Near death experiences got any?

[╔(σ_σ)╝]

I have had a couple the most recent one was while cycling to work last summer. I ran into a nice flatbed truck that disabled in the bike lane while coming down a hill. I had a road bike and was coming downhill at about 45km/h.

I had a fractured spine, I cut my lower lip through-and-through, lost a front teeth completely and severely displaced others. Not to mention a cut right down to my bone on my leg. I ate nothing but yougurt and jello for a while.

The front of my bike was all the way at the back. My frame got bent like a metal fork. I have pictures.



Lesson: If you ever decide to hit a truck make sure it's padded.

Changes: No really apart from not speeding down roads with a lot of traffic.

Can't wait to get another bike next summer!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I have had a couple the most recent one was while cycling to work last summer. I ran into a nice flatbed truck that disabled in the bike lane while coming down a hill. I had a road bike and was coming downhill at about 45km/h.

I had a fractured spine, I cut my lower lip through-and-through, lost a front teeth completely and severely displaced others. Not to mention a cut right down to my bone on my leg. I ate nothing but yougurt and jello for a while.

The front of my bike was all the way at the back. My frame got bent like a metal fork. I have pictures.



Lesson: If you ever decide to hit a truck make sure it's padded.

Changes: No really apart from not speeding down roads with a lot of traffic.

Can't wait to get another bike next summer!

That sounds like a very close call! Glad you made it okay.

Perhaps my closest call was the time a friend and I almost fell down Feather Falls, in Northern California. He was already a gonner but managed to grab my leg. Then I was a gonner had it not been for about a one- or two-inch diameter manzanita stump, about three inches long, sticking up from a crack in otherwise solid rock. I didn't even know it was there. I just reached back as we went over the edge, and like magic, there it was. Had it not been there, it was all over.

We were sitting on sloped rock, on the right side of the river [stage right], a few feet from the water and just where it goes over the edge.
[PLAIN]http://images.stanzapub.com/readers/2009/10/01/ffalls_1.jpg

 

[Anonymous217]

I'm not sure if this really counts but I was robbed at gun point before. I can't tell for sure if it was loaded but judging from the hobo's shaky hand, I'm pretty sure it was.

 

[╔(σ_σ)╝]

That sounds like a very close call! Glad you made it okay.

Perhaps my closest call was the time a friend and I almost fell down Feather Falls, in Northern California. He was already a gonner but managed to grab my leg. Then I was a gonner had it not been for about a one- or two-inch diameter manzanita stump, about three inches long, sticking up from a crack in otherwise solid rock. I didn't even know it was there. I just reached back as we went over the edge, and like magic, there it was. Had it not been there, it was all over.

We were sitting on sloped rock, on the right side of the river [stage right], a few feet from the water and just where it goes over the edge.
[PLAIN]http://images.stanzapub.com/readers/2009/10/01/ffalls_1.jpg[/QUOTE]

Wow...

That was defintely a close call.

Has anything changed since that day ?

I'm not sure if this really counts but I was robbed at gun point before. I can't tell for sure if it was loaded but judging from the hobo's shaky hand, I'm pretty sure it was.

Not cool!

I have been robbed so many times but only once at gun point.

What did he take from you ?

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Not exactly near death but, I suffer from kidney stones and often have to take pain-killers for it. I am alergic to a pain-killer called Dilaudid. I get seizures from it. The way I found that out is that I was given two doses of it in about a 4 hour period. The first dose made me extremely dizzy, and I complained about it, but no one took it seriously. The second one had me curled up in fetal position unable to breathe and sure that I was about to die. It occurred at a moment when I was literally surrounded by doctors and nurses who all went into immediate action. Even then they didn't know what had caused my seizure, so later in the day I was given a third dose. That seizure finally made it clear what was happening.

 

[╔(σ_σ)╝]

Not exactly near death but, I suffer from kidney stones and often have to take pain-killers for it. I am alergic to a pain-killer called Dilaudid. I get seizures from it. The way I found that out is that I was given two doses of it in about a 4 hour period. The first dose made me extremely dizzy, and I complained about it, but no one took it seriously. The second one had me curled up in fetal position unable to breathe and sure that I was about to die. It occurred at a moment when I was literally surrounded by doctors and nurses who all went into immediate action. Even then they didn't know what had caused my seizure, so later in the day I was given a third dose. That seizure finally made it clear what was happening.

