8. Almost Slipped Away From You
When I was little my family went to Mexico for a holiday vacation. I was playing in the ocean when I felt myself being pulled out to sea. My parents were distracted, but I remember looking up at my sister screaming just as my head went under the water. I’m not sure how long I was underwater, but two guys came out of nowhere, dragged me out of the water, and as quickly as they appeared, they were gone. My parents looked all over the beach and never found them.
Pixabay
9. Close Encounter with a Death Drop
In the middle of a massive bout of depression, I blacked out walking to the bathroom. Seemingly came out of nowhere. Slipped, fell, knocked everything off the counter, and hit my head. Didn’t pass out but was too dizzy to try to stand. The feeling passed eventually, but I’d lost about ten minutes when I looked at my watch. Doctor later speculated that I was severely dehydrated and hungry since I hadn’t eaten or drank anything that I could remember.
10. My Heart Beats for Three
This isn't as bad as others, but I started having esophageal spasms in the tail end of my second pregnancy. The only way to describe it is what I imagine a heart attack feels like. It's slow and starts up in your throat like you swallowed something too big, and then squeezes and moves downward toward your chest. It feels like someone set you on fire inside, and when it gets to your sternum it starts radiating through your chest and through to your upper back.
It fades away slowly and then it's over, but every time it would happen like in the middle of the night and literally all I could do was sit there frozen in fear and pain until it stopped. The first time it happened I was like, yeah, I'm dying, I’m having a heart attack, and the nearest hospital is a 45-minute drive.
11. When Gotta Go, You Gotta Go!
A couple of weeks ago, I had ulcers that caused internal bleeding and my hemoglobin was down 50% by the time I went to the hospital. I almost died in one of the most embarrassing ways possible: pooping to death. Pay attention to your poop, people!
12. Hate is Violence
I'm white, and I was jumped by white supremacists. Had my mouth stomped, (dentist had to correct my bite by filing my teeth with a drill) my nose was broken, a couple of fractured ribs, and a bad concussion and a fractured arm. I blacked out when one of them had their hands around my throat after the back of my head hit the curb.
I came back to what was probably hours later and pulled myself in my car to try and leave and passed out again. I woke back up and blood was all over my face and my hands, and the inside of my car, and I tried to start my car and it didn't work. Somehow, I made it home at like 4-5 in the morning, and I'm not sure how. My friend said I called him, and he heard girls in the background? I don't know.
I do remember standing in the kitchen and calling my grandparents on the house phone, so they weren't terrified of me if I went to wake them up. I couldn't articulate sentences or anything and I was very aware of how ridiculous the stuff sounded coming out of my mouth. I wasn't robbed. My jewelry and money were all still there.
These people hated that my best friend is black and that we rap and have a video. I live in Texas and this is the only real time I've ever witnessed intense racism like this.
13. Ready, Aim, Almost Fire
When I was deployed in Afghanistan, we were convoying to our next destination and there was a mountain ridge we were driving along. I was a gunner on top and as I was looking up. I had heard a sound and saw the armor glass plating that was about a foot above my head crack, and turn into was like a spiderweb pattern. The cause of it was a bullet that was shot at me. That was my first experience, which was followed by others during my time there.
14. Yakkity-Yak
Free zoo where I grew up/used to work. There was a yak pen that ran for quite a ways, a little off the road. I was walking along the road with headphones in, saw a new baby yak laying down by the fence...Made the stupid decision to go closer and see it. Long story short is my dumb ass didn't hear the daddy yak charging the fences behind me until it was about 15 feet away from me.
He broke one fence and dented the other, I jumped back, and I swear my heart stopped for a few moments. Never went close ever again. Lesson learned.
Public Domain Pictures
15. So Much for Parental Protection
When I was six, my dad tried to suffocate me under a pillow and a throw blanket but stopped just before I died (I guess that’s what was happening) when someone knocked on the front door. When I was 12, my mom messed with my prescription, not knowing that that was dangerous, and I was hospitalized because my entire body was swollen. I couldn't breathe and couldn't stay conscious for more than a few seconds if I was walking.
16. Crossed the Wrong Guy
Was driving 50 mph (speed limit) on a familiar road back home at 10:30 at night. A guy wearing all black, black hood, with a bike is in the middle of the road—crossing the street, no crosswalk, no nearby streetlights, stoplights, etc. He froze up while I sped towards him and I swerved two lanes to miss him.
