What is the closest you ever came to death

[Luthien]

and another of mine on my motorcycle.

Speeding around 95 mph laying down on my tank going down the highway. I was not paying attention just motoring down the road. Suddenly this tractor trailer I am passing starts beeping his horn at me waking me up and I realize I am approaching stopped traffic on the highway doing 95 mph. By the time I reacted it was too late to brake and avoid crashing into the stopped cars so I brake and then pull off to the side swerving around cars and brake till I stop about 50 feet inside the car I would have hit.

I don't ride motorcycles anymore but I am certain if I had continued I would be dead by now with all the close calls I had.

 

[Luthien]

Originally posted by: KK

Originally posted by: Luthien

Originally posted by: SagaLore
I drowned.

Were you resusitated?

nah, he didn't make it.

lol, KK yeah it sounds like a dumb question when you say it like that but I drowned once and have no idea if I was resusitated or woke up on my own or what the hell happened. I wasn't taken to the hospital or anything either. I have always felt since then that drowning or suffocating isn't too horrible of a way to die. yeah the struggle to breathe sucks but once the lights start to go out its over.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

OK, Luthien, this is mighty creepy! Something similar happened to me right in the post above yours! And we posted at the same time! :shocked:

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Originally posted by: Luthien

Originally posted by: KK

Originally posted by: Luthien

Originally posted by: SagaLore
I drowned.

Were you resusitated?

nah, he didn't make it.

lol, KK yeah it sounds like a dumb question when you say it like that but I drowned once and have no idea if I was resusitated or woke up on my own or what the hell happened. I wasn't taken to the hospital or anything either. I have always felt since then that drowning or suffocating isn't too horrible of a way to die. yeah the struggle to breathe sucks but once the lights start to go out its over.

True, I've almost drowned once, which wasn't anywhere near death as my blood loss incident. Keeping my breath held sucked.

However, I heard that if you start breathing water before you lose consciousness, it is one of the worst pains in the world.

 

[JS80]

Hydroplaned across every lane upon entering the 405 south from Sunset Blvd. My life did flash before my eyes.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

People say that when you are about to die, life flashes before your eyes, however for me that is partially not true. While I drowned, I thought of how cool it would be to prove to myself that God didn't exist, how hungry I was, and how it sucked that I was drowning, it that order.

I attribute my complete retardation to lack of oxygen.

 

[lyssword]

I can't really remember any significant ones, but I remember big heavy scissors thrown at me I blocked it with my arm it got stuck in there a little bit 😛 Also being threatened with a knife several times by my siblings when we were younger (I think in a rage moment or something like that 😛)..
I have probably been many times in danger without realizing it tho, like being on tall building roofs/etc..

 

[Ricemarine]

Sliding down stairs... <--- never knew you could do that...

 

[SsupernovaE]

Respiratory arrest when I had pneumonia.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: effowe
That would have to be falling asleep at the wheel going 60mph and crashing into one of those big steel arrows that tells you to get over on the side of the road.

That reminds me, I was a kid and my dad and I were driving home on the 10 West and I was sleeping. For some reason I decided to wake up and after like a few seconds I notice that we are changing lanes from the #2 lane to the #1 lane. I didn't think much of it but after we merged to the #1 lane I noticed we were headed straight towards the middle divider so I grabbed the steering wheel and got us back on the lane. My dad had been snoozing for I don't know how long...if I had kept sleeping I can't imagine what would have happened.

 

[homercles337]

Originally posted by: Luthien

Originally posted by: homercles337
Which time? I have seen death at least 6 times.

Tell us all of them then 🙂.

The main ones chronologically:

I was about 3 or 4, tried to jump on my uncles back in the pool and proceeded to sink like a stone. My dad dove in a while later, retrieved me, and resuscitated me. I actually have memories of this.

At six i was miles from home on my bike and decided to ride down a crazy, rock-filled hill (peer pressure is a bitch). Cracked my head open. That was my first ambulance ride and hospital stay.

At 17, i was into extreme skiing (before i decided to start snowboarding) and got into jumping cliffs blind (ie, not spotting the landing, just going). I came down in a tree well and busted up my head and ribs well enough to go to the hospital after the excruciating pain of a ski patrol escort down.

