Why are you alive?

[allisolm]

Good on you for not causing a plane wide panic.

I can just imagine a Karen going, "Fire! FiiiiiRRRRREEEEE! Get out of the way! Open the door! FIRE!!!!"

Well, to be honest, after I saw that there was no commotion at all in the cabin, I did lean across the aisle and quietly ask the elderly man there to look out his window and see if his engines were okay because mine were on fire. I was a 19 yr-old smart aleck (as opposed to the much older smart aleck I am now.) He started gasping and grabbed his chest. I thought "OMG! I've caused a heart attack!" That scared me more than the fire. Now it just seems funny. Fortunately, he was okay.

 

[Captante]

My first car was an IRL muscle-car. (Buick Skylark GS-455 "stage 1")

At the time my buddy and I worked for a european car-leasing company. (mainly BMW and Mercedes but some real exotics)

I was in my car and my buddy was in a client's 5 series M class. Going up this huge hill he decided he was going to show me that M-class was in fact the "ultimate driving machine" and punched it away from me. Being mostly insane and never one to back down from a race back then, I immediately FLOORED the accelerator, and after a short burnout from the downshift the chase was on.

A few seconds later I made the positively brilliant decision to PASS my friend going up that steep hill into a blind turn.

As I rounded said blind turn at approaching 100 mph in a 4-wheel drift I saw HEADLIGHTS coming straight at me !!!!

Miraculously I managed to avoid a 100% fatal head-on collision by yanking the wheel to the left as hard as I could (thank goodness for video-game reflexes!) but 1970 muscle-cars were NOT known for emergency handling and I instantly spun out. Went round and round down the other side of the hill ending up on the grass facing the opposite direction after 5-6 revolutions.... somehow everyone emerged unscathed.

Rode back up to check on the poor other guy who was just sitting in his car stalled in the middle of the road... he was crying. I'd love to tell you this CLEAR WARNING incident slowed me down but it did not.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I know there have to be more incidents of note but drawing a blank. Will come back here if any are worth mentioning.

No incidents of the kind where you were with your girl in HER house and her parents returned and you had to jump out from her bedroom window?

 

[igor_kavinski]

Miraculously I managed to avoid a 100% fatal head-on collision by yanking the wheel to the left as hard as I could (thank goodness for video-game reflexes!) but 1970 muscle-cars were NOT known for emergency handling and I instantly spun out. Went round and round down the other side of the hill ending up on the grass facing the opposite direction after 5-6 revolutions.... somehow everyone emerged unscathed.

I bet your life could be turned into a blockbuster, judging just from this single incident.

Danger loving guys like you also get the hottest chicks

 

[RPD]

Dad went out with my mom and left me with her one time.

 

[NuclearNed]

I have 2 stories which are remarkably similar to each other - where they happened is the main difference.
One time I was on top of El Capitan in Yosemite - at about 7500'. The other time I was on the continental divide in Rocky Mountain NP - around 10k' - 11k'. Both times I was backpacking with my buddy Doug when an electrical storm hit us with little warning. There was nowhere to seek shelter, so we hiked as fast as we could to try to reach safety. We quite literally thought we were going to die...

 

[Pohemi]

8 yrs old, severe DKA that was so bad, I was taken on a flight-for-life chopper from Green Bay to Madison UW hospital. My A1c was 16+ and my estimated glucose level was ~2500 according to doctors. I didn't know how close I was to death at that time, maybe I was too young or the doctors weren't relaying the same statements to me as they were my parents. They couldn't believe I wasn't already comatose.

Another very similar episode maybe 8 years back. Was extremely sick with a stomache flu, and at one point, slept for an entire day. Welp, that also meant missing my insulin doses. By the time I was awake and out of bed, I wasn't able to walk. I was crawling around on all 4s. Severe DKA once again, and by the time I called 911 and they got me to the hospital, my kidneys were failing and failing hard. Spent 4 days in the ICU and another 6 in a reg hospital bed. Docs said if I came in a few hours later, they might not have saved me.

