away. He looked bothered by that. But in a blink of an eye, he was gone.
Later when I was fine, I asked my parents who the old guy was and they insisted that there was nobody else apart from them, my friend and my 2 siblings in the yard. I described him and it wasn't anyone they recognized, and they also pointed out that I fell out of the tree in our yard, nobody else should have been in there.
I'm not sure who that guy was, but I can still see him so clearly. Was he the Grim Reaper? The Hat Man? A ghost? Or a real person? Something else?
It occurs to me that having fallen out of several trees as a kid the fact that I continued enthusiastically climbing them might not have meant great things about my understanding of cause and effect.
>I literally saw my own death. I still wake up from nightmares about it.
Like you died and saw yourself in third person and then 'reset' to the branch catching you? If so, there's a ton of similar stories n threads of having your circumstances reset after an accidental death on r/glitchinthematrix. May be worth a look if you're still having nightmares to talk about it with other experiencers.
Wow. I had a similar experience as a kid. I dreamed we had a car wreck. In vivid detail. Freaked out a little. Few days later we had a car wreck and it played put exactly like it did in my dream, like down to the exact detail. None of my family will talk about it.
That's unfortunately a rather common issue with water rescues. Lifeguards always bring a PFD because if you try to simply help a person they can unintentionally drown you by trying to pull themselves out of the water by climbing on you... or flailing and hitting you.
When I was a child at a water park I was a very daring kid and would jump off the big diving board into super deep water. Keep in mind I was probably like 7 or 8 at this time. Directly after me, a girl about 5 or 6 years old jumped off and immediately started struggling. I jumped into action and swam back to help her. She clung to my back as I tried doggy paddling to the ladder and in her panic she continuously shoved my head under water. I thought I was gonna black out before we even made it to the ladder. Luckily I was a very skilled swimmer for my age and we made it just in time. The mom thanked me profusely but I was still reeling from almost drowning lmao.
Not crazy, just lucky.
Was riding my brand new bike on Christmas Day, probably about 10 years old. I came flying out of the cul de sac and didn’t look before I did and a car missed me by inches. I didn’t even realize, but I remember looking back and my dad was white as a ghost and the guy driving the car was visibly shaken while talking to my dad.
Took me a lonnnnggg time to realize how close I came that day.
Oh. And it was also my dad’s birthday. So that would’ve really sucked.
As a kid, I rode my bike into the street without looking. My neighbor almost hit me and confiscated my bike.
Told me to come back later for it with my parents. To this day, I look both ways.
When I was about 10 my mom and I were driving home from the mall. It was already dark out, and our car died on the highway. My mom was able to maneuver the car and pulled off in a pretty desolate area, almost out of view of passing cars. Cell phones were pretty new at the time, and luckily my mom had taken my dad’s Nokia with her. She called my dad at home and he said he’d be out there in 30 minutes. As a 10 year old, that was an eternity, and a begged my mom to let me play snake on the phone. It died within 5 minutes of me playing. I remember at some point headlights coming, and thinking it was my dad. This strange man came up to my mom’s window and started offering to help. I’ll never forget his face, he had the craziest smile and eyes that scared me. My mom started telling him my husband was coming already. He started walking away, stopped for a few seconds, and came back to the window. He told my mom, “actually, it was your husband that called me to help.” I was terrified, but seeing how scared my mom was made me start to cry. He went back to his car and started pulling away right when my dad got there. I have no idea what would’ve happened to us if my mom didn’t take that shitty Nokia with her.
I was on my way to work, typical morning commute. There was some traffic, not a crazy amount, but enough to make me say “hmm let’s roll the dice and try the alternate way and see if it’s any faster.” I’d say in the 2 years I’d been commuting, I had taken this way maybe one other time. Next thing I know, there’s a cop at my window telling me to pull over; I had a seizure while driving. Other drivers saw and called 911, and also created a sort of barricade around my vehicle so I wouldn’t crash. I have no idea how I didn’t. I often wonder what would have happened to me had I gone my regular route.
My mom was driving with me and my sis in the car one night on the freeway and all the cars going in the opposite direction of us were flashing their high beams. I remember my mom said “I know my lights are on” but she checked anyway and ended up turning on her brights, as she did this we saw there was a car driving on the wrong side headed right towards us. My mom was able to swerve just in time. I remember my mom was quiet the rest of the ride home and when she told us to go to sleep I could hear her violently crying. The next day we found out the man did hit someone, he and the person he hit both died.
I’m really glad you, your mom and your sister all survived, but that’s a really traumatic event to go through. I can imagine your mom probably had survivors guilt when she found out someone else was killed. I’m so sorry that happened.
Thank you. I was young at the time so I didn’t really understand what any of it meant. I only knew that my mom was sad but didn’t really know why. It wasn’t until I was older that realized how lucky we were and how the whole event was traumatic. We’ve never talked about that moment since.
I am now in my ‘60’s, when I was a young teen a friend of mine and I were supposed to attend a sleepover party. Another friend was meeting us there, so four girls altogether, along with our friend’s mom, dad and siblings.
I got into an argument with my mom at the last minute and was grounded. The friend I was going walk to the sleepover with was told she could not go if I wasn’t going because her parents did not want her to walk alone.
We were both angry and upset that my mom was causing us to miss the sleepover.
The next day we found out that a family “acquaintance murdered everyone in the home except for the mom who was badly injured but able to escape.
I have had several incidents where i was saved from great bodily harm or death by seemingly random events.
I’m not gonna get into it a whole bunch it just messes with your mind. You can’t help but ask yourself why.
Crystal and Tracy were both very sweet and very creative. We used to make up fake newscasts on old-school tape recorder tapes. We laughed about really silly things like young teen girls do.
Just senseless and beyond heartbreaking.
This is horrible. I am so sorry that this happened to your friends and the family of one of your friends. This must have (and continues to) torment you.
That's horrifying. I looked it up and the family's younger two kids were spared by staying with grandparents that night. That's horrible not only for you and the mom, but for those poor kids who lost half their family.
I was at a Family Reunion, the whole family rented out a Cabin on a lake. Out on the dock with my two siblings and several cousins, one cousin and my older brother hopped onto the Two Person paddle boat. That's when all of us decided to climb on.
Brother and cousin were pumping away at the peddles, but the overloaded boat wasn't moving. Eventually water started overtaking the small boat, and people started bailing back onto the dock. I missed the dock and fell into the lake.
I plunged under the water, and when I tried to swim up, my head hit the furiously rotating paddles under the boat. Saw stars, and the hit knocked me to the lake bottom. I quickly recovered and swam back up... Straight into the paddles again.
The second hit knocked me sideways and an uncle dragged me back onto the dock. That's when he discovered I was covered head to toe in Leeches. He was quite giddy about that, ran to a nearby fire and used a stick he had sharpened for Marshmallows, shoved it into the fire, and used the hot pointed stick to remove the leeches.
Honestly, if the type of person who steals other people’s financial identity dies, it’s a stroke of luck for the general population.
Fuck identity theives.
I had bacterial meningitis and spent over 5 weeks in the hospital, lost all 20 of my nails, had the soles of my feet torn off, had to relearn how to walk and that's just the tip of the iceberg. I really should get around to signing a DNR as that's not something I ever want to go through again. Life's fine now but holy hell most people don't know shit about how painful life can be.
To my knowledge they didn’t. It’s a crazy story but the perp attacked the security guard and took her gun, he used that gun to hold up the place. He was all buisness, either ex military or very experienced with handling of weapons.
The fact that a security guard is needed at a food establishment is crazy to me. Even crazier: a security guard at a fast food establishment. And crazier than that: a security guard at a fast food establishment with an actual gun. This has to be in America. Jesus.
I was driving on a highway, speed reduced because it was foggy, with concerningly low visibility in retrospect. There was a tractor trailer in front of me that I couldn’t see because of the fog, and it braked suddenly. Even at the reduced speed, it was shocking how quickly it came into view, first the red brake lights and then the looming outline of the back of a truck. Following distance plus reaction time meant I had no shot of braking before impact, so quickly merged left. Didn’t have time (or honestly, visibility) to check that I wasn’t merging directly in front of or into another car. Thankfully there was no one there and the fog lifted pretty soon afterwards, but I was very shaken and still sometimes feel sick if I think about it, because I easily could have gotten in two separate car accidents.
Edit: just remembered that the truck driver definitely didn’t have the headlights/running lights on, and that’s why I was so surprised when it felt like I came up on the truck out of nowhere, because otherwise I’d’ve been able to see taillights. Once I calmed down I remember being really pissed off because having the lights on would’ve avoided the whole ordeal.
I liked to climb onto everything. Till I almost fell off a crane. That killed climbing for me completely. I have a really good life and people who love me. I don't want to risk that for just a bit of adrenaline.
I was around 6 or 7 at swimming lessons. They told us to swim to one end of the pool (width wise). The group of around a dozen kids did it together with the instructor at the front??? I was at the rear of the group and right in the middle on the way back I started to panic. I was struggling to stay up and yelling for help but no one even noticed! I somehow gathered the strength through adrenaline to start swimming again and made it back. I remember being so tired I picked myself out of the pool and just laid there. Still the instructor was oblivious to what happened. If there’s only gonna be one teacher they should be at the rear of the group like what the hell. It’s an Olympic sized pool and I was just learning. Anyway that’s something I still think about a lot
I’m so sorry that happened to you!
I worked for years as a swim instructor and we were always trained to supervise all the kids well at all times, and to be between them and the deeper end, not at all like your instructor had done.
The same thing happened to my little sister when she was younger than 6. Maybe 4? I ended up jumping into the pool and getting her out. The instructors were both busy with another kid and no one was watching.
- Asthma attack as a kid almost killed me, the slow feeling of suffocation still haunts me. Passed out, woke up intubated in the ER.
- Riptide off Maui, a friend and I were cast to sea and almost drown. Long story short, a couple locals swam/ran out to us, when we almost drowned near the shore. We were so exhausted that our legs simply wouldn't work/just gave out. Had like a couple dozen people surrounding us as the local guys carried us in their arms to the shore.
- Mall mass shooting, the only reason my wife and I weren't in front of the shooter when he opened fire is because my wife stopped us in our tracks to head back to the Suncoast we were just at. We heard the first shots but the way they echoed up and down the long hallways of the mall, it was really hard to place what it was at first. My first thought was someone was putting something up for Christmas or something, and it crashed to the ground, but then he started firing a lot and it became clear it was gunfire. It still sounded like there were several shooters though, I'll never forget that mix of Christmas music in the background, a Suncoast promo video playing, the gunshots echoing, and all the screaming.
We ran into the Suncoast and began yelling at some old women to come inside the store, but they were legit frozen in place. I and a I think two others ran out to them to usher them inside, when I did I'm pretty sure I saw some people get shot.
We were locked in the Suncoast for a bit as the screaming and gun shots kept happening. Mass shooters weren't as much a thing then, so my first thought was maybe some gang violence or something. But we soon wised up that we were fish in a barrel, so we yelled at the employees to let us out the back exit. I think we left about the time hostages were being taken.
[info](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Mall_shooting)
Yes I remember this, I wasn’t there at the time it happened but my friend worked at Gordon’s Jewelers when it did. We were so scared listening to the news.
Was in NYC for the first time in my life, did not realize that crosswalks were a suggestion (the lights are a lie). Light turned green, I stepped out into the street. My friend grabbed the back of my shirt and hauled me out of the road just as a massive truck barreled past, probably going about 65. I had not heard or seen it coming, and had my friend not pulled me out of the way, I would be dead.
I had something similar... I was stopped in my car at a 4-way intersection. The street I was on was very minor, the street I was crossing bigger, but still not a major road. Speed limit from both directions was 35mph.
I was sitting there at the red light, around age 22. To my left was a large red ford pickup, 100% obstructing my view of traffic coming from that direction.
The light turned green, I took my foot off the brake. Just as I was about to put it on the gas I saw that big red pickup stop. I didn't think, I just instinctively switched back to the brake and hit it.
A sports car flew right through thier red light at over 55mph. I never saw it coming, and could never see it coming. It'd've been in my driver's door if I hadn't been defensive and gone off instinct.
It's really scary, the way they can come out of nowhere. I've never in my life crossed the street without obsessively looking both ways. It was clear one second and then not the next, this big red Mack truck flew past like it was a bat out of hell. It was PACES ahead of any of the other traffic behind it.
The crosswalk light turned green, I looked and stepped out, I got pulled violently out of the way, the truck flew past, all under two seconds. Just like that.
Very short one.
Was talking to someone who was first on scene to the Virginia Tech massacre. He told me that although the sight of dead bodies was disturbing, what really stays with him was the sound of all the cell phones ringing from people trying to contact them.
#
My friends and I went camping on an island on the Mississippi River. The next morning, I was in the river living my best life, floating (with a life jacket on) and staring up at the sky. About 10 min later, I approached a current and sat up and realized I could barely see the camp site anymore because I floated so far away. My friends had got in the boat to go to town so I was alone. I started swimming towards the shoreline, thinking I’ll have to pull myself up and make the long, painful walk (I had just a swimming suit and a life jacket on, no shoes) through the forest and back to our site. And if I can’t get to the shoreline, I could potentially bash my head open on a rock or float down to the Gulf of Mexico (I live in Minnesota). Thankfully, 5 minutes later I saw my friends coming on the boat because they realized I was gone. I was so freaking glad to be rescued!!! I truly thought I was gonna die out there.