I thought I was going to hit (and obviously kill) that man, but the second I turned, I thought that I was going to go over the sidewalk, hit the building next to it, and die because I felt my car pulling out of control. Luckily, I was able to pull back and had to stop in a parking lot to compose myself. This was about a week ago and is to date the luckiest I’ve ever been that I didn’t hit the man OR kill myself in the process of missing him.
17. Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Cold War—1983. I went to school on a USAF base in England. It was a very small base that didn't even have an airstrip, but it did have a large underground command & control bunker and some antennas and such. (It was the same base that the Black Mirror episode “White Bear” was filmed at, prior to the base being demolished.) It was presumed to be a prime target of Soviet ballistic missiles.
So, one day I was staying after school for some reason or other and I was waiting around for my mother to come pick me up. I saw one of the base MP's in his police car go zipping by with his siren going headed in the direction of the bunker. Then another. Then another. There was civilian housing around the perimeter of the base, so they never used their sirens. Uh-oh...
So... this was it. The missiles were coming. It was overcast so I wasn't going to see anything. I just awaited my fate. Then...nothing happened. I found out the next day that there was a large fire in one of the dorms which were down the same general direction as the bunker. But for a few minutes I was sure that was the end.
18. Stop, Drop, and Roll
I rolled and flipped my truck in Dustin Hoffman’s backyard…several rolls, couple flips. I just remember looking at the direction that I was traveling through my driver’s side window. I ducked down, grabbed the bench seat and held on for dear life thinking “If I hit a tree on the door, I’m dead.” I hit a boulder that is many times bigger than a VW Bug, and blacked out. I woke up with my friends dragging me out with gas from the ruptured gas tank pouring on me. I was so out of it, I stood there with the truck being dragged onto a flatbed and told my buddies I had a dream that I crashed my truck.
19. Who Says Hydration Is Good for You!?
I fainted once while drinking a glass of water. The glass hit the table, and my chin hit the glass. It was sliced down to the bone, but (due to shock, I guess) when I woke up on the floor and saw/ felt blood gushing down my neck and shirt, I was convinced the glass had slit my throat. I was kinda mad, actually. I remember thinking, "Out of all the dumb stuff I did in life, a glass of water was gonna take me out? What the heck?"
Pexels
20. Kids These Days
Got chased by a group of teens at night in the park once. My friends are naturally fast runners, whereas I am not. They were catching up on me and I thought I was gonna die at that moment. Luckily, I managed to run through some estates and lose them. Met up with my friends later at a petrol station near the estates.
21. Surf’s Down
I was surfing and wiped out. Normal occurrence. But there was suddenly a large, fast set of waves. I couldn't get up. Every time I surfaced for air another wave crashed down on me. I became disoriented and had a moment where I couldn't tell which way was up anymore. It looked beautiful and the panic quickly turned to resignation and peace. I was totally ok with drowning at that moment.
I relaxed enough that I was able to surface and there was a break in waves, so I managed to surface and get to shore. It was the strangest feeling.
22. Doggone It
Was biking at night to my local gym in a quiet suburb. As I was trekking along with no cars in sight, I heard these claws scrape the road diagonally behind me. It felt weird because time literally slowed down, but as I turned my head, I saw a leash-less Doberman charge at me. The moment I fully turned my head towards the dog, it jumped from about 10 meters away from me. At that moment, I knew I was either going to get bitten in the neck or somewhere else. By some power that is the universe, a car came from the opposing lane and hit the dog while it was mid-air, causing it to roll over and collapse on the ground.
The dog ended up lifting its head, looking around, then collapsing its head on the road and died with its tongue sticking out sideways in a "bleh" type of look. The owner of the dog came out rushing from a dark area of the park claiming that the driver and I committed murder and were in on it together since we coincidentally were from the building (as we had eventually discovered).
The police came and spoke with the owner about how it's actually his fault. I was fine. Just a little traumatized because it could have gone south real fast.
23. Zapped Through the Heart
In the ambulance after falling on ice and “acting like more of a jerk than usual” according to a coworker. As we’re rolling along, and I went DOWN. Stopped breathing, heart into fibrillation, started Grand mal seizures, and thought “Oh my God, I’m gonna die.” Complete screaming panic the likes of which I have never had before (and I’ve seen and done some gnarly stuff). And then...nothing. Then they zapped me and rebooted my heart, and the panic started all over again. Three times over four hours until they just put me in a coma.
24. Daddy Not-So-Dearest
My father is an extremely abusive alcoholic. When I came out of the closet, he held a knife to my throat while I was in a corner and demanding to tell him, "What’s goin’ on?” He was shaking and I begged him not to kill me. I skipped the state I live in for a while afterward, bought a Supra and lived in the woods for a while, it was wild.
