"I’ve never been close, but I think I would be very cool to experience it," said no one ever. I think it would be terrifying. People might say, “Oh yeah, the closest I came to death was when I swam faster than 30 sharks.” Please don't lie, or exaggerate. And respect others' experiences.

#1

When a crazy person set fire to our house, I thought I would never find my way to the back door through the smoke. Luckily nobody else was inside.

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#2

I was walking down a street when a guy with a dog came towards us. The man did some kind of sign and the pitbull attacked me. It bit my leg and didn't let go despite my many attempts to shake it off. My BorderCollie, Loki though was fighting really hard while the guy watched with a smile (don't know what was wrong with him, I think he trained the dog to attack people). Eventually Loki fought it off somehow and I could have died from loss of blood or something like that. I am so grateful to my dog

PS. Not all pitbull are bad, it's just that the owner was bad

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#3

Had a head-on collision with a lorry (not my fault - the lorry driver's). Genuinely thought 'I'm dead' as the front end of the lorry filled my windscreen seconds before impact.

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#4

My first pregnancy almost killed me. I had an unbelievable first and second trimester - no morning sickness, not too much fatigue, etc. Then the third trimester hit and suddenly my blood pressure went all wonky. It wasn't too bad, at first, until one day I started to get a headache that just wouldn't quit. Too make a long story short, by my thirtieth week it was through the roof, despite bp meds. I was put in a dark hospital room to prevent a seizure and hooked up to a magnesium drip that eventually caused my bp to plummet to almost nothing. I coded, they brought me back and immediately scheduled a c-section for two days later (I wasn't stable enough for anesthesia, or it would've happened that day). The morning of the scheduled c-section, I woke up to what I thought was a bad chest cold. It was actually the start of heart failure. Once again they stabilized me and my doctor had to strong-arm an OR from another doctor because I was scheduled for a later time. I actually heard a nurse questioning my chances. Amazingly, I woke up in the ICU and my son was, miracle of miracles, holding his tough little own in the NICU. He's fourteen now and despite a few hiccups early on, healthy and happy as a teenager can be.

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#5

I was 11 and had been taking swimming lessons at a nearby school, and then while swimming in a lake, I got tired and stopped swimming just as I would have done at the pool, and immediately began going under. If it hadn’t been for my cousin, I would have drowned.

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#6

I've faced death a few times. Here's the best one. I was 15 years old, riding my bike to meet up with my parents for a Father's Day lunch. Woke up days later in the hospital with half of my head shaved and a massive scar across the bare side.

My mother filled in the blanks for me later. A neighbour found me on the side of the road, called for an ambulance using his CB radio (this was the '70s), and my Mum pulled up soon afterwards. I was talking and looked fine. If he hadn't called for the ambulance, we would have gone about our day. And I'd have been dead before dessert!

Long story short, a doctor (who was there as a visiting trainer, he was knighted in India and the first doc in the world called when JFK was shot; not too shabby, eh?) didn't like the shaded area in the x-rays near the base of my brain. The other docs didn't think it was important. He did and wanted to shave my head and open me up to make sure.

Hours later, he emerged from the operating room with a teeny tiny smile on his face. "Glad we did that. Found a blood clot the size of a fried egg right near her brain. It was hours away from either killing her or putting her on life support for the rest of her life."

Speculation was a bump to the beano years ago had triggered the blood clot. No warning as I left the house on my bike ride, I just blacked out and hit the ground.

My Mum had a ball shaving the rest of my head at home. Luckily, she was the lead singer in a band with my Dad and had a bunch of wigs I could use for school. The kids loved my new look, lol!

They had to remove a bone to get to the clot, leaving the area above my ear tender and susceptible to damage. Went back one year later to see the doc. He proclaimed it the best work he'd ever done.

They put me under again to fill in the area with a metallic mesh. I got a lot of mileage out of telling people I had a metal plate in my head and they enjoyed asking if I made the metal detectors at the airport go off. Sadly, that never happened, but I'm still here some 40 years later, baby. God bless that doctor and CB radio!

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#7

Honestly? Although this may sound stupid... I was under a pool float that was hollow. This was an inflatable slide in the water, and there was air in the middle. I swam out from the part that had air, and the heavy float was on top of me. If I just swam forward, the friction from the slide was too much, and I barely moved. I was panicking, but I had enough brains to swim to the bottom of the pool, forward, and then up. I survived, but i am actually kind of scared of pools to this day.

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calebhaas avatar
Average Grizzlies Fan
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've actually always been nervous/careful with bigger floaties because of my fear of getting stuck under them. I also can't hold my breath for that long so that definitely doesn't help.

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#8

Was on my home from work at night. Driving a divided highway, the kind where there's a good 300 feet of trees between each side. As I'm driving I see headlights coming towards me and they're swerving. I shouldn't be able to see headlights as it's summer, the trees that divide the highway block the headlights from the other side. Some drunk driver had somehow gotten into the exit ramp going the wrong way and was now driving against traffic. Fun times

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Ren Karlej
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Had that happen once on holiday! Terrifying! Car was pinging off all the parked cars either side of the road. Avoided being hit but it was a close run thing.

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#9

Gee, there's been so many, my family says I have 9 lives. Here's one: New Year's Day 1996 I was driving to work during almost blizzard conditions. I was on a mountain pass and hit black ice. My car spun around 3 times, then left the road. I was soaring in the air for a bout 3 seconds, then I hit the ground, bumping down the steep hill (I was told it was a 40 foot drop), landing in the creek below. The car hit a large boulder on the opposite bank. Luckily the water was only 2 feet deep, so I was able to safely wade to the shore. When I got out of the car, 2 men were scrambling down the hill to help. When I walked away from the wreck, they couldn't believe it. They helped me up the hill, and there was a lady calling for help on her cell phone (not common then). I was okay, and I was even featured on the evening news. My husband taped it and I still have it on VHS. I was in bed with whole body pain for a week. I had a minor head injury and I still get headaches and have some cognitive/ short term memory issues. The car was totaled, but I wasn't.

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#10

After several days of horrific pain in the whole right side of my face (turned out to be trigeminal neuralgia - a neurological condition where the trigeminal nerve that controls your facial nerves constantly fires sending stabbing/electric pain so intense that you can't do things like eat, drink or even talk), so I went to the ER.
Once there, they tossed me in for a CAT scan and after ER doc said to me, "Soooo...we can't find anything on the scan that would be triggering this neuralgia...but we DID find something else & Neuro Surgery is coming down to talk to you about it."
Turns out they found an unruptured arteriovenous malformation (when one of the veins in your brain twist on itself causing it to balloon and eventually pop causing a stroke.)
A week later I had 14 hour brain surgery to have it removed. This is the part of the story where we all find out I'm a chemical lightweight & the anesthetics that were supposed to wear off a few hours after surgery...didn't. And then I was in a coma for 3 days.
Fortunately, as you may have guessed by now, I did wake up.
A long healing and rehab process later and I'm about 99.5% back to normal (the muscles in the left side of my forehead/eyebrow don't work, so I can't look surprised, I can only look skeptical

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Katelyn
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Woah that is one heck of a journey! I am so glad you are ok! Sorry to hear about the whole kerfuffle tho.

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#11

Bought a giant aviary and some cockatiels. Yay fun! Fell sick a few weeks later, then suddenly woke up in intensive care unit, preliminary diagnosis: lung failure by sepsis an pneumonia. Back home after 4 weeks, then gone again 3 weeks for rehab. Then finally my family doctor (NOT the hospital!) found out it was a "Bird fancier's lung", meaning I am severely allergic to my birds.

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#12

Once when I was in 2nd grade in february, one of my classmates fell into a frozen lake and the ice cracked.
i went in after him to save him and then the ice cracked too
my classmate died, but i survived

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Katelyn
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Aww that is really sad to have someone you tried to save die. You are very heroic to have gone in and saved him/her ❤ sending love

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#13

I have another story, about a Brush with Death. This one is less scary, but definitely closer to death. I was watching fireworks on the Fourth of July, and one of the fireworks fell over as it was going off. And it only missed me and the people I was sitting with by 10 feet. I actually though I was going to die at that moment.