At 18, i moved to LA and bought a motorcycle. I got some service done (brakes, tune, etc) and took a saturday ride in the hills. Shorts, t-shirt, no helmet (no law at that point), but i wasnt riding "hard" just fast. Brakes went out because they werent properly bled. I panicked and pumped them. The brakes locked and sent me high-side (ie, over the bars). 150 yards later i came to a stop with most of the left side of my body bleeding with road rash and a busted patella that was "exposed." Dislocated shoulder. Many other things. 7 days in the hospital and 6 months of rehab and i can now tell when the barometric pressure changes with my knee.

At 21, a long time friend and i decided to drive to another friend that was 300 miles away while breaking the land speed record--with 40s. Not smart. I was the copilot/navigator.

....

Last year, i went through massive organ failure (among many other things, 2006 was the WORST year of my life). I was hospitalized 3 times for 3-6 days at a time (over a couple months) while they treated symptoms. Many doctors told me that i should contact loved ones because it was likely that i could die if i didnt "improve over the night." I was in the hospital so much over the two months that i got to know all the nurses on my floor. To this day etiology is not exactly know (seems to be a perfect storm in my body) and it could come back any time. I will let you guys know when i die though 😉

 

[novasatori]

fell into a pool, twice (different pools) when I had a broken arm, was very young, and was saved both times - I still remember the view from underwater as I sank helplessly

one time driving my car down a dirt road it came to an abrupt end with a large industrial type fence (about 1ft thick steel pipes for vertical posts) the car hit one of the posts, stopped almost instantly from 45mph and rolled over, had we gone through the gate and not hit the posts, my friend and I would have launched off a 50ft cliff into a river in my car.

nearly sideswiped by a semi when driving down a highway, was in the left lane with nowhere to go and most of my family in the car, luckily I noticed it fast and the car had good breaks.

 

[rh71]

Fainted while driving home after rupturing my spleen in hockey and not realizing it (just had a weird feeling in my abdomen). Woke up in the middle of the road (small street, thankfully). Somehow I managed to put it in park before I blacked out completely (divine intervention?) Drove back to the dorm after pissing myself awake (another divine intervention?) and was about to go to bed (still not knowing I was bleeding). Then called the school medical building ... they recommended to get it checked out since anything in the abdomen is bad news. I fainted again as I got dropped off at the hospital... combination of dehydration and blood loss. Immediate CT scan and into surgery I went. 6 days and quite a few staples later I was out again but tons of bed-rest. Never knew you used stomach muscles so much... it hurt for a while.

 

[SonnyDaze]

Originally posted by: Kwaipie
SERE school in the Navy. oh wait, you said closest to death, not wanted to die.

:laugh: :laugh: From a former Marine.....that's funny!!

So does picking up live hand grenade count as close to death?

 

[FoBoT]

nothing really

i was in a minor car accident

maybe almost falling asleep driving a 20 ft penske truck?

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: rh71
Fainted while driving home after rupturing my spleen in hockey and not realizing it (just had a weird feeling in my abdomen). Woke up in the middle of the road (small street, thankfully). Somehow I managed to put it in park before I blacked out completely (divine intervention?) Drove back to the dorm after pissing myself awake (another divine intervention?) and was about to go to bed (still not knowing I was bleeding). Then called the school medical building ... they recommended to get it checked out since anything in the abdomen is bad news. I fainted again as I got dropped off at the hospital... combination of dehydration and blood loss. Immediate CT scan and into surgery I went. 6 days and quite a few staples later I was out again but tons of bed-rest. Never knew you used stomach muscles so much... it hurt for a while.

wow! what was the play, if you don't mind me asking?

for me it was almost drowning when i was a kid. i was swimming in a lake and walking out very far. there must have been a sinkhole on the lakebed because i lost my footing and couldn't tread water. i began to panic and drown. i passed out but a stranger on a nearby pier somehow made it out to where i was. he dragged me back to shore and threw me on the beach. my mom didn't even get to thank the guy, whoever it was.

 

[tomywishbone]

OD'in on smack in Mexico... totalling my Mustang high on PCP... Gettin' beat down & choked out by the pigs in Venezulea... who knows.

 

[RichardE]

Originally posted by: BigJ

Originally posted by: AStar617
Gun pulled on me at point blank range.

Wonderful experience isn't it? I've had the pleasure of it occurring more than once.

Same.

Only near death experience I have had besides OD'ing a few time was this. As the foolishness of youth 🙂

 

[RichardE]

Originally posted by: homercles337

Originally posted by: Luthien

Originally posted by: homercles337
Which time? I have seen death at least 6 times.

Tell us all of them then 🙂.

