How many times have you dueled the grim reaper?

[TallBill]

I could have had an extremely short life. I was born feet first with the cord wrapped around my neck. I was also born with three heart murmurs that closed by themselves.

When I was 17 I was T-boned by a conversion van going 50 mph. I woke up 3 hours later in the hospital and was reassured just how lucky I was to still be a citizen of Earth.

Should be some interesting ones.

 

[gorcorps]

When I was 9 I had a cheesburger happy meal. My heart can shut down any day now

 

[Stumps]

A couple of times I'd come close when I was younger...in the end, death would have been preferable to the repair bills for my cars that I've trashed.

 

[zerocool84]

I played chess with him once in purgatory.

 

[gorcorps]

Originally posted by: Stumps
A couple of times I'd come close when I was younger...in the end, death would have been preferable to the repair bills for my cars that I've trashed.

=P use shittier cars until you learn to drive then it won't cost so much to fix/replace

 

[ChaoZ]

I've lost count of how many times I almost got hit by a car.

 

[andylawcc]

you got the hidden char unlock in Soul Caliber 4?


most of my encounters with him were vehicle-related, either I was behind the wheel, or in front of it.

 

[Auggie]

I haven't had a terrible number of close calls with death... but what does strike me is the fact that without modern medicine (last 100 years or so) I'd certainly be dead. I've had a bone sticking out through me before... I'm pretty sure that would have been an unavoidable infection before better medicine was created... maybe I could have just held it over a fire to cauterize the wound (and bone? gross!) disinfect and initiate healing.

 

[MrDudeMan]

I've had several moments that easily could have been life-ending if very slight changes would have been made, e.g. a few inches one direction in a car or if I was standing just a little to the left or right. That kind of stuff haunts my thoughts sometimes. "Wow, what if I was standing 6 inches to this side when that happened?"

Scary stuff.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Only one that I can think of. Mine is car related too, but in a different way. I was opening up the differential casing on my Ford Falcon when the car fell off the jack stands and landed on me. The wheels were still on the car and it was just high enough that the fuel tank smooshed me into the ground without doing any damage (hurt a lot though). Seeing the stands go sideways while I was under the car is the scariest 1/2 second of my life.

 

[Sea Moose]

my gf got hit by a parked car....

 

[Baked]

I think I got you beat. I headbutt a car and woke up a week later. I should be dead.

 

[lxskllr]

Had a 5/8" cable drop on my head when I was 12' below ground.
A runaway truck passed within 6' of me at the bottom of a 15%(estimated) grade
A flatbed truck locked up it's brakes and slid past me(about 3' away) when I was walking on the side of a highway.
I slipped off a bridge form and caught myself about 2" away from a piece of rebar going through my neck.
I miscounted lanes in the road, took off running and slammed into the side of a car that was going about 40mph
I rolled a car going about 60mph
Brakes went out on my Thing, and I was coming up on a flatbed truck. I quickly snapped the wheel, and just broke the windshield instead of getting decapitated.
Was driving to work one morning paying more attention to the sunrise in my rear view mirror than driving and neglected to notice someone turning in front of me. Again fast steering wheel action saved me from a bad crash at 60mph. Was driving a full sized van also, and somehow didn't roll it.
Had that same van sideways on some black ice on a fairly narrow highway and 12'+ drop offs on either side.
Again in that van, I almost dropped it into a creek driving in snow in WV. I was on a paddling trip at the time. This one wasn't death inducing, but it would have been many miles walking to even find a phone, and I don't know how the hell it would have gotten out of the creek. The roads were very inaccessible, and the creek was about 10' down.

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: Baked
I think I got you beat. I headbutt a car and woke up a week later. I should be dead.

Too bad they didn't hit you harder.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

No offense lxskllr, but I don't think I'd be comfortable walking down the street with you

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer
No offense lxskllr, but I don't think I'd be comfortable walking down the street with you

Most of those pedestrian activities were construction related. I was in dangerous areas anyway. The one where I ran into the side of a car, I was just young and stupid :^D

 

[KLin]

Originally posted by: Baked
I think I got you beat. I headbutt a car and woke up a week later. I should be dead.

Is this you?!?!

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: KLin


Is this you?!?!

Karma's a bitch eh? It usually doesn't work that fast :^D

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
Had a 5/8" cable drop on my head when I was 12' below ground.
A runaway truck passed within 6' of me at the bottom of a 15%(estimated) grade
A flatbed truck locked up it's brakes and slid past me(about 3' away) when I was walking on the side of a highway.
I slipped off a bridge form and caught myself about 2" away from a piece of rebar going through my neck.
I miscounted lanes in the road, took off running and slammed into the side of a car that was going about 40mph
I rolled a car going about 60mph
Brakes went out on my Thing, and I was coming up on a flatbed truck. I quickly snapped the wheel, and just broke the windshield instead of getting decapitated.
Was driving to work one morning paying more attention to the sunrise in my rear view mirror than driving and neglected to notice someone turning in front of me. Again fast steering wheel action saved me from a bad crash at 60mph. Was driving a full sized van also, and somehow didn't roll it.
Had that same van sideways on some black ice on a fairly narrow highway and 12'+ drop offs on either side.
Again in that van, I almost dropped it into a creek driving in snow in WV. I was on a paddling trip at the time. This one wasn't death inducing, but it would have been many miles walking to even find a phone, and I don't know how the hell it would have gotten out of the creek. The roads were very inaccessible, and the creek was about 10' down.

