Have you ever been close to death?

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Have you ever been in a situation where you thought death was immanent but somehow you cheated it?

There are two times in my life that I can count as being a shade away from dying. Interestingly, in my case, they were both when I was much younger than I am now.

When I was around 8 years old I was eating dinner at the kitchen bar. Mom had made a London Broil and went off to do something else in another part of the house. I caught a big piece of the broil in my throat cutting off my air supply. It was so bad that I remember falling from my seat to the ground not being able to breath. With no one around to give me the Heimlich I managed to reach into my mouth and remove said beef assassin.

But wait, there’s more...

The second time I am convinced that death was grasping at my collar was when I was twelve at the beach. Goofing around in the ocean is not a great pastime. At probably 4'8" I was hit by a gargantuan wave unexpectedly. It was so tumultuous that it sent me, and my perception of up and down, topsy-turvy. With my last breath in my lungs my fingers somehow touched the sandy bottom and pushed me back to the surface.

There may have been other times I was close to death and unaware but these are two very distinct times that I can remember.

My advice? Don’t eat alone and the ocean is serious business.

[MrTastyHead]

Hit a tree dead on going roughly 70. Paramedics and firemen who responded all said that based on their experience, I should have been dead.

[Some Rogue]

There have been a couple, but the worst was one morning while driving. It was still dark out, I fell asleep at the wheel, woke up to the rear end of a semi coming right at me as he was stopping to turn. I swerved into the left lane and thankfully this was a fairly rural area and there was no oncoming traffic or I would have been dead.

[Another odd duck]

Twice for me, off the top of my head.

First time, I hit some sand in a banked curve doing about 90 on my old Kawasaki. Laid it down, left the road, cleared a barbed-wire fence, kicked away from it and landed in a muddy cow pasture (Funny how time seems to slow down in a crisis). Slid about 50 yards in mud, muck and cow patties, walked back to the bike, picked it up and rode it out. Only damage was a broken turn signal and lost the knob on the end of the clutch handle.

Second time, I was holding up a flange for a welder in a large excavation out in West Texas. Apparantly gas had built up in the area, because when he struck an arc, the whole place went up in flames. Knocked down people around the site, but I escaped with only a lost eye-brow and half a moustache and suffered some minor second degree burns.

Yeah, I know I'm a very lucky SOB and I count my blessings every day. I tried to live hard, die young and leave a nice looking corpse, but I'm still around.

[Kuyuk]

<. I tried to live hard, die young and leave a nice looking corpse, but I'm still around.>


I'll push you off a bridge if you're contemplating anything...

[Another odd duck]

>I'll push you off a bridge if you're contemplating anything...<

Thanks for the offer, but its too late for for the latter two...

[Killer Kitten]

When I was 18 I spent 5 1/2 months in the hospital with Guillian-Barre Syndrome. For the first six weeks I was totally paralyzed and on a respirator. After that it was tons of physical and occupational therapy learning to use my limbs again.

My doctor and I got to be pretty close during this whole fuckarow. He told me later that my heart had stopped twice, and started up on its own again both times.

I don't have any memory of either incident. No bright lights, no dead relatives, no spiraling down to a waiting lake of fire.

Luckily my sense of humor remained intact, but my belief in an afterlife was over. I think when you die you're just gone, which is probably an observation for another thread.

[Nieninque]

No, but I wish you had.


Very close.


Close enough to swap spit

[Gan]

LOL

That deserved points.

[droit]

When I was living in San Diego, a crazy homeless guy pushed me in front of a bus. I was waiting at a bus stop downtown and as the bus approached, I started walking towards where the door would stop. Just as the bus was pulling in (coming in quite hot, I might add), some wild-eyed bum dressed in rags stood up from the bench and shoved me into the street with both hands. I honestly think that if I hadn't been training capoeira, I would have been run over. As it happened, he pushed me, I kept one foot on the curb, fell into a deep lunge in the street, then leaped immediately back onto the curb literally an instant before the bus rolled by so close that I got slightly buffeted by a gust of air from the bus' passing. It was like Neo dodging the train in the Matrix, but without the nifty backflip.