The main ones chronologically:

I was about 3 or 4, tried to jump on my uncles back in the pool and proceeded to sink like a stone. My dad dove in a while later, retrieved me, and resuscitated me. I actually have memories of this.

At six i was miles from home on my bike and decided to ride down a crazy, rock-filled hill (peer pressure is a bitch). Cracked my head open. That was my first ambulance ride and hospital stay.

At 17, i was into extreme skiing (before i decided to start snowboarding) and got into jumping cliffs blind (ie, not spotting the landing, just going). I came down in a tree well and busted up my head and ribs well enough to go to the hospital after the excruciating pain of a ski patrol escort down.

At 18, i moved to LA and bought a motorcycle. I got some service done (brakes, tune, etc) and took a saturday ride in the hills. Shorts, t-shirt, no helmet (no law at that point), but i wasnt riding "hard" just fast. Brakes went out because they werent properly bled. I panicked and pumped them. The brakes locked and sent me high-side (ie, over the bars). 150 yards later i came to a stop with most of the left side of my body bleeding with road rash and a busted patella that was "exposed." Dislocated shoulder. Many other things. 7 days in the hospital and 6 months of rehab and i can now tell when the barometric pressure changes with my knee.

At 21, a long time friend and i decided to drive to another friend that was 300 miles away while breaking the land speed record--with 40s. Not smart. I was the copilot/navigator.

....

Last year, i went through massive organ failure (among many other things, 2006 was the WORST year of my life). I was hospitalized 3 times for 3-6 days at a time (over a couple months) while they treated symptoms. Many doctors told me that i should contact loved ones because it was likely that i could die if i didnt "improve over the night." I was in the hospital so much over the two months that i got to know all the nurses on my floor. To this day etiology is not exactly know (seems to be a perfect storm in my body) and it could come back any time. I will let you guys know when i die though 😉

Thats odd. I totally forgot about that when I was 4 or 5 and jumping in a pool. I took off the floating devices that they had put on to try and swim on my own and sunk like a stone. I remember looking up from the bottom as my grandfather jumped in and grabbed me and pulled me up. Odd you remember things like that.

 

[chowmein]

15, my buddy dan pushed me in the deep end, i didn't know how to swim. then he jumped him, and also didn't know how to swim.
17, ran from the falling WTC

 

[homercles337]

Originally posted by: RichardE
Thats odd. I totally forgot about that when I was 4 or 5 and jumping in a pool. I took off the floating devices that they had put on to try and swim on my own and sunk like a stone. I remember looking up from the bottom as my grandfather jumped in and grabbed me and pulled me up. Odd you remember things like that.

Yea, to this day i still swim like a stone. Never could learn to swim with any technique that required putting my face under while "swimming." Most things with water are anxiety inducing.

 

[Strk]

Originally posted by: homercles337

Originally posted by: RichardE
Thats odd. I totally forgot about that when I was 4 or 5 and jumping in a pool. I took off the floating devices that they had put on to try and swim on my own and sunk like a stone. I remember looking up from the bottom as my grandfather jumped in and grabbed me and pulled me up. Odd you remember things like that.

Yea, to this day i still swim like a stone. Never could learn to swim with any technique that required putting my face under while "swimming." Most things with water are anxiety inducing.

Really? I find that odd, although, with what you said at the end, I suppose I could see that.

 

[Jahee]

Originally posted by: theprodigalrebel
This happened around 4 or 5 in the morning. I almost fell asleep while riding my motorcycle home and for a few seconds, my mind went blank and I lost all sense of the road. When I snapped out of it, I had only a split-second to slam my brakes as hard as I could. My bike skid through an intersection and stopped halfway though - right at that moment a truck zipped through the intersection at high-speed, literally a few feet away from me. I would have been a total goner.

I've had that happen a few times... Really scary


I had a 300 mile drive once, the night before i had no sleep at all so i was already tired, there was one time on the way back i started to get a little bit drowsy, nothing serious, next thing i know i can feel my eyes fluttering, i opened them and remembered thinking "Huh, whats goin on where am i?" for a second, seems like i drifted off to sleep for a couple of seconds. Thats the scary thing about driving when ur tired, you don't feel too bad them you blink and in a flash, you're sleeping.

Happened to my friend too, i was in the passenger seat kind of dozing off to sleep, something made me open my eyes and look at my friend, as i looked at him, his eyes were fluttering. seems he was really close to sleeping too!