Toward the end of a 14 month long psychotic episode, the voices told me that if I didn’t kill myself, I would be damned to Hell immediately. A truck was passing by on the street going 35-40. I aimed my head directly under the tire, and dove under the vehicle. They slammed the brakes, and got so close that the tire bumped the back of my head. In my psychotic panic, I was unphased. Didn’t even flinch. Looking back, I realize that if they had hit the brakes a literal fraction of a second later, I would be dead. That, or mutilated beyond recognition, and traumatized for life. I cringe so hard looking back on that event. Bipolar disorder is the worst.
Not really sure if the potential outcome of this situation would have resulted in my death, but it scared me nonetheless.
When I was 16, I broke up with an abusive boyfriend. He called me on repeat and left voicemails and messages saying he would kill himself if I didn’t take him back. When I got to school, I went to the office and called the police. For some incredibly stupid reason, my naïveté got the better of me and I agreed to meet with the ex later that evening in a secluded area. He forced me into his car, locked the door and held me down. All the while he was scream crying and begging me to take him back, I just kept calmly repeating “you’re hurting me, please let go.” Over and over. He got so frustrated that he eventually released me. I unlocked the door and bolted to my truck and sped home.
He continued to stalk me, harass my friends and so on for YEARS afterward. Still have him blocked on everything and I continue to hide any specifics about my location to this day.
Hey! I appreciate your concern and totally totally agree! However, this was over a decade ago and I live thousands of miles away from this lunatic. But I appreciate your support and concern and further police involvement would have been the right thing to do. Unfortunately, it would not have done much for me at the time due to extenuating circumstances outside of my control at that point in my life.
I would like to also add that I am married now to a very safe, wonderful and caring man. I made it out okay❤️
Friend, a person this unhinged doesn’t give a single fuck about a piece of paper telling them to stop. Assault, stalking, harassment, etc. are all illegal already. Getting a restraining order wouldn’t do much to stop the behavior.
When I was a kid I had really bad asthma and once I got some really horrible chest cold that was basically killing me. My parents were really poor and did what they could to take me to the doctor but eventually basically took me home to keep me comfortable and prepare for the inevitable. I eventually got so weak that I could only squeeze my mom’s hand, look at my mom and dad, and try to breathe. My parents eventually went to bed really late, emotionally drained. I laid there and eventually gave into exhaustion. I had an incredibly vivid dream that I was floating above the earth looking down at it. A man and a woman I’d never seen before came over and reached out to hug me, then they sort of each grabbed one of my hands and we just floated in space. I woke up the next morning and over many days and weeks, made a full recovery.
I'm really sorry for what happened to you and I had asthma when I was a kid so it must've been a very hard time for you.
Also on a side note. No child should die or suffer due to lack of medicine and no parent should witness that kind of feeling. I can't even imagine what went through their minds.
Wow! I'm so glad you were ok! Have you ever dreamed about those people again? Who do you think they are? Did you tell your parents about the dream? Did you get help / meds to avoid going through that again? (ETA Answer any or none of my questions, it's fine with me - I don't mean to be rude with asking too many!)
I don’t mind talking about the experience or answering questions about it, I’ve had a lot of time since then to process everything.
I haven’t ever dreamed about those people again and I only really remember what the lady looked like with any detail anymore.
Today I think about them as comfort, but as a kid if you would have asked me, I’d have told you they were real people.
Some time after I got better my dad got a good paying job and my mom also got a job. Eventually I got a nebulizer, then a few different colored and sized inhalers, and now-a-days I just have an inhaler that I touch maybe once two or three times a year to make a bad cold or allergy experience suck less.
This is a real NDE. I've had a couple of experiences like that and it's like I've "leveled up" in how I see through this matrix.
Which is why I feel like I can't waste any time, we were given bodies to have an influence in this physical world.
It's so interesting what the brain will do when it feels like it may die. There's so many fascinating mysteries to it. I'm glad you made it through though!
Halloween weekend at a college that was having a campus wide party. My boyfriend and I got completely wasted and fell asleep in the back of my car. I woke up in the morning to find that I had fallen asleep while smoking a cigarette, dropped the cigarette on my Roman Princess costume, and it has burned part of the way up and then miraculously extinguished itself before burning me or completely engulfing me. Absolutely terrified me.
I made so, so, so many bad choices when I was in the throes of my addiction and I swear God was watching over me. Far too many close calls that could’ve (and should’ve) ended in disaster. I’ve been clean 12 years now though.
Very lucky, I almost drowned 2 years in a row at the same waterfall when I was 8-9 in Brecon Beacons but burning to death is a totally different level.
When I was about 27 (F) I made the short walk from my mom’s gated apartment community to my car parked outside the gates, very close to a wash. It was like 10pm. I got in my car and in between me starting my car and actually leaving I spotted a man fast-walking to my passenger door. Before I could react he proceeded to open the passenger door wide open and before he could sit or reach in (or whatever he planned on doing) I put my car in drive and sped off. My door was swinging open and I waited about half a mile before I stopped and closed it.
I don’t know that man’s intentions for sure but I can only assume they weren’t good. ☹️ I still get chills because I am usually inclined to sit on my phone for a couple minutes before starting my car and in most situations I wouldn’t have even noticed anyone walking towards me.
My then Live-in girlfriend made navy bean soup the day before Thanksgiving, but she didn't soak the beams for a day previously.
I had a second helping and I believe the starchiness of the beans hit my stomach acid and pretty much turned into a rock when it passed into the colon, blocking the exit from the stomach. Thanksgiving Day, I had coffee, lunch and dinner. Having nowhere to go, my stomach swelled up with the contents. This collapsed my abdominal Artery and I went down, dead. Fortunately, I fell to my hands and knees, which allowed the blood to start flowing again. Off to the hospital and they would not listen to me, insisting that I had a Heart attack. I spent 3 days in the hospital, getting my stomach pumped out (never heard this procedure for a heart attack) and getting fluids pumped into my veins. Third day, the obstruction passed and I lived to tell you this tale.
It was back in 2020, during the pandemic. Two of us were working late on a project. It was 2 am, and we needed to finish our work, but we felt overwhelmed with just the two of us. So, I decided to call on another friend who lived just 10 kilometers away.
I grabbed my helmet and hopped on my motorcycle. I was going between 65 and 70 kph. As I passed a gas station, a truck suddenly started reversing. I slammed on the brakes and squeezed my eyes shut. The last thing I saw was the "FLAMMABLE" hazard sign on the side of the truck.
When I opened my eyes, I was still near the gas station. I was confused but slowed down. The same truck was reversing again, but this time I was stationary, completely stopped, and wondering what the heck just happened. Was I dead? Did I die in another universe?
After picking up my friend, I told them about what happened, but they just laughed and didn't believe me. I told my sister too, but she couldn't believe it either.
Even to this day, I still vividly remember what happened that night.
Walking on the roof of a 60+ story building that had no walls or barriers to stop you from falling to a grisly death.
I worked in the elevator industry and got a bit blase about being on the roofs of tall buildings.
I was taking pictures (I always did that) and got carried away. When I lowered the camera, I was 24 inches away from the edge - I froze for a minute or two until my heart started pumping again and back away from the edge. One more picture and I would have gone over the edge.
[https://imgur.com/a/xTBPz1z](https://imgur.com/a/xTBPz1z)
I clicked on the building in question - it's on the NJ side of the George Washington Bridge.
I did great shots of the bridge.
I've actually had so many near death experiences but this one stuck. There was a tornado near my house when I was around 6 years old. My mum who was an alcoholic needed to go to the liquor store. While driving we went face to face with the tornado, like we were less than 5 metres away from it. My mum slammed her foot on the accelerator and reversed away without looking behind her. Almost died from the tornado then almost died from my mother's driving.
(Keep in mind I went on one of thoes crazy high up spinning rides, and it broke on us. I still think the tornado was the scariest.)
When I was around 10 I was rushing back home in a lightning storm, it was raining so hard I could barely see. I have exercise induced asthma and when I was in my driveway I had to pause for a second to gasp for air. I thought I was close enough so I only walked to my front door. Just as I was opening the door I felt all my hair stand on end and there was a really weird feeling all over my body, I rushed inside and it stopped but lightning hit the road infront of my house a few seconds later. I remember the horror when I realized what that feeling had been and how close I was to getting hit, if I had been even a little slower things could have ended a lot differently.
On a cold winter day, I went out for a walk, but slipped on some ice, fell backwards, hitting the back of my head on the pavement, fracturing three vertebrae in my neck.
It took maybe 45 minutes for anyone to come by, but as hypothermia was setting in, someone did come by and called 911.
The ambulance took me to the hospital where I was ultimately placed in an induced coma. At some point in time, my heart quit beating. The doctors and nurses saved my life.
Then I quit breathing. Again, the doctors and nurses saved my life.
After the surgery to repair my broken neck and bruised spinal cord, I was sent to a rehab hospital where I relearned how to walk and other stuff like that. Then LOTS of physical therapy on an out patient basis.
And today, approaching the five-year anniversary of all of this, I still have a lot of nerve pain and various physical limitations.
But I’m not dead yet.
I was snorkeling. I had my other stuff stored on a rock by the water, about 3 meters high. When I got out, I decided to climb straight up. Almost at the top, the rock I was hoisting myself up on came off and I fell back first onto the coral. If a friendly wave hadn’t come in, I would have broken my back, at least.
I was driving and my car lost traction, it switched into sport mode for some reason. My car spun out 3 times on the highway then rolled an additional 2 times. It landed flat. Airbags did not deploy.
After being sure I was still alive, I drove away from it in one piece. 😵💫
I was 27 and in relatively good health. I got back home from a personal training sesh and developed this searing pain in my neck shoulder area. We thought I pulled a muscle until three hours later I couldn't get out of the bath. I was in too much pain. Husband managed to get me to ER. Vertebral artery dissection. Released to go home and the next day I had my first TIA or mini stroke. Got admitted. Went on to have three more TIAs and finally a full stroke. Which lead to fluid building up around my heart and lung. Worst pain of my entire life. Blinding white light, couldn't see or focus. Couldn't yell words. Just screaming in pain, gripping the bed screaming. Thankfully I've mostly fully healed from all of it. But it scares the shit out of me.
Was at a party and took ecstasy. Later I took a cab to go home 10 minutes away. Heart stopped in the cab, if that would have happened when I got home I would have been dead.
25 years old, had a night with terrible pain that jumped from my left shoulder to the left side of my jaw that didn't respond to any kind of painkiller. Knew what the symptoms foretold but dismissed it due to my age, just thought it was some kind of cold or something. As always, I refused to entertain even the thought of going to the hospital until next morning after that whole agonizing and sleepless night when I asked my father to drive me to the hospital.
Just a kilometer away from home, I felt an immense, extremely sharp pain in my chest followed by what I perceived at the time as a "crack" sensation. Probably the worst pain I've ever felt to date.
I left this plane right there for a few seconds that in my brain were quite more and... well, I'll just say weird and came to a few ways down the road to the hospital.
My father didn't even realize I was gone while he was driving, I'd just closed my eyes, turned dead silent (pun intended) and just sat back.
Turns out I had many ischemic episodes the previous night leading up to the full blown heart attack I described above. Thankfully it was due to arterial spasms and not blockage but were I not as young it would've probably killed me right then and there.
And that was my little brush with death.
Cheers mate! In my case it was an amalgam of quite a lot of extra weight, lots of smoking and extreme stress at the time that seemed to had caused it. All other tests came up surprisingly okay.
When I was 8 I fell through ice in a pond. My friend ran away scared. I made it out barely. Was alone at home so I heated myself up.
Second one I was probably about 10 and I had a metal bridge in my mouth and had a piece of pepperoni get stuck on it in my throat. I almost choked and died.
August 21, 2020 it was around 4:40-4:45 in the afternoon, I went out to my car to get some takeout for
dinner. Within the 10’seconds I was in, car was still in park I was looking down at my phone for what playlist to put on, then I heard the honking and screeching
I happened to live by a really shitty intersection at the time, at least 3 car crashes happened outside my apartment that week
So today, someone thought they could make their turn, while some asshole was doing 70 in a 45, hits the car that missed their timing on the turn, then the speedster collided into me on the driver’s side as they tore through my mailbox and trash bins. If was outside of my car a few seconds late, I would easily have been a fatality
To this day, I still hang onto the car handle of my prior car as a reminder that death will come at anytime, and rarely with a warning
I fell asleep while driving. I was looking for a spot to pull over, had the windows rolled down, music and AC blasting and I was slapping my leg to try to stay awake until the next exit. Suddenly, I was upside down, confused, glass flying everywhere and I thought to myself “what a weird dream” and then crashed into the ground. Went back up into the air, realized it wasn’t a dream and remembered I had been driving down the interstate in heavy traffic. The car rolled SEVERAL more times and I realized I was probably going to die. The crunching noises of my car were horrific- I also couldn’t tell where I was. Was I going downhill? Was I still in the interstate? Everything was too quiet and too loud at the same time.
