What is the closest you've been to death?

[Memfis]

When I was about 7 and couldn't swim at all yet, one time I went too far into the lake, lost the ground under my feet and began drowning. My grandfather noticed that almost immediately and saved me within seconds. Still, it was a somewhat traumatic experience that kept me awake at nights for a while.

 

What about you?

[NeedHealth]

Almost got my head lopped off 4 years ago by a truck trailing some planks doing a turn. It was less than 3 inches of clearance to my head.

 

About 20 years ago I almost drowned in a pile of snow 3 feet high.

[seed]

Shortly after I was born.

 

I don't know all the details, in fact I don't know much honestly and I have no memories either, but from what I've been told I contracted a virus or something which caused me ridiculously high fever and incapacitated me. I think they had also given me lots of injections since I still have clear marks on both hands. Time was passing yet they could not figure out what was going on, they took all kinds of samples, blood, everything, nothing.

 

However, after a while I mysteriously recovered like I was never ill to begin with. Nobody could ever explain what happened to me back then. Diagnosis: "unknown".

[DMPhobos]

When i was 8 or 9 (can't remember the age well), i tried to swallow a big piece of food without chewing, and i nearly choked myself to death, i was alone at that moment and i remember i couldn't breath at all and i started panicking since i couldn't neither swallow nor spit out the food, so i started punching my chest trying to spit out the food and suddenly as a i was growing weaker, i had this surreal and clear thought that i really was gonna die at that moment in such a dumb way and i started wondering what people were gonna think about it until finally i managed to spit the food with a big punch on my chest and i managed to regain my breath again.

The whole incident was over in less than a minute, and i kinda dismissed the whole thing and went to do something else, so it wasn't something traumatic for me. It wasn't until many years later that one day i wondered what would had happened if i hadn't managed to spit out the food, then it more or less hit me that i really could had died at that moment

[Vorpal]

Descending a remote mountain after 10 hours on the trail, exhausted and 100% focusing on staring downward for foot placement, I didn't realize I was about to walk into a giant mother moose until I was close enough to smell her (about 6-8 feet away). Could have easily turned me into a smear, but just made eye contact and she slowly walked into the woods, and stared at me as I passed, so she must have been accustomed to hikers.

[Akenore]

I've almost gotten hit by a train, I've almost gotten hit by cars multiple times. I've been in a pretty bad wreck. 

[printz]

Not sure if it was really close to dying, but:

1. Got electrocuted trying to pull a plug from a stupidly tight outlet (I touched the terminals trying to pull the plug from below). Felt like someone shaking me violently. I think I blacked out a little but fully realized what happened to me. No problems though.
2. I left a small gym pull-up handle on a horizontal bar, but it wasn't stable and it toppled over, falling from above me just a few centimetres away from my head.

[Grazza]

Tricky to answer, as you can't always be sure how close to death you were at any moment. I mean, you might have slipped slightly on a trail near a cliff edge, and it was only one minor decision or chance difference that stopped it being a serious fall. But you weren't even aware of it being a big deal at the time and immediately forgot about it. Or that time when you nearly stepped on a snake and didn't realize it was a deadly one. Or walked into a cave in Chile without realizing there were huge spiders on the ceiling a few inches above your head (yeah, not a random "for instance" on that one...).

 

But in terms of specific incidents I was aware of:

1) A flight from London to Geneva suffered an engine failure about half an hour after take-off, and had to return to London and make an emergency landing. "The fire engines and ambulances are just there as a precaution; there's nothing to worry about." The engine failure involved three loud bangs and a great big flame coming out of the back of the engine.
2) A flight from Bristol to Turin had to abort its take-off at more or less the last moment due to a warning light for one of the engines. The force and noise with which it braked made most people assume it was trying to avoid a collision. The cabin crew looked shit scared too. It turned out it was just an instrumentation failure. So yeah, not really close to death, though there have been incidents where a harmless instrument failure led to the pilots taking disastrous actions. </aircrashinvestigation>

3) As a kid, I was in an old Mini on the M62 motorway when a tyre blew out. This was before the days of "run when flat" tyres. Ended up pointing the wrong way in the fast lane. Fortunately nothing was coming.

