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The world can be an unsavory place at times. At some point in our lives, we may witness something so terrifying that it becomes a lingering nightmare we can't shake.
This was the case for these people, who shared their traumatic encounters in a Reddit thread from many years ago. Some of these stories were events they saw, while others were firsthand experiences that are forever embedded in their minds.
Scroll through and feel free to share your own anecdotes if you have any.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
The scan showing a cancerous mass in my abdomen. That was in December last year. Just finished chemo number 10 with 4 remaining. Plugging along!
Edit: Thanks all for the well wishes. It's a rare cancer called Desmoplastic Round Cell Sarcoma. Anybody struggling with cancer or other diseases, I wish you strength and perseverance to get through it. No one fights alone!
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#2
I once tossed my little brother into the pool, and his head came within an inch of the concrete edge. I knew as soon as he left my grip that I put too much force into it, and time slowed down as he drifted through the air. With the angle he was falling, the speed he was thrown and the height he reached at the peak of his trajectory I knew if his head connected brain damage would be the best case scenario. It was over in a half second realtime and everyone carried on playing around. Had to sit down and take a breath, I love my siblings.
#3
Vietnam up close and personal.
#4
Train station in Tokyo. Someone jumped.
I didn't close my eyes, didn't look away, I know I saw it.
My brain is blank, sounds only, I can only remember 10 so seconds later when train was past me and pulled to a halt.
Whatever it is I saw, my brain nope'd out.
#5
I saw a 5 year old girl fall about 30 feet from a chairlift while skiing. When she landed I was about 15 feet away. She landed on her stomach. I called ski patrol immediately but the time it took them to get there felt like an eternity (it was probably not more than 5 minutes). I had no medical training other than very basic "do not move the injured person," since her face was directly in the snow, I took my jacket off and I held her neck/head still and had a nearby person slide my jacket under her face. It was shortly after Christmas, so I tried to distract her by asking her what she got from Santa, and I sang her favorite Christmas song. I kept holding her neck still until ski patrol took over and sent her in the ambulance. Later, I found out that although she had some bad bruising, she walked out of the ER later that day.
EDIT: The girl had awesome parents. Even though this was the holidays, they contacted a therapist right away and even got her out skiing just a couple of days later so she wouldn't always have a fear. About 5 years after this happened, I became a member of the National Ski Patrol which is a volunteer organization that usually patrols at smaller resorts.
Ace 13 hours ago
It's always disturbed me that th US skiing culture regards the use of the safety bar n a char lift as optional and something only used by scaredy cats. You see on the picture the bar that's above their heads? That's supposed to be in front of them to stop them falling out. Why so many people there refuse to use them is a mystery to to me.
#6
My mother giving my brother CPR on the beach after he broke his neck and almost drowned. He was in the water for about 4 minutes. Then watching the helicopter take him away not knowing if he was dead or alive. He defied the odds and went on to live another 36 productive years as a quadrapalegic. I was with him when he died a few years ago. D**n, we had some good times.
Edit- to answer a few questions. He was body surfing at Rehobeth beach in 1980. There was a major storm/hurricane some miles off shore which can cause waves to carry one further and break on the shore. He was basically pounded into the sand head first.
He went on to graduate highs school, college, and some law school. Eventually went into social work/advocacy. Was able to work till about 40. Lived till 52. He broke the same vertebrae as Christopher Reeves, but was able to breath on his own. Dr's told us not to expect him to live past his 20's.
Upstaged75 3 hours ago
I used to go to that beach every summer. Good memories. Rehobeth is an adorable town.
#7
My mother passing out in a grocery store and hitting her head on the tile floor. I was probably 4 or 5. Instant pancake sized puddle of blood around her head. She was in a coma for a couple weeks but recovered. She only has minor issues with short term memory loss.
#8
I watched a pedestrian get hit by a car. He was crossing the street on a sunny morning, the driver didn’t see him, and he was “gently” hit by the car. He put both hands on the driver’s hood and was pushed about 30 feet in his socks because he came out of his sandals. He looked like he was surfing.
The driver stopped, got out of his car, and apologized to the pedestrian, who said it was ok and not to worry about it. The driver then got back into his car and drove off like nothing happened. The pedestrian walked back to his sandals, put them back on, then walked back across the street in a total reset.