The other instances like outcomes of car racing, or getting caught in undertow while surfing? (these did exist/happen)

Relatively? Pshaw.

 

[Hacana]

It was in our neighborhood that had street parking. Basically, I rode my bike out onto the road in between a large van and car. Small enough that you couldn't see me. Had a car basically stop 6 inches away from me. Their headlight was the same height as my face. Scared the crap out of me, rode my bike home and didn't go out for a couple of days.

 

[Captante]

Danger loving guys like you also get the hottest chicks

NOW if somebody would only tell the hottest chicks that!

 

[igor_kavinski]

NOW if somebody would only tell the hottest chicks that!

Walk around wearing that, IN STYLE

 

[Mai72]

I like watching the NDE videos on YouTube.

There was one video that had some guy go into hell and he had to fight his way out. The video isn't up anymore.

Don't know if it was real though.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Rihanna is popular in Hell: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/guy-says-had-heart-attack-215800324.html

 

[Muse]

I was hired at The Haleakala Dairy on Maui. My favorite was saddling up a horse and riding out and bringing home one of the 3 herds of Holsteins. The foreman one day early on showed me how to work their old tractor and directed me to shove a pile of moldy feed grain over the edge of a cliff using the tractor. As I came to the edge I wasn't sure how to stop the thing. I had a second or two, couldn't figure it out. I tried to kind of work my way off my seat so I'd fall backward, behind the tractor as it went over the cliff. Fortunately, the tractor got tangled in the limbs of some vegetation and didn't fall down really far, just a few feet, and my descent was stopped. I had had the idea that I was about to die (to me it was just a cliff, and had never looked over the edge, it could have been a fall of hundreds of feet for all I knew) but I didn't. I suffered bruised, maybe cracked ribs and they sent me to their physician. He falsely wrote that I'd fallen or something leaving out the tractor involvement to cover their asses in case I sued them. Not that I would have sued them. In fact I've never sued anyone or any company. Anyway, I continued working there for some months.

 

[biostud]

I was hired at The Haleakala Dairy on Maui. My favorite was saddling up a horse and riding out and bringing home one of the 3 herds. The foreman one day early on showed me how to work their old tractor and directed me to shove a pile of moldy feed grain over the edge of a cliff using the tractor. As I came to the edge I wasn't sure how to stop the thing. I had a second or two, couldn't figure it out. I tried to kind of work my way off my seat so I'd fall backward, behind the tractor as it went over the cliff. Fortunately, the tractor got tangled in the limbs of some vegetation and didn't fall down really far, just a few feet, and my descent was stopped. I had had the idea that I was about to die (to me it was just a cliff, and had never looked over the edge, it could have been a fall of hundreds of feet for all I knew) but I didn't. I suffered bruised, maybe cracked ribs and they sent me to their physician. He falsely wrote that I'd fallen or something leaving out the tractor involvement to cover their asses in case I sued them. Not that I would have sued them. In fact I've never sued anyone or any company. Anyway, I continued working there for some months.

So the lesson is, when driving towards a cliff it is good to know how to stop. I'll keep that in mind.

 

[snoopy7548]

I had to have my appendix taken out when I was in high school.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I had to have my appendix taken out when I was in high school.

Eat plenty of veggies and salads!

 

[Muse]

I had to have my appendix taken out when I was in high school.

I called a friend one day because I'd expected a call and his wife informed me that he'd had appendicitis and went to his HMO, Kaiser Permanente, and somehow it didn't work out... he died. She said to cherish every moment because...

 

[Muse]

So the lesson is, when driving towards a cliff it is good to know how to stop. I'll keep that in mind.

I thought I knew, I found out I didn't, had a few seconds (5-10) to figure it out...