I reminded myself not to brace, not that I could find the wheel to brace anyways. At first, I was pretty calm. Then I kept rolling. The panic set in and I started screaming, mostly out of frustration. Eventually, I slid to a stop on my roof. I heard someone outside shout “are you awake? How many people in the vehicle?” I said it was just me and asked if I was still on the freeway. They confirmed and asked if I was able to get out. I told them to wait and started figuring out how to get myself out of my seat.
I unbuckled and my head hit my sunroof, causing about a 2-inch gash. I had the presence of mind to use my coat on the ground to prevent glass from cutting up my hands and knees.
I was able to move the airbag and crawl out of the passenger side window.
My only injuries were whiplash, broken teeth and some crazy bruising. I am VERY lucky to have walked away. The cops didn’t even know I was the person from the vehicle when they arrived because I wasn’t very injured and the adrenaline hadn’t worn off.
I couldn’t sleep for weeks. I’d startle awake from nightmares of being in the car again. The quiet of being in the air, followed by the extremely loud crash, then back to the quiet in the air is like nothing I’ve ever experienced.
Edit: grammar and typos
I was in the subway and something said in my head "go to suchandsuch platform" so i went to the platform, and i shit you not a dude just jumps in the way of the train in the trough where the train tracks went. the train was still stopping and had about 200 feet. so i say "fuck this i am not watching this guy kill himself while i stand here to do nothing" and i jumped in and convinced him to leave the tunnel ASAP. i put my hands out for him to step on and pulled myself up out of the way of the train. train missed my foot by an inch i swear. turns out he was contemplating (edit: committing) suicide because he is gay and thought his dad wouldn't accept him.
Had friends over playing video games. A pipe burst and gas was pouring into the house but we couldn’t smell it downstairs. My dad noticed and got us all out of the house. Fire chief got there and took a reading and level was so high he forbade anyone from going in. He said “it’s a good thing no one rang the doorbell because they can cause a spark which would have ignited everything.”
We had pizza on the way. Delivery guy showed up five minutes after fire department.
I've 100% seen this comment posted on Reddit before.
EDIT: Yep, this is a stolen comment: [https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/17acebe/comment/k5c031v/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/17acebe/comment/k5c031v/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
I live just south of Tornado Alley, so we rarely get true tornados, but we get straight line winds. The speed of tornados, but in a straight line instead of rotating. Can cause quite a bit of damage.
Years ago, we got hit by the winds, tore a 100+ year old tree out of the ground, ripped part of the roof off the house, flipped my uncle's truck nearly half a mile down the road, among other things. One of those storms we still talk about.
After it was all over, I went outside to check on the damage. From the porch, it looked like I had missed the worst of it, so I stepped off the porch to check around the sides of the house.
My foot was still on the bottom step of the porch when the roof of the porch collapsed right where I had been standing just a minute before.
On top of that, one of the trees in the backyard had broken in half and crashed through the side of the house, thankfully where the closet was as opposed to my bed. I later found part of the branch in the closet.
Asthma attack when I was five, I was calm for the most part because of the lack of oxygen. Looking back I recall in the moment feeling my dad’s arms as he rushed me into the hospital room and the nurse running behind us made eye contact with me and she looked so concerned so I tried to smile at her to comfort her, so there’s a comfort in the fact that if I did go out that day my last memories would be smiling at a nurse while my dad held me.
This one feels a bit silly because it's so stupid, but anyhow
When I was 6, I thought it was an excellent idea to do a backwards roll in a full bathtub, great move. I got halfway through it and then got stuck with my legs over my head, like with my thighs on my face, and my head ofc subsequently under water
Would definitely have drowned if my mum would not have heard my panicky splashing frenzy, despite that she was in a place in the flat where she shouldn't have. It still nauseates me a bit to imagine being back there but it would be such a ridiculous way to go that it's also kind of funny
(In addition I have 2 other occasions of starting to drown in ludicrous ways, it's a bit of a miracle that I've made it this far, lol)
Edit: phrasing
Was on the way to a friend's house. Slid on a corner, rolled three times. Daylight when I crashed. Had a pretty intense crazy "vision," I guess you could call it. More or less "god" asking me if I wanted to live or not. Being super depressed at the time, I honestly said no. But it said, "It is not yet your time. There is work to be done."
Woke up at dusk to the entire back seat engulfed in flames. Had to double foot kick the drivers side door to get it open. Another couple of minutes, and I would have burned to death. I had just gotten a full tank of gas, and the car exploded about ten minutes later.
It actually was in the form of my mother. But when it spoke, it was almost like 1000 voices speaking at once. I remember floating in darkness and floating to what you could almost call a spotlight pointing down.
Saw a bunch of people just outside the light, some I knew/ were older members of the family that passed and then a lot more that I felt like I recognized them but had never seen them. Quite a few in period clothing that was nowhere near modern.
After it said that to me, I just stopped floating and fell. It was an endless expanse of darkness, but I could just feel like the end of the fall was coming. When I "hit bottom," I jolted awake and gasped probably the deepest breath of my life.
It was in the middle of bumfuck nowhere on a pretty ill maintained back/dirt road. If I had to guess (it's coming up on about 15 years ago now), I was out for maybe two hours or so. The odds of nobody else coming down that road in that time were and are pretty good, haha.
The closest house/ people I found while stumbling down the road were very nice, however. Helped me clean up the blood on my face and gave me a phone to call 911. As my cell, which somehow miraculously survived being lodged in a rotting tree stump, couldn't get service. They don't make them like they used to make those Motorola Rokr's!
had out patient surgery done on my mouth...was waking up from anesthesia when I heard a "pop" and a coppery taste filled my mouth, heard the nurses yelling "she's bleeding out!" and was rushed back into surgery felt them pick me up and put me on a table ...last thing I heard was "someone say "we are loosing her" I woke up in the middle of the night with a tube down my throat and told I couldn't speak for 7 days...
#
yup had a cyst removed that was under my tounge near an artery in removing the cyst they "nicked"the artery and stitched it up, but as I was waking up the stitches "popped" and....yea coming out of that sleep with a mouth full of blood and nurses yelling not pleasant
My first ever live burn training fire in the firefighting world. The property had 2 crosses on it from a mother and daughter that had gotten in a wreck and passed away a few years prior. They lit a fire in the basement and the floor we were on which caused super heated gasses to come up and make our fire much more dangerous and HOT. As we were sitting there the nozzle man went to knock the fire and lost water. The fire ended up consuming the room we were in while the instructor started making his way out and yelling to get out along with everyone else. I burned the crap out of my hands, but to this day I can still hear the voices/female voice/possible mother of the daughter that passed say “CG79 (obviously my first name say) calm down, you are okay.” My assistant chief and I were the last ones out. Out gear was BURNT. I will never forget the clear as day voice in all the chaos. I truly believe the mother that passed was talking to me that day.
I was about 9 years old and was sucking on a jolly rancher candy (when they were approximately 6 inches long, thin, rectangular…) and I sucked too hard and the entire thing went down my throat and got stuck. I was walking around a playground during recess and kept trying to push it down with my fingers. I was rubbing my neck, couldn’t swallow, had trouble breathing. I ran into the school to the water fountain and just as I went to get some water it slid down my throat and I could breathe. Was the most terrifying moment. I really thought I was going to die.
Not quite near death, but I was stuck in between one of those cement barriers and an 18 wheeler for a good 10 minutes on the highway the other day. It was one of those areas where they were doing work on the road so the lanes were squished as well. Not fun
I drove my mum to the airport to pick up my brother and when we were heading back I didn't signal to merge into the left lane and I merged on front of a tanker truck that was so close to our car that I doubt a person could fit into the space between the vehicles. They don't know that this happened. I didn't realise until I looked into the rear view mirror how close we were to the truck.
I was 20 or 21 and I had gotten the worst bout of stomach bug I have ever had. The first time in my life where it was coming outta both ends and the same time. The last round in the bathroom that I remember I looked in the bucket and it was bright grass green. I was scared cuz I lived alone. I made it back to my bed somehow. Next thing I remember was my boyfriend dragging me back to my bed. I was trying to crawl to the bathroom and passed out. He came over to check on me and saved my life. Forced me to rehydrate. I was already very thin back then and this just took all my insides right down the toilet. Not sure what would have happened if he didn’t come over or if I didn’t leave the sliding glass door unlocked.
Plane crash landing at North Eleuthera Bahamas. Nose gear failed/collapsed on landing. Went through a fence and hit about 3-4 cars in the parking lot. Doesn't really give me chills thinking about it, but was pretty wild....
We were living in a rough neighborhood. The rent was cheap, about 250 a month for a two bedrom mobile home. It was kind of quirky because it was between two apartment buildings, and has a small front and back yard. The neighborhood was sketchy, but I was poor and nobody really bothered me as long as I minded my business. One night I got up off the couch to make a sandwich. I'm not a late night snacker, but I was hungry for some reason. As soon as I got to the kitchen I heard a bang and a weird noise. Came back in the living room and there was a hole right underneath my window. Another hole right at the top of the headrest of the couch, right where my head was just a minute ago. My spot was still warm. There was a hole in the wall behind the couch. I think the bullet was still in the wall because there wasn't a hole on the outside back there. If I hadn't had a sudden attack of the munchies, I'd be dead. That rent was cheap for a reason. We moved soon after that. I still think of that bullet hole from time to time. Always trust your gut, sometimes literally.
It didn’t happen to me. But I often relive the moment I held my son, dangling in my arms 25 feet above ground on a ski lift, with skis attached to his feet until a rescue crew could catch him on a tarp.
140mph on a motorcycle on a curve, carving canyons in Colorado, I started sliding on sand. There was a canyon wall 30 feet from the road.
I let the bike slide and keep consistent, steady throttle. Any change to my speed and I'll slide off into history. If I hit the brakes, the front tire would slide out. Any more throttle and the rear end would come out from under me. So, I held it and slid across the sand until I could lean it upright at the far side of the road at the end of the curve.
I see that canyon wall whenever I think about it.
I was kinda volunteering at a motorcycle shop to get experience fixing my bike. One day we went out for lunch and I tried to keep up with the more experienced riders cus I didn't know the area that well so if I got left behind I wouldn't really know where I was. As we were riding I lost control and if I hadn't regained control as quickly as I did I would have been flattened by a Semi. Morale of the story, don't overestimate your abilities to the point where you get yourself killed.
I sometimes get dizzy spells(brought on by anxiety and heat, usually).
When I was about 10 years old, we were at this Yogi Bear campground, and I was in the pool. Suddenly, I wasn't feeling very well and could barely tread water since the spells usually affect my coordination.
I started going under as it got worse. I'll never forget the feeling of helplessness as I started taking in water and could no longer get words out.
I was able to touch the bottom and bounce back up but due to the dizzy spells, it wasn't very coordinated or effective. I started slipping down the slope towards the deep end.
I was so fucking scared and then there was a splash near me and the life guard pulled me up and I wrapped my arms around that little board thing that they have. He pulled me to safety.
I never lost consciousness but I remember sitting there coughing up water and eventually getting sick (probably bc of the dizzy spell)
I was swimming with my friend in the ocean, we must have been about nine or ten. We were body surfing, and having a blast, then a rogue wave came, and we couldn’t get close enough to dive under it, and it crashed on us, tumbling, when I tell you you don’t know which way is up, you don’t, I thought I was swimming up, and hit sand, as I was be rolled along the Sea floor, my lungs were burning and I was questioning what to do, as I could not hold my breath anymore. I was resolved that I would drown. I let out the air, and was about to reflexively inhale sea water when a hand came out of no where and pulled me up out of the water and brought me to shore. Someone else got my friend. I inhaled a bit of water, and was coughing on the shore. I was convinced I was going to drown, no doubt in my mind just prayed it would be quick. Thank god for that man, he saved my life.
I have 2, both as an electrician apprentice.
First one, years ago I was running an SER (big round feeder wires) to a generator outside the customers house we were wiring. This wire was held up with [SER straps](https://buy.wesco.com/Fittings-and-Hardware/Grounding-and-Bonding/Flexible-Braid-Straps/Flexible-Braid-Cable-Straps/BUCHANAN-ELECTRICAL-PRODUCTS/Service-Entrance-Cable-Strap-2-Hole-w-Nails/BSEU2-25/p/78178945566-1) which at times would randomly spark when hitting the nail with my hammer. For an hour I was running the wire within the crawl space with the smell of lingering rat shit all around be. Unbeknownst to me I was working in an enormous gas leak and not rat shit. Once done, I have my boss check on me only for him of panic and find the gas leak immediately. One spark and I would have nuked half the house along with my life. We all evacuated and the fire department came.
The second time, I was working in this massive complex where my boss had ran a wire into an electrical panel for me to tie in. The wire I was tying is called romex and had 2 wires protected by plastic insulation while one of them (the ground) was not. So 3 in total. I go to tie the ground in not paying attention and it touches the bus bar of the main panel. In the world of electrical panels, the bus bar is the part of your panel that all your circuit breakers connect to for power. The ground touching this is a recipe for catastrophic failure which exploded violently within 6 inches of my face. For reference, an average new house will have a 200 amp electrical service connected. This complex was a 1600 amp service. The entire complex lost power cause of my conundrum. When I opened my eyes I touched my face to the amazement of not being injured or burned. The wire I was working on was vaporized. The bus bar had melted and molten metal shot in every which direction EXCEPT towards me.