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2763MilesAway
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have a similar story, one of the firework sparks once cam directly at me. thankfully i ran away

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#14

I nearly died when my kidneys failed. I was 11 years old. I'd been sick for a year when the GP finally did a blood test. My parents had a phone call telling them to take me directly to the hospital where there was a team waiting for me. I had only 9% kidney function! My kidneys actually improved after then but only got up to about 30%. The last 2-3 years before I got a transplant was the fastest slow descent into death I've experienced. But I do have a transplant now so yay!

Additional: I've had sepsis twice, the first time they didn't give me a good percentage to live. The second time I felt so awful I knew what it was and got to the hospital in time so there was no damage to my internal organs. Little tip: If you have an infection and feel like crap but painkillers don't make you feel a better, at all, get to the hospital because it might be sepsis. They've been working on getting sepsis incidents down in the UK for a while now because it can maim and kill.

And there was the time I had pylonephritis for the first and hopefully last time in my life. It nearly killed me because my kidneys were so poorly already. I was in hospital for a week and it was freaking paaainful.

At this point it's ChimeraBubbles 3, Death nil.

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#15

I went water tubing with my fam, was overconfident, sat on the edge of the tube with no lifejacket, fell backwards into the water, and after like 5 seconds swam up. And wouldnt let go of a stick.
My dad was sleeping.
I also choked on a candy ball. I legit could not breathe, and I had to shake my mom to get her to notice. It was funny tho, cuz the waiter was just staring at me with his mouth open. We were in a restraunt

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#16

Almost shark attack! Years ago my husband and I went to the beach with a married couple we were friends with. The beach was New Smyrna Beach in Florida, which has unofficially been dubbed "Shark bite capital of the world". (We didn't know this at the time) So my friend and I went swimming while our husbands stayed behind on the beach. We went so far out into the water that we could just barely touch the bottom. We just stayed there treading water and chatting. Playing in the waves that kept coming. Well, a big wave came and it separated us a little bit. I suddenly saw a huge dark shadow right by my head and I felt something brush my shoulder. It gave me chills but I just assumed it was the wave or some seaweed and I brushed it off. Well, I turned around to find my friend but I noticed on shore our husbands were waving for us and shouting something. I couldn't hear what they were saying so I swam back to shore...my friend was doing the same. When we got back to our husbands, they told us a huge shark was literally in arms reach of us. They saw it clear as day in that huge wave. I have never been in the ocean since

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#17

This isn't exactly a brush with death. But it was definitely terrifying, and something could have gone very, very wrong. So me and my friend had decided to go on a night walk. And we walked up to a park near her house, and were then walking back. And that was when this car drove past us super slowly with all of the windows down. We thought it was a little creepy and decided to cross the street to be by the houses. That was when the car drove past us again, so we ran into a bush until we thought it had gone. We assumed it had made a wrong turn and their was nothing that could go wrong, but were still a little on edge. But anyways, we started walking down the street again, when the car drove past us again. At which point we deducted that it was following us. So we sprinted down the street into this person's yard who was outside working on his porch. And we just stood their in shock until we saw the car drive off. And then we told the person what happened, and he was very kind about it and offered to escort us home. So that is my terrifying experience.

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#18

Sitting at a stoplight in a little Chevy Vega with my oldest son, who was about 10 or so at the time, waiting for it to change. I hesitated when it went green because he dropped something and a fucking huge ass dump truck barreled through a red stoplight on the cross street, didn't even slow down, going at least 40-45 miles per hour. I had to sit through a couple of light changes before I could go.

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#19

Fell asleep at the wheel. Hit a guard rail on an open bridge. I was very lucky that it woke me and I didn't plunge into the water. Heed my warning: DO NOT DRIVE WHEN YOU ARE SLEEPY/DROWSY. You will NOT realize that your brain just shuts off. It's treacherous.

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Jalen Kittleson
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

One time (before I was born) My mom, dad and their friend all fell asleep. In the car. And they were pretty sure they missed a turn, and my dad’s foot was still on the gas

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#20

I am 8 years old. On a small wooden boat upon the Ohio River. Took a perfect #10 dive off the side into the muddy water. Must have thought a person learned to swim when hitting the water as I certainly did not know how to swim beforehand. Thankfully, my father pulled me out of the water by my ponytail. Never did learn to swim.

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mrkette avatar
Mary Rose Kent
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My grandmother’s older brother drowned while trying to qualify for his Boy Scout merit badge. She never learned how to swim either.

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#21

Did you know constipation can kill you? I'd say that one.

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#22

A steel pipe fell through the roof a metre from my head, that was pretty scary

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#23

3 years old; hit by a logging truck running across the street to play. I remember seeing the underside of the truck. All that happened was that I 'skinned' my elbows. I still feel for the man who was driving that truck; he must have thought he killed a kid.

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#24

So about 2 years ago, I was at a summer camp (not a day-camp, so we actually spent a whole week over at the camp). On the third or fourth day there, me and my group were allowed to go over to the waterfront. They had all these different fun things to do there, like a giant waterslide, a little beach area, etc. They also had this thingymabob they called "the blob". It was basically a giant, very long balloon that was in the water, where one kid would sit on the edge of it and another would jump on the opposite edge, flinging the kid sitting down into the air and then splashing into the water. Well, I decided I was gonna try that. So I sat on the edge, and my friend came over and jumped onto the other end. I felt like I was flung 20 feet into the air! I was probably only flung 10 feet. I splashed down into the water... But when my life jacket floated back up to the surface, I had gone UNDER the blob. So I was stuck underneath the blob, thrashing around trying to swim out from under this giant balloon. I couldn't believe my life jacket actually put me in danger. I managed to swim away, and the lifeguard wasn't much help. She only helped me once I came out from under the blob. So yeah, that's my top story on how I almost died.

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#25

I was riding on the back of my boyfriend’s motorcycle—neither of us wearing a helmet—and a cabbie pulled out of an alleyway and hit us while we were in the middle lane of one of San Francisco’s busiest roads on a Saturday night around midnight. I went flying off the motorcycle, skidded across the street, but managed to not hit my head on anything. I was wearing a leather jacket, mid-arm-length leather gloves and leather boots up to my knees. My medical alert bracelet somehow managed to make its way off of my arm and out of my gloves, and I had a gash down my left leg despite the boots, but—fortunately—neither of us hit our heads. The next day my back was so seized up I had to be carried to the car and it took months with a massage therapist to get rid of the pain. Forty years later, I still have several small scars on my right leg, despite the boots.

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#26

When i was 7 years old , i didn't know how to swim so i usually stayed in the shallow end of pools. Once in a hotel pool in Canada- I was walking around the edge of a pool and a crazy kid pushed me in then ran away. Luckily one of my friends noticed before i drowned...

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#27

When i was around 7, me and my brother decided that we should go race around the park. At around the fifth lap i tripped and cracked my head open on a metal edge and blacked out for a bit, next thing i knew i was in hospital getting stitches. My hair is thinner in that area still

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#28

When I was in my mom, a car reared into her car at 45mph and pancaked her car with my mom in it. My mom had to go to the hospital, but they couldn’t take Xrays because it was unsafe to an unborn child. So they literally had to pray and hope that i was still alive, not knowing if I would have been born

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renkarlej avatar
Ren Karlej
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They would have been able to tell if you were alive or not - heartbeats and so forth - just might have had problems with knowing if you were injured in some way.

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#29

I was in Oregon with my family and we were at a beautiful lake. It was freezing and my brother tipped the canoe in the deepest part of the lake so I swam, stupidly, back to shore, and it was deep, even near the shore. As I was swimming, my mouth was filling up with water and I was becoming tired. I almost drowned.

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mrkette avatar
Mary Rose Kent
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Hypothermia will drain your energy so quickly it’s amazing you made it. Good on you!

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#30

My friend and i got trapped in a walk in cupboard in a caravan and the caravan was towed. We were only 1 and 2.