 

[sportage]

Driving back to San Diego from a visit to iOwa in the 80s. A friend and myself as passengers, I was doing the driving of my red two seater Triumph Spitfire. 1Am on the freeway, my passenger sleeping in the passengers seat, I guess I dozed off for moment and suddenly snapped awake just as I was flying towards the cement pillar of the overpass. Only yards away from certain death. I jerked the car back to the road and the car began oscillating. Moving left to right, and I knew if I corrected too fast the car would flip over. I just kept trying to reduce the oscillating effect without losing control. Pretty much driving by the sear of my pants, thank goodness for those flying lessons. I could tell any abrupt change in steering or speed I would lose it, so I slowly regained control driving straight and narrow once again.

Frankly, we should have died that night. My waking up one second later and I would have hit the cement pillar, in a two seater, a Triumph Spitfire made of recycled tin cans (pretty much), and I was not wearing a seatbelt.
Sometimes I wonder about life. Maybe I did hit the pillar and died, but life is eternal thus my future was at that moment altered so that I survived the near death experience. Like getting fatally shot with a gun. To everyone else you were shot and died, but to yourself you entered an alternate dimension where you did not die and life goes on. Like, maybe all those passengers on the Titanic were rescued and continued living within their alternate dimension.

Knew I should have not driven that late that night but San Diego was only 33 hours away. Easy, I thought. And I had done it before with no problem. Just a nap or two here and there at a rest stop and I was fine.
Then again, maybe I'm dead?

 

[IronWing]

Why am I here?

Fate smiled and destiny Laughed.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I got hit by a van while riding a motorcycle, trying to cross a street, THE WRONG WAY.

Flew several feet into the air. Landed on my hands and feet. The van driver applied brakes so that helped matters though it still messed up my right foot pretty bad. Couldn't walk on it for a week.

 

[tcsenter]

Driving back to San Diego from a visit to iOwa in the 80s. A friend and myself as passengers, I was doing the driving of my red two seater Triumph Spitfire. 1Am on the freeway, my passenger sleeping in the passengers seat, I guess I dozed off for moment and suddenly snapped awake just as I was flying towards the cement pillar of the overpass. Only yards away from certain death. I jerked the car back to the road and the car began oscillating. Moving left to right, and I knew if I corrected too fast the car would flip over. I just kept trying to reduce the oscillating effect without losing control. Pretty much driving by the sear of my pants, thank goodness for those flying lessons. I could tell any abrupt change in steering or speed I would lose it, so I slowly regained control driving straight and narrow once again.

Nice one! I got too many of these stories to recount without feeling somewhat sick at my stomach. Was diagnosed with narcolepsy at 31 but in retrospect absolutely had it since at least I was 17, going undiagnosed all those years. More mildly in the beginning but became increasingly off the hook until it peaked around 23 or 24. Almost unbelievable number of times that I blanked out or nodded off and narrowly averted disasters at the last moments to correct. Like dozens and dozens. I no longer drive.

 

[Captante]

When I was younger I used to be a (semi) extreme expert skier. (I was no Glen Plake lol but I was pretty crazy)

My buddies and I were in the midst of an approx 2-week "ski-bum" vacation @ Killington VT.

We had decided to spend that particular day skiing at the neighboring much smaller Pico Peak just to change it up. (they used to have beautiful gladed skiing near the summit) Pico was a "classic" ski area back in the day with a large double-chairlift that ran directly from the base all the way to the summit above a "base to summit" mostly low-level expert non-stop run.

That day was one with "flat light"... in other words it was mostly cloudy and seeing the change from "snow to sky" was tough. The issue is that dips, bumps and in this case CROSSING beginner-runs were nearly invisible.

One of my buddies and I had been going back and forth about who was the better/crazier skier (obviously it was me!) and so we decided to settle the matter by doing a sincere impression of Franz Klammer on that aforementioned top to bottom run and racing it.

We lined up at the bottom of the headwall (super steep "double black diamond" first 100 yards) and started down in full "tuck-mode".