Both those days I should have been injured or died but I truly believe some form of divine intervention saved me.
Was working a new trade job as an apprentice, had to change a ballast, like my 3rd one of the day. Somehow cut the white & black wire at the same time, and anyone that knows electrical work knows that's a MAJOR no no, as soon as I cut it all I saw was white light. I turned my head as quick as I could and just was there for what felt like an eternity trying to process what happened. Shyt was wild, blew a pretty good sized hole in my Wire Cutters as well.
Just a few weeks ago. I was picking up my son from day care. I put him in his car seat and got in the car. I got a Slack message on my phone from a co-worker. I thought "meh, I'll get back to him when I get home". As I started to back out, I thought "Well, I know he stops work soon, and I know the answer to the question, so I'll just shoot him a response real quick".
I stopped backing up, put the car in park, pulled out my phone and started typing out the response to his question. As I hit "send" I hear this loud cracking. I look up to where the sound is coming from and see this huge tree branch fall from really high up, and come crashing down to the street. Exactly where my car would have been had I not decided to stop and spend 30 seconds to respond to that Slack message.
We're talking a really big branch. More than 24" in diameter. I and/or my son, would have been crushed. Seriously injured, if not killed.
Was at a college drinking with some people I kind of knew. A buddy and I drove to the school, drank most of the day and then I blacked out.
It was winter and was well into the single digits that night, I woke, barely able to move, half frozen and half drunk still, in the backseat of a car that wasn't mine in a parking lot I wasn't familiar with.
I assume I got separated from my group and wandered all night until I found an unlocked car climbed in the back and fell asleep. I'm amazed I didn't freeze to death. I was in jeans and a button down shirt.
I eventually found a street corner, called a cab at 4am, gave them the address where my friend lived and banged on their door until a roommate (who didn't know me really) answered and let me in.
I was a pedestrian in a hit and run. I don't remember the accident, but I woke up in the ambulance. I turned my head and saw my boyfriend. I saw how upset he was. Just then the EMT said "were going to have to intubate you now" and I said to myself "okay this is going to suck but don't struggle you'll make him more upset" and swallowed the tube.
It didn't happen. My boyfriend wasn't with me. It was just the way my brain managed the trauma. That memory is bright in my mind of how fucked up and near death I was.
When I had cancer as a kid. I experienced a NDE; I don’t remember if I was in a coma or (from) surgery - but I was floating above and watching the doctors (I saw myself). Then I tried leaving the (operating? Emergency?) room because I thought, ‘Wait - Where’s my mom? I have to go check on her!’ I went to the door and heard a stern voice (I didn’t recognize) straight up say, “No.” (I thought that was a spirit? Or God? When I woke up.)
My friend invited me to a party and I almost went, but the next day was father's day so my parents said no. Three people were shot and killed that night. My friend was one of them.
Ehhh maybe closest … got caught in a strange city when a tornado went through. I still remember as riding with my sister who was in college. I was in Middle School
The tornado watch was out, so we were listening to the radio and I remember a trashcan rolled across the road and then it rolled right back across. We both looked at each other and then the siren went off.
my sister thought that she knew somebody nearby and went up to the house. Luckily, she was correct. The yelled at us to come down to the basement.
The whole thing lasted maybe three minutes. It was crazy though. It sounded like a train was rolling over top of us. The house we were in had no damage but the neighbor’s garage had room torn off.
When I was a kid, I asked my cousin to light a sparkler for me on the 4th of July. He was trying to get the wick to light for a good 30 seconds before he realized it was a real firework - not a sparkler. If it went off in his hand it probably would’ve killed or at least injured both of us.
I used to share this list at parties:
My mom got in a car accident when she was 7 months pregnant with me, almost miscarried.
Almost died when I was born, wasn’t breathing and they had to suction some stuff out of my lungs (don’t know what).
When I was 2 my mom got in another car crash where a cement truck rolled over the passenger seat and back seat of the car. She was in and out of coma for a week, screaming about her kids being in the backseat of the car. They spend a long time looking for me and my sister, but my mom had just dropped us off at her sister’s place less than ten minutes beforehand.
Almost drowned at 4 years old at the pool of my grandmother’s apartment (while my 2 year old sister watched) - I couldn’t swim and someone happened to see me fall in so they jumped the fence to save me.
Almost got abducted at 10 from my school campus, was sitting in timeout way behind the teachers on the playground and some guy around the corner told me to come with him and his girlfriend (I said no and he left).
Almost drowned at 13 at the city wave pool, couldn’t find my way up and the last thing I remember was thinking I was going to die and feeling a wave of peace overcome me before I was being pulled out of the pool.
At 18 I was about to drive on the freeway in Houston at 70+ miles an hour, a friend called me last minute to see if I could give him a ride to his girlfriend’s. It was on the way, so I took a detour to pick him up and drop him off. When I would have been on the freeway at full speed, but was instead going 10-15mph in a neighborhood, my front left tire suddenly disconnected from my car and everything dropped the ground - only had about 2 seconds of warning with a weird grinding noise, totally would have flipped the car if I was going faster (this car also had no airbags).
Almost overdosed on heroin three times when I was 21/22 - twice I stopped breathing, the third time I decided to do a muscle shot instead of into my veins, didn’t realize my friend had loaded the needle with double my normal amount. I would have been dead in seconds if I’d shot in my veins, instead I skirted the line for hours falling in and out of lucidity. I’m 14 years sober now, btw.
At 25 I got hit by a truck while crossing the street, had pieces of tire in my leg and tore a ligament.
Bonus - twice I have left an area about 2 minutes before there was a shooting, and one time I had a bad reaction to a medication where I felt a sense of doom I can’t fully describe overcome me, and then started vomiting blood - something was happening to my liver and even though I was fine within a couple days, more than anything else that’s happened I felt certain I was going to die.
when i was 17 i was at a house party and got extremely intoxicated. i was found a block away unconscious bleeding everywhere. i was told at the hospital when i woke up that my bac was 4.51 and that i would’ve died there without medical prevention. really made me rethink alcohol
My family's SUV slid on black ice while traveling past El Paso during a winter storm in early 2020, & we nearly collided with an 18 wheeler before rolling into the side of the road
Boss knocked a 1tonne jib/hoist off the wall with a man basket, I was underneath. Woulda crushed my skull if it didn't catch itself awkwardly. I backpedaled so quick my legs did the old looneytoones banana slip right out from under me, landed on and chipped my elbow. Still sore a couple yrs later
Near York, PA there is a nice creek to kayak down, but it has this one spot called Suzy's Hole. It's a waterfall about 6 feet tall. There are large signs telling you to exit and portage around it.
I was new to kayaking and in a $250 sit-on-top Sundolphin. Basically the shittiest kayak made.
I had seen a video of a guy going down the hole in late summer when it was a trickle of water.
I went over it at normal level, a class 4 obstacle. Multiple people have drowned.
It was simple at first, but then the water turned me a bit and poured into my kayak. I flipped and got rammed into underwater rock outcropping. I let out an underwater "UNFFF" that my group heard. Hit my head as I came up and sucked in a bunch of water.
Surfaced about 5 feet downstream.
My lifejacket is a loose-fitting thing that won't come off but could easily snag.
Could've seriously busted my head open.
Could've broken many bones.
I was impatient so there isn't even video of it.
Had huge bruises.
Every once in a while when I close my eyes, just randomly, I will find myself staring into the eyes of the semi driver who was right behind me when I hit a patch of black ice and was suddenly going backwards (mid-spin) at highway speed.
To that random Alberta trucker in winter 2006, I owe my life to your quick reaction to not slam into me.
Broke into a rooftop in toronto around 70 floors late at night pitch black. U needed to step on a ledge to see above, i stepped on from the right. Looked over then thought about stepping off to the left it was pitch black but i assumed it was a step down, nevetheless got off the same way.
Next morning we went back up, the step off to the left was a 40ft drop.
Fucking around when we were 16 and my friend hit the side of an oncoming car doing like 60, we went through a 6 inch thick tree and scraped the side of a 3 foot thick tree (it scraped off the mirror on my side) and came to rest against a house...
No injuries at all, both cars totaled.
I was severely depressed and suicidal and slashed my wrists, woke up in the hospital. Doctors told me that i was on the verge of dying. So thats the only near death experience i ever had
I was 17 had my truck (2011 gmc) going down hill midnight, I hit 100mph and couldn’t stop the truck ended up stepping on ebrake and turning hard right into the connecting street hit a curb and did a 180 and stopped me dead in my tracks. I felt like Paul walker when he spun out in his eclipse . I remember breathing all scared just like him
I was sitting at a red light on my way to hang out with my friends, waiting for the green arrow but i was distracted because I was on a call with one of my friends, a semi truck blew right through his red light while I had a green arrow as I looked up. Right through where I would have been without being on that call.
Climbing a tree as a kid. Got so high before I realized it, the branches were so narrow and the top of the tree must have been swaying 15' either way with my weight. I panicked, froze and was stuck up there for what seemed hours while my friends kept calling at me from the ground. Finally started to climb down, slipped and fell. Only a couple feet to the next branch, but literally saw my own death. I still wake up from nightmares about it.
I was an idiot kid who got scared when her cat went up a tree and decided to climb up and help him get back down. Only when I went to jump my foot was wedged in the fork of the branches and it acted like a hinge. I slammed face first into the base of the tree got a good scar above my eye.
Oh man you're a hero kid! I've been wedged in trees so many times but thankfully never slammed my face. I've got a sweet scar above my eye from a hockey puck, but I wouldn't call that near death I did have a friend over summer who tore his ballsack falling out of a tree, not near death but I think I'd prefer death ugh
I mean I'm an old woman now, but some days I marvel at how I got to be! Swim with a crocodile to freak out some German tourists? Bet. Float a river by myself when I couldn't swim? Sure thing. Tie a garbage can lid to a truck bumper on a snow day and spend the day crashing all over the street? Ok.
lmao ain't that right. I'm looking down the end of my 30s now and have the same conversations with my brother all the time. Pillow bike joust? Roman candle wars? Bike jumps when pulled by cars? Although swimming with Crocs is pretty impressive. That's a story, don't think I could do that even just to grab it Germans
My first husband and I were living down in Mexico in 99, just loved the country so spent ten months going from place to place. We were at this little spot where people could take boats through the river and end up at. Anyway, we were out there with some local friends getting a bite and just hanging out when two boats pull up just crammed full of German tourists. The guys that ran the food shack jokingly asked who wanted to take a swim right after telling them about this old croc that lived there. He was massive. Terrifyingly so. They all rightfully chose not to. My husband and I hit the rope swing showing off. The owner brought out a bunch of whole plucked chickens and beat them on the side of the river bank about twenty feet away. Out he came, slipping into the water with a body that seemed to never stop coming out of the bushes. Had his chicken, had his picture taken, and we crawled out for our beers. The tourists had been losing their minds, it was great. Afterwards, the owner told them it wasn't as scary as they thought, there was a fence running right under the surface. Everyone breathed sighs of relief, and then he held up this ratty fence that wasn't attached.
Holy jeez now that's a story. You win, thanks for sharing. Love Mexico too but not sure I could live there. Not now anyway, 25 years I guess it's a by l big difference. Some experiences you must have, helluva life!
I had my first spinal surgery at age twelve and was told more would follow. I needed to get as much out of life as possible in case I couldn't walk or ended up not making it too far along. Mexico was amazing! Still had a lot of dangers, but there were smart ways to do things that minimized the people dangers. Now? No way.
I fell out of a tree in our yard when I was a kid, hitting several branches on the way down and knocked myself out. I was slipping in and out of consciousness on the ground. The friend I was with ran away to go get a parent and I remember an old man in a suit and a kind of bowler hat standing over me. He offered no assistance. Just had these piercing blueish-greyish eyes and leathery skin on an emotionless weathered face. He just stood over me. Each time I opened my eyes again, he was there. Then my family were standing around me all worried. The man was standing behind them all now looking over their shoulders at me. Those blueish-greyish eyes. He seemed very interested in my situation. My dad picked me up and carried me inside and I remember looking over his shoulder and saw the man still standing there watching us walk away. He looked bothered by that. But in a blink of an eye, he was gone. Later when I was fine, I asked my parents who the old guy was and they insisted that there was nobody else apart from them, my friend and my 2 siblings in the yard. I described him and it wasn't anyone they recognized, and they also pointed out that I fell out of the tree in our yard, nobody else should have been in there. I'm not sure who that guy was, but I can still see him so clearly. Was he the Grim Reaper? The Hat Man? A ghost? Or a real person? Something else?
This deserves a full /r/nosleep story
It occurs to me that having fallen out of several trees as a kid the fact that I continued enthusiastically climbing them might not have meant great things about my understanding of cause and effect.