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#31

Combat, Viet Nam, flying an air support mission for GIs in a tight situation another aircraft which had been hit by ground fire collided with us severely damaging our flight controls, flaps and landing gear. aircraft commander sounded the "prepare to bail out" alarm but was able to regain control after we had dropped almost 1,000 ft, my heart was in my throat thinking it was all over. We were able to fly back to home base but when we touched down we had no right main gear , plane swerved off the runway and the fuel tanks exploded, Entire crew evacuated with minor injuries, aircraft destroyed, two chances of dying in one night, on my FIRST mission in country. I flew another 1,000 night combat hours that year but had to deal with major anxiety for six months afterward!

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Kanrry Kang
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Thank you for your service...I recognize from Judge Frank Caprio that Vietnam vets were treated like absolute s**t when you folks got back from service, it's really unfortunate. I'm glad now people do realize the importance of our soldiers, God bless them all.

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#32

This one kid, several years back, somehow managed to overpower me and nearly drowned me. The sad part was, none of the lifeguards were looking in our general direction. It took me several times to garble out something that sounded like "stop" in order for them to stop.
Whoever reads this–please, teach your kids NOT to press down on someone's shoulders in the pool, you can legit drown from it–I was close enough, and even though I am a trained swimmer, if the pressure is great enough, one can die from lack of oxygen.

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#33

I was once in a car ( on the way to the dentist ) when another car started speeding towards us ( my mom, brother and me ) it was about to hit MY side of the car, ( my mom and brother were on the other side ) when my mom swerved away, which almost hit ANOTHER car. Luckily nobody was hurt and no cars were damaged, i know loads of other ppl have had worse..but i cant think of anything else right now.

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#34

One time, me, my dad, and my six year old brother went camping. My dad decided that we would go for a short ride on our bikes on a trail. turns out that trail was so long, that it was blocked off. It was getting dark and cold, and there were so many big hills to climb/ride. We almost gave up, but if we did, we would have gotten eaten or we would have froze to death.

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#35

I was in a serious car accident a few years ago. My car, which I was not driving, drove into the back of a big transport truck. The passenger side in front, where I was sitting, was completely wrecked. If I had not worn my safety belt I would be dead today.

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#36

I got washed out to sea on a surfboard when I was around ten, along with a friend and my dad, we didn’t realise how far put we’d gone until we turned around and could only just see the shore. Got rescued by a lifeboat! Had a couple of health issues which could have taken me. Married to an abuser for 25+ years, that was a close escape to get out before COVID lockdown.

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#37

January 2016, got a pretty nasty injury on my head after walking into the edge of a cupboard door at full speed. Profuse bleeding for a few minutes, stopped it, thought "Whew, the worst part is over", but oh wait... I suddenly started to black out. Squeezed every last drop of energy left in me to drag myself to the relative safety of the sofa, where I finally passed out. Woke up about 15 minutes later... Never felt more grateful for waking up.

Perhaps I wasn't in any real danger, but the whole sensation of losing control and my brain shutting down was the scariest thing I've ever experienced in my life. The thought I might be dying crossed my mind for sure.

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#38

I was out in the horse pen with my gelding, Gunny, and decided it would be fun to just get on him bare back. No bridle, no saddle, just sit on my horse. He was just standing there & I wanted him to walk around the pen, so I nudged him a couple of times to get him to walk. He started walking and walked right into the electric fence. Well, he went sideways I went flying and bounced off a t post chest first. Lucky for me I was not impaled! I still have a place where the cartilage was pushed up by the post. It sticks out and you can feel it. I went in and told my husband about it and he's meh. The Doc said I was lucky not to be killed. The post slid off my chest wall and up to my chin. I had some pretty spectacular bruises. Horses will hurt you pretty badly, it's just when.

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#39

When some myopic moron in an SUV hit my motorbike on a motorway, throwing me over the central barrier into the opposite carriageway. I ended up spending several months in hospital and needing 2 years of physiotherapy.

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#40

Iraq. Bullet went swwwwiiiiiiiissssh a foot from my ear. You can't hear the crack of the shot if the rifle is far enough away.

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#41

I've had a few, two stand out:

1. When I was 11, I randomly started getting crazy painful migraines, hurting so much that I felt that if I knew the right spot to push, my head would explode. My teacher noticed at the same time that I had trouble seeing the blackboard. My parents took me to see an optometrist, who saw a shadow behind my eyes, ordered a CT scan, and boom, I was at Sick Kids hospital and underwent a 9 hour surgery for brain cancer. I literally have no memory of the weeks before waking up at the hospital and wondering what happened

2. Five years ago, on the way to home from work, my co-workers and I were t-boned by a stolen pickup whose driver was drunk and ran a red. Again, woke up in the hospital a week later, wondering what happened. Doctors told me that I had a badly fractured right thigh, displaced right knee, ligament damage in my chest, L2 fracture on my spine, right cheekbone fracture, concussion, and was in a coma for 5 days. Still working on rehab today

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#42

I was in Ohio.
Freezing, as usual, on a December night.

Then I read the weather forecast.
It was reading -20F.

Sadly, I was driving, and that is not the best to do with all the black ice around here.

I took one SECOND to change the radio station, and bham.
I FREAKING semi-truck had hit my rear and crushed the backseats. Thankfully, it was just me in the vehicle. I ran outside to check what had happened.

Then I slipped and almost got run over by a Nissan Rogue and a Toyota Camry.

Pretty Horrifying.

(This happened in 2009 btw, but be careful out there.)

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#43

Once I was swinging on a ledge (like, you know, hands on a ledge and just using my body momentum to swing) and swung too hard and felt I was losing balance over to the other side. It was about 12 feet down and cold concrete with metal construction spikes. I somehow managed to regain my momentum in that instance and swung back. But I know I wouldn't have survived if I didn't

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#44

I walk home from school everyday and I always cross a busy street to a elementary school. This one time I was a car coming but it wasn’t that far away so I crossed. The car sped up and almost hit me. The driver got mad at me but I was to scared to care.

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#45

I have two, they're not incredibly crazy. The first one is when my family took a trip to Amsterdam. There are lots of bikers and motorcyclists there, and there are bike trails specifically for them. I was 11 at the time, and we were supposed to be waiting to cross the bike lane. I didn't see anyone but I didn't look to see if someone was coming so I just crossed the street (it's pretty narrow) and I nearly got run over by someone on a motorcycle. I was in big trouble. The second one is when my next door neighbor got really drunk/ high. I was about 9 or 10, and suddenly I wake up to this loud noise. Turns out he thought someone was attacking him and started chopping the side of our house with an axe, the side with my room on it. We called the police and I went to school pretty late that day.

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#46

*trigger warning* I was in an abusive relationship. He kept telling people that I was depressed and suicidal when I wasn’t. He would also tell me that he wanted to kill someone just to know how it felt and that if he had the chance he’d drag it out as long as possible. He was a soulless sadistic person and I truly believe he was trying to pave the way to kill me and make it look like a suicide. Thankfully I have a permanent restraining order and have not seen him in three years

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#47

It was nighttime, and I was taking a walk. I was almost to the lighthouse in my town when I saw someone in an alley. Then I heard a loud bang and the person in the alley ran away. I was almost shot in the head. I don’t take walks at night anymore.

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calebhaas avatar
Average Grizzlies Fan
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's very scary! I've always gotten creeped out even if it's only like 7:00 P.M. and someone walks by.

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#48

I live in a peripheral neighborhood of the city of São Paulo, I am a public servant in the area of citizen's health, that is, I see death up close almost every week, either due to threats or suburban violence or the chaotic nature of São Paulo traffic!

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Skylar
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I almost got hit by a car in Sao Paulo once. It is sure a busy city, but I like the people.

#49

I got appendicitis when I was 23, I felt terrible but figured it was the flu. I had a diarrhea, a fever, cramps and kept vomiting. I didn't want to go to the doctors because I didn't think it was anything that needed more than rest and medicine. That night I went to bed and woke up in the middle of the night shaking and screaming, like an anxiety attack. I was freaking out and went to the emergency room, all that freaking out raised my heart rate and they admitted me, but it went back down after they did. They did tests and told me my appendix was ready to burst.