Oh my...
I am sorry to hear that. I have a friend how had a voilent allergic reaction to shrimp and was rushed to the hospital. No one knew what was wrong until his airway got blocked and he found it hard to breathe. The weird thing was that he was previously not allergic to shrimp. :-$

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Has anything changed since that day ?

Yes. I decided that was a freebee so I had better not be stupid anymore.

Technically it was Bill's fault as he was the one who just had to shimmy down the rock a little farther, but we were both at fault for being idiots. There is a fence to prevent people from going past the point of no return, but of course we had climbed over it.

 

[╔(σ_σ)╝]

Yes. I decided that was a freebee so I had better not be stupid anymore.

Technically it was Bill's fault as he was the one who just had to shimmy down the rock a little farther, but we were both at fault for being idiots. There is a fence to prevent people from going past the point of no return, but of course we had climbed over it.

You were very lucky and your family too; they wouldn't be able to become rich of you (joking!).

 

[nismaratwork]

I ate raw fish (I think) from a Thai street vendor... does that count? Kidding aside, I was T-boned HARD by some fool who wasn't paying attention and had to kick my door out (I'm a big guy) because the body had bent and pinned it. Oh, and the engine was on fire and there was some rather unpleasant smoke filling the car as well. I was completely unhurt, as was the twit who hit me, but if I'd gone a second later, or if she'd gone a bit faster I'd have been hit in the door instead of the front axle, and I'd be lucky to survive that.

 

[Jack21222]

I've been very lucky, and my life has never been in much danger. All of the danger went to my sister, I think; she's had 5 close calls.

1) When she was about 18 months old and I was 4, she was leaning against the screen window, I was right behind her. The screen gave way, and she started to fall. I grabbed her by the legs and yelled "I got her, mom!" My mother came running in and pulled her back in.

2) When my sister was about 6 or 7, she thought it would be neat to flip the swing in our swingset around the top bar a few times to get the swing really high. She brought it almost to the top, climbed in, slipped through, and was hanging with her neck caught between the pole and the swing. Luckily, a neighbor saw her, held her up to take the pressure off of her neck and yelled for help. My parents came out and helped get her down.

3) When she was about 20, she was in a car accident where her head went through the windshield. Scarred her up pretty good, but no serious damage. Even though she wasn't in the hospital long, any time your head is on the opposite side of a windshield than the rest of your body, I say that's "near death."

4) When she was 22, she was shot in the neck. She spent a few days in critical care, over a month in intensive car, and another few months in the hospital. The bullet hit her spinal cord, and now she's a C5 quadriplegic. (Link to the news report if anybody is interested: http://www.wbaltv.com/news/13622227/detail.html )

5) When she was 23, she had a urinary tract infection (common in quadriplegics due to catheterization) that spread to her blood... resulting in sepsis. Sepsis has a mortality rate of 20%. If she had waited another day or two to get her symptoms checked out, she would have gone into septic shock, which as a mortality rate of over 50%. It's not as glamorous as some near-death experiences, but there was a very real chance that she could have died.

 

[nismaratwork]

I've been very lucky, and my life has never been in much danger. All of the danger went to my sister, I think; she's had 5 close calls.

1) When she was about 18 months old and I was 4, she was leaning against the screen window, I was right behind her. The screen gave way, and she started to fall. I grabbed her by the legs and yelled "I got her, mom!" My mother came running in and pulled her back in.

2) When my sister was about 6 or 7, she thought it would be neat to flip the swing in our swingset around the top bar a few times to get the swing really high. She brought it almost to the top, climbed in, slipped through, and was hanging with her neck caught between the pole and the swing. Luckily, a neighbor saw her, held her up to take the pressure off of her neck and yelled for help. My parents came out and helped get her down.

3) When she was about 20, she was in a car accident where her head went through the windshield. Scarred her up pretty good, but no serious damage. Even though she wasn't in the hospital long, any time your head is on the opposite side of a windshield than the rest of your body, I say that's "near death."