#9
Came from seeing a movie at the mall with my two teenage sons. We had arrived separately and parked our cars in different sections of the lot. After leaving the movie I was driving up a ramp and saw peripherally my sons car with the front end smashed in and smoke coming from the front. I quickly u-turned and as I drove towards them I could see my older son (the driver) 17 yrs old, standing outside of the passenger door with my younger son, his brother 14 yrs old, in his arms. The passenger air bag had deployed so the 14 yr old had a nasty scrape on his face from it but thankfully they were both ok. I hope I never feel fear like that again, ever.
#10
Hurricane Hugo in Charleston S.C.
It was insane. I watched a waffle house sign breath in and out and then explode. The wind bent the steel I-beam holding the sign in half. The street lights started spinning on the wire and broke off and flew away.
The wind blew the roof off of the hotel I was staying in. We were evacuated to the first floor before the eye passed. I went out for ice (stupid) and saw the eye. It was a circle of clouds and lightning but the center was completely clear. I could see every star in the sky directly above me. The backside of the storm hit after that and that is a whole other story.
UnclePanda 9 hours ago
This one should be a t-shirt with an arrow pointing at the face and the text: "Went out for ice during a hurricane."
#11
Waking up totally covered in blood. I was walking to class and got hit by a car. I'm not sure what was happened in the moments leading up to it, but I woke up in the middle of the road, cradling my head. I distinctly remember lifting my head and looking at my blood covered arm, thinking 'I'll deal with that later', and putting my arm back under my head and going back to sleep.
I turned out pretty okay, but I genuinely think the accident made me dumber. My grades slipped hard after the event.
#12
Second plane hit the WTC, out my 35th floor office window about half mile away. The first one happened behind me and I guess I didn't hear it, but then someone called me and I was looking out the window at the smoke and the papers floating everywhere. I still thought it was some small plane accident, and I couldn't see the hole because it was on the other side. I was wondering if it was caught on video and picturing what the crash would look like in my head when the second one hit right in front of me, on the side facing me. It slid in like a coin into a slot, and after a moment a ball of flame shot out in various directions, and a moment after that my window shook. It looked just like I was picturing the first one in my head at that moment, and my mental gears turned for a full 10 seconds wondering how my eyes just showed me what I was picturing. It wasn't until someone ran into my office asking what happened and I heard myself tell them that I realized it. I walked down 35 flights, walked miles home to Brooklyn, watched the second one fall on TV, then found my wife and toddler daughter at a gym class, and immersed myself in my daughter's world where this didn't happen.
Mike Rodrick 8 hours ago
When I saw the video of the planes hitting the buildings, it felt like I was watching a movie with great special effects. One of the strangest things I've ever felt. Then I saw people jumping & was nearly physically ill. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
#13
When I was younger I kicked a ball over the fence of my dads friends house and naturally I stepped on the fence and poked my head over to see how far it had gone. I saw a man a decent distance away in the backyard so I called out asking if he could pass my ball back over but he wasn't responding so I asked my sister if I was seeing it right she looked and thought it was a scarecrow. I went to tell my Dad and his friend and they looked at it and called out but still nothing. They jumped the fence to check it out and it turned out I was calling out to a man who had hung himself to pass my ball back over. Few cops etc came that's about all there is to the story, it wasn't really scary just creepy. I was pretty young but it didn't really get to me or anything I do remember it pretty decently though.
#14
When my baby went floppy and his eyes rolled back. Almost 11 years ago and he's doing great now but I have never been so terrified before or since.
AC 4 hours ago
My eldest son was a cesarean and whisked away blue and not breathing, was around 25 minutes before I got to see him after the hospital staff did their amazing work! My wife at the time, now ex, was just trying to flirt with a doctor without a care in the world while im sitting there right next to her bricking it
#15
I once found a young man (16-18 years old) who was extremely physically and mentally disabled, who had been living his entire life in what was basically a shed, lying on his back in his own filth. The parents didn't know what else to do with him.
This was not in the developed world, obviously.
#16
I was driving on 35 a few years back at like 8 or 9 at night and all the sudden was at a complete stop. I thought to myself this is odd for this time of night. Not 30 seconds later I saw the decapitated head of a man in the middle of the road. His eyes were were facing the car to the left of me and the lady in that car was freaking out! His wife's body was split into two by the guardrail. I will never even think about getting on a motorcycle for the rest of my life.