Man you're not very good at driving

 

[her209]

Off the top of my head:
I too was born with a heart murmur (VSD).
I almost drowned saving (tried to) a sibling. A series of fortunate events transpired.
Spun (at least once) my car racing a friend in high school at about 60 MPH. Speedometer was broken at the time.
Almost got rear-ended by an SUV doing at least 60 MPH on surface street. Its a "funny" story.
As a kid, almost got mauled by a neighbor's huge ass doberman (I think) on the way to school. I swear it was a fucking big. It could stand on its hind leg and look over the fence.

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: Mo0o

Originally posted by: lxskllr
Had a 5/8" cable drop on my head when I was 12' below ground.
A runaway truck passed within 6' of me at the bottom of a 15%(estimated) grade
A flatbed truck locked up it's brakes and slid past me(about 3' away) when I was walking on the side of a highway.
I slipped off a bridge form and caught myself about 2" away from a piece of rebar going through my neck.
I miscounted lanes in the road, took off running and slammed into the side of a car that was going about 40mph
I rolled a car going about 60mph
Brakes went out on my Thing, and I was coming up on a flatbed truck. I quickly snapped the wheel, and just broke the windshield instead of getting decapitated.
Was driving to work one morning paying more attention to the sunrise in my rear view mirror than driving and neglected to notice someone turning in front of me. Again fast steering wheel action saved me from a bad crash at 60mph. Was driving a full sized van also, and somehow didn't roll it.
Had that same van sideways on some black ice on a fairly narrow highway and 12'+ drop offs on either side.
Again in that van, I almost dropped it into a creek driving in snow in WV. I was on a paddling trip at the time. This one wasn't death inducing, but it would have been many miles walking to even find a phone, and I don't know how the hell it would have gotten out of the creek. The roads were very inaccessible, and the creek was about 10' down.

Man you're not very good at driving

And he wanted to tattoo his kid.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: Mo0o

Man you're not very good at driving

How so? There's only 2 events that were really my fault. When I rolled the car I was 17 and driving like an idiot. I had been going 130mph, but had slowed to about 60mph when I rolled it. The sunrise incident was just stupid. There weren't usually people on the road at that time, and I was tired and spacing out. It was also about 20 years ago. I've probably logged more miles than everyone else in this thread put together. For a long time I was doing 50,000+ miles per year.

Edit:
Fix borked quote

 

[Locut0s]

Been lucky so far. Touch wood. Nothing much. Had a bad ear infection when I was 2 and had it treated in China during the early 80s so I guess that could have gone south easily but in the end they knew what they were doing and I got lucky I didn't get any secondary infection from dirty needles or anything.

 

[manowar821]

I bet I have some fun stuff to share...

-Rolled a rally car and impaled it with a huge ass branch through the windshield, went in between myself and the co-driver. Car was easily fixed and perfectly drivable! Haha!
-Motorcycle accident when I was 15, friend wasn't as good at riding a crotch-rocket as he led on and got cocky with me on the back. Laid it down at 70 mph on an on-ramp, but I tucked properly. He broke ribs.
-Shot at, twice. Once being a dude bump-firing an SKS.
-A number of fights with people who pretty much wanted me to end up breathing through a straw.
-Chased by riot cops, some on horses getting fucking stupid-close.
-Chased by neo-nazis who had bats and 2x4's.
-Almost fell out of a tree from 47 feet up when I was 9. I was and still am a damn monkey.
-Stabbed and then almost successfully mugged. I wasn't having any of it, though.
-Someone spiked my drink (he thought it was my lady friend's drink) with something at a rave once, luckily I go in groups and a buddy of mine saw it. After shit went down, the plastic bottle was melting. Holy crap moment.
-Almost drowned in Jr High when some jock pushed me underwater and wouldn't let me back up. This turned into a bitter rivalry that ended with one of the aforementioned fights.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Originally posted by: Auggie
I haven't had a terrible number of close calls with death... but what does strike me is the fact that without modern medicine (last 100 years or so) I'd certainly be dead. I've had a bone sticking out through me before... I'm pretty sure that would have been an unavoidable infection before better medicine was created... maybe I could have just held it over a fire to cauterize the wound (and bone? gross!) disinfect and initiate healing.

In recent history (last couple of hundred years) it would have likely been an amputation job because they couldn't treat the likely infection and the stump protected with tar to prevent further infection.

Prior to that good luck... you would have needed it.