4) When she was 22, she was shot in the neck. She spent a few days in critical care, over a month in intensive car, and another few months in the hospital. The bullet hit her spinal cord, and now she's a C5 quadriplegic.

5) When she was 23, she had a urinary tract infection (common in quadriplegics due to catheterization) that spread to her blood... resulting in sepsis. Sepsis has a mortality rate of 20%. If she had waited another day or two to get her symptoms checked out, she would have gone into septic shock, which as a mortality rate of over 50%. It's not as glamorous as some near-death experiences, but there was a very real chance that she could have died.

Holy ******* ****! I'm sorry to hear about 3-present.

 

[Jack21222]

Holy ******* ****! I'm sorry to hear about 3-present.

Well, number 3 wasn't that bad. I should mention that the scarring is pretty much gone now (5 years later). It was mostly on her forehead anyway. I realize that my post made her sound like some hideously scarred monster, and that simply wasn't the case.

 

[nismaratwork]

Well, number 3 wasn't that bad. I should mention that the scarring is pretty much gone now (5 years later). It was mostly on her forehead anyway. I realize that my post made her sound like some hideously scarred monster, and that simply wasn't the case.

It's OK, 4 and 5 really have a way for making up the difference. I'm very glad that your sister didn't suffer sepsis, and I hope she never does. Very good brother move at #1 btw ;)

 

[Jack21222]

It's OK, 4 and 5 really have a way for making up the difference. I'm very glad that your sister didn't suffer sepsis, and I hope she never does. Very good brother move at #1 btw ;)

Well she did suffer sepsis, she was in the hospital for about 3 days, but it never developed into septic shock due to the heavy doses of intravenous antibiotics.

 

[nismaratwork]

Well she did suffer sepsis, she was in the hospital for about 3 days, but it never developed into septic shock due to the heavy doses of intravenous antibiotics.

Yeesh... she's a fighter. Let's here it for antibiotics!

 

[Anonymous217]

I have been robbed so many times but only once at gun point.

What did he take from you ?

Luckily not that much considering I was on my way back from the gym. Just my phone and wallet.

 

[nismaratwork]

Luckily not that much considering I was on my way back from the gym. Just my phone and wallet.

I was robbed once, and I bargained with the guy. I kept my wallet and phone, withdrew some money from a nearby ATM and literally paid him off. This was in the USA, and an experience I'm more used to having abroad. If only all robbery could be so civilized, some muggers may approach corporate levels of competence in screwing us!

 

[Evo]

Three months earlier a co-worker fell down the stairs at his home and died.

I was leaving my house for a meeting with a client, so was wearing high heels. I was on the second floor and I slipped and hit the first step with my right hip, the force of the hit then propelled me into the wall to my left, the force of the impact flipped me upside down and into the air. So, I was airborne, face up, flying head first into the downstairs floor, and no way to break my fall.

As they say, everything goes in slow motion, I figured I was going to die when my head hit and my neck broke.

I hit head first on the hard floor, everything went black, then bright stars. Dizzy, shaken, but otherwise ok. I called my boss and told her I was too dizzy to drive, we had to cancel the meeting. She flipped out since the other guy died, and called an ambulance. I only had a concussion, I kept telling them my hip hurt, but they were only concerned with the concussion. Years later, no head trauma (or maybe that would explain some things) but I do have a spinal injury I'm dealing with now. Thanks doctors for not listening to me.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

This was a very close call for me.

Tsu and I were doing landscaping maintenance work and needed to light a burn barrel. Just for fun I poured gasoline into the barrel. Tsu wanted to light it [she likes playing with fire] so I got an eight-foot two-by-four and stuck a piece of paper on the end - in essence it was an eight-foot match. I warned her that it was going to be pretty dramatic as I had poured gasoline into the barrel. What I didn't think about was the time between pouring the gas, and lighting the barrel. During that time, fumes had accumulated in the barrel.

Tsu grabbed the "match". I lit the paper and stood back. When she got the flame over the barrel, instead of a igniting and quickly becoming a roaring fire as expected, the thing went off like a battleship cannon - KABOOM! Neither of us was expecting this. Tsu fell backwards and landed on her butt.

I started cracking up! As you can imagine, that was a close one. She nearly killed me!

