No, but my wife seems to think that anytime I get sick I act like I’m on my deathbed.
In a car accident, we flipped at 140 km/h several times, both of us without safety belts, my friend died, i had a minor scratch.
Back in high school some friends and I were biking in the mountains and got lost. We really had no idea where we were. Thankfully we met some people who were deep in the brush camping and offered to take us back to civilization. Before we ran in to these kind people we had already started to discuss how we’d survive in the woods until people found us. When all was said and done we had biked some 30+ miles in to the woods and covered 2 small mountains.
I’ve almost (or should have) died three times actually. You can follow the hyperlink in my contact information for the full stories, but here are the summaries.
1.) little baby, oxygen tent, nurse didn’t zip it up
2.) toddler (4yrs old?) dad accidentally ran over me in the car. Car rolled over my chest and did nothing but bruises and scratch my finger.
3.) sledding accident in college, through a fence over 20ft wall and into a reservoir. I’d given up, stopped fighting and just started letting myself sink below the surface of the water, someone finally was able to rescue me
driving back from the cinema in the 2nd lane on a motorway with a black ford fiesta in front, red car to the left and white van overtaking us (tightly packed) the black car in front spannered out crossing the overtaking lane and into the central reservation exploding in a cloud of smoke and debris, the white van driver swerved in front of me just missing me and the newly crashed car, i couldnt see anyting accept bits of car whizzing towards me and was scared s#itle$$
The years 9-10 of my life were filled with peril. I literally almost died three times:
1. I swung out into a lake on a rope swing, thinking my doggy-paddling skills would get me back to shore without a life jacket. I was wrong. In the deep water, I paniced and sank under the water. I fought back to the surface, but no matter what I seemed to do I kept sinking. I started yelling, “help”, and luckily some of the people on the shore noticed and swam out to save me. Since then, I’ve taken swimming lessons, and am a much better swimmer.
2. I was riding a large Shetland pony which spooked for some reason and reared back. Unfortunately, he didn’t quite handle it’s balance very well and ended up completely falling backwards. Basically, something between 400-700 lbs basically fell *crunch* right on top of me. The pony jumped back on his feet and ran off, scared to death. I, on the other hand, stood up, walked 3 steps, and fell flat on my face. Turned out I had broken my shoulder and compressed my ribs. If the pony had been a couple of inches to the right, it would have probably broken my neck instead of my shoulder.
3. I caught the chicken pox (which was miserable), and just as thought I was recovering, I got sick again with something else. The doctors didn’t know what was the matter with me and sent me home, saying it was probably just the flu. My symptoms got worse, though, so a couple days later we went to the emergency room. Turns out that one of the chicken pox had gotten infected with staphylococcus, a crazy flesh-eating disease, and if we had waited just one more day (thinking it was just the flu) they probably wouldn’t have been able to stop it. As it was, I had to stay in the hospital for a couple of weeks, totally doped up on antibiotics. The infection spread all the way from my face to the middle of my chest. They took pictures and I’m in a medical textbook somewhere at Vanderbilt University.
Just before i turned 5 i was playing with the next door neighbours kids on the roof of my garage. We used to climb up there along a tree, then onto the roof.
For some reason i was walking backwards and forwards on the roof, eating biscuits (sounds like some kind of dream). I remember walking forwards, then backwards and taking a step too far to realise only the front of the most back foot was on the roof. I had turned my head and was able to see my foot placing so I leant forwards and kept going.
On my backwards trip the next time the same thing happened, although this time the back foot had completely stepped over the edge of the roof.
Next thing i knew i was walking up my driveway with the assistance of the neighbours mum. After that i woke up in hospital.
In the end it wasn’t too serious and i was able to leave hospital after a day or two, however the nurses gave me milk and orange juice with my breakfast. Curdling in my stomach and making my vomit they thought i was still concussed and made me stay an extra day.
Wow, some of these stories are amazing. Thanks everybody.
I had a brain tumor the size of a grapefruit in high school and was marked with a zero percent chance of survival. Miraculously i survived.
A year later i went in again for a severe infection in which my head swelled to twice its size. I was immediately admitted to the ICU. I was going to have a highly debilitating surgery in which they removed my face and scraped all of the tissue from my skull. Without any antibiotics (at least none to actually kill the infection) my infection went from life threatening to non-existant instantaneously while on the operating table. I awoke with my head shaved but no incisions. The doctors were amazed.
Now i ride a motorcycle. My life is always threatened by anyone who doesn’t see me, pulls out in front of me, cuts me of, or by my own actions. I feel that my life is not in my hands anyways, so while I play it safe (I dont ride stupid), my past doesn’t keep me from enjoying my future or present.
The size of a grapefruit? Dang. That’s amazing. How does ones head swell to twice its size? I would think that the skull would prevent this.
A few year’s ago a Boeing 767 flew right by my building. I could see heads in the windows, and the detail of the metal exterior as it glided by just above eye level. But I didn’t come as close to death as the people in the building it flew into.