25. In This Sleep of Death What Dreams May Come
When I had sleeping paralysis for the first time. It was late and I couldn't sleep, then a red-eyed man walked in my direction staring at me and I couldn't breathe. I tried to scream for help or move but I couldn't. My eyes started closing and I couldn't stop it. He was standing by my side and that’s when I thought, "Oh, so that’s what death is like.” All I remember after that was waking up in the morning really confused.
26. Losing Track of Myself
Downed a bottle of Jack at Mardi Gras. Went to the train station to go home, saw my friends on the other side of the tracks as I'd drunkenly went to the wrong platform. Sat myself down on the end of the platform to jump down and cross the tracks before being almost immediately ripped back up onto the platform by train security. Train comes past directly after.
27. Too Young to Be Heartbroken
Had a heart attack at 34. I wasn't feeling well when I got home from dinner and took my blood pressure to find it was 190/120. Didn't call 911, and my SO drove me to the ER. ER took their dear sweet time admitting me. While they were putting a stent in my heart, I realized I didn't hear the beep from the heart monitor for 4-5 seconds.
Turns out they were resetting the rhythm of my heart at the time. Most people either don't notice or are unconscious at the time. After asking why I didn't have a heartbeat it left enough of an impression for the nurse to come ask about it the next day. Closest to death I've ever been.
28. Pick-Up? More Like “Drop Down!”
When it happened, a stupid "dad joke" to say at my funeral ran through my head. My guess is that it was denial. I was working in the back of a pickup truck on the side of an old highway. We'd shut it down for a movie I was working on. The set was catered by one of my favorite local Mexican restaurants: El Comador. I've eaten there my whole life.
So, I hear the sound of a big truck rolling off the highway and into the dirt, coming toward me REALLY fast. I look up and it's the bright green catering truck I'd just had lunch at, coming right at me, no time to jump out of the way. The only thing that ran through my head was this stupid joke: "He died the way he lived: with a face full of El Comador." Fortunately, the truck corrected itself and missed me by a yard or so, leaving me to wonder for the rest of my life: "WTF, brain?!?!"
29. You Leave Me Breathless
Ran out of air while scuba diving. There are few accidents in diving, but this was one of them. I'm a cautious diver and have had a great teacher, so I checked my gear carefully back at the resort and again on the boat. All good, all working. When I turned on the air, the air gauge read 200. As it should be. So, we went in.
33m wreck dive. Kept close watch of the time, the depth, and the remaining air while we were down there. We were well within our time (and depth limit) when I grew a little suspicious. The air gauge had been at around 80 for a bit too long. Didn't think much of it yet, though, so I shook it off. After a minute or two, I'm checking it again: still at 80.
Now I'm growing concerned, signaling to my buddies, but it's still all good—we're basically on our way back up anyways. Then I notice that my breaths are growing slower and longer and I'm finding it harder to focus—have so for a while, actually—and realize that my air gauge must have gotten stuck and stopped counting down while I slowly ran out of air and am now stuck with an empty bottle at 30 meters/90 feet.
Here's the thing: You don't just suddenly breathe "against a wall," but instead it creeps up on you while your brain slowly gets deprived of oxygen, so when you actually realize what's going on, it's nearly too late. So, the "this is it" moment? Actually, not that exciting; I was rather content with everything at that point, which scared me more than anything else. I didn't feel much, I didn't think much; I more or less had made my peace.
Then—thank God—my self-preservation drive and good training got the better of me and I managed to signal my buddies. The eejit of a diving guide wanted to check my air gauge first, so I was up and about to kill him and leave his body. I managed to wrestle the alternate air supply from him so he realized I wasn't screwing around.
After that? Rather underwhelming, actually. You faced death and then, suddenly, you can think—and breathe—again and it's all good. I've dived again, after, and would do so in a heartbeat: it actually made me feel safer, since I saw that I could handle a difficult situation and come out on top.
30. Better Shoot Than Sorry
A buddy of mine (ex-buddy) pointed a .22 caliber rifle at my head jokingly. I told him not to point a gun at me. Always assume the gun is loaded... Well, he turns around and says it’s not loaded though! See! And right as he said “see,” I stepped out of the way and he pulled the trigger. A tiny bang and a hole in the wall later he realized it was loaded. At that point, I had already grabbed the rifle from him and slammed the butt of the rifle into his chest and called him a jerk. We no longer talk.