 

So I suppose the short answer is "not very". And just in case anyone is nervous about flying: those two minor incidents are out of 500+ times I have flown.

 

55 minutes ago, DMPhobos said:

I had this surreal and clear thought that i really was gonna die ... in such a dumb way and I started wondering what people were gonna think about it

Funny, that line of thinking is sometimes a conscious reason for me deciding not to do certain things.

[Solmyr]

When i was 6 years old i contracted a meningococcal disease, a bacterial infection that has a very high mortality rate if left untreated, i remember peeing blood, having portions of my skin turing purple and feeling weaker, my parents tought i was going to die, but after spending a month in the hospital i fully recovered.

 

When i was 10, i almost drowned at a swimming pool because some jackass kid decided to jump and land on top of me, i felt how water was entering my nosetrils, but as a reflex action i swallowed before it went to my lungs, i quickly emerged and then i don't remember what happened after that moment.

[CARRiON]

Almost drowned, attempted suicide, a few close call car accidents.

[Bauul]

Quite the variety of experiences!  I'm sure an armchair psychologist could have a field day with this.

 

Closest I came was a maybe 6 years ago or so; I took a turn too quickly in my small Japanese hatchback, hit the side of the road, and neatly flipped the car.  Landed on the roof and skidded down the road at 40mph.  The impact forced the front tyre up through the hood of the car.  Weirdly, I was absolutely fine, until like an idiot I put my hands above my head (because I was upside down), and one them went straight through the disintegrating sunroof and into the road surface.  I pulled it back as fast as I could, but not before I shredded my palm.

 

Luckily there was nothing coming the other way.  Even more luckily, it was just up the road from the Top Gear test-track, and coming the other way were a pair of martials from the track, plus a medic and a fireman.  They dragged me out and patched me up almost there and then.

 

Most painful thing about the whole experience was at the hospital later.  The doctor basically said I had grit and glass in my hand, and it was paramount to get it out before the wounds started to seize.  He told me "this is going to hurt", grabbed a rough scouring sponge, and basically just scrubbed at the open wound.  God damn it didn't half sting!  But he did a good job and all I have is a small scar now.

[silentzorah]

Heat stroke, June 4, 2010.  Driving around town about noon without air conditioning, like I was used to doing.  Got lightheaded and dizzy, nausea set in.  Pulled into a gas station to try and cool off, ended up puking my guts up in the restroom.  I noticed the room began feeling hotter and hotter, so I called 911.  Next thing I knew, I was getting fluid injected into my arm in ER.  Went home the same day, but dealt with PTSD from the incident for the next five years.

 

Nowadays, I can't be in the sun for any length of time during the summer without feeling like I'm going to white out.  Kinda makes holding a job tough.

[Chezza]

I had 2 when I was young.

 

1. As a toddler with an infection in my throat and suffered from blood poisoning. I was getting pale and all that. My parents took me to a couple doctors who assured them it wasn't anything and just to get some rest. Unconvinced, they took me to another who panicked, pumped me with strong antibiotics and sent me straight to the hospital. Apparently he saved my life. You can't trust all doctors.

 

2. As a Toddler with a death wish I ran away from my mums grasp into the road with an oncoming bus. Apparently my nan did a jumping stunt, landed painfully on the floor to pull me back before I got hit. Thanks Nonna :)

[valkiriforce]

I don't remember the incident but I was told that when I was around 2-3 years old I was trying to plug in a video game console to this big TV we had that felt like it weighed a ton, and always required two people to carry it. It was sitting on a dresser in front of a bed with rails and somehow as I was sitting below it the TV fell from its place and could easily have crushed me had it not been for the bed rails sticking out that caught it.

[Doge Sword]

When I was 7 (I think???) I hit my head on a door hinge and I was leaking blood everywhere.  Luckily my parents were there and took me to the hospital.

[seed]

2 hours ago, Akenore said:

I've almost gotten hit by cars multiple times.