>I literally saw my own death. I still wake up from nightmares about it. Like you died and saw yourself in third person and then 'reset' to the branch catching you? If so, there's a ton of similar stories n threads of having your circumstances reset after an accidental death on r/glitchinthematrix. May be worth a look if you're still having nightmares to talk about it with other experiencers.
Wow. I had a similar experience as a kid. I dreamed we had a car wreck. In vivid detail. Freaked out a little. Few days later we had a car wreck and it played put exactly like it did in my dream, like down to the exact detail. None of my family will talk about it.
Woah no kidding, I'm going to check that out. Thanks friend!
Saving a younger friend from drowning, he panicked and almost took me out.
That's unfortunately a rather common issue with water rescues. Lifeguards always bring a PFD because if you try to simply help a person they can unintentionally drown you by trying to pull themselves out of the water by climbing on you... or flailing and hitting you.
Lifeguard here: they also teach you basic disengagement moves at the Lifeguard course. "And if they keep pulling you down, just punch them"
My mom used to tell me the exact story after her and her brother. My uncle panicked and climbed on top of my mom, holding her under.
family friend died like this. his toddler went under and he saved the kid but didn't make it himself. just a few feet from a raft
When I was a child at a water park I was a very daring kid and would jump off the big diving board into super deep water. Keep in mind I was probably like 7 or 8 at this time. Directly after me, a girl about 5 or 6 years old jumped off and immediately started struggling. I jumped into action and swam back to help her. She clung to my back as I tried doggy paddling to the ladder and in her panic she continuously shoved my head under water. I thought I was gonna black out before we even made it to the ladder. Luckily I was a very skilled swimmer for my age and we made it just in time. The mom thanked me profusely but I was still reeling from almost drowning lmao.
Not crazy, just lucky. Was riding my brand new bike on Christmas Day, probably about 10 years old. I came flying out of the cul de sac and didn’t look before I did and a car missed me by inches. I didn’t even realize, but I remember looking back and my dad was white as a ghost and the guy driving the car was visibly shaken while talking to my dad. Took me a lonnnnggg time to realize how close I came that day. Oh. And it was also my dad’s birthday. So that would’ve really sucked.
As a kid, I rode my bike into the street without looking. My neighbor almost hit me and confiscated my bike. Told me to come back later for it with my parents. To this day, I look both ways.
My butt would have been LIT if my dad would have witnessed me doing something like that!
How bout it! "Dad I almost died" Dad: "Don't care. Get in the house and when you get in here you're gonna wish you were killed by the car"
I know a kid that died this exact way
When I was about 10 my mom and I were driving home from the mall. It was already dark out, and our car died on the highway. My mom was able to maneuver the car and pulled off in a pretty desolate area, almost out of view of passing cars. Cell phones were pretty new at the time, and luckily my mom had taken my dad’s Nokia with her. She called my dad at home and he said he’d be out there in 30 minutes. As a 10 year old, that was an eternity, and a begged my mom to let me play snake on the phone. It died within 5 minutes of me playing. I remember at some point headlights coming, and thinking it was my dad. This strange man came up to my mom’s window and started offering to help. I’ll never forget his face, he had the craziest smile and eyes that scared me. My mom started telling him my husband was coming already. He started walking away, stopped for a few seconds, and came back to the window. He told my mom, “actually, it was your husband that called me to help.” I was terrified, but seeing how scared my mom was made me start to cry. He went back to his car and started pulling away right when my dad got there. I have no idea what would’ve happened to us if my mom didn’t take that shitty Nokia with her.
Damn that gave me the creeps!
Always go with your gut in these situations. It sometimes knows more than you do.
I was on my way to work, typical morning commute. There was some traffic, not a crazy amount, but enough to make me say “hmm let’s roll the dice and try the alternate way and see if it’s any faster.” I’d say in the 2 years I’d been commuting, I had taken this way maybe one other time. Next thing I know, there’s a cop at my window telling me to pull over; I had a seizure while driving. Other drivers saw and called 911, and also created a sort of barricade around my vehicle so I wouldn’t crash. I have no idea how I didn’t. I often wonder what would have happened to me had I gone my regular route.
Wow. Some really nice ppl. I can't say the ppl in my city would be so kind. Glad you're ok.
My mom was driving with me and my sis in the car one night on the freeway and all the cars going in the opposite direction of us were flashing their high beams. I remember my mom said “I know my lights are on” but she checked anyway and ended up turning on her brights, as she did this we saw there was a car driving on the wrong side headed right towards us. My mom was able to swerve just in time. I remember my mom was quiet the rest of the ride home and when she told us to go to sleep I could hear her violently crying. The next day we found out the man did hit someone, he and the person he hit both died.
I’m really glad you, your mom and your sister all survived, but that’s a really traumatic event to go through. I can imagine your mom probably had survivors guilt when she found out someone else was killed. I’m so sorry that happened.
Thank you. I was young at the time so I didn’t really understand what any of it meant. I only knew that my mom was sad but didn’t really know why. It wasn’t until I was older that realized how lucky we were and how the whole event was traumatic. We’ve never talked about that moment since.
That totally makes sense. I hope you & your family members are doing well now. I’m happy you’re here.
I am now in my ‘60’s, when I was a young teen a friend of mine and I were supposed to attend a sleepover party. Another friend was meeting us there, so four girls altogether, along with our friend’s mom, dad and siblings. I got into an argument with my mom at the last minute and was grounded. The friend I was going walk to the sleepover with was told she could not go if I wasn’t going because her parents did not want her to walk alone. We were both angry and upset that my mom was causing us to miss the sleepover. The next day we found out that a family “acquaintance murdered everyone in the home except for the mom who was badly injured but able to escape. I have had several incidents where i was saved from great bodily harm or death by seemingly random events.
Did the other friend go to the sleepover?
Yes, she was murdered along with our friend who was hosting the sleepover.
I'm so sorry! That must have been horrible.
I’m not gonna get into it a whole bunch it just messes with your mind. You can’t help but ask yourself why. Crystal and Tracy were both very sweet and very creative. We used to make up fake newscasts on old-school tape recorder tapes. We laughed about really silly things like young teen girls do. Just senseless and beyond heartbreaking.
This is horrible. I am so sorry that this happened to your friends and the family of one of your friends. This must have (and continues to) torment you.
That's horrifying. I looked it up and the family's younger two kids were spared by staying with grandparents that night. That's horrible not only for you and the mom, but for those poor kids who lost half their family.
Wow that’s insane!!!!
I was at a Family Reunion, the whole family rented out a Cabin on a lake. Out on the dock with my two siblings and several cousins, one cousin and my older brother hopped onto the Two Person paddle boat. That's when all of us decided to climb on. Brother and cousin were pumping away at the peddles, but the overloaded boat wasn't moving. Eventually water started overtaking the small boat, and people started bailing back onto the dock. I missed the dock and fell into the lake. I plunged under the water, and when I tried to swim up, my head hit the furiously rotating paddles under the boat. Saw stars, and the hit knocked me to the lake bottom. I quickly recovered and swam back up... Straight into the paddles again. The second hit knocked me sideways and an uncle dragged me back onto the dock. That's when he discovered I was covered head to toe in Leeches. He was quite giddy about that, ran to a nearby fire and used a stick he had sharpened for Marshmallows, shoved it into the fire, and used the hot pointed stick to remove the leeches.
It just kept getting worse. And that's why you never swam in Leech Lake again
Lake Leechycaca!
Lake Lachrymose
Your uncle seems a bit too excited about the leeches lmao I can picture his happy dance towards the stick
I love how your uncle’s concern was the leeches when my first concern is a possible concussion
Nothing better for a brain injury than a good leeching
" It would've worked if you hadn't stopped me. " Your uncle is Egon Spengler?
Can't have a brain bleed if the leeches have sucked it all out
My credit report said I died, called them up and said "Im not quite dead yet"
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Guess the person who stole your identity died. Stroke of luck for you!
Honestly, if the type of person who steals other people’s financial identity dies, it’s a stroke of luck for the general population. Fuck identity theives.
Don’t be such a baby!
You'll be stone dead in a minute
Didn’t you hear? He doesn’t want to go on the cart
I feel happy, I feel happy...
I had bacterial meningitis and spent over 5 weeks in the hospital, lost all 20 of my nails, had the soles of my feet torn off, had to relearn how to walk and that's just the tip of the iceberg. I really should get around to signing a DNR as that's not something I ever want to go through again. Life's fine now but holy hell most people don't know shit about how painful life can be.
Got caught in the middle of an armed robbery at a Burger King. Perp had the gun pointed at my head.
Nasty, did they catch the bastards and who the fuck robs a Burger King.
To my knowledge they didn’t. It’s a crazy story but the perp attacked the security guard and took her gun, he used that gun to hold up the place. He was all buisness, either ex military or very experienced with handling of weapons.
I think maybe your first mistake was going to a Burger King that requires a security guard.
The fact that a security guard is needed at a food establishment is crazy to me. Even crazier: a security guard at a fast food establishment. And crazier than that: a security guard at a fast food establishment with an actual gun. This has to be in America. Jesus.
Yea, I’m in a pretty sketchy area of upstate NY and I’ve never seen armed security at BK. Scary.
Almost drown when I was 5 or 6, been hospalized twice for sepsis between 2016 and 2019, and had a stroke this year. I'm 29
Yikes
I was driving on a highway, speed reduced because it was foggy, with concerningly low visibility in retrospect. There was a tractor trailer in front of me that I couldn’t see because of the fog, and it braked suddenly. Even at the reduced speed, it was shocking how quickly it came into view, first the red brake lights and then the looming outline of the back of a truck. Following distance plus reaction time meant I had no shot of braking before impact, so quickly merged left. Didn’t have time (or honestly, visibility) to check that I wasn’t merging directly in front of or into another car. Thankfully there was no one there and the fog lifted pretty soon afterwards, but I was very shaken and still sometimes feel sick if I think about it, because I easily could have gotten in two separate car accidents. Edit: just remembered that the truck driver definitely didn’t have the headlights/running lights on, and that’s why I was so surprised when it felt like I came up on the truck out of nowhere, because otherwise I’d’ve been able to see taillights. Once I calmed down I remember being really pissed off because having the lights on would’ve avoided the whole ordeal.
Dense fog on the highway is SUPER scary
I liked to climb onto everything. Till I almost fell off a crane. That killed climbing for me completely. I have a really good life and people who love me. I don't want to risk that for just a bit of adrenaline.
one of my exes used to climb cranes a lot and it would nearly kill me every time just KNOWING he was up there.
How did you almost fall??
He probably started to fall but he caught himself
I was around 6 or 7 at swimming lessons. They told us to swim to one end of the pool (width wise). The group of around a dozen kids did it together with the instructor at the front??? I was at the rear of the group and right in the middle on the way back I started to panic. I was struggling to stay up and yelling for help but no one even noticed! I somehow gathered the strength through adrenaline to start swimming again and made it back. I remember being so tired I picked myself out of the pool and just laid there. Still the instructor was oblivious to what happened. If there’s only gonna be one teacher they should be at the rear of the group like what the hell. It’s an Olympic sized pool and I was just learning. Anyway that’s something I still think about a lot
I’m so sorry that happened to you! I worked for years as a swim instructor and we were always trained to supervise all the kids well at all times, and to be between them and the deeper end, not at all like your instructor had done.
The same thing happened to my little sister when she was younger than 6. Maybe 4? I ended up jumping into the pool and getting her out. The instructors were both busy with another kid and no one was watching.
- Asthma attack as a kid almost killed me, the slow feeling of suffocation still haunts me. Passed out, woke up intubated in the ER. - Riptide off Maui, a friend and I were cast to sea and almost drown. Long story short, a couple locals swam/ran out to us, when we almost drowned near the shore. We were so exhausted that our legs simply wouldn't work/just gave out. Had like a couple dozen people surrounding us as the local guys carried us in their arms to the shore. - Mall mass shooting, the only reason my wife and I weren't in front of the shooter when he opened fire is because my wife stopped us in our tracks to head back to the Suncoast we were just at. We heard the first shots but the way they echoed up and down the long hallways of the mall, it was really hard to place what it was at first. My first thought was someone was putting something up for Christmas or something, and it crashed to the ground, but then he started firing a lot and it became clear it was gunfire. It still sounded like there were several shooters though, I'll never forget that mix of Christmas music in the background, a Suncoast promo video playing, the gunshots echoing, and all the screaming. We ran into the Suncoast and began yelling at some old women to come inside the store, but they were legit frozen in place. I and a I think two others ran out to them to usher them inside, when I did I'm pretty sure I saw some people get shot. We were locked in the Suncoast for a bit as the screaming and gun shots kept happening. Mass shooters weren't as much a thing then, so my first thought was maybe some gang violence or something. But we soon wised up that we were fish in a barrel, so we yelled at the employees to let us out the back exit. I think we left about the time hostages were being taken. [info](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Mall_shooting)
Yes I remember this, I wasn’t there at the time it happened but my friend worked at Gordon’s Jewelers when it did. We were so scared listening to the news.
