How many times have you come close to dying? Or thought you were?

Seeker

Seeker

Redneck Hillbilly
Location
Alabama
I have a few. I can remember several times in a vehicle thinking “I’m fixin’ to die” I watched a car in my rear view mirror spin around twice( I'm talkin' 180's) on a rain slick road and end up a foot from my car. I was in a turn lane and could not go anywhere. If the song "Jesus Take the Wheel" had of been popular at that time I’m sure I would have been singin’ it. I also remember skidding on ,again a rain slick road,,spinning around and ending right up, before going out into the busy highway. I also used to drive a Volkswagen, back and forth to work . It was a shift and I was just learning. I pulled out onto the highway and it died right then and there and a semi coming straight at me, somehow by the grace of God I pulled it out.

How bout You?
 

Yep. When I was 5 - 6 I got caught in a rip tide, my dad pulled me out, Involved in two shootings, I was stabbed by a 16yr old runaway, a few collisions, one in which the other driver was killed, lots of near misses. I was grateful for retirement. I prayed before and after every shift.

I've watched many take their last breath.
 
I too almost drowned at 5...(Therein lies my claustrophobia) We were at a pool on vacation and it dropped off straight down from shallow end to deep end. I just walked out and if it had not been for my sister to shove me back into the shallow I would most likely be dead. I can still see the others at the pool side looking down on me as I was under water.
 

I remember choking and trying to fight the current but there was no way. If it wasn't for pops I would've been fish food.
 
James said:
I remember choking and trying to fight the current but there was no way. If it wasn't for pops I would've been fish food.
Click to expand...

It's a terrible feeling. Makes you wonder why, when others are not so lucky, that you actually survived. I think about it from time to time. I also had open heart surgery at 16. Nobody told me when I woke up that I would have a tube down my throat to help me breath. I was fightin' and kickin' trying to get out of it. Then a nurse came by and said..Do you want to know what time it is?.....There was nothing I could say or do. I just started pushing that tube out with my teeth one rib at a time. Then fell into a drug induced sleep. Creepy feeling anyway you look at it.
 
Survivors guilt. Why them and not me. Didn't know what it was until I was on the job.

Two of our children were in pediatric intensive care when they were toddlers. Back then it was an old hospital and no curtains. There was death around us everyday. It was horrible and we were so thankful that ours survived but at the same time after witnessing the grief of others were left wondering why.

You just have to accept that it's part of a greater plan that we just don't have the answers to.
 
I agree, there is a greater plan. Yes there is death all around, No curtains....glad your babies made it.
 
Quite a while back I decided to take a night shift off work. As long as it wasn't a weekend, we considered Friday to Monday as weekends, that was no problem as long as the shift overall had a certain number of working. It was done all of the time because no one enjoyed working graveyards.

This meant my partner would however be riding alone. That night there was a night long running firefight with a lone gunman who was trying to kill his ex, her family and us.

He ambushed my partner in a small village. The entire cruiser was bullet ridden and my partner was wounded. He never fully recovered and I still haven't forgave myself for taking the night off. I never took a night shift off again.
 
You did what you could, can't let it get you down. You were not there, for what ever reason. Because you were not there , there is nothing you could have done. Even if you were there you still may not have been able to stop the wheels that were turning.You may have even been the one hurt. So there goes the what ifs...
 
In 2014 my little Mazda sedan and I were t-boned by a a commercial truck and trailer that sped through a red light. The driver had been drinking that afternoon. I sustained a head injury, broken ribs, lacerated liver, dislocated hip and thigh, and three spinal fractures; one in my neck and two in my lower back.

I was in an induced coma for four days while brain-swelling went down, and required three surgeries. They didn't expect me to make it through the first one, and told my kids that, if I did survive, I might have full or partially paralysis. I pulled through and had a fourth surgery last Nov. That one was to correct my lower spine, and it's probably the last.

Today, I'm in pretty good shape; walking just fine, pain under control with just a little medication. I've had other close calls, but none as close as that one.
 
Once on m bike at 80mph when I knew I wasn't going to make the bend, but, as I've posted before, the Adrenalin really flowed when I was first responder at Category A fire (to be fought at all costs, human life is not a factor ). It was the middle of the night, and I was alone and in my pyjamas! N protective clothing, no breathing apparatus, just me am
and my training.

Those who know about these things will know how everything happens so slowly that I could hear each individual blow ow the bell hammer!
 
I've come close to kicking the bucket several times but luckily it just wasn't my time yet.

Shot...stabbed...a float plane crash in Canada...two heavy mortar attacks and a convoy ambush in Vietnam...two bad motorcycle wrecks...rear ended by a panel truck doing 55 on the interstate...boat over turned in icy water while duck hunting...rolled a jeep over a embankment in the military...cracked my head wide open jumping into a swimming pool from a second story hotel balcony.