 

[nismaratwork]

This was a very close call for me.

Tsu and I were doing landscaping maintenance work and needed to light a burn barrel. Just for fun I poured gasoline into the barrel. Tsu wanted to light it [she likes playing with fire] so I got an eight-foot two-by-four and stuck a piece of paper on the end - in essence it was an eight-foot match. I warned her that it was going to be pretty dramatic as I had poured gasoline into the barrel. What I didn't think about was the time between pouring the gas, and lighting the barrel. During that time, fumes had accumulated in the barrel.

Tsu grabbed the "match". I lit the paper and stood back. When she got the flame over the barrel, instead of a igniting and quickly becoming a roaring fire as expected, the thing went off like a battleship cannon - KABOOM! Neither of us was expecting this. Tsu fell backwards and landed on her butt.

I started cracking up! As you can imagine, that was a close one. She nearly killed me!

Ivan *rubs bridge of nose*... just buy some damned fireworks so you don't DIE!

You made a freaking gas CANNON... you're just lucky there was nothing loose in there to become shrapnel!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Ivan *rubs bridge of nose*... just buy some damned fireworks so you don't DIE!

You made a freaking gas CANNON... you're just lucky there was nothing loose in there to become shrapnel!

No doubt about it. I just lost track of time and didn't think about the fumes accumulating. We were probably lucky the barrel itself didn't come apart. With all of those fumes accumulating under very heavy brush, can't say for sure without doing a formal analysis, but it could have been ugly. This was a standard 55-gallon steel drum with one end cut out. Also, when trying to burn green and even wet brush, you have to get a roaring flame using liberal quantities of gasoline to establish a very hot base. I don't remember how much gas I used, but it always a lot; probably a half-gallon or more. And I was a lot younger then so it could have been a gallon.

It probably took several minutes to convince Tsu that I didn't do it on purpose. :rofl: She was as mad as a hornet.

 

[rootX]

This was a very close call for me.

Tsu and I were doing landscaping maintenance work and needed to light a burn barrel. Just for fun I poured gasoline into the barrel. Tsu wanted to light it [she likes playing with fire] so I got an eight-foot two-by-four and stuck a piece of paper on the end - in essence it was an eight-foot match. I warned her that it was going to be pretty dramatic as I had poured gasoline into the barrel. What I didn't think about was the time between pouring the gas, and lighting the barrel. During that time, fumes had accumulated in the barrel.

Tsu grabbed the "match". I lit the paper and stood back. When she got the flame over the barrel, instead of a igniting and quickly becoming a roaring fire as expected, the thing went off like a battleship cannon - KABOOM! Neither of us was expecting this. Tsu fell backwards and landed on her butt.

I started cracking up! As you can imagine, that was a close one. She nearly killed me!

:rofl:

It would have been awesome if one of you were shooting the whole thing!I have a risk aversive personality. I have always lived on the safer and dull side. But, appetite for adventures/thrilling things is growing as I am going through my 20s.

 

[nismaratwork]

No doubt about it. I just lost track of time and didn't think about the fumes accumulating. We were probably lucky the barrel itself didn't come apart. With all of those fumes accumulating under very heavy brush, can't say for sure without doing a formal analysis, but it could have been ugly. This was a standard 55-gallon steel drum with one end cut out. Also, when trying to burn green and even wet brush, you have to get a roaring flame using liberal quantities of gasoline to establish a very hot base. I don't remember how much gas I used, but it always a lot; probably a half-gallon or more. And I was a lot younger then so it could have been a gallon.

It probably took several minutes to convince Tsu that I didn't do it on purpose. :rofl: She was as mad as a hornet.

:rofl: The weirdest murder-suicide of all time right? Somehow I think the PF crowd operates at a higher 'murder level' than a crude gas-bomb that THEY ignite!

Oh god that's a good one Ivan, I'm glad you and Tsu are alive und mit eyebrows!

I forget this one, which technically doesn't quality, but I was at a boy scouts bonfire thing (before it became a mormon cult) and this kid tossed in a can of binaca. A few minutes later as expected, bam, it goes off (nothing huge) with enough force to launch a small coal into ANOTHER kid's face! Later in life, when a pal wanted to toss some full lighters on a fire and run, I urged caution. Sometimes we need to blow something up, or see it happen to really get the final point.