On another occasion, when I was 26, I was driving home from work. I had just left the parking lot but got a red light. I was on the far right lane waiting for the light to change green. When it did I looked both ways, the car on the left lane didn't. I saw the car get hit right in front of me and spin to the middle of the intersection, had I gone I would have been hit with them. Someone told me the girl who got hit didn't make it, I still hope they're wrong.

Also last year, I was driving on the free way and a semi truck started merging on me. Note I was on the left, so I merged left to avoid getting ran over by this giant truck. I almost hit another car, was lucky they saw me and also merged left. Till this day I still feel bad about almost hitting them, I cried the whole way home.

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#50

This wasn't my experience but my sister almost got kidnapped at an arcade. (this is a recollection of events from her) Our family went for a birthday party and this family showed up (two girls, and their parents) They began talking throughout the two hours we were there and they began offering her candy, and pizza. Thankfully, she declined and then they went on to ask her to come with them to their house to a "sleepover". The father had grabbed her wrist and began walking out of the building. at this point my sister had ran away from them and had told my parents what had happened. We immediately went to the front desk and asked to check the cameras. Apparently, this wasn't the first time something like this has happened here. The arcade went on to say that the family in question was on the radar and was being chased down for abduction. Close call.

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#51

When I was 6, I felt sick. Normal, right? Well, not exactly. See, since I NEVER cry or show any signs I’m in pain (besides a lot of complaining), my parents can’t know when I’m hurt or not. Same when I was 6. Of course, they knew I was sick, but we didn’t know the danger of the situation for a bit...

I went to the doctor. He was inexperienced and said I had a normal sickness—he saw the signs of what was going on, but I didn’t cry, so he ignored it. I went home and went to the doctor AGAIN a few days later. This guy saw what was happened and immediately ordered me to the hospital, where I got emergency surgery.

Basically, my appendix was rupturing! If it exploded, toxins would fill my body and I’d die. Luckily, I got the surgery, and after a week of staying at the hospital (I ate nothing in my whole time there, besides half a popsicle), I was fine!

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#52

My ex blood choking me until I was on my knees, laughing the whole time.

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Monika Soffronow
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"Blood chokes (or carotid restraints / sleeper holds) are a form of strangulation that compress one or both carotid arteries and/or the jugular veins without compressing the airway, hence causing cerebral ischemia and a temporary hypoxic condition in the brain."

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#53

Waterwater rafting. Fell out when the boat hit a large boulder and lodged against it. I was pulled underneath the boat - along against the rock. I hit the underside of the boat as long as a could to let my friends know I was underneath and I don't remember anything else beyond waking up back in the boat and throwing up, coughing, and shaking hard. Actually, my mind usually shies away from remembering this and I think I'm just going to post and move along now...

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#54

So technically I don’t think this is to bad but my closest brush with death is the time when i had a therapist appointment that was scheduled I few hours before I planned to kill myself, luckily the therapist told my parents and they sent me to a hospital to get supportive help and sense them I’ve been doing better

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Mary Rose Kent
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I’m glad to hear that helped. I spent two weeks in a locked psychiatric ward after I tried to kill myself—it was both the worst and best thing that ever happened to me.

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#55

Mine was more than a brush with death (although I've had a couple of those). I actually died. I bled to death because of lack of medical expertise, while giving birth in Africa. My child died too. They managed to bring us both back.

My brushes, well, I had three more in Africa. 1. I was attacked by a hippo and survived. 2. I narrowly missed being gunned down by terrorists because I had gone to the bathroom and was just about to come out when it happened, so I saw it from behind a wall. 3. I had a double blow out on a half dirt/half bad tarmac road and the car went rolling and catapulting into the bush and stopped, I kid you not, with the windshield less than an inch from a big tree. One foot further and that tree would have been wearing my face as decoration. That's enough of my excitement for one day. It's been an extraordinary life, so far.

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#56

A few times. 1)Perforated diverticulum (10 out of 10 pain, even on morphine), resulting in emergency surgery (Colectomy). Without this procedure within hours I would've died (Peritonitis). 2} Unprovoked GBH. Three men attacked me. One did a flying kick to my face, breaking my nose. Wife picked me up from hospital with tread marks still on my face 3) Stupidity, but I was only 7. Leapfrogged over an iron bollard severing my leg from knee to groin, missing major artery by millimetres. 4) Rolling a cigarette, filter in mouth and I sneezed. The intake of breath forced the filter to go into my windpipe, couldn't breathe. No one around to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre. Fortunately, I was able to cough the filter back up. I think I could go on, but I don't want to get up to number 8. Not that I think I might be a cat, but I’m thwarting strike 9.

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#57

When I was a baby my family was driving down the road our light was green so my dad went two feet into the road then stopped and just at that moment a semi truck drove thru his red light and would have killed me and my dad if my dad hadn't stopped.

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Among Us Panda
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I hate these kind of people. These who only care about themselves. It would've been exceptional if it were an emergency vehicle. Even if it was, it should've had it's sirens on.

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#58

My family and I were watching the 4th of July fireworks down by a lake, and some other people were setting off little ones while waiting for the big ones to go off. One of the little ones spun sideways and hit our picnic blanket. Set my jacket on fire, scarred little sis’s ring finger and narrowly missed mom’s head. Never gone back there since.

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#59

I think there r maybe 2?

1. So I was at a camp, kinda like a hocking hills thing except no hiking. So basically we were at the camps public pool and I was like maybe 6 or 7 and I wanted to go in the deep end. There was a bar on the inside of the pool where u could walk on. So as I was doing that I tried to show my step dad something. So I took my hands off the edge and then splashed into the deep end (I didn’t know how to swim) but surprisingly I didn’t try and swim upward somehow I just didn’t freak out. But then my step dad saw that I wasn’t along the edge anymore so he saved me.

I’ve been writing this for 15 minutes bc my tv is on and I couldn’t stop watching it. So now I forgot what my second one was

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#60

Pouring, Blinding rain. Tropical storm level winds.
Trying to get home from work.

Headed up the winding On Ramp to the Interstate & tapped brakes to slow down bc I felt I was being pushed by the wind, in the bed of my small pick up truck.

Went into tailspin. Headed straight down embankment towards metal post.
I was an inexperienced driver at the time & panicked. Thought the truck was going to roll.

Somehow felt someone take the wheel and swerved to avoid full on collision at last minute.
I KNOW it was my grandmother who passed away the year before.

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#61

I was in a school lockdown in 1998, and a few months later my plane had a small failure and almost fell.

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Katelyn
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

One of my worst fears is going on a plane and it crashes I honestly have never been on a plane because of this.

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#62

When I was about 6yrs old my brother and I were at our local swimming pool. I was standing at the edge of one of the pools about to get in when my brother accidently pushed me in. I didn't realize it was the deep end, a couple of people were just watching me struggle to swim to the edge even the life guard watched me and didnt attempt to help. My dad ended up jumping in to rescue me .

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#63

Ok, a year ago or so (before covid) my summer camp went to Mt. Olympus. me and some friends were going in the lazy river, but we were swimming in the water, not a raft. At one point, i was under water and all the rafts went above me so I couldn't go up for air. I actually thought i was gonna die, but i found a space to swim up for air. I didn't go under water after that. (longest post i made oh gosh)

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#64

When I was 13 years old I almost died from pneumonia. I don't really have a lot of details to share because I slept through most of it. I never really felt sick; I just couldn't stay awake and had zero appetite. I only realized I had an issue with lungs when I couldn't take a deep breath for the x-ray they wanted; it made me start coughing.

The second time was when someone went on a stabbing spree in a mall that I was in. I managed to be in a store that put down that thing stores usually do when they're closed (no idea what it's called) to keep him out until an off duty cop eventually shot him.