 

You wouldn't like to live here since we're champions at car accidents. Drivers don't even want to stop at zebra crossing these days, preferring to avoid you while you're crossing instead.

 

I know personally plenty of neighbors who required hospitalization thanks to those irresponsible drivers and a few acquaintances who were even killed. I myself almost fell victim to a driver just a few weeks ago. A Taxi decided to overtake the car in front of him while I was preparing to cross the street. Had I not decided to wait a bit more before crossing I would've been obliterated since the Taxi didn't slow down at all.

[Lila Feuer]

Clothes iron fell on my head at 7 and split it open nicely, much blood. My appendix wanted to blow up at 16 and it was inflamed for almost three days before going to the hospital and extracting it. Doctors said it was the largest they'd ever seen.

[DMPhobos]

Not a close death experience, but i figured i could share this story as well.

When i was 6 years old, i almost lost my right eye. My parents used to have an old van where you could recline the back seats so you could lay on them, and some night my parents were driving on a really dark street and along the way they stopped to buy something to eat before going home. So during this stop i got out of the car and asked for some water since i was really thirsty and when i returned to the van, i had forgotten that the back seat was laying down and since it was really dark i couldn't see the seat, so i went to the back of the van and reclined my back expecting the seat but i instead i fell and since it was an old van there was this really sharp pointy thing loose and i nearly landed on it with my right eye. I remember i started crying and immediately i felt the warm blood down my cheek but since it was really dark i thought they were tears . My older brother came to the van with a cup with water and his reaction when he saw me crying was more or less "Oh shut the fuck up, here's your water", then when i picked the cup, he saw my hands covered in blood and rushed to get my parents to get me to a hospital were i got stitches, and to this day i have a cool scar near my right eye because of that.

[SuperPCGamer]

One time I got in a school shooting. I was fine. Shooters were idiots. (that was a joke)

Okay, the real closest I've been to dying is when I fell off of this one hill. I had the stupid idea to ride my scooter down the hill and the first time, I was successful. I decided to go back up and go up higher to come down. I did, but on the way down I hit a rock and went flying in the air and did a corkscrew midair, as I hit the ground multiple times. I got a deep cut in my leg, and have a scar from it. I broke my arm, and sprained the other arm as well. That sucked. (that was real)

[kb1]

I had a sword mounted on the wall, on two screws, above my bed (like a dumbass). I woke up one day holding the blade, which, after having fallen from the mount, was pointed 2 inches above my head. To this day, I have no idea how I caught that thing in my sleep, but if I hadn't it would have gone through my head...

[Gaia74]

Although it was not long ago I still remember it and I still think that my reflexes saved me, at school 7 years ago I was 7 years old, a much older child than I think I was 12, ran and hit me, I could literally have died since the floor is concrete and was on the edge of an edge, so if my head hit the edge I would die , but my reflexes saved me, I put the elbow and only got a big pain in the elbow and thanks to that I'm here

 

the funny thing is that the doctors told me that I had great reflexes, and I told them that I played a lot of video games, which they said I got these reflexes by playing

Who would say it could be said that video games indirectly saved me xD

[Doge Sword]

3 hours ago, Agent6 said:

 

You wouldn't like to live here since we're champions at car accidents. Drivers don't even want to stop at zebra crossing these days, preferring to avoid you while you're crossing instead.

 

I know personally plenty of neighbors who required hospitalization thanks to those irresponsible drivers and a few acquaintances who were even killed. I myself almost fell victim to a driver just a few weeks ago. A Taxi decided to overtake the car in front of him while I was preparing to cross the street. Had I not decided to wait a bit more before crossing I would've been obliterated since the Taxi didn't slow down at all.

Where is 'here'?

[mrthejoshmon]

I've almost died so many times, very minor coincidences and quick thinking are what kept me alive through my dances with death.

 

- A few years ago (I think I was like 14) I was running down a back alley that had recently had fencing done by the local council, of course with them Being English Council workers they left NAILS EVERYWHERE, I trip on a lump of cement hidden in grass and go flying, brace myself with my hands on my chest and conveniently the hand I had over my heart caught an 8 inch nail and stopped it with the back side of my flesh (through the palm it went), so that was close and my hand swelled up to over double the size.