Afterwards, I was in a fair amount of shock and in no condition to really do anything to the guy who pushed me. In my dazed state, I even tried to just get on the bus and go to work, but the bus driver convinced me to call the cops and get that guy put away, which I did. However, the cops told me that they'd take him in, but he'd probably just get put on psych watch for a few days and then released. Sure enough, I saw him the very next week, wandering around down SD like nothing ever happened. Ugh.

[radamanthys]

I got shot at once. Bullet gave me a haircut. One inch to the left and it woulda been "boom, headshot". Not pleasant. Probably the closest I've ever been. There've been some other close calls, though.

[iJin]

There was this one time when I was about 13--me and my father were driving out to LA to go to my aunt's house so I can go to this concert. Throughout the whole drive I was sleeping, of course. My father had some 1990 Toyota pickup I think back then, and it wasn't in tiptop shape since my dad liked to experiment with his cars.

Anyways, as I was sleeping I suddenly felt this big bang. I opened my eyes and looked around and we were spinning like crazy in the freeway. I saw my dad trying to get a hold of the steering wheel to make it stop, and next thing I knew the trunk bounce up on the freeway rail, and was balancing on it. We were on a highway, and there were several other freeways below us. I personally thought we were going to die, but my dad got the trunk down and it spin about twice again and finally just stopped. Then I went to my concert and met Ozzy Osbourne.

This was like my 8th car accident.

[Liagala]

About a week after I got my license, I was on the highway driving home from school. I flicked a cigarette out the window and it came back in. I looked quickly into the backseat to see where it landed, and when I faced forward again, I was in the breakdown lane, heading for a guard rail. I wasn't too good yet at the "turn the wheel less when you're going fast" thing (why doesn't drivers ed ever take you on the highway??)... trying to get back into my lane, I overcorrected. A lot. I ended up doing donuts in the middle of a 3 lane highway, and finally came to a stop in the left lane facing the wrong direction. Thank God no one hit me and I didn't hit anyone else... I just turned the car around and went home. When my parents brought it in to get fixed, they had to take my muffler out of my trunk. The fun part of that? If my car was one year older, I would have been blown to hell. My car was made the first year that particular model *didn't* have the gas tank under the trunk.

[Androidpk]

I had a raging taxi driver pull a knife on me and some friends 2 years ago in North Carolina. Good times.

[Allereli]

(why doesn't drivers ed ever take you on the highway??)...

did you have low budget driver's ed?

[Clove]

Sure enough, I saw him the very next week, wandering around down SD like nothing ever happened. Ugh.Did yuou push him in front of a bus?

[Sean of the Thread]

many times for me (deal with my one hand typing it may be awhile)

firefights, car accidents, heart attck, getting ass kicked, alcohol (a self inflicted wound) and more firefights.

and now a stroke because i don't take my meds.

[Liagala]

did you have low budget driver's ed?

Not that I was aware of. There were only two options in my city for driver's ed. I took one, my friend took the other, and neither of us went on the highway. It was all back roads for both.

[Mighty Nikkisaurus]

I got pwned in the face so bad by a car when I was little that my heart stopped twice.

That was an adventure. I survived (clearly) and got a free nose job out of the deal.

[Jahira]

I can't believe no one has been a smart ass with the...

"About 2 years ago, I was lying on the ground, stunned, and webbed with 2 hit points left in front of a massive troll king"

Disappointed in you PCers

[radamanthys]

Psh, who plays gemstone anymore?

[Alfster]

Flipped a boat at 65 mph, came up under it. That's about the closest I've been. Drunk off my ass and 14 or 15 years old.

[pabstblueribbon]

One time I sneezed and farted at the same time. It hurt really bad.

But then Jesus came down and saved me and shit. True story.

[diethx]

Not so much. Back in high school I was out late with friends and walking back to someone's house when we crossed train tracks. My sneaker got caught under one of the tracks as a train was coming but I got my foot loose in plenty of time. It wasn't a really close call or anything. I guess i've been fairly lucky.