 

[Tsu]

Ivan is 1mm away from a near death experience every day of his life.

 

[discrete*]

Before I share this, I want to state that this is in no way an endorsement of violence or anything of the sort. Actually, this was quite traumatizing for me, and sort of personal -- however, I think its worth sharing in the thread.

I was stabbed three times. Twice in the gut, once in the arm... Well actually, there was a slice and a stab in my gut, not actually two stabs. This happened for seemingly no reason when I was in high school. It was a Friday evening, only about 6:00pm and I was waiting for my friend to meet me at a local pool hall. My friend was late, so I got out of my car to have a smoke and was standing in the parking lot near my car. Than, out of nowhere, some kid about my age that I'd never seen before angrily rushed my way. I could tell he was going to cause a confrontation, and he looked crazed. When he got close to me, he started screaming something about his brother, but it was nearly gibberish and I realized that he was probably intoxicated in some manner. He started to shove me, and I shoved him back telling him to get out of my face and before I knew it, I had a knife in my stomach. I was able to get my arms up, but this resulted in him stabbing me in the forearm (better than my throat, I suppose). For a split second he must have lost his footing and I was able to knock him over. I laid on top of him and had to choke him to get him to subdue him. This was no MMA style martial arts stuff, guys. This was really brutal for me and I lost a ton of blood. By the time he stopped wrestling with me, I had to crawl to get to my car. I could only drive about a block before I started to lose consciousness. Luckily, some people who had saw what happened came running over and pulled me out of the car and took me to a hospital.

He missed my organs and I got stitched up and recovered fine, although I have three nasty scars. Doctors said if I didn't get to the hospital when I did, I would have bled out. I found out later that the guy that attacked me mistook me for someone else who had gotten into a confrontation with his brother earlier in the week. The cops picked him up off the parking lot and took him to the hospital where they determined he was on a plethora of drugs. Thankfully, this is the only near death experience that I've had.

 

[DaveC426913]

Ferchrissake, where do you people live??

I had some tapes stolen from my car once.

 

[nismaratwork]

Ferchrissake, where do you people live??

I had some tapes stolen from my car once.

Yeah, other than pratfalls and nearly getting killed in the car...

... discrete*: "...thankfully this is the only near-death experience that I've had." Yeah, well, I think that one event is plenty for a lifetime... holy crap. I'm sorry that some hopped-up twit cut you, but good instincts with the forearm!... in most realistic self-defense scenarios with an opponent armed with a knife, protecting your vitals is the best you can do, and the forearm is designed to take some punishment.

Tsu: You sound like a really exciting lady to be around, and Ivan sounds like the same. I'm going to miss you two when he makes a dual stage rocket engine and you hop on with him for a ride!

P.S. On a light note, when I was 7 I terrified a baby-sitter by straining magnesium shaving from drano and pretending it was part of my chemistry set. I made something innocuous, but with a high alcohol (and god knows what else) content that LOOKED vile. Being a clever lass the poor woman looking after me for a few hours told me to throw it outside in the snow as per usual, but this time I added the magnesium shavings. Ever see the look on a teenage girl's face when she realizes that it APPEARS that the snow is now burning with a light bluish-green flame. It didn't last long, but I never got a chemistry set for home again.

 

[mugaliens]

Well, let's see...

1. Back in college, I hit a tree at 67 mph on my motocycle. Gravel in the road had caused the wipeout. Fortunately, my bike hit it straight on, while I did a "glancing" blow... I bounced off about 60 degress from my original heading and slid about 100 feet in a ditch. Damage: Severely sprained wrist and a bump on my backside from hitting a rock while sliding in the ditch. My bike was a twisted wreck. To this day, I haven't clue as to why I wasn't a twisted wreck, either.

2. While flying (military) we found a bullet hole in the cockpit after we landed. Other than the hole there was no damage to the plane, and we found an exit hole, as well. We're almost certain it was an AK-47 round, and it passed about two feet from where I normally stand during low-level (when we're within reach of small arms fire). We took half a dozen rounds that tour, but none were ever that close.

Half a dozen other times I was seconds from death while flying in the military. Somehow, I always managed to cheat death, but four of my friends weren't so lucky over the years.