 

- I have died, during birth I was strangled by the cord, died, and was incubated back to life (I'm stubborn apparently). This incident has left me with irreparable damage to my lungs to this day and heavy asthma through my earlier years.

 

- When I was very young (9 maybe) I was all but demolished by a makeshift javelin. My brother was, is, a real piece of work and his ideas of fun were always violent and dangerous, on the local park this dickhead and a mate decided to make makeshift javelins and throw them around like actual cavemen (fitting), I was a shy and stupid child whose only real friend at the time was a teddy parrot called "Peckey" (Dumb kid, like I said), big bro decides he needs a target so he lobs Pecky out there and takes aim, me being the retard I am see my beany bird and run over to pick him up... Mid javelin throw... It hit me right between the right eye and the temple, did a real number on me but bounced off the skull so no real damage so whatever.

 

- In the last year of high school I went to visit someone late at night (nothing nefarious, just wanted to hang out), I decided to take a "short cut" by the river bank because the usual under the bridge path was actually blocked by some junkies literally snorting crack off each others arses (no, really, England is a great country), because I decided not to wander past the ass crack party I ended up falling into the freezing winter river, with quick reactions I grabbed the conveniently placed patch of nettles and climbed out with them. 30 minutes of hypothermia inducing walking back home later and I'm greeted by my brother who rather than helps me decides to bombard me with conspiracy theories about how the world would end by the planet Niburu or something (this was in 2012 of course), thanks dickhead.

 

- Recently I severed ties with , for lack of a better term, an absolute fucking cunt. This dickhead almost killed me/got me killed 3 times so I just said fuck it and told him to piss off. He was an absolute mong, full grown adult whose idea of fun was tipping over people's bins at night and playing knock a door run (he was 20, FFS), I nearly died, legitimately had near death experiences 3 times in a year. I'm a good boy, I hate doing bad things but I was also the loneliest boy alive so I made bad friends, I'd go out with this cunt and be forced into terrible things against my will.

 

He once drove us out to buttfuck nowhere and refused to go home until I hung out the window and held onto the roof of the car as he drove, so I had to do it, best part is he only went and fucking crashed into someone whilst I did it, I fucking almost flew out (I actually latched onto the antenna, that saved me).

 

Second time was in the woods, cunt made an illegal fire (because pyromania is fun to dregs like him, apparently) and we were all round it... He proceeds to dump a battery and deodorant on it because why not, we scramble to cover and I trip and get impaled on a branch, thankfully because I'm malnourished I only have it breach the skin and immediately hit my pelvis (one of the most painful things I've ever felt BTW), long and painful week after that.

 

Final time where I just said fuck it and left was another surprise campfire bomb, only this time it went off big and nearly instantly (completely removing one poor guy's eyebrows actually) and as it riddled the seats we were sat on with shrapnel I gave up there and then.

- For a final one, because I have so many, I have a darker one actually.

Spoiler

 

Very recently (this month actually) I completely lost myself to my own sorrow and relentlessly went at myself with a razor, I just couldn't go on anymore. Thankfully in my haze of tears and rage I was able to reach out to someone and they pretty much fucking saved me there, thank God they were there because I was actually not just going to do it but was in the middle of actually doing it. They also helped clean the wounds, stabilise, that sort of thing.

 

I've never been so terrified in my life, funny how the scariest thing in my life so far has been me.

 

EDIT: Spoilered in case you don't want to know and because of sensitive topic (suicide), should've done it initially TBH (< the spoiler tag, not the suicide)

 

I swear I've told these before, have I?

[Dear Hoplite]

Once I tried to shoot myself

 

Once I fell from my bed, splitting my scalp open

 

And one time I woke up on the verge of suffocation from strangling myself in my sleep

 

[Chronohunter45]

34 minutes ago, mrthejoshmon said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Very recently (this month actually) I completely lost myself to my own sorrow and relentlessly went at myself with a razor, I just couldn't go on anymore. Thankfully in my haze of tears and rage I was able to reach out to someone and they pretty much fucking saved me there, thank God they were there because I was actually not just going to do it but was in the middle of actually doing it. They also helped clean the wounds, stabilise, that sort of thing.