[Sean of the Thread]

Flipped a boat at 65 mph, came up under it. That's about the closest I've been. Drunk off my ass and 14 or 15 years old.


i hit a sandbar doing about 50mph at 3am and holy hell did i go through th window.

[Kuyuk]

I used to play in the pool coverings that you're not supposed to.


That shit was fun.



K.

[Asha]

Breathed in water in a swimming pool when the wave machine swept me off and wouldn't let me back to shallow water. Got exhausted and gave up just as the lifeguard grabbed me.
I'm shit scared of water thanks to that.

[Nieninque]

Breathed in water in a swimming pool when the wave machine swept me off and wouldn't let me back to shallow water. Got exhausted and gave up just as the lifeguard grabbed me.
I'm shit scared of water thanks to that.

Being a soap-dodging northerner won't help with that, either.

[B2]

I was driving on a two-lane road late one night when I went to pass the car in front of me. Right when I was next to the guy, I noticed that there WAS a car in the oncoming lane, with his headlights off. I slammed on my brakes and both of the other cars swerved onto the shoulder as we all passed each other, but man, I was super shaken. I get so nervous on two lane roads now.

The guy said he turned his headlights off to see how dark it really was out there in the middle of nowhere.

[Asha]

Being a soap-dodging northerner won't help with that, either.

Up here it's an indication of social status, the stronger you smell.
Washing would ruin my vintage.

[ElanthianSiren]

Several times; para'd to the hospital for too low blood sugar due to being on shitty bell curving insulin (NPH) before more static insulins like lantus. My lowest clocked value was a 12 after infusions of glucose. Then just doing stupid shit as a teenager. As a young kid, I had very high fevers culminating in two spinal taps. When I was four or five, I almost drowned etc.

Pretty sure most people are going to respond yes to this question though. The human body can withstand quite a bit and still come out more or less okay; for instance, my grandfather just died, but he lived over 75 years with only one lung from whooping cough.

[Stanley Burrell]

Having you and 50 other people having to be saved by the Coast Guard because the captain of the boat thought going face first into Gale Force winds in the L.I. sound in a 3498308409-year old cutter would be a good idea.

Having a plane tire come loose and go into an engine.

Bear cubs and then bear mama. If you see bear cubs, leave. ASAP.

[radamanthys]

Having you and 50 other people having to be saved by the Coast Guard because the captain of the boat thought going face first into Gale Force winds in the L.I. sound in a 3498308409-year old cutter would be a good idea.

Having a plane tire come loose and go into an engine.

Bear cubs and then bear mama. If you see bear cubs, leave. ASAP.

Shit, that reminded me of something.

I was on Lake Ontario with my boss, the CEO of the hospital and my coworker, who was the Director of Operations. We were sailing the DoO's 32 foot cruiser around after cutting work early, as we were wont to do. Usually we ended up on Erie with the CEO's Rhodes Meridian- today we felt like doing something a bit different.

Luckily, it wasn't a normal day, and none of us had had that much to drink, for whatever reason. At the later part of the afternoon, the sky started to look a little grey, so we decide to turn in. Since the slip was in an inlet, behind a breakwater, we couldn't go in under sail. So, we get to the gap in the breakwater and turn on the engine. Nothing. The power's gone.

Well, just at that point, the weather turns. The swells started piling up to 6-10 feet. It's raining. The wind is howling and directionless. We have no radio and no way to get into the inlet. Basically, we're fucked. On go the life-vests as we frantically try and batten down everything and survive. I, being the very junior sailior on the crew, am mostly staying out of the way and taking orders to do the things a 60 and 70 year old man can't. In the berth, I'm getting thrown around, I can barely stand up straight. Doesn't help that the walls are occasionally the ceiling and floor. I'm getting thrown around like a rag-doll.

Eventually, we get a bit closer to civilization where the one cell phone on the boat gets service. We immediately dial 911- because who has the telephone number of the coast guard in memory?

