Whats the most traumatic thing you've ever experienced?

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crab

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2001
7,330
19
81
When I broke my neck..I can even remember hitting the water, then the bottom of the pool. I floated to the top face down, and couldnt move or breath.
 

Tallgeese

Diamond Member
Feb 26, 2001
5,775
1
0
One particular accident in the ditch outside my parent's home in OH.
I looked under the flipped car and saw this dude all sprawled out on the rip rap in the ditch. He was severely screwed up...covered in blood...barely moving.He was taken by Care-Flight.

Luckily for me I didn't ever see the baby that was crushed in its (unsecured :|) car seat on the other side.
My father did tho...that was when he told me to go up the road and help divert traffic.
 

UNCjigga

Lifer
Dec 12, 2000
25,629
10,335
136
#1: Grampa died in my arms of a heart attack while I was (unsuccessfully) administering CPR. Never bothered to refresh my CPR training and threw out my AHA cert. card :(. I might have been able to save him sooner if I knew what was going on...I had the day off from school and I was sleeping in so when my gramma asked me to get a glass of water for grampa cuz he was 'coughing' I took my sweet time getting out of bed :(

#2: Was in Atlanta's Olympic Park during '96 olympics when the bomb went off. We were almost outside and we were waiting for my big sister to get back from the portajohns, and the bomb sound came from there. I was so scared that someone had put a bomb in the portajohns (yah okay sounds dumb now!) and all these cops came swarming, asking us kindly to 'GET THE FSCK OUT!' Ran across the street to CNN Center and watched reporters/cameramen RUSH out...and 20 seconds after we got there CNN went to 'Breaking News'! We found my sister in the lobby and watched CNN on TVs in the lobby until security asked us to leave.

#3: Watched two planes crash at an airshow (Toronto Air Show, late 80s/early 90s, over Lake Ontario, dad got on the news!) Scared of flying for two years...

#4: Watched a policeman scoop up body parts with a shovel after some idiot thought it would be possible to run ACROSS Hwy. 401 and came face-to-face with a Mack truck (Mississauga). Gawkers slowed traffic down enough so I got a damn good view :( First time I'd seen dismembered body parts and internal organs up close (and lots and lots of blood.)
 

nord1899

Platinum Member
Jun 18, 2001
2,444
0
0
Heres a few of mine and some friends:

For me, the two most traumatic so far are my dad dying from cancer while I was in my 2nd year of college. Last saw him alive during Thanksgiving break, two weeks later I head home for his funeral. Totally screwed me up school wise the whole year. The other one was something wrong with my stomach (think stomach gas but a lot worse), went to the hospital where I emptied the contents of my stomach along with some blood. Found out the next day when I woke up from sedation, that I had a tear in my esphogus (sp?) right above my stomach. Not fun.

But two of my friends have had some really frightening experiences.
One was driving on I-81 in Virginia near Roanoke. Lots of traffic so people are stopped in this hilly area. My friend looks in her rear-view mirror to see a tractor-trailer's brakes fail and coming straight for her. Luckily, only the backseat was destroyed (if anyone had been back there they would be dead). But she saw one guy in a separate incident at the same time that was on fire running around. Took her a while before she could use the backseat of a car.
Another friend was driving on some backroads in his Supra and got run off by a person in a truck. Ended up wrapping the passenger side of the car around a tree. To grasp the damage done to the car, the passenger door could be used as an arm rest for the driver. He had part of the A pillar in his head which caused him to lose peripheral vision in his right eye and has a small piece of his brain in a jar from the surgery to save his life.

Quite freaky world out there.
 

Desslok

Diamond Member
Jun 14, 2001
3,780
11
81
I worked on a lawn crew when I was going to High School v2.0(ie Community College). Well one day one of the guys noticed a branch caught in his Cal. Trimmer's chain drive. When he tried to remove it his glove on caught and his middle finger went with the chain through the sproket and got crushed. I can still her the cry of pain that he screamed. I was in a different part of the lawn with ear plugs in with the Trimmer's engine going and I still heard it as though he was next to me.
 

teddymines

Senior member
Jul 6, 2001
940
0
0
Getting wacked on the temple with a tabasco bottle while perched on top of a lean-to in the middle of the night. My buddy was eating raw clams and tabasco and decided to hurl the bottle into the woods. It slipped, hit me in the right temple, and I lost my vision and control of my legs for about 1 minute. Scary when on the peak of a roof.

My balance and vision was wacked for about 4 hours afterward. Everything was tilted and the ground felt like it was constantly spinning. I had trouble walking my bike back to the dorm (yes, college idiocy at its peak). I thought I had a ruptured brain or something.
 