I've been close to death so many times, way too many for my liking, i really thank the person who's keeping me alive... Seriously


Next i guess was on the motorway, being stupid and inexperienced, was doing about 90 mph in really wet weather.. Came round a bend and saw a car had crashed and was stopped in my lane, swerved to avoid it, went through a deep puddle and aquaplaned.. spun round a few times... Hit the central divider, spun some more, and stopped in the fast lane of the motorway. I'm so lucky there was no cars following me otherwise i'd be dead...

Another time i was fooling around with my friends and ran into the road, there was a van parked so i couldnt see oncoming traffic, got about 2 feet into the road and remember seeing headlights about an inch from my legs, apparently i spun about 10 feet into the air doing barrel rolls and landed on my head in the other lane, my shoe was ripped off about 50 feet down the road, amazingly though i just picked myself up and was fine, had a little cut on my head and a chipped bone in my wrist, but otherwise was fine... Luck!

Then there was that time i was racing about on my friends 50cc moped, was going about 40mph downhill, then realised my turn was coming up, i slammed on the brakes and somehow the front wheel locked up, the bike lurched over to the side but i managed to get my foot down to keep from sliding over on my side. Wouldnt have been so bad apart from the fact a truck was following me behind.

Lastly i guess was the time i was on holiday, i swam out to a little shipwreck about 40m off the shore with some of the local kids, misjudged my own fitness and got about 20m out then realised i couldnt swim anymore, i remember my legs burning from the lactic acid, i was really struggling to keep afloat, and started sinking, i was upto my chin in the water when i suddenly got the energy to stay afloat, regained my breath a bit and swam to shore, that was a close call..

Its interesting to see that most near misses on this thread involved someone and some kind of motor vehicle...

Death doesnt scare me so much, what im afraid of is leaving my loved ones, especially my mum, i still live with her and its just us two at the moment, and the thought of dying on her really hurts me, cant bare to think of it, how sad she'd be... 🙁

 

[SlitheryDee]

I was sleeping over at a friend's house back in my chemical experimenting (highschool) days and we were getting up to all sorts of ill-advised sh!t. We drank 8 or 9 beers each, took some prescription narcotics, sniffed a little paint thinner, and lit up a couple joints. At some point we decided that it would be a good idea to ride over to the local Wal-Mart and pick up a can of pressurized air duster for our inhaling pleasure. So we somehow make it over to the store in my friend's car without being picked up by the five-oh and we get the stuff. I was eager to begin killing off those nonessential brain cells so I had the can unwrapped and hissing before we even left the parking lot. After a bit my bud gets jealous and demands that I give him the can so that he might partake as well. At this point I'm WAY to lit to have any sort better judgement (he was driving) and, after taking a huge lungful of whatever it is that they put in those things, I handed him the can...and passed out.

Waking up was weird. It was like a car horn blaring nonstop and slowly someone was turning the volume up and up and up until I realized that what I was hearing WAS a car horn, and my face burned. As I regained consciousness I became aware of my surroundings. The dashboard in front of the passenger seat where I was sitting was in pieces. This was apparently caused by the passenger side airbag activating and also accounted for my burning face ( I had heard that airbags could burn you but hadn't really given it much thought to it before then). I looked up and saw that the car was partially underneath a semi trailer and I finally realized what had happened. I looked to my left and saw my friend still unconscious in the driver's seat and shook him until he woke up.

I think we were lucky to have made it through that alive. Jumping a median and running under a semi is one thing, but what if it had happened while we were crossing the Mississippi River Bridge? I stopped doing that kind of stuff after that.

 

[homercles337]

Originally posted by: Strk

Originally posted by: homercles337

Originally posted by: RichardE
Thats odd. I totally forgot about that when I was 4 or 5 and jumping in a pool. I took off the floating devices that they had put on to try and swim on my own and sunk like a stone. I remember looking up from the bottom as my grandfather jumped in and grabbed me and pulled me up. Odd you remember things like that.

Yea, to this day i still swim like a stone. Never could learn to swim with any technique that required putting my face under while "swimming." Most things with water are anxiety inducing.

Really? I find that odd, although, with what you said at the end, I suppose I could see that.

For 3 years in elementary school (4th - 6th) we would go swimming for a week at time (im sure it wasnt the whole week). THere were classes , beginner, intermediate, expert, and advanced. By the end of the three years i never made it out of beginner. I was the only 6th grader that was swimming with the 4th graders. Yep, im a head case.