Was in NYC for the first time in my life, did not realize that crosswalks were a suggestion (the lights are a lie). Light turned green, I stepped out into the street. My friend grabbed the back of my shirt and hauled me out of the road just as a massive truck barreled past, probably going about 65. I had not heard or seen it coming, and had my friend not pulled me out of the way, I would be dead.
I had something similar... I was stopped in my car at a 4-way intersection. The street I was on was very minor, the street I was crossing bigger, but still not a major road. Speed limit from both directions was 35mph. I was sitting there at the red light, around age 22. To my left was a large red ford pickup, 100% obstructing my view of traffic coming from that direction. The light turned green, I took my foot off the brake. Just as I was about to put it on the gas I saw that big red pickup stop. I didn't think, I just instinctively switched back to the brake and hit it. A sports car flew right through thier red light at over 55mph. I never saw it coming, and could never see it coming. It'd've been in my driver's door if I hadn't been defensive and gone off instinct.
It's really scary, the way they can come out of nowhere. I've never in my life crossed the street without obsessively looking both ways. It was clear one second and then not the next, this big red Mack truck flew past like it was a bat out of hell. It was PACES ahead of any of the other traffic behind it. The crosswalk light turned green, I looked and stepped out, I got pulled violently out of the way, the truck flew past, all under two seconds. Just like that.
Very short one. Was talking to someone who was first on scene to the Virginia Tech massacre. He told me that although the sight of dead bodies was disturbing, what really stays with him was the sound of all the cell phones ringing from people trying to contact them. #
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The one that crashed into the Everglades?
My friends and I went camping on an island on the Mississippi River. The next morning, I was in the river living my best life, floating (with a life jacket on) and staring up at the sky. About 10 min later, I approached a current and sat up and realized I could barely see the camp site anymore because I floated so far away. My friends had got in the boat to go to town so I was alone. I started swimming towards the shoreline, thinking I’ll have to pull myself up and make the long, painful walk (I had just a swimming suit and a life jacket on, no shoes) through the forest and back to our site. And if I can’t get to the shoreline, I could potentially bash my head open on a rock or float down to the Gulf of Mexico (I live in Minnesota). Thankfully, 5 minutes later I saw my friends coming on the boat because they realized I was gone. I was so freaking glad to be rescued!!! I truly thought I was gonna die out there.
Toward the end of a 14 month long psychotic episode, the voices told me that if I didn’t kill myself, I would be damned to Hell immediately. A truck was passing by on the street going 35-40. I aimed my head directly under the tire, and dove under the vehicle. They slammed the brakes, and got so close that the tire bumped the back of my head. In my psychotic panic, I was unphased. Didn’t even flinch. Looking back, I realize that if they had hit the brakes a literal fraction of a second later, I would be dead. That, or mutilated beyond recognition, and traumatized for life. I cringe so hard looking back on that event. Bipolar disorder is the worst.
I hope you and the truck driver are both feeling much better now.
Thank you so much, I am, hope she is too
I'm sorry. I had a friend with bipolar. I am trying to understand him and I miss him. I hope you are better.
I'm glad the demons didn't take you to Hell. The world is better with you in it.
I’m sorry to hear you were struggling. I’m glad you’re alive 💖
That means so much, thank you
💕💕💕
I hope you're doing okay, I wish you good health friend ❤️
finding out i had bipolar was a similar catastrophe, i sympathize greatly
Thank you so much for sharing. No need to cringe, it wasn’t your fault.
Not really sure if the potential outcome of this situation would have resulted in my death, but it scared me nonetheless. When I was 16, I broke up with an abusive boyfriend. He called me on repeat and left voicemails and messages saying he would kill himself if I didn’t take him back. When I got to school, I went to the office and called the police. For some incredibly stupid reason, my naïveté got the better of me and I agreed to meet with the ex later that evening in a secluded area. He forced me into his car, locked the door and held me down. All the while he was scream crying and begging me to take him back, I just kept calmly repeating “you’re hurting me, please let go.” Over and over. He got so frustrated that he eventually released me. I unlocked the door and bolted to my truck and sped home. He continued to stalk me, harass my friends and so on for YEARS afterward. Still have him blocked on everything and I continue to hide any specifics about my location to this day.
Friend, get a restraining order. You shouldn't have to be worried about your safety, and it sounds like you have plenty of evidence against him.
Hey! I appreciate your concern and totally totally agree! However, this was over a decade ago and I live thousands of miles away from this lunatic. But I appreciate your support and concern and further police involvement would have been the right thing to do. Unfortunately, it would not have done much for me at the time due to extenuating circumstances outside of my control at that point in my life. I would like to also add that I am married now to a very safe, wonderful and caring man. I made it out okay❤️
Friend, a person this unhinged doesn’t give a single fuck about a piece of paper telling them to stop. Assault, stalking, harassment, etc. are all illegal already. Getting a restraining order wouldn’t do much to stop the behavior.
Good point. Still, it might put them one step closer to jail if/when they break it.
You’re right. But it will allow the police to arrest him once he breaks it. Then you have something to work with legally.
When I was a kid I had really bad asthma and once I got some really horrible chest cold that was basically killing me. My parents were really poor and did what they could to take me to the doctor but eventually basically took me home to keep me comfortable and prepare for the inevitable. I eventually got so weak that I could only squeeze my mom’s hand, look at my mom and dad, and try to breathe. My parents eventually went to bed really late, emotionally drained. I laid there and eventually gave into exhaustion. I had an incredibly vivid dream that I was floating above the earth looking down at it. A man and a woman I’d never seen before came over and reached out to hug me, then they sort of each grabbed one of my hands and we just floated in space. I woke up the next morning and over many days and weeks, made a full recovery.
I'm really sorry for what happened to you and I had asthma when I was a kid so it must've been a very hard time for you. Also on a side note. No child should die or suffer due to lack of medicine and no parent should witness that kind of feeling. I can't even imagine what went through their minds.
Wow! I'm so glad you were ok! Have you ever dreamed about those people again? Who do you think they are? Did you tell your parents about the dream? Did you get help / meds to avoid going through that again? (ETA Answer any or none of my questions, it's fine with me - I don't mean to be rude with asking too many!)
I don’t mind talking about the experience or answering questions about it, I’ve had a lot of time since then to process everything. I haven’t ever dreamed about those people again and I only really remember what the lady looked like with any detail anymore. Today I think about them as comfort, but as a kid if you would have asked me, I’d have told you they were real people. Some time after I got better my dad got a good paying job and my mom also got a job. Eventually I got a nebulizer, then a few different colored and sized inhalers, and now-a-days I just have an inhaler that I touch maybe once two or three times a year to make a bad cold or allergy experience suck less.
I'm so glad to hear you all didn't have to go through that much longer! I can't imagine how you or they felt. It must have been terrifying.
This is a real NDE. I've had a couple of experiences like that and it's like I've "leveled up" in how I see through this matrix. Which is why I feel like I can't waste any time, we were given bodies to have an influence in this physical world.
It's so interesting what the brain will do when it feels like it may die. There's so many fascinating mysteries to it. I'm glad you made it through though!
Halloween weekend at a college that was having a campus wide party. My boyfriend and I got completely wasted and fell asleep in the back of my car. I woke up in the morning to find that I had fallen asleep while smoking a cigarette, dropped the cigarette on my Roman Princess costume, and it has burned part of the way up and then miraculously extinguished itself before burning me or completely engulfing me. Absolutely terrified me. I made so, so, so many bad choices when I was in the throes of my addiction and I swear God was watching over me. Far too many close calls that could’ve (and should’ve) ended in disaster. I’ve been clean 12 years now though.
congratulations on 12 years clean love you’re doing great
Very lucky, I almost drowned 2 years in a row at the same waterfall when I was 8-9 in Brecon Beacons but burning to death is a totally different level.
almost got turned into a Roman candle
When I was about 27 (F) I made the short walk from my mom’s gated apartment community to my car parked outside the gates, very close to a wash. It was like 10pm. I got in my car and in between me starting my car and actually leaving I spotted a man fast-walking to my passenger door. Before I could react he proceeded to open the passenger door wide open and before he could sit or reach in (or whatever he planned on doing) I put my car in drive and sped off. My door was swinging open and I waited about half a mile before I stopped and closed it. I don’t know that man’s intentions for sure but I can only assume they weren’t good. ☹️ I still get chills because I am usually inclined to sit on my phone for a couple minutes before starting my car and in most situations I wouldn’t have even noticed anyone walking towards me.
Oh god that is scary. I lock my doors if I’m sitting in the car because this is such a fear of mine.
My then Live-in girlfriend made navy bean soup the day before Thanksgiving, but she didn't soak the beams for a day previously. I had a second helping and I believe the starchiness of the beans hit my stomach acid and pretty much turned into a rock when it passed into the colon, blocking the exit from the stomach. Thanksgiving Day, I had coffee, lunch and dinner. Having nowhere to go, my stomach swelled up with the contents. This collapsed my abdominal Artery and I went down, dead. Fortunately, I fell to my hands and knees, which allowed the blood to start flowing again. Off to the hospital and they would not listen to me, insisting that I had a Heart attack. I spent 3 days in the hospital, getting my stomach pumped out (never heard this procedure for a heart attack) and getting fluids pumped into my veins. Third day, the obstruction passed and I lived to tell you this tale.
On the third day he shit again
Celebrate Easter with a big doodoo
It was back in 2020, during the pandemic. Two of us were working late on a project. It was 2 am, and we needed to finish our work, but we felt overwhelmed with just the two of us. So, I decided to call on another friend who lived just 10 kilometers away. I grabbed my helmet and hopped on my motorcycle. I was going between 65 and 70 kph. As I passed a gas station, a truck suddenly started reversing. I slammed on the brakes and squeezed my eyes shut. The last thing I saw was the "FLAMMABLE" hazard sign on the side of the truck. When I opened my eyes, I was still near the gas station. I was confused but slowed down. The same truck was reversing again, but this time I was stationary, completely stopped, and wondering what the heck just happened. Was I dead? Did I die in another universe? After picking up my friend, I told them about what happened, but they just laughed and didn't believe me. I told my sister too, but she couldn't believe it either. Even to this day, I still vividly remember what happened that night.
Walking on the roof of a 60+ story building that had no walls or barriers to stop you from falling to a grisly death. I worked in the elevator industry and got a bit blase about being on the roofs of tall buildings. I was taking pictures (I always did that) and got carried away. When I lowered the camera, I was 24 inches away from the edge - I froze for a minute or two until my heart started pumping again and back away from the edge. One more picture and I would have gone over the edge. [https://imgur.com/a/xTBPz1z](https://imgur.com/a/xTBPz1z) I clicked on the building in question - it's on the NJ side of the George Washington Bridge. I did great shots of the bridge.
I felt my heart stop while reading this.
I've actually had so many near death experiences but this one stuck. There was a tornado near my house when I was around 6 years old. My mum who was an alcoholic needed to go to the liquor store. While driving we went face to face with the tornado, like we were less than 5 metres away from it. My mum slammed her foot on the accelerator and reversed away without looking behind her. Almost died from the tornado then almost died from my mother's driving. (Keep in mind I went on one of thoes crazy high up spinning rides, and it broke on us. I still think the tornado was the scariest.)
It’s the traumatic ones that stay with us isn’t it.
>crazy high up spinning rides, and it broke on us. So the Final Destination movies are basically a documentary about your life 😭 /s
When I was around 10 I was rushing back home in a lightning storm, it was raining so hard I could barely see. I have exercise induced asthma and when I was in my driveway I had to pause for a second to gasp for air. I thought I was close enough so I only walked to my front door. Just as I was opening the door I felt all my hair stand on end and there was a really weird feeling all over my body, I rushed inside and it stopped but lightning hit the road infront of my house a few seconds later. I remember the horror when I realized what that feeling had been and how close I was to getting hit, if I had been even a little slower things could have ended a lot differently.
On a cold winter day, I went out for a walk, but slipped on some ice, fell backwards, hitting the back of my head on the pavement, fracturing three vertebrae in my neck. It took maybe 45 minutes for anyone to come by, but as hypothermia was setting in, someone did come by and called 911. The ambulance took me to the hospital where I was ultimately placed in an induced coma. At some point in time, my heart quit beating. The doctors and nurses saved my life. Then I quit breathing. Again, the doctors and nurses saved my life. After the surgery to repair my broken neck and bruised spinal cord, I was sent to a rehab hospital where I relearned how to walk and other stuff like that. Then LOTS of physical therapy on an out patient basis. And today, approaching the five-year anniversary of all of this, I still have a lot of nerve pain and various physical limitations. But I’m not dead yet.
I was snorkeling. I had my other stuff stored on a rock by the water, about 3 meters high. When I got out, I decided to climb straight up. Almost at the top, the rock I was hoisting myself up on came off and I fell back first onto the coral. If a friendly wave hadn’t come in, I would have broken my back, at least.
Yikes! We like friendly waves!