The resulting scene was something out of a movie. The coast guard comes to rescue us- they finally find us about an hour after sundown. It's darker than the inside of a cow out there. We're attemping to get a tow, so we had to lash the two boats together, meaning we had to exchange lines. Imagine, horizontal rain, 6-10 foot swells where the opposite boat just disappears behind a wall of water every minute or so. Coast guard people barking orders through the howling wind.

At one point, I had to grab the belt of my boss in order to save his ass from drowning. We'd never have been able to get to him.

Eventually, we get lashed to the coast guard's boat and they tow us in. But holy crap, was that a scary experience. Thank god one of us brought our phone- we usually leave them in the car.

I had some fantastic bruises, welts, scrapes and a couple small cuts. I immediately got home and went to the bar to drink off the vertigo and the idea that I just almost bit it- one wrong move out there and we'd have been in a vastly different situation. Sure woulda made for a better story, though, heh.

[Celephais]

Sure woulda made for a better story, though, heh.
"I got killed at sea*" makes for a great story...

*lake

[Sean of the Thread]

"I got killed at sea*" makes for a great story...

*lake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsUM7V6Ku_8

[ViridianAsp]

When I was two years old I developed pneumonia, I was so sick they gave me a spinal tap, had to pack me in ice to bring my fever down and I lost all my hair.

But I lived!

I nearly drowned in the ocean when I was about eight. Since then I have a HUGE fear of the ocean, I won't go but knee deep.

[Stanley Burrell]

Shit, that reminded me of something.

I was on Lake Ontario with my boss, the CEO of the hospital and my coworker, who was the Director of Operations. We were sailing the DoO's 32 foot cruiser around after cutting work early, as we were wont to do. Usually we ended up on Erie with the CEO's Rhodes Meridian- today we felt like doing something a bit different.

Luckily, it wasn't a normal day, and none of us had had that much to drink, for whatever reason. At the later part of the afternoon, the sky started to look a little grey, so we decide to turn in. Since the slip was in an inlet, behind a breakwater, we couldn't go in under sail. So, we get to the gap in the breakwater and turn on the engine. Nothing. The power's gone.

Well, just at that point, the weather turns. The swells started piling up to 6-10 feet. It's raining. The wind is howling and directionless. We have no radio and no way to get into the inlet. Basically, we're fucked. On go the life-vests as we frantically try and batten down everything and survive. I, being the very junior sailior on the crew, am mostly staying out of the way and taking orders to do the things a 60 and 70 year old man can't. In the berth, I'm getting thrown around, I can barely stand up straight. Doesn't help that the walls are occasionally the ceiling and floor. I'm getting thrown around like a rag-doll.

Eventually, we get a bit closer to civilization where the one cell phone on the boat gets service. We immediately dial 911- because who has the telephone number of the coast guard in memory?

The resulting scene was something out of a movie. The coast guard comes to rescue us- they finally find us about an hour after sundown. It's darker than the inside of a cow out there. We're attemping to get a tow, so we had to lash the two boats together, meaning we had to exchange lines. Imagine, horizontal rain, 6-10 foot swells where the opposite boat just disappears behind a wall of water every minute or so. Coast guard people barking orders through the howling wind.

At one point, I had to grab the belt of my boss in order to save his ass from drowning. We'd never have been able to get to him.

Eventually, we get lashed to the coast guard's boat and they tow us in. But holy crap, was that a scary experience. Thank god one of us brought our phone- we usually leave them in the car.

I had some fantastic bruises, welts, scrapes and a couple small cuts. I immediately got home and went to the bar to drink off the vertigo and the idea that I just almost bit it- one wrong move out there and we'd have been in a vastly different situation. Sure woulda made for a better story, though, heh.

I think out of the 50 people who were on that boat I was on, I was probably one out of 5 people who didn't vomit. I've never seen that much puke since the Barf-o-Rama in "Stand by Me."

I think I remember the captain saying "hold onto the railing" (in the cabinhold) on the PA, but I think that meant with your cranium, the way we were getting tossed around. I guess it was kind of fun to see how much airtime you could score when the bilge cracked on gigantic waves while trying to hold onto the rails.