11 responses to “Have you ever almost died?”
No, but my wife seems to think that anytime I get sick I act like I’m on my deathbed.
In a car accident, we flipped at 140 km/h several times, both of us without safety belts, my friend died, i had a minor scratch.
Back in high school some friends and I were biking in the mountains and got lost. We really had no idea where we were. Thankfully we met some people who were deep in the brush camping and offered to take us back to civilization. Before we ran in to these kind people we had already started to discuss how we’d survive in the woods until people found us. When all was said and done we had biked some 30+ miles in to the woods and covered 2 small mountains.
I’ve almost (or should have) died three times actually. You can follow the hyperlink in my contact information for the full stories, but here are the summaries.
1.) little baby, oxygen tent, nurse didn’t zip it up
2.) toddler (4yrs old?) dad accidentally ran over me in the car. Car rolled over my chest and did nothing but bruises and scratch my finger.
3.) sledding accident in college, through a fence over 20ft wall and into a reservoir. I’d given up, stopped fighting and just started letting myself sink below the surface of the water, someone finally was able to rescue me
driving back from the cinema in the 2nd lane on a motorway with a black ford fiesta in front, red car to the left and white van overtaking us (tightly packed) the black car in front spannered out crossing the overtaking lane and into the central reservation exploding in a cloud of smoke and debris, the white van driver swerved in front of me just missing me and the newly crashed car, i couldnt see anyting accept bits of car whizzing towards me and was scared s#itle$$
The years 9-10 of my life were filled with peril. I literally almost died three times:
1. I swung out into a lake on a rope swing, thinking my doggy-paddling skills would get me back to shore without a life jacket. I was wrong. In the deep water, I paniced and sank under the water. I fought back to the surface, but no matter what I seemed to do I kept sinking. I started yelling, “help”, and luckily some of the people on the shore noticed and swam out to save me. Since then, I’ve taken swimming lessons, and am a much better swimmer.
2. I was riding a large Shetland pony which spooked for some reason and reared back. Unfortunately, he didn’t quite handle it’s balance very well and ended up completely falling backwards. Basically, something between 400-700 lbs basically fell *crunch* right on top of me. The pony jumped back on his feet and ran off, scared to death. I, on the other hand, stood up, walked 3 steps, and fell flat on my face. Turned out I had broken my shoulder and compressed my ribs. If the pony had been a couple of inches to the right, it would have probably broken my neck instead of my shoulder.
3. I caught the chicken pox (which was miserable), and just as thought I was recovering, I got sick again with something else. The doctors didn’t know what was the matter with me and sent me home, saying it was probably just the flu. My symptoms got worse, though, so a couple days later we went to the emergency room. Turns out that one of the chicken pox had gotten infected with staphylococcus, a crazy flesh-eating disease, and if we had waited just one more day (thinking it was just the flu) they probably wouldn’t have been able to stop it. As it was, I had to stay in the hospital for a couple of weeks, totally doped up on antibiotics. The infection spread all the way from my face to the middle of my chest. They took pictures and I’m in a medical textbook somewhere at Vanderbilt University.
Just before i turned 5 i was playing with the next door neighbours kids on the roof of my garage. We used to climb up there along a tree, then onto the roof.
For some reason i was walking backwards and forwards on the roof, eating biscuits (sounds like some kind of dream). I remember walking forwards, then backwards and taking a step too far to realise only the front of the most back foot was on the roof. I had turned my head and was able to see my foot placing so I leant forwards and kept going.
On my backwards trip the next time the same thing happened, although this time the back foot had completely stepped over the edge of the roof.
Next thing i knew i was walking up my driveway with the assistance of the neighbours mum. After that i woke up in hospital.
In the end it wasn’t too serious and i was able to leave hospital after a day or two, however the nurses gave me milk and orange juice with my breakfast. Curdling in my stomach and making my vomit they thought i was still concussed and made me stay an extra day.
Wow, some of these stories are amazing. Thanks everybody.
I had a brain tumor the size of a grapefruit in high school and was marked with a zero percent chance of survival. Miraculously i survived.
A year later i went in again for a severe infection in which my head swelled to twice its size. I was immediately admitted to the ICU. I was going to have a highly debilitating surgery in which they removed my face and scraped all of the tissue from my skull. Without any antibiotics (at least none to actually kill the infection) my infection went from life threatening to non-existant instantaneously while on the operating table. I awoke with my head shaved but no incisions. The doctors were amazed.
Now i ride a motorcycle. My life is always threatened by anyone who doesn’t see me, pulls out in front of me, cuts me of, or by my own actions. I feel that my life is not in my hands anyways, so while I play it safe (I dont ride stupid), my past doesn’t keep me from enjoying my future or present.
The size of a grapefruit? Dang. That’s amazing. How does ones head swell to twice its size? I would think that the skull would prevent this.
A few year’s ago a Boeing 767 flew right by my building. I could see heads in the windows, and the detail of the metal exterior as it glided by just above eye level. But I didn’t come as close to death as the people in the building it flew into.