#17
I saw a car crash as a child. My dad stopped the car to go help. He made me stay in the car but i saw one body on the ground that started to gain a puddle of blood around it, and another body handing out a window of one of the cars involved in the accident. Blood, glass, and car chunks were everywhere. Horns were honking, heard a lot of screaming. My dad came walking back to the car shortly after he got out. I asked what happened, he said there was nothing he could do, pulled into a parking lot, and waited for cops to come. I remember being impressed by how fast the firefighters cleaned everything up. You would think seeing the bodies would stick with me, but what stuck with me was the pale dead look on my dad when he came back to me. Sometimes your best intentions cant do anything, and i could tell it got to him.
AC 4 hours ago
My dad working car recovery went to an accident to remove the cars and witnessed a decapitation sitting in the driver seat, he still sees it. Also went to a motorbike accident while the police and ambulance were there picking up the guys body parts after hitting a crash barrier at 70mph
#18
We pulled up beside a Captain in the Army who was covered in blood. He was shaking and asking if we would help him because everyone in the humvee was dead except him. They were working with Iraqi Army and hit an IED while doing a movement. We explained to him we specifically came out there to help him and he just wouldn't stop thanking us. It was obvious he was in complete and utter shock. He was the only survivor in that truck.
Christmas Day.
Samantha H 11 hours ago
Very sad indeed, hope he lived and thanks to you and whom you were with.
#19
When I was 8 or so, we lived on the third floor of an apartment building. I was walking out to the balcony a step behind my dad, I had one foot out the sliding glass door and before I could put my second foot down the balcony collapsed with my dad on it. There was broken wood everywhere. I thought he was dead. I almost died. Good news my dad lived, but his legs are messed up. It was the closest I have ever been to dying and I thought I was watching my dad die.
Samantha H 12 hours ago
How horrible, glad your Dad lived. I have never felt comfortable on any balconies ever.
#20
A grizzly bear charged me when I was about 13. I was grouse hunting and had a little single shot 20ga, I didn't bring my gun up I just pissed myself and started sobbing.
After the bear knocked over a small tree about 25' from me, she left. I ran back to the truck, my dad was there eating lunch. He had his 30-06 with him, only then did I feel safe.
#21
When I was 17, I still lived at my moms house. We were in a middle class neighbourhood, so it wasn't necessarily a bad area for the most part.
I was taking out the garbage one night as the sun had just gone down. I walked the first garbage can out and these two men were arguing across the street. I walked back and got the second one, when I turned around, one of the men lifted a gun and shot the other in the head point-blank. The man with the gun stared directly at me, then turned and fled.
I was surprisingly calm about it until I was on the phone to the police, then suddenly I starting freaking out and panicking.
As far as I know, they never caught the guy.
TheMFKNXerdo 4 hours ago
Happened to me too, in a way. I was mugged a few years ago because the girlfriend wanted to walk outside at 3AM and there was no convincing her otherwise. A person who saw the mugging was surprised that I never saw the gun pointed right at my head. And really, I never did see it.
#22
Skidded on ice near an interstate toll station in 1989, spun 180 degrees and stalled, looking the wrong way up the interstate into the headlights of the 18-wheeler behind me.
(He stopped in time.).
#23
A man taking a pee — while out for his morning run.
He did not stop to pee.
He was holding his member to the side, peeing while running.
#24
Medical images of my body riddled with cancer. Stage 3b out of a possible 4b Hodgkin lymphoma. I was 26. My daughter was barely 2. The thought of possibly dying from this was terrifying.
Samantha H 11 hours ago
Everyone's worst nightmare probably. Good to read you are still here, hope all goes well from here.
#25
I worked at a gas station when I was eighteen.
One night, at the end of my shift, the graveyard guy just didn't show up. I called my sister to see if she would hang out with me until I could get ahold of someone.
At about four a.m., an ambulance slowed down right in front of the station. As it came to a stop at the light, the back doors opened up and a guy jumped out.
One paramedic hopped out of the back, chasing after him.
The guy ran right up to the station, looking terrified.
He turned to the left to run again, and we noticed that his head was missing a big chunk in the back, blood all down him.
Medic continued to pursue him through the parking lot next door.
We called 911 and explained the situation. Dispatch responded, "yeah right."
About twenty minutes later, police arrived to take a statement from us.
Guy was high and injured, trying to get away.