Jzero

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
18,834
1
0
Mine aren't really gruesome or disturbing, but they have affected me ever since.

The first is when I was like 3 or 4, we went to Busch Gardens and my parents bought me a balloon. I always loved balloons. Anyway, I was at the age where being a "big boy" is all the rage, and I didn't want the balloon tied to my wrist or the back of my stroller, I insisted on holding it myself.
Of course, I let it slip through my fingers and I sat in my stroller crying as I watched my beautiful balloon float up into the sky and there was nothing I could do.
My parents were nice enough to buy me another balloon which I tied to my wrist, but for some reason I remember that moment clear as day, and I get a little misty-eyed just thinking about it.
And to this day I get really tense and nervous anytime I have to hold a helium balloon.

The other is when I was working as a Peer Advisor in my dorm for 2 years, and at the end of my 3rd year, out of the blue after always telling me what a great job I was doing, they told me at my review that I pretty much sucked and I wasn't being rehired for my senior year.
I eventually had their decision overturned (Guess what? You have to let employees know if you are changing their job requirements!), and kept my job my last year, but to this day, even though I think I'm doing a good job, anytime I have a review (which is quarterly at my company!) I get really freaked out.

 

ScottyB

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2002
6,677
1
0
Lets see....

1) I slipped in the bathroom when I was younger and crushed a vein in my leg on the tub, the doctor said that if I would have crushed the vein 1/4 inch to the right I would have had to have it amputated.

2) I almost cut my thumb off a month ago, while cutting a pepper. The doctors at the emergency room just kept walking by me. One commented "Someone lost a finger" and kept walking.

3) I fell through the the ice on a river before.

4) I got hit in the face by a fastball from 10 feet away and broke my nose.
 

LethalWolfe

Diamond Member
Apr 14, 2001
3,679
0
0
2x when I was little (~4-7 years old) I had to get "heimliched" to get candy out of my throat. This was the "air way blocked" kinda choking, not the "air way impared" kind. I still can't take pills w/o crushing them up or something, and if I accidentally swallow a piece of ice while drinking a coke or something I'll start shaking. Weird.

A year and a half ago a friend of mine shot and killed himself. But I don't think I can attach the term "traumatic" to that event. It goes beyond trauma...


Lethal
 

Evadman

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Feb 18, 2001
30,990
5
81
I had a snow boarder die basicly in my arms on January 13th 1998 at VO. My first year being a Ski Patroler, and a snow boarder named Dan Bradley decided to try doing an inverted aerial manuver ( a flip ) which is expressly forbidden. Well he landed on his head and broke his neck. I saw it, and flew down there. I watched the life flicker from his eyes while I could do NOTHING. that is the worst fealing in the world.

I am sure 911paramedic has seen the same thing. I NEVER want to see it again.
 

Hubris

Platinum Member
Jul 14, 2001
2,749
0
0
A few years ago, my dog (who we'd had for almost as long as I can remember) got really sick. I came out of my room one morning and found him lying outside my door as usual, but the hall reeked of urine. He had peed where he lay and was still lying in it. He thumped his tail when I opened the door (which is even more tragic, cause he was so happy to see me) but couldn't get up. So we took him to the vet and found out he needed to be put to sleep. My sister did it (he was "her" dog before she moved out) and I couldn't go, I was so upset. Last time I really cried was when she and her fiance put him in the car. I loved that dog so much.

Not on the traumatic scale, really, but it's affected me ever since; when I was five or so (must have been six or seven, actually, cause we were in the house we're in now) and I was eating lobster for the first time. I was digging it, liked it, when a friend of my moms looked over and she said with disgust "Eww, he ripped the head off!" I whigged; ran from the table crying. To this day I won't eat seafood at all (except tuna which has to be smothered with mayo and have pickles in it). B!tch.
 

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
62,484
8,345
126
The first time I saw my grandmother after she had her stroke will probably be with me for the rest of my life. Before her stroke, she was as energetic and as fiesty as a 5 year old. Always smiling, always upbeat, and pretty much full of life.

After she had a stroke, she lost most motor functions on the entire left side of her body. She couldn't smile (which is the most memorable part of my grandmother) anymore, she had trouble talking, she couldn't get around the house without the use of a cane. She had lost all of that fire inside that made her seem invincible to me as a child. She just wasn't my grandmother anymore.

It was like she had died, but was still alive.
 

ScottyB

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2002
6,677
1
0
Originally posted by: LethalWolfe
2x when I was little (~4-7 years old) I had to get "heimliched" to get candy out of my throat. This was the "air way blocked" kinda choking, not the "air way impared" kind. I still can't take pills w/o crushing them up or something, and if I accidentally swallow a piece of ice while drinking a coke or something I'll start shaking. Weird.