 

I've never been so terrified in my life, funny how the scariest thing in my life so far has been me.

 

 

I swear I've told these before, have I?

Maybe not here, but if you ever posted on 4chan, I think I've read the story or a similar one before.

 

I've almost died too many times to list. Most recent was due to some high school kid on his bicycle cutting in front of a hyundai (which was in front of me). I was on my motorcycle. It was a blind curve. The hyundai disappeared around the turn, and as I just started to roll into it, the hyundai reappeared in a dead stop. 2 lane traffic. Opposite lane was an oncoming bus. I opted to smash into the stopped hyundai. A near-shattered knee and totaled bike later (near totaled hyundai as well), I found myself standing up in the middle of the road, while everyone did the "are you okay?" and "stay down!" gambit, searching instinctively for the cause. I saw the kid. Rage consumed me. I sprinted on my injured knee, while he pedaled away on his bike. Chucked my helmet at him, hit him, but he kept going.

 

Then the adrenalin wore off.

[Rifle Infantry]

I was rocking back and forth on a chair in a special needs class in the 3rd grade (had very little social skills at the time), until I rocked back too far and smashed my skull into the edge of a steel cabinet. The result was a little like splitting a log with a wedge and a hammer, except the log was my skull, the wedge the cabinet, and the hammer gravity.

 

I remember seeing this split second white spark before basically bouncing off the cabinet and rolling along the floor. I cried and the teacher understandably freaked the fuck out, rushing me to the principal's office. My mom showed up real quick and took me to the ER.

 

One set of anesthetic and numerous staples later I'm told they could see the sheath around the gray matter during the closing, and that I had been lucky it hadn't penetrated further and resulted in permanent brain damage. To this day the scar's still on the back of my head though it only brings up any discomfort when I'm thinking about it.

 

At the time I didn't think much of it, I got this rather stereotypical head wrap and every kid on the blacktop was surrounding me to get a look for the next two, three days before the novelty wore off.

[wheresthebeef]

Got an appointment to get my wisdom teeth pulled this saturday.

 

I am very allergic/sensitive to many medications, so I am deathly afraid I will be put under and not wake up.

[seed]

5 hours ago, Doge Sword said:

Where is 'here'?

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.dw.com/en/romania-pushes-past-bulgaria-to-top-list-of-road-deaths-in-europe/a-43325623

[amackert]

Depressing thread is depressing.

 

I'm... going to go play some DOOM now to cheer me up.

[Phobus]

Good subject, albeit a morbid one. I reckon life is pretty fragile, so death is always pretty close. Certainly a little bit closer every time one...

• Trips on the stairs
• Chokes on food or drink
• Takes a flight
• Strenuously exercises
• Drives on a cold winter night (although any rural road on any night has its risks)
• Gets up to speed on a motorway (freeway, for you colonials)
• Falls over/off of something
• Climbs something
• Tries new food
• Drinks (so much that they get black out drunk (and spend 2 hours throwing up so hard that they burst the blood vessels around their eyes))
• Takes drugs
• Goes in for surgery
• Spends the night laying awake giving some serious thought to suicide

... Just to give a few examples from life. I was in the army for two years, so there was probably loads of risk there. Like DMPhobos, I've got scars around my right eye from falling as a child onto the corner of furniture (twice!), although I think losing an eye was the most likely outcome.

 

Then of course, there's heart attacks, aneurysms and (as this community sadly shows) cancer lurking... Plus the endless risk posed by every cunt out there who's looking to go on a spree, or attack an individual for whatever reason. Oh, and random equipment failure! Like Lithium ion battery explosions.

 

 

Still, I doubt I'd have the chance to experience any of that if my mum hadn't have caught me before my toddler self got more than a split second into taking a tumble down two flights of stairs. Luckily all I got was a dislocated left arm (which bounced back in) and a lasting fear of falling.

Edited August 23, 2018 by Phobus