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#65

I've had several, and they always come in threes. First Story...When the traffic light turns green, I always take a second to glance left and right before I go. This has saved my life three times. All three events occurred within the same square kilometer, and I was traveling South all three times. All three times, the driver who ran the red light was speeding so excessively that I would have been mincemeat. Second Story...In the month after my daughter was born, I had three medical emergencies: pulmonary embollism, double kidney infection, and anaphylactic reaction to antibiotics. Needless to say, I survived. But I can't help but wonder how many times it's possible to beat the odds.

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#66

I was in a (minor) car accident in middle school during the winter. The car was totaled, but my mom and I survived with minor injuries.

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#67

I had a massive coronary that ended up with me actually dying several times over 14 minutes, and being put in an arctic sun device, to keep me alive. In a coma for three days with my family told not to expect me to live, and if I did, to expect massive brain damage. I actually walked out with all my faculties, as far as I'm aware.

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#68

Walked on a greenhouse and crashed through the glass roof; with some meter-long shards piercing the ground right next to my head. Got out with some bruises, a few small cuts and quite a scare. And my parents obviously needed a new roof for their greenhouse.

Also almost drowned once in Lake Balaton ...

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Monika Soffronow
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well, it sounds like a Very Bad Idea to walk on a greenhouse. What on earth made you go up there?

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#69

I was about 9 y/o at the time. Sat down to watch some cartoons at 7-ish at night. Next thing I know, hands behind my back. hairy arms, their hands on my mouth..I shouted like crazy... That night is honestly a blur but that was my closest brush with death..
P.S. the man fled when my grandpa opened his door after he heard the struggles. Also, I managed to kick him several times on his pot belly.

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hoRSefAce
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wait did they ever catch him and also how did he get in with you guys home

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#70

When I was 17 I bought a motorbike and took it for a run down a straight main road. A 30 to truck came out of a side road without seeing me i crashed into the truck at about 50 MPH I hit the tyre bounced back a bit and somehow had the lorry run on to my leg. the driver tried to drive of my leg but his wheel spun and remove a lot of flesh from my leg. As luck (?) would have a dentist had been following me and he stopped his car and rushed to help. He managed to stem the bleeding but i lost a lot of blood. as this was 1967 there where no mobile phones nor where there any telephone boxes. But again I was lucky a young girl on a horse galloped of to fetch medical help which came quite quickly. I was rushed to hospital where they saved my leg and I was in hospital for three months. I only have a limp to show for it. Thank god it was the UK so I did not end up with a huge medical bill. I also got substantial damages from the courts from the truck drivers insurance.

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Monika Soffronow
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Damn, that must have been absolutely terrifying with the wheel of that truck spinning! I am glad you made it!

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#71

Falling off a 50 foot cliff and landing on the rocks below. Broken leg, smashed pelvis and fractured skull. 40 years later I have arthritis in both hips and lower spine. Thanks cliff!

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#72

This all started on a common summer's day, perfect for swimming in a pool. My little sister thought it would be a wonderful idea to get on my shoulders and make our way to the deep end. Reluctantly I agreed. As we made our way to the 10-foot deep slope in the pool, someone pulled me under, but just enough to where my sister didn't notice. I think I just slipped but who knows. I was tapping on my sister's leg as I was running out of breath. I couldn't get up. I went through a state of panic. I didn't do anything but listen to my thoughts. All I heard in my mind was, "Give up, no one will notice if you give up. just drown. No one will care." And I did. My sister realized what was happening to me a little too late. My lungs screaming for air, I sunk to the bottom. As I was sinking someone pulled me back up. Gasping for air I couldn't grip on to the situation that happened. But glancing around, I saw a few things, my sister bawling her head off and the person who saved my life... my mom. It turns out someone actually cared for me after all.

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#73

When I was 22 I had my first UTI. I didn’t know the symptoms and a week later I saw a doc, got drugs and went on my way. Little did I know I was too late in treating it and I started throwing up with side pain. Again, I ignored it for a day, till the pain increased, the throwing up increased and I couldn’t really stand. I begged my twin at 2:30 AM (my roommate and fresh from drinking all night the bar) to drive me to the ER. This was before ride-share. We waited in the ER lobby for over two hours while I couldn’t even sit-up and kept throwing up. FINALLY, I was seen and they poked and prodded me in the stomach and I screamed in pain. They gave me morphine for pain and I said it was making me dizzy and they seemed happy I wasn’t some druggie looking for a fix since I wasn’t used to it. Anyway, to wrap up this wild ride I got an MRI and it turns out my UTI turned into a large abscess on my kidney and if it ruptured I would have died (toxic shock) or as they put it, “You were hours from dying.” My grandmother died from the same thing a year later.

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Monika Soffronow
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) can affect different parts of your urinary tract, including your bladder (cystitis), urethra (urethritis) or kidneys (kidney infection)

#74

I was given a drug by my doctor that had bad side effects. The doctor insisted it was okay, that I was imagining things. I couldn't sleep, fainted when I stood up, had body tremors, severe body pain, brain fog, heart palpitations, tinnitus and I was suddenly anorexic after being overweight my whole life, and had lost 60 lbs. I was vomiting constantly and after months of this, I was laying on my couch, and I suddenly knew that if I didn't go to the doctor right away I was going to die. Like I KNEW I was at a point of juncture. Get up and live or stay on the couch and die.
I chose life. That was 8 years ago.

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#75

i know this isnt big but sometimes i sneak around and watch tv and stuff when im supposed to be asleep. like rn lol but anyways...my house is really old, so its creaky. whenever i hear something at like 1AM i freeze, almost die, and then realize im an idiot and go back to bed.

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#76

I fell under a train

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#78

I was riding a horse and he wasn’t fully trained yet but he was doing well and we were going over a jump and he freaked out and I went flying over his head and my back landed on the jump. I was paralysed for a few minutes. Scariest moment of my life

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#79

well me and my father were going to chick-fil-a and a black van started to follow us, we took 4 right turns and they were still following us we stupidly went home, he parked at our mailbox he got out of the van wearing a ski mask proceeded along with a very large comrade to run at us we burst through the front door locking it behind us, we called the police they came and found nothing accept a note that said "hello Peter" i don't know anybody named peter. this is a story from my friend btw.

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#80

I almost choked to death, as a child.
I'm not sure how old I was. My grandmother retold the story, several times, as I was growing up. She didn't say what age, just "when you/she was little."
We were coming back home, from a trip, to where I don't remember either. My Uncle was driving, grandma in the passenger seat and me in the back, buckled up. (this was before car seats were used, as much as they are now).
She said she heard a sound, coming from the back, turned around and I was choking on a piece of candy she had given me.
I wasn't breathing and had my hands up to my throat.
She asked Uncle to pull over, he got me out and tried dislodging it by hitting my upper back.
He couldn't, then she tried. Neither of them knew the Heimlich maneuver.
Another car pulled over, then the man who had pulled over to help also tried dislodging it by hitting my upper back. Again, this was before the Heimlich maneuver was commonly known.
By then I'm turning blue, eyes rolled back in my head, close to being gone.
Then another man pulled over and also couldn't get it out. He gave me back to the first man who had pulled over. Then went to his knees. In prayer, fright or both, who knows.
The next time the first man who pulled over hit me in the upper back, the candy came out. I'm so thankful for those men, whose names I'll never know.
Grandma always said it was the only time she was glad to hear me cry and scream.
That meant I was alive. She wouldn't have forgiven herself if it turned out differently. She felt blessed and all these years later (I'm 52) I do too.
As I'm now a mother to 3 beautiful children and a grandmother myself, to my oldest sons two precious girls.
One of whom is named after me and her great grandma Lucy, who would have loved her so and I know watches over us all.

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#81

I have epilepsy and twice I’ve been driving and blacked out only to wake up during the crash. Once I smashed a wall head on and the other I woke up driving against the guard rail on the high way.
Did I see the light? Oh yes I did.

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Monika Soffronow
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Is it wise to drive at all if you get frequent epileptic seizures? You are not only lucky to be alive, I'd say that you are even luckier not to have killed anyone!