31. Stranger Danger
As a teenager, I was hanging out at a park on playground equipment and talking with a friend one afternoon. A car with a few guys kind of crept by, yelled something out the window and then left. A few minutes later we saw them again, but this time it parked suddenly and three of them jumped out and left the car doors open and everything and started sprinting towards us. I'm fairly certain they would have kidnapped us if we were caught. That day I learned I can jump over a six-foot wall with enough adrenaline. The park was right next to a mall and we booked it inside and hid in a store.
32. Never Too Early to Burn Rubber
When I was a baby an uncle was visiting, and my mom left him to watch me outside while she went back in the house to do things. For whatever reason, he puts me on top of his truck and then wasn't really paying attention to me. This is about the age where I was starting to learn how to roll over and crawl and really get around, so I'm up there and apparently decide it's time to get moving and I roll over and start crawling...right off the truck.
I dropped about five feet down and landed directly on my head in the gravel. My mother comes out after hearing my screams from all the way inside the house and sees me on the ground. She freaks the heck out, comes to get me, and checks me over while cursing out my uncle (her brother). I apparently had no mark on me at all, no bruises or anything other than little bits of dirt and twigs in my hair, but she decided to take me to the hospital anyway to be safe, but they found nothing wrong.
I remember absolutely none of this, but it's always been my mom's favorite story to tell whenever she's angry at her brother because I guess whatever his latest screwup is reminds her of it. It's been over 20 years and she's still super mad about it even today.
Public Domain Pictures
33. Save Me, Mother Nature!
I almost choked to death hanging from a tree once because my coat got caught as I was climbing down. It was scary as a kid because I didn't know what to expect, let alone what was actually going on. It was very strange to be almost asphyxiated by a damned branch.
34. Shout Out to the Mouse
I was 18 months old and was visiting family in Richmond, VA. My dad and uncle took garbage cans across the city street and I ran out after them. A car hit me, and I flew ten feet down the street and bounced. My mom screamed as she watched thinking I was dead. Then I let out a massive wail. My aunt and her were nurses, who rushed me to my Aunt's hospital.
Much to everybody's relief, my only injuries were scrapes and bruises. Toddler bodies are still pretty pliant. The one thing that saved my life was that I was wearing my favorite Mickey Mouse Ears cap. The woman that hit me only saw the ears and then slammed on the brakes. Otherwise, she would have kept on trucking and mowed me down.
35. Too Little to Be Beat by the Odds
At three months old, I had a weird cough. My mom was persistent enough to get a few opinions. One doctor thought better to be safe than sorry. Had a cyst on my lung and went immediately to surgery. Doctor told my parents to go home and prepare my stuff because I had a 1% chance of living. To add to it, I had a sister die exactly a year before at three months old.
I have a two-year-old now and I can't imagine how my parents got through all of it. I've been to my sister’s grave (never knew her obviously) many times, but the first time I went as a parent I couldn't get within ten feet before I completely lost it. 99% chance of doubling that pain for my parents.
36. The Storm of an Adolescence
When I was a teen we were out sailing for the day. We dropped anchor (concrete filled bucket) and tied our boats together. We ferried to the island nearby and had some lunch. While eating lunch some super heavy wind kicked in. We decided to get back to the boats and get back to camp. The wind was so strong, our boats were smashing together.
I was pulling up our "anchor" and the line got caught on the rudder of the boat we were next to. They started drifting away and the line wrapped around my leg. In two seconds, I went from being comfortable to nearly being pulled underwater. I got free and was okay. The wind was so bad we had to get towed back to camp. For the last bit, we had to row in. We ended up breaking our centerboard. Took us 20 minutes to get in for something that should have five minutes. Everything ended up OK, but I still remember the thought of a concrete-filled bucket dragging me to a watery grave.
37. Two Strikes, You’re Not Out Yet
I have terrible luck or really good luck depending on how you look at it. First time I almost died I was three. This was back in the early 80s when child seats were still largely considered newfangled devices. My parents are big into safety, so they had me in a car seat even though their friends made fun of them for keeping me in it "too long."
My dad got rear-ended at an intersection, causing the car to trip over a curb and roll once. It's largely agreed that I probably would have died if I wasn't in a car seat. As it was, the force was still enough to push the back seat into the front seat hard enough to seriously mess up my face. Three-year-old me spent 8 hours getting my face put back together. Kudos to the plastic surgeon, you can barely see the scars.
Second time, I was riding my bike to school when a little old lady ran a stop sign and hit me, then drove off. Sent me flying about ten feet, almost got impaled on a broken street sign. Walked to school anyway.