I don't know if they ever caught up with him again.
#26
I was probably in 4th grade, we lived out in the country. I was walking from the neighbors across the road to our house, I was about 5-6 feet from the road. Another neighbors dog, I believe it was a Jack Russel, got loose and was running to me. He got to the middle of the road and a car came flying by and hit him. Poor thing didn't die right away. The worst part wasn't even the dog getting hit it was what came after. We got his owner, an older guy, and he pick it up and took it home. I figured he's take it to the vet, after about five minutes we heard a gunshot.
#27
I was once on a cruise to Antarctica [~100 people] and saw a chunk of glacier the size of a skyscraper break off of the shelf. The ship was about a half mile or so away but the splash and noise was ENORMOUS. They had to turn the ship so that the waves did not capsize us.
#28
It was during the pandemic shortages. A new shipment of toilet paper came into a big box store. It was piled up on the floor. A woman was lying on top of it. She said she was saving it for herself and her friends. Everyone was grabbing it and putting it in their carts. She was screaming that the police were coming and we would all be arrested.
Kristy Marion 14 hours ago
The TP crisis of 2020. I think almost everyone in the world can relate to how crazy people got
#29
I saw a shark take a guys leg off. I was drinking at a pub on a cliff. There was a guy spear fishing below me. He had the fish he had caught tied to his belt. The shark just moseyed on up to him and took his leg just like that. He bled out by the time people got down to him. I don't watch Shark Week for this reason.
Earonn - 11 hours ago
In a book from the 1970s I read never to tie your fish game to your body if there's sharks in the water just for that reason. Unless OP saw this before 1975, I don't know why people are still doing it. Still, poor guy, he was stupid but that doesn't justify dying like that. And poor sharks, they just follow their instinct, but people will call them 'monsters' and feel good torturing them to death because of it.
#30
Went to Japan and ended up at a sketchy bar in Shinjuku. Several drinks in and I see one of the waitresses, if you want to call them that, drop something in one of the other patrons drinks. I was sitting with a guy who also took notice, so we made sure to take care of our current tabs and depart.. Only to be chased down the stairs by about four very large Nigerian men and someone I can only assume was a Japanese manager/owner/pimp.
I made it out first only to look behind me and see the guy get grabbed by his backpack and dragged back I to the building. Let me tell you: The folks around that immediate area have never seen a slightly overweight foreigner run so fast in his life.
#31
Not seen, but I once had to walk half a mile through a forest at night. I knew the path, but had no light source, and it was cloudy. Not being able to see anything but being able to hear everything was legit the scariest experience of my life.
detective miller's hat 3 hours ago
Happened to me many years ago, thank Satan I had a friend with me. Always check the trail maps, folks.
#32
At my gym, a little girl was sitting on a rail. She fell over and landed on top of a treadmill a floor below.
#33
Got hit by a car in a crosswalk and saw the hubcap of the front tire pass in front of my face, only a few inches away.
What do you think ?
G A 14 hours ago (edited)
As you get older, you gather more life experiences and some of them are bl00dy horrible. I saw an old lady fly across the road after being hit by a car, a guy get cut in half after falling under the wheels of a bus, and 2 people drop dead in front of me. Plus 2 major car crashes, a guy put a drill right through his hand and witnessing family death, holding pets as they died, and being the victim of a dog savaging. None of that was fun, I'll tell you!
Kerry Borthwick 9 hours ago
Scariest I experienced was I had a miscarriage of twins at 12 weeks nearly bled out slipped in my own blood got to hospital got told I should of got ambulance I nearly died from bloodloss they didn't know how I survived as my vitals was barely there got PTSD from it
G A 14 hours ago (edited)
As you get older, you gather more life experiences and some of them are bl00dy horrible. I saw an old lady fly across the road after being hit by a car, a guy get cut in half after falling under the wheels of a bus, and 2 people drop dead in front of me. Plus 2 major car crashes, a guy put a drill right through his hand and witnessing family death, holding pets as they died, and being the victim of a dog savaging. None of that was fun, I'll tell you!
Kerry Borthwick 9 hours ago
Scariest I experienced was I had a miscarriage of twins at 12 weeks nearly bled out slipped in my own blood got to hospital got told I should of got ambulance I nearly died from bloodloss they didn't know how I survived as my vitals was barely there got PTSD from it
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