#82

Sorry, to spam this, but some thing very terrifying happened to me today. My dad was driving me and my friend home, and we were at an intersection. The light had turned green, so us and the bus next of us started to go forward. As we were going I saw this car speeding through the intersection going close to 40 mph in a 25mph zone. And it didn't look like they were going to stop. So my dad and the bus had to slam on our brakes, and the car missed the bus by 10 feet and us by 20. If us or the bus had started going through the intersection or were slower to press our brakes, we would have been hit.

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#83

When i was about 9 or 10 my family used to go to a popular local area that had parks and lakes and a river to swim in. It had a high bridge across a lake that we kids all used to jump off.
I jumped in and when i hit the water something brushed my shoulder on the way down.
When i came up i was curious about what it was so i swam back down and found someone had buried 3 big sharp metal poles under the water in the bridge. 6 inches to the left and i would have been impaled. The rangers came and closed the park and searched the place etc. The police told us that they had some pretty good ideas who was involved but could not prive it.

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#84

I was a smart kid so I graduated primary school and got into secondary school (grade 7) when I was 8 years old. My parents thought the best idea was to send me to a boarding school. I didn't even know what was going on, all I knew was I wrote some exams and I passed and I being shipped off far far away from my parents. Months later, we were working in the field while in school and I injured myself. Being a little kid, I forgot about it. About a week later, I had high fever, hallucinations, nausea and dizziness. I didn't go the clinic. I slept that night and a couple days later, I woke up in the hospital, where I was told my wound was infected by tetanus and I may have died if I hadn't being rushed by friends to the hospital. Bottom line is treat your wounds, no matter how little it is.Infections can kill you!! And don't ship off 8 year olds to boarding school, no matter how smart they are.

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adedoyinadedeji2002 avatar
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Also there was this one time. My entire family was in a car and we parked at the side of the road to buy something from the roadside vendor. The trailer in front our car(the ones that carry petrol, heavy duty trucks btw) kept reversing back and back really fast. Somehow, no one noticed until my little sister yelled and my dad managed to maneuver out the spot and we escaped death that day in one piece. My dad would usually yell in such situations but we were so shocked that no one talked until we got to where we were heading to.

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#85

Once my dad left me in his car with my baby cousin. And there were two people outside they were trying to get inside the car. I hid my baby cousin under a blanket. Then both of them were trying to do something to me. I tried kicking and punching them. All of a sudden I saw my dad coming.That is actually everything I remember since they both knocked me out. But everyone was okay I only got bruised that all.

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#86

Ok so I was born with a hole in my heart. Noone knew and once I was born I was sent home, no worries there. Parents and grandparents thought it was odd when I ate food and threw it straight back up. I was taken to hospital and they said nothing was wrong, maybe try eating different food. My parents did that but I still threw up. I got back to the hospital, 5 times and every time they got the same answer. My mum was convinced I was going to die, when I was 6 months old she took me to a different hospital, they said I had a hole in my heart. They fixed me up with a pacemaker, I had an operation down my chest and stomach. I have only used the pacemaker once when my heart stopped beating and it kicked in. Mum took me back to hospital and I've been sorted out. I still have the pacemaker, we're going to get it removed soon, i go yearly to the hospital to get checked up. Many people don't think it is possible to have a hole in your heart, but here I am. Many thanks to my amazing mother 😊

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#87

Well, my stepdad and my mom were fighting a lot. He once was trying to get my mom to stop, and then he made the car start and stop, like turning on and off the brakes, then the car turned 90 degrees, went on two wheels, and went into a ditch. Don't worry, nobody was hurt, lots of people helped us, and my mom and my stepdad divorced because my stepdad beat up my sister. We haven't heard from him since.

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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I also almost drowned at Eagle Falls. It was a fast, deep river. It it hadn't been for a stranger to dive in and save me, I wouldn't be here.

#88

A couple-
1- When I was nine I was playing oin a shallow lake with my family, I went way further than everyone else and there turned out to be a drop-off for boats we weren't aware of. Could not swim, propelled myself into a fairly strong current by just kicking because I thought that was how to swim. Everyone who knew what was happening was panicking. I took a lightning lesson screamed from the shallows on how to tread water, though I was panicking and kept going under despite my desperate kicking. My grandma was luckily closeish to me as she had been coming to bring me back before I fell off the drop and she got me out of the current but by then I was very far from the shallow before the drop. My dad swam out to get me from Grandma and he tried to swim with me to the bank but the bank was covered in spiny bushes that sliced our hands and I was still kicking and then he lost his glasses and then he started going under so he went down as far as he could and then kicked a rock and like propelled upward and eventually got us back to the beach area. He had to go back to get his glasses.
2- when I was twelve, I hiked Ding and Dang with some of my cousins, and my parents, and my grandparents. There was a huge drop near the end without a rope like most of the drops had. Another thing, we were all freezing because we went after the rainy season so all the huge scoops taken out of the rock like ice cream that the hike is famous for were full of cold and dirty water. We were also hiking in the evening so it wouldn't be boiling hot. It was very cold and it for dark quickly. Anyways, at the drop with no rope, the adults decided that they would station themselves so they could kind of shimmy the kids down. The youngest was ten, don't worry, we weren't that stupid. And she was a very tough hiker. One of my sisters :)) so when it was my turn, I got halfway through before i got stuck. There wasn't a way back up or a clear way down, since I was the last kid and so all the adults but my mom had gone to help the other kiddos get through a huge rift. I froze and was terrified and shaking and I couldn't figure out where to go and my mom told me to jump. She was about six feet below me and balanced very precariously on the rim of a scoop. I was not having it but eventually I realized there wasn't really an alternative, but I was not brave enough to do it, so I was about to try and shift positions when I jumped instead. I was not planning the jump, it was like someone had jumped for me, it was a very scary sensation. It think it was my great grandma who loved hiking and the red rocks, who died when I was young. But my mom caught me and I was pretty much drained of all my energy and barely dragged myself through the rest of the hike, and some of the adults had to carry me through deeper pits of water because I was shivering and sleepy and they were worried I was getting sick.
3- I don't remember this as well because I was four, but I was found on a hike resting on a rock that a rattlesnake was resting under. It was hissing and rattling but I thought it was a bunch of pebbles rolling down the hill I was tired of climbing up. Right after my mom snatched me off the rock and ran my dad saw the snake dart after her but it slinked off into some bushes after a little while.
4- I can't even remember this because it happened while I was being driven home from the hospital like three days after I was born but there was a terrible storm going on, this was when we lived right by the sea. The wind picked up trees and thrust them through houses, the rain turned everything into soup. The roads were packed and slippery. A lot of people died. Our house was barely scathed. It was safe enough to keep lil me in, which was more than most people had in the aftermath.
5- after I learned about the terrible accident my grandpa had, I went on my bike route, desperate to find something familiar. I was tired, I was blinded by tears, I was nearly run over by a red Honda.

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squidqueen3 avatar
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There was also one time where we were driving over a bridge with a river underneath on our way to Oregon, and a skluz almost rammed us off the bridge. Our tires were partway off the road. Only time I've seen my mother flip someone off. When we lived in a ghetto, our nextdoor neighbors found a cheetah in their yard that was very mad. It was the pet of a strip club owner's wife. There was also a sketchy dude who took two pictures of me and my mom at a doughnut shop. We didn't go outside for a long time. Every couple weeks someone was shot in the alley by our house. When we finally moved, it was like a weight was lifted off all our shoulders. Once my brother was stalked by a literal effing tiger, not even anywhere remotely tiger populated. It was from a zoo. The tiger didn't kill him because it ran into a mesh fence. Same brother also rode his tricycle into a main road that was packed with traffic,we lost him for about twenty minutes, and he rode right out completely unharmed.

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#89

Here's one, I got into an accident where a car crashed into me. I was in the front seat when it happed and I hit my head really hard on the dashboard. I blacked out for what seemed like a lifetime, then I woke up in a hospital. Apparently, I had been pronounced dead for three hours. But I'm still alive. This happened three months ago.