Remember when I mentioned terrible visibility and crossing (flat!) beginner runs?

At what I'm guessing was somewhere between 50-60 mph my buddy and I were positively FLYING down that run with me a tiny bit in the lead (naturally!) when at the same moment we both realized we were about 20 feet from one of those LEVEL traverses. (that slope was steep!)

My buddy Greg (being SLIGHTLY less nuts AND slightly behind me as a direct result!) slammed on the brakes and caught some air... maybe 10 feet ... and landed it staying sorta in control and stopping.

I did not.

Per the ski patrol guy who clipped off my lift-ticket (fully deserved!) I was a good 30-40 feet in the air @ 60 mph and flew OVER several other skiers before sticking the landing perfectly BUT then catching an edge and going ass over tea-kettle 200 feet down the slope in a complete "yard sale" *(all of a skiers gear scattered over the slope) narrowly missing several horrified fellow skiers.

People on the packed chairlift were cheering when I stood up. (and was still alive lol... I'm sure it looked like I was riding the rest of the way down in a rescue sled!)

Somehow I was pretty much fine despite appearances except for having snow CRAMMED into every crevice of my body and a bunch of bruises. Oh and having to spring for a replacement half-day lift ticket! Even my glasses stayed intact under my goggles .... and not only was I right back out there without hesitation, my buddy and I were racing again before the day was out. It was a minor miracle I didn't tumble right into a tree or lift-tower!

 

[igor_kavinski]

Almost unbelievable number of times that I blanked out or nodded off and narrowly averted disasters at the last moments to correct. Like dozens and dozens. I no longer drive.

Caffeine doesn't help?

 

[tcsenter]

Caffeine doesn't help?

Define 'help'. It does to varying degrees depending on the individual and other factors that can vary from one day to the next but for many including myself, the amount (i.e. dose) of caffeine that I would need on a bad day in order to have any meaningful effect would be high enough to court all the undesirable side effects of excessive caffeine; elevated heart rate (sometimes to the point of palpitations, extra beats a.k.a. extra systoles or PVC), anxiety and 'the jitters' feeling, increased sweating, nausea, dry mouth.

OK now that this got me thinking, to add to my post above I have a story that is pretty amusing I think. It was a 40 minute drive each way to college, one early morning about 5:30a ~ 6a I was on the interstate going to school. Almost half way there and I'm really struggling to stay alert. Started feeling the road hypnosis and blanking mentally (like day dreaming), then the nods began. Half second ones, not long enough to start drifting over to one side or another before snapping to but I just couldn't get fully awake/alert. So I decide to get off the interstate at the next exit about 3/4 mile ahead, go to a convenience store and try to wake myself up with some cold water splash onto the face, grab some caffeine, run around the building a few times before continuing.

This next exit ramp is mildly banked and elevated exit that splits from an overpass bridge and has full 360 degree curve-around to the destination street under the interstate. It's also 45 mph max. I am straddling the line between nodding off and not as I approach, do not comprehend how close I am to the start of the curve and enter the deceleration lane segment doing about 65mph. I snap out of it and realize I'm coming in hot, try to brake and negotiate the curve without losing control and I end up doing the Tokyo drift around the first 1/3 of the curve, went off the pavement onto the shoulder and then onto the grass embankment still sliding sideways, took out about three of the little reflector poles that line the outside of the curve. Came to rest in a cloud of dust facing the opposite direction.

Freaking out a bit, looking around wondering if other vehicles were coming and whatnot. The funny part is that there was literally no one around. This exit is normally quite trafficked in the mornings, especially by COPS. This exit is home to a State Police post or barrack for that area. And normally, every time I am driving past this exit, you can reliably see State troopers because this is the time they usually begin their shifts, fanning out in all directions and assignment to start their patrol day.

For some reason, there were NONE on the road at that time, at least not nearby enough to have seen what happened. So I quickly gather myself and get back on the pavement and continue. No problem staying awake for the rest of the trip!