A year and a half ago a friend of mine shot and killed himself. But I don't think I can attach the term "traumatic" to that event. It goes beyond trauma...


Lethal



I got a half of a hamburger stuck in my throat before, and I use to swallow a handfull of spagetti at a time and then pull it out of my throat, reswallow and pull backout :D
 

Lounatik

Golden Member
Oct 10, 1999
1,845
1
0
Used to repair air conditioners,and one day I was screwing around banging on top of the a/c( a little window job) and wham!My right hand slipped into the back of the unit. Two plastic blades broke as they struck my pinky.Needless to say I was off to the ER. My finger was cut off at the bone and was hanging by the fold of the knuckle joint and I also cut the nailbed practically off. But it gets better: In the operating room(5 hours worth of surgery) I was locally anesthesized up to my shoulder and awake. The doctor told me to let him know when I was starting to feel some pain. After telling him it was really starting to hurt, he told the anesthesiologist to get some more pain medicine. Guess what? The dumbass didnt have the key for the medicine cabinet! Now I am screaming like a schoolgirl because the bone in my finger is being scraped free of plastic stuck in it and my finger is in pieces on the OR table. Now I am back in shock shaking,freaking out and the such and the doctor says: I DONT CARE IF YOU HAVE TO BREAK THE FSKING GLASS,GET ME THE MEDICINE NOW! They finally got the cabinet key and gave me at least three shots of morphine before sending me off to la la land. This happened about twelve years ago and I can picture it like it was yesterday.



Peace


Lounatik
 

NikPreviousAcct

No Lifer
Aug 15, 2000
52,763
1
0
Out of everything that I've ever been through, spending a week with my babygirl for spring break, then having to watch her leave at the airport to go back to college in california is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

nik
 

IcemanJer

Diamond Member
Mar 9, 2001
4,307
0
0
holy sh!t some of these stories are horrifying!

I guess so far I've lived a rather calm life.. the most, well I wouldn't say traumatic... more like the scariest moment I guess happened a few weeks ago. I just started playing goal for my college's club hockey team. Since it was like the first week of season I didn't get a chance to get some of the equipments I needed. During practice one day I took a slapshot to the neck, pretty much the only place on me that was left uncovered. Luckily the puck hit me between the collarbone and the trachea, and left me with a massive bruise. If it were an inch to either side......
 

aphex

Moderator<br>All Things Apple
Moderator
Jul 19, 2001
38,572
2
91
Originally posted by: ffmcobalt
Out of everything that I've ever been through, spending a week with my babygirl for spring break, then having to watch her leave at the airport to go back to college in california is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

nik

I can vouch for that... Saying goodbye to Danielle after the week she spent out here in Europe visiting me was one of the hardest things ive ever had to do...
 

Fausto

Elite Member
Nov 29, 2000
26,521
2
0
Physically: I crashed doing about 40 or so in a bicycle race back in college. Skinned most of the right side of my body and took a huge gouge out of my right knee (exposed most of the lower half of the patellar tendon....gross). Pretty much went into shock, was ambulanced to the nearest hospital.....the whole nine yards. Not fun. For a good idea what this might be like, stick your head out the window of a car moving at 40mph, look at the ground rushing by and imagine what it might feel like to jump out wearing nothing but spandex and a helmet. :Q

Mentally: Most recent thing was having to put my greyhound down this past spring. We'd had to put family pets down when I was growing up and it was always hard, but this was the first pet that was solely mine that had to be euthanized. She was a rescued racer and lived to the ripe old age of 14, but it was still one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do....even though I knew there was no choice. Still makes me sad to think about it. :(
 

Viper GTS

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
38,107
433
136
Originally posted by: aphexII
Originally posted by: ffmcobalt
Out of everything that I've ever been through, spending a week with my babygirl for spring break, then having to watch her leave at the airport to go back to college in california is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

nik

I can vouch for that... Saying goodbye to Danielle after the week she spent out here in Europe visiting me was one of the hardest things ive ever had to do...

I get to do that every six months.

Not fun.