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#90

This happened about a year ago. So I live in
Wisconsin and during the winter we get a decent amount of snow. Anyway I was on my way home from baseball practice and my mom and I were driving on the highway and there was a traffic jam ahead so we were stopped at the mouth of an overpass and there was a hill next to it. We had been sitting there for a couple of minutes when we started to slide off sideways even though my mom was reversing and we were about to start rolling down the hill which is probably like 30 feet high but miraculously we stopped before we did. The thing that made me angry about it was that nobody pulled over or anything to see if we were ok even though there were people behind us that had just witnessed it. We cried for a bit after that and got ice cream but it was really scary.

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#91

My closest brush with death was when My mom was driving my brother and me to school. My mom was parked and as she was pulling out back into the street some idiot decided that instead of slowing down, it would be best to try and squeeze between our car and the curb. The door was ripped off. If she had driven just a few inches to the left, I would have been in serious condition, and my 2-year-old brother would not have made it. It scares me every time to think about what could have happened.

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#92

someone threw a fridge at me

I dunno why

(this was yesterday, btw I got a new fridge)

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#93

Once when i was 8 or so my family and a few friends went on a holiday to a farm in the outback. We were exploring one of the paddocks and i went off by myself to try and find the house again. There was a wall separating the paddock from the house and i was to short to climb it so i just stood there waiting for my mum. I felt like i was being watched so i turned around and literally 10 centimetres away from my leg was an Eastern brown snake (the 2nd most dangerous snake in Australia, yes i am Australian.) I hadn't been taught anything about snake yet so i panicked and froze from fear. I locked eyes with the snake and called out for my mum, still frozen in terror. My dearest mother didn't hear me because she was preoccupied with my brothers. 1 of them was having allergic reactions to grass and the other was stuck on a rock next to a dead sheep. The snakes tongue was flicking in and out while it stared my down. We held eye contact for about another minute and then the snake left. I was OK though.

if i had run away from the snake instead, it would have chased me and bitten me. I probably would of died because we were out in the middle of nowhere, a million years away from a hospital.

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#94

Not a big thing nor really a brush with death but when I was in California on a road trip there were some insanely twisty mountain roads and it was scary bc just feet to one side was a huge cliff, and the road was sooooo twisty!!!

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lsgm2fw avatar
Zoe's Mom
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I live in CA and I completely understand. You learn how to drive those roads/trails.

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#95

Hm. The other day I was in a parking lot and I almost got hit by a car...😅

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#96

I had a seven-hour emergency surgery... ended up in the ICU for 8 days. God asked me if I wanted to "stay or come home". I said stay and woke up.

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#97

While I was mountain biking I accidentally went over a huge rock that acted as a ramp and sent me flying over the edge, but my dad grabbed me just in time.

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#98

As a kid, decided to wade across a creek during heavy flooding. The current washed away the sand bar me and a friend were standing on, and away we went downstream. A large tree had fallen into the creek due to the water eroding the dirt away from its roots and that saved us, otherwise we would have surely drowned. We were miles away from home and no one had any idea where we were at. Hey, I didn't say I was a smart kid.

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#99

Not me, but my little sister. She was about one at the time our family visited Mesa Verde. We went on this tour but at the end part we were going to have to climb up the side of the cliff like the Native Americans that lived there did. For some reason my parents thought my sister would be fine in a baby backpack. But while my dad was climbing, my baby sister was trying to climb out of the backpack so my dad held one arm on her and one on the wall--I was freaking out. She's okay now though.

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#100

I've never really had much experience with death. I guess for me, even though it wasn't actually life threatening, was a few years ago when I was at a swimming pool in Singapore.

I scraped my knee on the super sharp stone corner, and blood came spilling out. I hadn't expected that to happen and it stung really bad so I was in shock. I tried to breath through my nose but I couldn't because I was in shock or something, and then I remember thinking 'I can't breath, I'm going to die' (I'm a very dramatic person). Slightly oxygen deprived, I hobbled over to my mom and managed to gasp out "Blood- pain- pool- sharp-" and that was history. I still have a big scar on my knee.

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#101

Well it was more terrifying than actually maybe death threatening. There were a few times:

1) I had to have stitches under my chin because for SOME REASON I slipped and fell on a playground bridge thing. I was really young so I don't really remember it.

2) About a year later, in pre-school, the bathroom ran out of paper towels. I had to go outside to the sink where everyone washed their hands for lunch at, and I was staring at the mirror and running. Well I was really short so my eyebrow hit the paper-towel dispenser. If I had grown a bit taller, it would have hit my eye. Dang am I glad that I was short.

3) I was late to a class, and there were a lot of cars parked outside the main parking lot so we had to park on a hill. The side I came out of the car was on the higher, slanted part of the hill. I opened the door, and for some reason thought it was a good idea to reach in again and grab my bag. Well, who would have guessed that the door would slowly slam shut on my hand? Ah that's exactly what happened. I had to miss class and go to the emergency clinic after that. About four years later and I still have the scar.

Lesson learned: Don't put your hands in your pockets on an icey day at the park. Don't look at the mirror and run full speed at a paper-towel dispenser. DON'T REACH FOR YOUR BAG WHEN THE CAR IS PARKED ON A HILL.

Honestly though, I still think I'm pretty lucky...

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iamdanezhaface avatar
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Also, one time in good ol' Canada, I was in a car with my friend, going to a shopping mall or something. The car somehow got stuck in snow, and stopped moving. The car wasn't a 4x4, and this was a freaking freeway in which cars were travelling at 100kmph. Luckily, my friend's dad got us out just in time as a car came rushing by.

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#102

Country road, beautiful day, out for a ride on my 650 BSA motorcycle, my brother behind me on a 750 chopper. Pick up truck comig in the opposite lane, ladder in the back, rope on the ladder making a big lasso in my lane. I lay as flat as I could on the bike, whew, made it and my brother did too.

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#103

Was walking across down a road through a field down the street from a ski resort with some friends. Snow was 2-3 feet and came right up to the top of the concrete barriers that lined both side of the road. I thought it would be fun to vault head first over said barriers into the fresh snow. Since I had snowboard boots on, I didn’t get a very good foothold and slipped before I could get my weight over. What I didn’t see beforehand was this was the only place in the road that had train tracks about 40-50 feet straight down, didn’t see the gap because of the snow buildup. I still get chills.

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#104

When I was about 4 I went into the deep end of a pool and fell in. Couldn’t swim, was screaming my head of, and kept getting water in my mouth as I tried getting a breath. My dad saved though and was ok after that, other that being a little scared of the pool for a few days. (No my parents did not take a 4 year old to pool with out a floatation device, I had just taken it off to go to the bathroom)

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#105

As a 16-year old, I was driving home from work alone in my parents' SUV. Traffic was always crazy at that time of day, so it was difficult for me to turn from our office complex's parking lot onto the main road. I finally found an opening, and the driver I was turning in front of immediately began accelerating as I started turning. They slammed on the brakes, honked their horn over and over, and flipped me off over and over, presumably because they made it look like I had cut them off. This went on for about five minutes.

Traffic didn't thin out until we reached an area of the road with only two lanes going each way. On the other side of oncoming traffic, there was a sheer canyon wall. On the passenger's side of my lane, there was a hundred-or-so foot vertical drop-off with a flimsy-looking guard rail. The road rager started drifting into my lane, as if they were trying to push me off the cliff. I tried slowing down so that I could change lanes to be farther from the cliff, but he just followed me and kept driving extremely dangerously. I was too scared to even look at him; the only thing I had going for me was I was driving a large Suburban and he was in a smaller pickup truck.

I managed to pull off the highway at the next off-ramp and was relieved that he didn't follow me. I was certain I was going to go careening off the edge of the cliff. It took me probably ten or twenty minutes to regain my composure enough to get back on the road.

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#106

I kind of have three, so... tell me which one was more dangerous. The first one: I crashed my car into my garage and I ACTUALLY THOUGHT I WAS TO DIE. But somehow, the car and me had not a single scratch. The second one: I was walking down the sidewalk and I heard footsteps and I had the feeling someone was watching me, and beginning to stalk me. I just booked it my house and locked the door. The third one: (my mom told me this) I was asleep, it was around 1am, and this guy in a gray hoodie jumped over our fence and went to open our door. My dog, decided that this was a robber/murderer (which he probably was), and barked and barked until he leaped back over the fence and sprinted away.