Third time was my own damned fault. Some friends and I were running across these cliffs at Acadia national park. There were these chasms that were 3'-5' across and 20'-40' deep with nice pointy rocks at the bottom. Being dumb teenagers, we decided to race across these chasms. Things were going well, I was in second place when my friend yells "SMEGGYWULFF! WAIT! NOOOOOOO!" while I was in mid-jump. I looked over my shoulder and slammed into the chasm wall at about the waist. There wasn't much purchase up top, nothing down below. If it wasn't for my bf at the time, I probably would have fallen in. That put an end to our chasm races. The friend who was yelling? Panicked because he saw a spider.
38. True Love Keeps Its Distance
After my abusive ex got out of prison the first time, he started stalking me. When I got a restraining order, he paid some people to assault me. When I pressed charges for the assault, the people he paid snitched and he's back in prison. At the time, I thought if I didn't get a conviction he would escalate until I ended up dead. He doesn't know where I live or work now. I'm doing well.
39. Not a Highway to Heaven Today
This last summer, I happened to run into someone I knew from school at McDonald's. We were talking about cars and he was very excited as he had just purchased his first car from his grandparents, a 2008 Ford Taurus. We go out into the parking lot to look at his car and he is really excited to take us for a ride.
My friend and I reluctantly agree (wasn't really a car that interested us but whatever). As I'm reaching for my seat belt, I get a weird feeling in my gut that maybe I would be needing it. We get onto a busy road, and about a mile or two down the road he gets into the left turn lane. The light was a blinking yellow arrow (meaning he should yield to traffic). My friend in the backseat and I in the front seat alert the driver that a truck is coming, but he ignores our warnings. About mid-way through the turn, I see a beautiful 1991 GMC Jimmy coming straight at my door, on a 55 mph road. I thought this was the end, that the Jimmy was going to tear right through the door.
I silently said a prayer and closed my eyes. Time seemed to slow down and eventually the impact took place. At the last minute, the Jimmy driver (God bless him) must have swerved out of the way and impacted the front fender instead of my door. Kid's car was totaled, and the Jimmy had to be towed away as well. Thankfully, no one was seriously injured but I thought for a brief moment that it was going to be the end of me.
40. The Bald Truth
Ten years ago. I was 18 years old. As I was taking a shower and washed my hair, with every washing motion I pulled out more and more of my own hair until I was bald. No reason, no warning, nothing, just the pure horror of pulling out hands full of hair. The drain clogged with my hair as I silently stared in the mirror across the room at my own bald head. It felt like I was falling apart. Mentally and physically. I honestly thought I would die that day.
It was a sudden auto-immune disease. “Alopecia overnight.” It was scary as hell. The weeks after I lost all my body hair as well. My hair never returned, and I am very okay with it now, but I can never ever forget that moment in the shower...
41. Down By the River, They Keep On Rowing Along...No Matter What
I went swimming in a river with my family when I was about 12. There was a cave on the other side so my cousin, my stepbrother, and myself thought that we would swim across. We did not know that in the middle of the river was a gnarly undertow. All three of us got sucked under. I felt so helpless...water is actually really powerful I learned. I was being bounced around on the bottom of the river and I was running out of air. I could feel myself blacking out. Then I hit this big boulder. As a last-ditch effort, I tried grabbing the boulder and was able to find a handhold, but it was too late. I blacked out.
When I came to, I was flat on my back and my chest hurt. I was on this big ass boulder with this dude and his girlfriend. It turns out that about the time I blacked out, the girlfriend saw me, and they worked together to grab one of my hands somehow. The dude started CPR and I woke up coughing out water.
I was in tears. I hugged both of them and they helped me back to the riverbank. And as for my cousin and stepbrother: my stepbrother ended up getting pretty hurt and need stitches in his scalp from being banged around. But my cousin...she ended up going to the hospital in an ambulance. They could not get her to start breathing at first, but then they were able to. She ended up having some brain damage, but she is fine nowadays.
42. This Is Not a Drill
My roommates woke me up at 4 am screaming my name. I thought they were playing a joke on me. I laughed, rolled out of bed, walked to the stairs, looked down and they were opening the front door. Fire leapt through. That was our only door out. My roommates slammed the door and ran upstairs. We went to a window and noxious black smoke was bellowing from below. My instinct was to get away from the smoke and wait to be saved.
My roommate had the wherewithal to take the screen out and get us to climb out onto the roof anyway. My other roommate almost jumped four stories down but thank God she didn't. We used another apartment's window to get in and then down and out. We were panicked but the one roommate kept a clear head and saved our lives. Our next-door neighbor, our friend, a 24-year-old, did not survive.
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