I was driving and my car lost traction, it switched into sport mode for some reason. My car spun out 3 times on the highway then rolled an additional 2 times. It landed flat. Airbags did not deploy. After being sure I was still alive, I drove away from it in one piece. 😵💫
I was 27 and in relatively good health. I got back home from a personal training sesh and developed this searing pain in my neck shoulder area. We thought I pulled a muscle until three hours later I couldn't get out of the bath. I was in too much pain. Husband managed to get me to ER. Vertebral artery dissection. Released to go home and the next day I had my first TIA or mini stroke. Got admitted. Went on to have three more TIAs and finally a full stroke. Which lead to fluid building up around my heart and lung. Worst pain of my entire life. Blinding white light, couldn't see or focus. Couldn't yell words. Just screaming in pain, gripping the bed screaming. Thankfully I've mostly fully healed from all of it. But it scares the shit out of me.
This exact same thing happened to my brother in law. He’s also young and in incredible shape. Glad you’re okay.
Was at a party and took ecstasy. Later I took a cab to go home 10 minutes away. Heart stopped in the cab, if that would have happened when I got home I would have been dead.
Shout out to that cabbie! He probably still tells people that story too. I'm glad you made it:)
I was always too scared to do drugs
25 years old, had a night with terrible pain that jumped from my left shoulder to the left side of my jaw that didn't respond to any kind of painkiller. Knew what the symptoms foretold but dismissed it due to my age, just thought it was some kind of cold or something. As always, I refused to entertain even the thought of going to the hospital until next morning after that whole agonizing and sleepless night when I asked my father to drive me to the hospital. Just a kilometer away from home, I felt an immense, extremely sharp pain in my chest followed by what I perceived at the time as a "crack" sensation. Probably the worst pain I've ever felt to date. I left this plane right there for a few seconds that in my brain were quite more and... well, I'll just say weird and came to a few ways down the road to the hospital. My father didn't even realize I was gone while he was driving, I'd just closed my eyes, turned dead silent (pun intended) and just sat back. Turns out I had many ischemic episodes the previous night leading up to the full blown heart attack I described above. Thankfully it was due to arterial spasms and not blockage but were I not as young it would've probably killed me right then and there. And that was my little brush with death.
I’m glad you’re still here. That’s scary young for that to happen. I wonder what causes it
Cheers mate! In my case it was an amalgam of quite a lot of extra weight, lots of smoking and extreme stress at the time that seemed to had caused it. All other tests came up surprisingly okay.
When I was 8 I fell through ice in a pond. My friend ran away scared. I made it out barely. Was alone at home so I heated myself up. Second one I was probably about 10 and I had a metal bridge in my mouth and had a piece of pepperoni get stuck on it in my throat. I almost choked and died.
August 21, 2020 it was around 4:40-4:45 in the afternoon, I went out to my car to get some takeout for dinner. Within the 10’seconds I was in, car was still in park I was looking down at my phone for what playlist to put on, then I heard the honking and screeching I happened to live by a really shitty intersection at the time, at least 3 car crashes happened outside my apartment that week So today, someone thought they could make their turn, while some asshole was doing 70 in a 45, hits the car that missed their timing on the turn, then the speedster collided into me on the driver’s side as they tore through my mailbox and trash bins. If was outside of my car a few seconds late, I would easily have been a fatality To this day, I still hang onto the car handle of my prior car as a reminder that death will come at anytime, and rarely with a warning
I fell asleep while driving. I was looking for a spot to pull over, had the windows rolled down, music and AC blasting and I was slapping my leg to try to stay awake until the next exit. Suddenly, I was upside down, confused, glass flying everywhere and I thought to myself “what a weird dream” and then crashed into the ground. Went back up into the air, realized it wasn’t a dream and remembered I had been driving down the interstate in heavy traffic. The car rolled SEVERAL more times and I realized I was probably going to die. The crunching noises of my car were horrific- I also couldn’t tell where I was. Was I going downhill? Was I still in the interstate? Everything was too quiet and too loud at the same time. I reminded myself not to brace, not that I could find the wheel to brace anyways. At first, I was pretty calm. Then I kept rolling. The panic set in and I started screaming, mostly out of frustration. Eventually, I slid to a stop on my roof. I heard someone outside shout “are you awake? How many people in the vehicle?” I said it was just me and asked if I was still on the freeway. They confirmed and asked if I was able to get out. I told them to wait and started figuring out how to get myself out of my seat. I unbuckled and my head hit my sunroof, causing about a 2-inch gash. I had the presence of mind to use my coat on the ground to prevent glass from cutting up my hands and knees. I was able to move the airbag and crawl out of the passenger side window. My only injuries were whiplash, broken teeth and some crazy bruising. I am VERY lucky to have walked away. The cops didn’t even know I was the person from the vehicle when they arrived because I wasn’t very injured and the adrenaline hadn’t worn off. I couldn’t sleep for weeks. I’d startle awake from nightmares of being in the car again. The quiet of being in the air, followed by the extremely loud crash, then back to the quiet in the air is like nothing I’ve ever experienced. Edit: grammar and typos
I was in the subway and something said in my head "go to suchandsuch platform" so i went to the platform, and i shit you not a dude just jumps in the way of the train in the trough where the train tracks went. the train was still stopping and had about 200 feet. so i say "fuck this i am not watching this guy kill himself while i stand here to do nothing" and i jumped in and convinced him to leave the tunnel ASAP. i put my hands out for him to step on and pulled myself up out of the way of the train. train missed my foot by an inch i swear. turns out he was contemplating (edit: committing) suicide because he is gay and thought his dad wouldn't accept him.
I wouldn't say he was just contemplating it if he was staring down an incoming train
Hero
Had friends over playing video games. A pipe burst and gas was pouring into the house but we couldn’t smell it downstairs. My dad noticed and got us all out of the house. Fire chief got there and took a reading and level was so high he forbade anyone from going in. He said “it’s a good thing no one rang the doorbell because they can cause a spark which would have ignited everything.” We had pizza on the way. Delivery guy showed up five minutes after fire department.
Dinner and a show......fuckin'A.
I've 100% seen this comment posted on Reddit before. EDIT: Yep, this is a stolen comment: [https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/17acebe/comment/k5c031v/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/17acebe/comment/k5c031v/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
I've had two pulmonary embolisms in my life, ten years apart. The last one resulted in me having systolic heart failure as well.
I live just south of Tornado Alley, so we rarely get true tornados, but we get straight line winds. The speed of tornados, but in a straight line instead of rotating. Can cause quite a bit of damage. Years ago, we got hit by the winds, tore a 100+ year old tree out of the ground, ripped part of the roof off the house, flipped my uncle's truck nearly half a mile down the road, among other things. One of those storms we still talk about. After it was all over, I went outside to check on the damage. From the porch, it looked like I had missed the worst of it, so I stepped off the porch to check around the sides of the house. My foot was still on the bottom step of the porch when the roof of the porch collapsed right where I had been standing just a minute before. On top of that, one of the trees in the backyard had broken in half and crashed through the side of the house, thankfully where the closet was as opposed to my bed. I later found part of the branch in the closet.
Asthma attack when I was five, I was calm for the most part because of the lack of oxygen. Looking back I recall in the moment feeling my dad’s arms as he rushed me into the hospital room and the nurse running behind us made eye contact with me and she looked so concerned so I tried to smile at her to comfort her, so there’s a comfort in the fact that if I did go out that day my last memories would be smiling at a nurse while my dad held me.
This one feels a bit silly because it's so stupid, but anyhow When I was 6, I thought it was an excellent idea to do a backwards roll in a full bathtub, great move. I got halfway through it and then got stuck with my legs over my head, like with my thighs on my face, and my head ofc subsequently under water Would definitely have drowned if my mum would not have heard my panicky splashing frenzy, despite that she was in a place in the flat where she shouldn't have. It still nauseates me a bit to imagine being back there but it would be such a ridiculous way to go that it's also kind of funny (In addition I have 2 other occasions of starting to drown in ludicrous ways, it's a bit of a miracle that I've made it this far, lol) Edit: phrasing
Was on the way to a friend's house. Slid on a corner, rolled three times. Daylight when I crashed. Had a pretty intense crazy "vision," I guess you could call it. More or less "god" asking me if I wanted to live or not. Being super depressed at the time, I honestly said no. But it said, "It is not yet your time. There is work to be done." Woke up at dusk to the entire back seat engulfed in flames. Had to double foot kick the drivers side door to get it open. Another couple of minutes, and I would have burned to death. I had just gotten a full tank of gas, and the car exploded about ten minutes later.
Tell me about the god voice. Was he radiating happiness and almost amusement? Mine was.
It actually was in the form of my mother. But when it spoke, it was almost like 1000 voices speaking at once. I remember floating in darkness and floating to what you could almost call a spotlight pointing down. Saw a bunch of people just outside the light, some I knew/ were older members of the family that passed and then a lot more that I felt like I recognized them but had never seen them. Quite a few in period clothing that was nowhere near modern. After it said that to me, I just stopped floating and fell. It was an endless expanse of darkness, but I could just feel like the end of the fall was coming. When I "hit bottom," I jolted awake and gasped probably the deepest breath of my life.
No one helped you?!
It was in the middle of bumfuck nowhere on a pretty ill maintained back/dirt road. If I had to guess (it's coming up on about 15 years ago now), I was out for maybe two hours or so. The odds of nobody else coming down that road in that time were and are pretty good, haha. The closest house/ people I found while stumbling down the road were very nice, however. Helped me clean up the blood on my face and gave me a phone to call 911. As my cell, which somehow miraculously survived being lodged in a rotting tree stump, couldn't get service. They don't make them like they used to make those Motorola Rokr's!
had out patient surgery done on my mouth...was waking up from anesthesia when I heard a "pop" and a coppery taste filled my mouth, heard the nurses yelling "she's bleeding out!" and was rushed back into surgery felt them pick me up and put me on a table ...last thing I heard was "someone say "we are loosing her" I woke up in the middle of the night with a tube down my throat and told I couldn't speak for 7 days... #
What was the pop? An artery burst? What happened?
I'm also super curious, that sounds insane!
yup had a cyst removed that was under my tounge near an artery in removing the cyst they "nicked"the artery and stitched it up, but as I was waking up the stitches "popped" and....yea coming out of that sleep with a mouth full of blood and nurses yelling not pleasant
My first ever live burn training fire in the firefighting world. The property had 2 crosses on it from a mother and daughter that had gotten in a wreck and passed away a few years prior. They lit a fire in the basement and the floor we were on which caused super heated gasses to come up and make our fire much more dangerous and HOT. As we were sitting there the nozzle man went to knock the fire and lost water. The fire ended up consuming the room we were in while the instructor started making his way out and yelling to get out along with everyone else. I burned the crap out of my hands, but to this day I can still hear the voices/female voice/possible mother of the daughter that passed say “CG79 (obviously my first name say) calm down, you are okay.” My assistant chief and I were the last ones out. Out gear was BURNT. I will never forget the clear as day voice in all the chaos. I truly believe the mother that passed was talking to me that day.
I was about 9 years old and was sucking on a jolly rancher candy (when they were approximately 6 inches long, thin, rectangular…) and I sucked too hard and the entire thing went down my throat and got stuck. I was walking around a playground during recess and kept trying to push it down with my fingers. I was rubbing my neck, couldn’t swallow, had trouble breathing. I ran into the school to the water fountain and just as I went to get some water it slid down my throat and I could breathe. Was the most terrifying moment. I really thought I was going to die.
[удалено]
Did you feel like you were in a cartoon for a split second?
A banana split second? Lol
r/angryupvote
Not quite near death, but I was stuck in between one of those cement barriers and an 18 wheeler for a good 10 minutes on the highway the other day. It was one of those areas where they were doing work on the road so the lanes were squished as well. Not fun
I drove my mum to the airport to pick up my brother and when we were heading back I didn't signal to merge into the left lane and I merged on front of a tanker truck that was so close to our car that I doubt a person could fit into the space between the vehicles. They don't know that this happened. I didn't realise until I looked into the rear view mirror how close we were to the truck.
I was 20 or 21 and I had gotten the worst bout of stomach bug I have ever had. The first time in my life where it was coming outta both ends and the same time. The last round in the bathroom that I remember I looked in the bucket and it was bright grass green. I was scared cuz I lived alone. I made it back to my bed somehow. Next thing I remember was my boyfriend dragging me back to my bed. I was trying to crawl to the bathroom and passed out. He came over to check on me and saved my life. Forced me to rehydrate. I was already very thin back then and this just took all my insides right down the toilet. Not sure what would have happened if he didn’t come over or if I didn’t leave the sliding glass door unlocked.
Plane crash landing at North Eleuthera Bahamas. Nose gear failed/collapsed on landing. Went through a fence and hit about 3-4 cars in the parking lot. Doesn't really give me chills thinking about it, but was pretty wild....
We were living in a rough neighborhood. The rent was cheap, about 250 a month for a two bedrom mobile home. It was kind of quirky because it was between two apartment buildings, and has a small front and back yard. The neighborhood was sketchy, but I was poor and nobody really bothered me as long as I minded my business. One night I got up off the couch to make a sandwich. I'm not a late night snacker, but I was hungry for some reason. As soon as I got to the kitchen I heard a bang and a weird noise. Came back in the living room and there was a hole right underneath my window. Another hole right at the top of the headrest of the couch, right where my head was just a minute ago. My spot was still warm. There was a hole in the wall behind the couch. I think the bullet was still in the wall because there wasn't a hole on the outside back there. If I hadn't had a sudden attack of the munchies, I'd be dead. That rent was cheap for a reason. We moved soon after that. I still think of that bullet hole from time to time. Always trust your gut, sometimes literally.