Viper GTS
 

Kev

Lifer
Dec 17, 2001
16,367
4
81
Originally posted by: Lounatik
Used to repair air conditioners,and one day I was screwing around banging on top of the a/c( a little window job) and wham!My right hand slipped into the back of the unit. Two plastic blades broke as they struck my pinky.Needless to say I was off to the ER. My finger was cut off at the bone and was hanging by the fold of the knuckle joint and I also cut the nailbed practically off. But it gets better: In the operating room(5 hours worth of surgery) I was locally anesthesized up to my shoulder and awake. The doctor told me to let him know when I was starting to feel some pain. After telling him it was really starting to hurt, he told the anesthesiologist to get some more pain medicine. Guess what? The dumbass didnt have the key for the medicine cabinet! Now I am screaming like a schoolgirl because the bone in my finger is being scraped free of plastic stuck in it and my finger is in pieces on the OR table. Now I am back in shock shaking,freaking out and the such and the doctor says: I DONT CARE IF YOU HAVE TO BREAK THE FSKING GLASS,GET ME THE MEDICINE NOW! They finally got the cabinet key and gave me at least three shots of morphine before sending me off to la la land. This happened about twelve years ago and I can picture it like it was yesterday.



Peace


Lounatik
Wow, that's messed up. This is the only story so far that has actually made me squirm.

 

Cerebus451

Golden Member
Nov 30, 2000
1,425
0
76
The worst for me is probably when I was about 6 or 7, at my uncle's house in Florida. I was walking around his pool and slipped and fell into the deep end. I woke up a short while later lying next to the pool. Fortunately my cousin caught me falling in out of the corner of his eye and jumped in and pulled me out. To this day I am extremely afraid of water. I won't get into water where I can't see the bottom, and I don't like to go under water unless I have goggles on so I can see the bottom.

I've also grown afraid of heights, though I have no idea why. As a kid I loved to climb the big apple tree in our back yard. I think it's just that as I got older I began to learn what could happen if you fall as opposed to not caring. Being afraid of heights and water makes me a complete wreck going over bridges. Not fun at all.

A couple of pet related ones too:
1) When I was in the second grade I had a guinea pig, and we would let him go outside on occasion. One time we had him outside when some friends came over and we went off to play, forgetting he was outside. A while later a dog no one had ever seen came walking by with something hanging out of its mouth. Turns out it was my guinea pig. I went crying into the house trying to find my mom, running up and down the stairs, before I finally figured out she was next door babysitting.
2) More recently, when I was moving from Virginia back to Pittsburgh, I had my 2 year old cat with me. We were almost done with the journey when she let out the most horrific howl I have ever hear and then flopped over in her cage. At first I thought maybe she had hurt herself changing positions or something, and I hurried to find a place on the highway to pull over. When I finally got pulled over and was able to pull her out, I thought it was strange that her body was completely limp, and it took a while for me to realise that her pupils were fully dilated and she was dead. Turns out she had a congenital heart defect and the stress of moving was too much for her. She was a great cat and I still miss her (the two cats I have now are good cats, but are not anywhere near as friendly as she was).
 

tweakmm

Lifer
May 28, 2001
18,436
4
0
I was probably 7-8 and I was walking down my street to my friends house. All of a sudden 3 or 4 high school guys surround me and start talking to me. They ask me some questions and about a minute later out of nowhere they start beating me up. I tried to run, but they grabbed my hair and threw me to the ground. I was screaming the whole time and luckily some guy who was working on a flower bed in the park heard me and scared the kids off. I was shaking for the rest of the night. The kids happened to be black and up until I was 11 or 12, I was extremely racist, but in the sense that whenever I was around a younger black person I would get extremely nervous. I didnt realise how rediculus racisism was until I got some friends who were black, and I realised that basing a race of the actions of couple people was extremely ignorant.
 

tweakmm

Lifer
May 28, 2001
18,436
4
0
Originally posted by: Lounatik
Used to repair air conditioners,and one day I was screwing around banging on top of the a/c( a little window job) and wham!My right hand slipped into the back of the unit. Two plastic blades broke as they struck my pinky.Needless to say I was off to the ER. My finger was cut off at the bone and was hanging by the fold of the knuckle joint and I also cut the nailbed practically off. But it gets better: In the operating room(5 hours worth of surgery) I was locally anesthesized up to my shoulder and awake. The doctor told me to let him know when I was starting to feel some pain. After telling him it was really starting to hurt, he told the anesthesiologist to get some more pain medicine. Guess what? The dumbass didnt have the key for the medicine cabinet! Now I am screaming like a schoolgirl because the bone in my finger is being scraped free of plastic stuck in it and my finger is in pieces on the OR table. Now I am back in shock shaking,freaking out and the such and the doctor says: I DONT CARE IF YOU HAVE TO BREAK THE FSKING GLASS,GET ME THE MEDICINE NOW! They finally got the cabinet key and gave me at least three shots of morphine before sending me off to la la land. This happened about twelve years ago and I can picture it like it was yesterday.
Peace
Lounatik
I hope that they apologized profusely and then gave you some extra fun fun medicince ;)