Looking back on some of the things that I had happen and survived in my younger days it's a wonder that I lived long enough to become a old fart. :)
 
I remember this like it happened yesterday.I was around 8,taking beginner swimming classes at local YWCA.Our instructor was teaching us how to dive off from the deep end of the pool.I was really nervous but I dived off,thought I was going to die. When I came up ,I quickly swam over to the edge and stayed there for the rest of the lesson. I did overcome my fear of the deep end as I got older
A couple weeks ago,as I'm walking across the street,a driver who turned left to beat the light,saw me at the last minute and slammed on his brakes. I thought for sure I was going to die.This happens all the time when I'm out walking, distracted drivers who don't give pedestrians the right of way,always in a hurry. Sue
 
Yes, three times.
I'll only relate the last one - a bicycle wreck.

I've told of this before, so I'll only say that I was saved by my guardian angel. (even if you are skeptical, I'm not). While unconscious, I saw very clearly, as if in large t.v. screen, the bushes, the river ahead, and the concrete buffer. He, my angel, showed me what I had to do, and that was to go for the bushes, and not hit the concrete or go into the Roanoke River and drown. I did the only thing that saved me and that was to go into the bushes. The neurosurgeon told me that the rescuers said I missed the concrete by 1 foot and that I almost didn't make it.

So whether you accept it or not, you DO have a guardian angel. This confidence is very encouraging and I think about it all the time.
 
I was to little to remember but my mom told me that when we lived in a second floor apartment, next to fire house, I was leaning out the window to see the fire truck leaving and mom caught me by my foot just before I was about to fall out the window.
 
My second year of college I found out I had cancer, then again 4 years later. Also, when walking my dog once, I was walking around a curve and this woman in her car was coming right at us, so I jumped in the grass out of her way. I think we may have been in her blind spot. Another time when I lived up north, I was driving on icy roads and slid out onto a main road from a side road, my brakes were no help at the stop sign!
 
Nothing as dramatic as some of the others here but once was my 2nd heart attack (the 1st one was "silent").

And the other thing was when I was working on the roof. I lost my footing, and went over the edge to land 15 feet below on the concrete driveway. Broke my back, and shattered all of the right wrist bones. Wooooeeee talk about pain. After the ambulance took me to the level one trauma center the docs shot me up with morphine. I don't remember anything after that but my friend said I was giggling until I was wheeled into surgery.
 
During the 80's I had been sick for 7 years running from doctor to doctor, they had no answers, some thought I was crazy and I was given tranquilizers. I Finally collapsed in the hallway in our home. I was taken to the hospital and after 7 weeks of IV's keeping me alive they called in a gastro doctor who did a biopsy on my intestines and found that I had Celiac desease. Within 2 weeks I was feeling better because I was on a gluten free diet. Our family doctor later told me they had given me 2 more weeks to live had they not found the cause.
 
Twenty years ago I had a brain aneurysm rupture and was put into a drug induced coma for 6 weeks and when I did not come out of it, I was to be removed from the vent and I opened my eyes and said good morning to the doctor. After he recovered from the shock he said I had a slim chance of regaining some function. I did not know I had the aneurysm altho my dad died from one. I had suffered with horrible migraines for years but the aneurysm never showed up on ct or mri scans. Since then I have had 2 other bouts with it and they have been able to coil the aneurysms. So 3 times I have had near death episodes but I can still live by myself, drive etc even though I have limitations. I was blessed that my mind was not affected as I can still do accounting work. God is good.
 
Back in the early '80s my husband got his private pilot's license and we were traveling from south GA to Texas in his uncle's small plane. We scheduled a stop at Baton Rouge and the landing gear would not come down or lock into place. We had to circle the Baton Rouge airport while they sprayed foam on the runway. We landed without wheels, the belly of the plane sliding down the runway, with fire trucks lined up along the way. That was the most terrifying time of my life. We had to rent a car at Baton Rouge to drive home to Houston.

That was my last time in a small single-engine plane.
 
I've been hit - as a pedestrian - in cross walks - twice. Once when I was 39 (broke my hip, tore ligaments in leg), and again when I was 58 (injured my shoulder). Terrifying.
Driver's insurance companies had to cough up. You betcha.

When I was 55 I had a stroke while in a store.....right side went limp, couldn't speak.....store personnel acted quickly, EMTs came immediately and took me to hospital. Thank goodness I recovered.
 
Once maybe, but I was lucky, about 10 years ago...

Accelerator stuck at the speed limit on the F-150 on a two-lane approaching a curve. Ended up doing a 180 in the middle of the road and landed in the ditch on the other side. Luckily no other cars were on the road at the time. It was over so fast, I didn't realize what happened. No injuries, just ruined a tire and threw the front wheels out of line.
 
It was during an earthquake in Turkey. Electricity was out, the apartment building was shaking and groaning, I could hear glass breaking. I thought it was curtains for me (and the baby I had just found out I was pregnant with the day before). I figured time was up. There was no way we were going to get off the third floor and down to the ground. We did, thank goodness, with no injuries.
 
When I was young I was hit by a drunk driver speeding in a 40mph zone, he nodded off at the wheel and came onto the sidewalk. I had a concussion and was given my last rites in the street, and I remember in the ambulance on the way to the hospital saying in my mind, please God, please don't let me die. Got off with some stitches and a couple of broken bones, and spent some time in the hospital.
 

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