3. While in Vegas I was attacked while walking home late one night (dumb, I should have called a taxi), knocked unconscious, robbed, and thrown into a horse pen. I woke up about half an hour before sunrise, very deep in a thick briar patch. Painful!

4. While hunting deer in Washington State, I was drawing a bead on a young buck barely thirty feet from me when I heard a sharp crack. The deer dropped, and then I heard the boom from the rifle that had fired the bullet. The idiot hunter who bagged the deer had taken a shot within a couple feet of my head, despite the fact I was covered in blaze orange from the waste up, including my hat. If he hadn't had his buddy with him I'd have arrested him for reckless endangerment. As it was, the shooter was about 200 yards away, and the deer wasn't dead, so walked up to it and put it out of its misery in a way which (I hope) ruined the hunter's chances of mounting it as a trophy, before walking away.

 

[DaveC426913]

4. While hunting deer in Washington State, I was drawing a bead on a young buck barely thirty feet from me when I heard a sharp crack. The deer dropped, and then I heard the boom from the rifle that had fired the bullet. The idiot hunter who bagged the deer had taken a shot within a couple feet of my head, despite the fact I was covered in blaze orange from the waste up, including my hat. If he hadn't had his buddy with him I'd have arrested him for reckless endangerment. As it was, the shooter was about 200 yards away, and the deer wasn't dead, so walked up to it and put it out of its misery in a way which (I hope) ruined the hunter's chances of mounting it as a trophy, before walking away.

Being completely ignorant of hunting procedure, I have no idea what is wrong with the scenario as described. How was the danger to you any greater than any other scenario? What did the guy do wrong?

 

[Jack21222]

Being completely ignorant of hunting procedure, I have no idea what is wrong with the scenario as described. How was the danger to you any greater than any other scenario? What did the guy do wrong?

You're not supposed to aim at something so close to a person. If his aim had been a little off, mugaliens would be the one with a hole in him now.

At 200 yards and 10 yards, there's a maximum angular separation of what, 5 degrees? Did I do my math correctly there? Plus, odds are the deer, mugaliens, and the shooter didn't form a right triangle to give you that maximum angular separation. That's a tight window.

 

[DaveC426913]

You're not supposed to aim at something so close to a person. If his aim had been a little off, mugaliens would be the one with a hole in him now.

At 200 yards and 10 yards, there's a maximum angular separation of what, 5 degrees? Did I do my math correctly there? Plus, odds are the deer, mugaliens, and the shooter didn't form a right triangle to give you that maximum angular separation. That's a tight window.

Yes but, everybody's hiding.

I get the dayglo orange thing; assumedly that's for when you're walking around. But surely if you're drawing a bead on prey (especially if it's only 30 feet away), you're unmoving and well-hidden from the prey. Presumably, since you're well-hidden at 30 feet, it is highly likely another hunter 20 times farther away won't see you either.

Again, I am completely ignorant of hunting procedure, so I'm asking how this is supposed to work.

In general, when pointing weapons at distant targets in a forest, how does one know where other hunters are if they're hiding?

 

[rootX]

...

...

...

O dear!

 

[Jack21222]

Yes but, everybody's hiding.

I get the dayglo orange thing; assumedly that's for when you're walking around. But surely if you're drawing a bead on prey (especially if it's only 30 feet away), you're unmoving and well-hidden from the prey. Presumably, since you're well-hidden at 30 feet, it is highly likely another hunter 20 times farther away won't see you either.

Again, I am completely ignorant of hunting procedure, so I'm asking how this is supposed to work.

In general, when pointing weapons at distant targets in a forest, how does one know where other hunters are if they're hiding?

You can't miss blaze orange; you're not hidden that well. Deer are color-blind by human standards, they can't really see the orange.

 

[DaveC426913]

You can't miss blaze orange; you're not hidden that well. Deer are color-blind by human standards, they can't really see the orange.

Ah. That's the missing piece. Thanks.

 

[DBTS]

The first time I almost choked to death.. The second time I almost drowned to death. The third time, one of my parents hunting rifles was loaded and my brother pointed it at my head without the safety and pulled the trigger, luckily the gun jammed.