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#107

I was driving in the winter and hit a patch of black ice on the highway. My car skidded to a stop between the concrete barrier keeping people from going over the edge and down a drop and a gasoline truck. I was wedged in there so tightly it broke my side mirror.

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#108

Driving on a 2-lane road with trees on both sides to my place of work and a driver coming towards me overtaking some trucks. Luckily I knew that if I speeded up I could turn into someone's driveway to escape a head on collision. I saw the girl in the oncoming car screaming in terror when I managed to swerve into that driveway, seconds before we would have collided. It was early and there were no cars behind me so both of us lived to tell the tale.

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#109

It was about midnight, I was walking home, and had to cross a street. There was a yellow car coming from my left, but it was quite far and very slow. I thought I could easily cross the street before it came even near. But as I took a few steps to cross the street the driver suddenly gave full speed and roaaared towards me. It was such an insane moment, it was as if time had slowed down and I was watching myself in slow motion. I jumped forward with all I had and the car drove past almost hitting me, my hair flew from its wind and I fell on my hands having just escaped death or serious injury at least. I don't know why he did that, was he a mad man, was he drunk, no idea. I just sat there on the street and some young people came to help.For a few days after that, I would often just sit and stare at the wall, trying to make sense and to move on.

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#110

Likely kidney failure due to sulfa reaction. I came down with low-grade fever. Went home and fell into a stupor. My lower legs started hurting badly so that it was very painful to walk. I had my 4yo with me alone. I remember laying on the couch and vaguely realizing if there were a fire, I wouldn't move.

I started to feel a little more with it, and realized it was time to take another pill - that maybe it was the infection causing me to feel so sick and I really needed it. I did it, and could barely get myself to take the tiniest sip of water with it - just couldn't drink more than that. Fell into an even worse stupor. My son started asking what was wrong.

3-4 hours later, I came to a little again. Told my son if I fell asleep to call 911. I was so out of it, it was the best I could do. I thought about taking a pill, thinking the infection would kill me, then realized it was the sulfa that must be killing me.

At that point I couldn't walk my legs hurt so much. Turns out they were swollen.

Went to the nurse practitioner the next day feeling much better, but still bad. Had to sit and scoot down the stairs due to the pain. She laughs and says, "Well, don't take sulfa again" and sent me on my way.

It was only 10 years later when I looked it up and realized it had to be kidney failure. My son could have died since I wasn't watching him. I could have died. The nurse practitioner should have done more than laugh, though I was better in a couple more days.

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#111

I had a car accident a few years ago. I was on my way home from work. The road was wet and in a very bad condition. It had been reported very often, that it needed to be fixed.
A tire got in a pothole and the car drifted to the side of the road, where the hill went down very steep. I nearly crashed down into the trees and would have died for sure, but managed to turn the steering wheel, but crashed into the upside hill on the other side. The car overturned and I ended upside down. I broke my Lumbar vertebra and O was lucky the second time. A little bit more and I would have been paralyzed. Had to stay in the hospital for several weeks. But I'm alive and can walk.
Fun fact: The road got fixed a few weeks later.

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#112

Years ago I used to ride my bike to the train, and take the train into town for work. One day I left home a little late and as I was coming into the station there was a train coming into the station heading south, and my train would be coming in a minute heading north (on the far side of the tracks). I realized that if I waited, I'd miss my train and be late for work. So I sped up... The incoming train honked and people on the platform saw what I was going try to do. They started yelling. I shot across the tracks and the incoming train missed me by maybe a foot. It took a long time for my heart to stop racing. Someone came up and yelled at me. It was one of the stupidest things I've ever done. But I survived.

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#113

When I almost committed suicide when I fell into a deep depression.

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#114

I was traveling with my dad (I was like 10) on kayaks down the Colorado river. He was stopping every once in a while to empty his kayak because it had a small hole. I was jealous because he got to pee, too. Eventually, the banks became overgrown and he couldn't empty it anymore. He told me his kayak was going to sink, and to go over to a dock on our left and wait for him. His kayak's front end went straight up in the air and followed the back end down. I walked into a bar on the Arizona side and they told me I couldn't be in there. Once my dad had joined me I had hot chocolate (yay) but they told us had we kept going we would have hit the sluice gate less than a 1/2 mile ahead.

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#115

When I was 18 or 19 I volunteered for the closing shifts at work cuz I liked to sleep in, which meant I usually got home around midnight. I lived with my BF and his grandpa, and grandpa slept on the couch by the front door, so he liked to lock a sliding bolt on the inside of the door to feel safer. Every night when I got home I would knock and he would get up and let me in.
One night I was driving home and noticed a car behind me was making every turn I made. We lived out in the middle of nowhere so it really was odd, but I just thought it was a coincidence. The closer we got to our house the more suspicious I became, but I still was thinking I was just being paranoid. So I pull into the long driveway of our house and the car follows me up and pulls up right next to mine. I get out and bend down to look in the passenger window thinking maybe this is a friend of my boyfriend, but I don’t recognize him. He gets out of his car and says “Hi Donna” (my name is Abby). I told him he had the wrong person, but he said no, he didn’t, and that he had been looking for me. Now I sort of had the mindset at the time that it was better for me to be uncomfortable than to be rude so even though this was raising the hair on the back of my neck I still was trying to be polite to him and explain the mistake. Then he started to come around toward where I was still standing in between the two cars. As he made the turn around the back of his car I saw he was holding a screw driver and I just freaked out, politeness be damned, and ran for my life up the walkway to the front door. For whatever reason, this night grandpa had not locked the door, which had never happened in the year and a half I’d lived there. So thank god, I was able to fling the door open and as I turned around to slam the door I saw the guy was RIGHT behind me, just about in the doorway. I locked the sliding bolt and ran to our room where my boyfriend was and frantically told him about what happened. He went to the door and opened it and this fool was still on the porch, trying to peek into the window next to the door. My BF asked what the hell he was doing and the guy looks startled and backs up a little and says “oh, I was looking for the Motel 6. This isn’t it, sorry.” Again, we lived out in the middle of NOwhere and there wasn’t even a porch light on so this was the most unbelievable thing ever. He turns around and starts jogging back to his car awkwardly because he had his hand, the one the screw driver was in, in his pocket.
I am still certain, 15 years later, that if the door had been locked or if waited one more seconds to start running, I would have been killed that night.

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#116

Okay, not too close to death, but I lost a decent amount of blood. I was about four-five years of age, and my brother was at a baseball game, I went to play at a park, now, the thing about this park is that it’s very close to a ice skating rink, and they had a fence near their dirty ice deposit. There was also a small hole, big enough to crawl through, I was shaking the fence, and I guess I broke it loose from the dirt, because it shot up and slashed my knee. I had not idea for a few seconds, then I saw the blood, I knew I had to get to my family, who were roughly 150-200 yards away, I just kinda limped my way there, I had lost a decent amount of blood, to add a small amount of description, my leg was red to the ankle, my brother saw me, grabbed me, and jogged to my mother and father, I was waking about as slow as a limping smol bean could, so I likely would’ve gotten this infected if I slipped and hit the dirt as I was still a ways away. Sorry for the length, but anyways, I have a scar on my knee.

Tldr: played with fence, got cut, bled a lot, and got a scar

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#117

Not me, but while doing a ropes course, a friend climbed up the pole (around 15-20m tall) to the zipline to finish the course. They didn't wait to be clipped into the safety harness, so they essentially freeclimbed it. Luckily, they didn't fall, otherwise that would've been a nasty way to end the summer.

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#118

I must’ve been 10 years old or so, me and my sister were invited to a friends house to go swimming. We were having so much fun, I really love being in the water. We were doing different flips underwater when I thought I’d try to swim through the ladder steps and flip, add some extra flair I guess?Problem was, the spaces of the ladder were much smaller than I anticipated and I got stuck. I was underwater drowning and quietly panicking. Thankfully my friends dad was keeping an eye on us and pulled the ladder up from the pool and I was ok. Scary as heck

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