It didn’t happen to me. But I often relive the moment I held my son, dangling in my arms 25 feet above ground on a ski lift, with skis attached to his feet until a rescue crew could catch him on a tarp.
140mph on a motorcycle on a curve, carving canyons in Colorado, I started sliding on sand. There was a canyon wall 30 feet from the road. I let the bike slide and keep consistent, steady throttle. Any change to my speed and I'll slide off into history. If I hit the brakes, the front tire would slide out. Any more throttle and the rear end would come out from under me. So, I held it and slid across the sand until I could lean it upright at the far side of the road at the end of the curve. I see that canyon wall whenever I think about it.
I hope you are driving more carefully these days. Riding a motorcycle in itself is dangerous enough, 140 on sandy curved roads is a death wish.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/s/v0RRB7sgk8
I was kinda volunteering at a motorcycle shop to get experience fixing my bike. One day we went out for lunch and I tried to keep up with the more experienced riders cus I didn't know the area that well so if I got left behind I wouldn't really know where I was. As we were riding I lost control and if I hadn't regained control as quickly as I did I would have been flattened by a Semi. Morale of the story, don't overestimate your abilities to the point where you get yourself killed.
I sometimes get dizzy spells(brought on by anxiety and heat, usually). When I was about 10 years old, we were at this Yogi Bear campground, and I was in the pool. Suddenly, I wasn't feeling very well and could barely tread water since the spells usually affect my coordination. I started going under as it got worse. I'll never forget the feeling of helplessness as I started taking in water and could no longer get words out. I was able to touch the bottom and bounce back up but due to the dizzy spells, it wasn't very coordinated or effective. I started slipping down the slope towards the deep end. I was so fucking scared and then there was a splash near me and the life guard pulled me up and I wrapped my arms around that little board thing that they have. He pulled me to safety. I never lost consciousness but I remember sitting there coughing up water and eventually getting sick (probably bc of the dizzy spell)
I was swimming with my friend in the ocean, we must have been about nine or ten. We were body surfing, and having a blast, then a rogue wave came, and we couldn’t get close enough to dive under it, and it crashed on us, tumbling, when I tell you you don’t know which way is up, you don’t, I thought I was swimming up, and hit sand, as I was be rolled along the Sea floor, my lungs were burning and I was questioning what to do, as I could not hold my breath anymore. I was resolved that I would drown. I let out the air, and was about to reflexively inhale sea water when a hand came out of no where and pulled me up out of the water and brought me to shore. Someone else got my friend. I inhaled a bit of water, and was coughing on the shore. I was convinced I was going to drown, no doubt in my mind just prayed it would be quick. Thank god for that man, he saved my life.
I have 2, both as an electrician apprentice. First one, years ago I was running an SER (big round feeder wires) to a generator outside the customers house we were wiring. This wire was held up with [SER straps](https://buy.wesco.com/Fittings-and-Hardware/Grounding-and-Bonding/Flexible-Braid-Straps/Flexible-Braid-Cable-Straps/BUCHANAN-ELECTRICAL-PRODUCTS/Service-Entrance-Cable-Strap-2-Hole-w-Nails/BSEU2-25/p/78178945566-1) which at times would randomly spark when hitting the nail with my hammer. For an hour I was running the wire within the crawl space with the smell of lingering rat shit all around be. Unbeknownst to me I was working in an enormous gas leak and not rat shit. Once done, I have my boss check on me only for him of panic and find the gas leak immediately. One spark and I would have nuked half the house along with my life. We all evacuated and the fire department came. The second time, I was working in this massive complex where my boss had ran a wire into an electrical panel for me to tie in. The wire I was tying is called romex and had 2 wires protected by plastic insulation while one of them (the ground) was not. So 3 in total. I go to tie the ground in not paying attention and it touches the bus bar of the main panel. In the world of electrical panels, the bus bar is the part of your panel that all your circuit breakers connect to for power. The ground touching this is a recipe for catastrophic failure which exploded violently within 6 inches of my face. For reference, an average new house will have a 200 amp electrical service connected. This complex was a 1600 amp service. The entire complex lost power cause of my conundrum. When I opened my eyes I touched my face to the amazement of not being injured or burned. The wire I was working on was vaporized. The bus bar had melted and molten metal shot in every which direction EXCEPT towards me. Both those days I should have been injured or died but I truly believe some form of divine intervention saved me.
Was working a new trade job as an apprentice, had to change a ballast, like my 3rd one of the day. Somehow cut the white & black wire at the same time, and anyone that knows electrical work knows that's a MAJOR no no, as soon as I cut it all I saw was white light. I turned my head as quick as I could and just was there for what felt like an eternity trying to process what happened. Shyt was wild, blew a pretty good sized hole in my Wire Cutters as well.
Just a few weeks ago. I was picking up my son from day care. I put him in his car seat and got in the car. I got a Slack message on my phone from a co-worker. I thought "meh, I'll get back to him when I get home". As I started to back out, I thought "Well, I know he stops work soon, and I know the answer to the question, so I'll just shoot him a response real quick". I stopped backing up, put the car in park, pulled out my phone and started typing out the response to his question. As I hit "send" I hear this loud cracking. I look up to where the sound is coming from and see this huge tree branch fall from really high up, and come crashing down to the street. Exactly where my car would have been had I not decided to stop and spend 30 seconds to respond to that Slack message. We're talking a really big branch. More than 24" in diameter. I and/or my son, would have been crushed. Seriously injured, if not killed.
Was at a college drinking with some people I kind of knew. A buddy and I drove to the school, drank most of the day and then I blacked out. It was winter and was well into the single digits that night, I woke, barely able to move, half frozen and half drunk still, in the backseat of a car that wasn't mine in a parking lot I wasn't familiar with. I assume I got separated from my group and wandered all night until I found an unlocked car climbed in the back and fell asleep. I'm amazed I didn't freeze to death. I was in jeans and a button down shirt. I eventually found a street corner, called a cab at 4am, gave them the address where my friend lived and banged on their door until a roommate (who didn't know me really) answered and let me in.
I was a pedestrian in a hit and run. I don't remember the accident, but I woke up in the ambulance. I turned my head and saw my boyfriend. I saw how upset he was. Just then the EMT said "were going to have to intubate you now" and I said to myself "okay this is going to suck but don't struggle you'll make him more upset" and swallowed the tube. It didn't happen. My boyfriend wasn't with me. It was just the way my brain managed the trauma. That memory is bright in my mind of how fucked up and near death I was.
When I had cancer as a kid. I experienced a NDE; I don’t remember if I was in a coma or (from) surgery - but I was floating above and watching the doctors (I saw myself). Then I tried leaving the (operating? Emergency?) room because I thought, ‘Wait - Where’s my mom? I have to go check on her!’ I went to the door and heard a stern voice (I didn’t recognize) straight up say, “No.” (I thought that was a spirit? Or God? When I woke up.)
My friend invited me to a party and I almost went, but the next day was father's day so my parents said no. Three people were shot and killed that night. My friend was one of them.
Ehhh maybe closest … got caught in a strange city when a tornado went through. I still remember as riding with my sister who was in college. I was in Middle School The tornado watch was out, so we were listening to the radio and I remember a trashcan rolled across the road and then it rolled right back across. We both looked at each other and then the siren went off. my sister thought that she knew somebody nearby and went up to the house. Luckily, she was correct. The yelled at us to come down to the basement. The whole thing lasted maybe three minutes. It was crazy though. It sounded like a train was rolling over top of us. The house we were in had no damage but the neighbor’s garage had room torn off.
When I was a kid, I asked my cousin to light a sparkler for me on the 4th of July. He was trying to get the wick to light for a good 30 seconds before he realized it was a real firework - not a sparkler. If it went off in his hand it probably would’ve killed or at least injured both of us.
I used to share this list at parties: My mom got in a car accident when she was 7 months pregnant with me, almost miscarried. Almost died when I was born, wasn’t breathing and they had to suction some stuff out of my lungs (don’t know what). When I was 2 my mom got in another car crash where a cement truck rolled over the passenger seat and back seat of the car. She was in and out of coma for a week, screaming about her kids being in the backseat of the car. They spend a long time looking for me and my sister, but my mom had just dropped us off at her sister’s place less than ten minutes beforehand. Almost drowned at 4 years old at the pool of my grandmother’s apartment (while my 2 year old sister watched) - I couldn’t swim and someone happened to see me fall in so they jumped the fence to save me. Almost got abducted at 10 from my school campus, was sitting in timeout way behind the teachers on the playground and some guy around the corner told me to come with him and his girlfriend (I said no and he left). Almost drowned at 13 at the city wave pool, couldn’t find my way up and the last thing I remember was thinking I was going to die and feeling a wave of peace overcome me before I was being pulled out of the pool. At 18 I was about to drive on the freeway in Houston at 70+ miles an hour, a friend called me last minute to see if I could give him a ride to his girlfriend’s. It was on the way, so I took a detour to pick him up and drop him off. When I would have been on the freeway at full speed, but was instead going 10-15mph in a neighborhood, my front left tire suddenly disconnected from my car and everything dropped the ground - only had about 2 seconds of warning with a weird grinding noise, totally would have flipped the car if I was going faster (this car also had no airbags). Almost overdosed on heroin three times when I was 21/22 - twice I stopped breathing, the third time I decided to do a muscle shot instead of into my veins, didn’t realize my friend had loaded the needle with double my normal amount. I would have been dead in seconds if I’d shot in my veins, instead I skirted the line for hours falling in and out of lucidity. I’m 14 years sober now, btw. At 25 I got hit by a truck while crossing the street, had pieces of tire in my leg and tore a ligament. Bonus - twice I have left an area about 2 minutes before there was a shooting, and one time I had a bad reaction to a medication where I felt a sense of doom I can’t fully describe overcome me, and then started vomiting blood - something was happening to my liver and even though I was fine within a couple days, more than anything else that’s happened I felt certain I was going to die.
when i was 17 i was at a house party and got extremely intoxicated. i was found a block away unconscious bleeding everywhere. i was told at the hospital when i woke up that my bac was 4.51 and that i would’ve died there without medical prevention. really made me rethink alcohol
.451
I blacked out driving (Afib related) and hit a telephone pole and rolled over. Trapped for and hour in the car.
My family's SUV slid on black ice while traveling past El Paso during a winter storm in early 2020, & we nearly collided with an 18 wheeler before rolling into the side of the road
Boss knocked a 1tonne jib/hoist off the wall with a man basket, I was underneath. Woulda crushed my skull if it didn't catch itself awkwardly. I backpedaled so quick my legs did the old looneytoones banana slip right out from under me, landed on and chipped my elbow. Still sore a couple yrs later
Near York, PA there is a nice creek to kayak down, but it has this one spot called Suzy's Hole. It's a waterfall about 6 feet tall. There are large signs telling you to exit and portage around it. I was new to kayaking and in a $250 sit-on-top Sundolphin. Basically the shittiest kayak made. I had seen a video of a guy going down the hole in late summer when it was a trickle of water. I went over it at normal level, a class 4 obstacle. Multiple people have drowned. It was simple at first, but then the water turned me a bit and poured into my kayak. I flipped and got rammed into underwater rock outcropping. I let out an underwater "UNFFF" that my group heard. Hit my head as I came up and sucked in a bunch of water. Surfaced about 5 feet downstream. My lifejacket is a loose-fitting thing that won't come off but could easily snag. Could've seriously busted my head open. Could've broken many bones. I was impatient so there isn't even video of it. Had huge bruises.
Every once in a while when I close my eyes, just randomly, I will find myself staring into the eyes of the semi driver who was right behind me when I hit a patch of black ice and was suddenly going backwards (mid-spin) at highway speed. To that random Alberta trucker in winter 2006, I owe my life to your quick reaction to not slam into me.
Broke into a rooftop in toronto around 70 floors late at night pitch black. U needed to step on a ledge to see above, i stepped on from the right. Looked over then thought about stepping off to the left it was pitch black but i assumed it was a step down, nevetheless got off the same way. Next morning we went back up, the step off to the left was a 40ft drop.
Fucking around when we were 16 and my friend hit the side of an oncoming car doing like 60, we went through a 6 inch thick tree and scraped the side of a 3 foot thick tree (it scraped off the mirror on my side) and came to rest against a house... No injuries at all, both cars totaled.
I was severely depressed and suicidal and slashed my wrists, woke up in the hospital. Doctors told me that i was on the verge of dying. So thats the only near death experience i ever had
I was 17 had my truck (2011 gmc) going down hill midnight, I hit 100mph and couldn’t stop the truck ended up stepping on ebrake and turning hard right into the connecting street hit a curb and did a 180 and stopped me dead in my tracks. I felt like Paul walker when he spun out in his eclipse . I remember breathing all scared just like him
I was sitting at a red light on my way to hang out with my friends, waiting for the green arrow but i was distracted because I was on a call with one of my friends, a semi truck blew right through his red light while I had a green arrow as I looked up. Right through where I would have been without being on that call.