Have You Ever Almost Died

[MarchHare]

I've (thankfully!) been spared any close calls, but I did have a brush with death seven or eight years ago.

I was getting off the north-bound C-Train at SAIT/ACAD/Jubilee station. If you've ever taken the train to that station, you know that people have to cross at-grade in front of the train to exit the platform and enter the SAIT campus. There are flashing lights and bells warning of on-coming trains, and typically people will wait for the train to pass before they proceed onto campus.

I was walking directly behind this one dude who was wearing headphones and not really paying attention. He didn't stop to wait for the train to pass first, and came >---< this close to being hit. If he had literally been one or two steps ahead of where he was, he would have been dead. It was so close that the train stopped and the driver got out to make sure he didn't hit anyone.

What shook me up is that I just froze during these events. I was close enough that I could have grabbed the guy and pulled him back, but everything happened so fast that I didn't react in time. If he had been killed, and I knew I was close enough that I could have saved his life, how would I have felt afterwards? This happened years ago, but it still bothers me to this day.

[Raekwon]

I was crossing a busy street when I was in high school a car ran a red light and clipped another car going through. The car spun and I stopped just as the car spun past me within an inch. Afterwards I just kept walking home like nothing happened because it never sunk in.

[J epworth]

Alright, here's my brush with death story:

I was 14 and mountain biking near Grand Forks, BC. My bike had a bell on the handlebar that had broken the day before and I had been too lazy to take it off, so it was now just a broken nub sticking out of the handlebar. As I'm biking I go around a corner and right into a large root in the trail. I wasn't prepared for the root so I fly out and over my bike, landing on my head on the trail.

So at this time I'm all worried about my head, because I had gotten a concussion during hockey season a few months prior. It was sore, but I was still okay to ride. My leg was sore as well but I wasn't paying much attention to it. I continue my ride, and as I keep going my leg just keeps killing me. When we reach the logging road I decide to just take it down the rest of the way as everyone else continues on the trail.

So I get down to the cars and I decide I have to take a closer look at my leg. I'm wearing the type of shorts that have normal shorts on top and spandex inners. I peel up the spandex part to expose my upper thigh, and I find a gash on my leg that is 2 1/2 inches wide and 7 inches long. My muscle and fat look like ground beef. The worst part however, is I can see my femoral artery pumping.

When I went face first over my bike, I must have hit my broken bell and it made this gash in my leg. If the bell had gone millimetres deeper, it would have nicked my femoral artery and I would have been dead within minutes on that trail. Instead, I only needed 57 stitches to close it back up.

[undercoverbrother]

yes a couple of times.

> was shot at and missed.
> got caught in a mortar attack
> nealry fell of a roof (was hanging by the eaves)

Also walked around downtwon Jo'burg @ 4am drunk....

[wookster]

I've been in 2 vehicle roll-overs. Once as a passenger and once while driving.

The first one, and worst one, was when I was 17, it was early november, nighttime and about -10 degrees or so outside, was driving my dads old farm truck ('73 GMC) and it didn't have seatbelts in it so I obviously wasn't wearing one, I hit an antelope doing about 55mph and being a bit inexperienced at driving at this age, swerved a bit after I hit it. Went into the ditch, rolled it over twice from what I remember as it was a bit of a blur and woke up laying outside beside the truck. I had my winter jacket, gloves etc in the truck but didn't actually have them on and of course afterwards couldn't find any of them, so I had to walk about a mile and a half to the nearest farm. I was in a bit of shock so I didn't really even feel the cold or any pain, Got to that farm and since I didn't feel any pain just asked them to drive me home even though they were insisting I go to the hospital instead. I finally convinced them to drive me home (about 6 miles from their farm) and I went in and woke my parents to tell them what happened. Of course they were worried and such and my mom looked me over and started to panic somewhat...thats when the shock started to wear off and I started to feel some pain in my leg, I looked down and realized my jeans were ripped from the crotch to my ankles on one leg so I took them off and almost passed out when I saw my leg. I won't go into much detail about it but I could see the bone, and I was losing blood quite rapidly. Then I almost passed out again, and my parents rushed me to the hospital...a 20 mile trip to the nearest one. That one was probably my closed brush with death, how I managed to walk that distance on that leg is still beyond me. Probably the closest I came to dying.

The other one happened a year later and I was a passenger, main difference, we all walked away without a scratch.

[The Fonz]

Originally Posted by Iginla

A friend ran a red light and we got t-boned on my side by a car that was going about 90km/hr.

Thankfully we were in a Trans-Am with the racing cage and my door had a thick metal bar running across of it.

The other car's hood was up to the windshield and that bar did not even have a scratch on it, literally. Didn't bend at all. Pretty sure that saved my life.

Your friend almost killed someone. Did he get any charges laid against him?

[puckluck2]

Originally Posted by The Fonz

Your friend almost killed someone. Did he get any charges laid against him?

Yeah, a bunch actually.

[Alberta_Beef]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

That sounds horrible. Why does your work keep you up that late, smuggling from the Alliance?

we stick to our smuggling after 3am but before 5 so we are less likely to be seen

you need a legit job to explain some of the income afterall so I took a job working late shifts at a newspaper in their mailroom

[Azure]

Originally Posted by 4X4

But then walked away with mere scratches? I've had a couple close calls, but yesterday really tripped me out. I've been trying to forget about this for ~24 hours, but I can't.
I work in land development (we build custom homes) so I'm around constructions sites daily. Yesterday, I was going into one of our projects and the ramp gave way and I fell about 3 feet and landed on my back. Doesn't really sound like much until you consider that as I rolled over to get up, I encountered a piece of rebar sticking up out of one of the pilings for the (future) deck. This thing is sticking up about a foot out of the ground. And it wasn't close to my leg or my ass, it ended up between my back and my arm. Imagine that. Falling a few feet off a gangplank, landing on your back, and a piece of metal seperating your torso and your arm.
So I was within inches of having a long piece of metal pierce my lung or heart, but instead, it did nothing at all. My elbow hurts. That's all. Oh, and my clothes got dirty.

Needless to say, I drank heavily last night.

Some very similar happened to me. Had a ramp leading up on top of some walls we were putting up, and it flipped and I fell down literally RIGHT beside 4 pieces of rebar sticking out of the ground. I missed both by about 4 inches.

Weird.

[OilKiller]

Yes. When I rooted my Android.

[You Need a Thneed]

Every second, my heart stops beating for half a second.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by OilKiller

Yes. When I rooted my Android.

Well, you should know better than to stick your dick in unwilling metal automatons.

They may not have feelings but I'm sure thats still got to be a rape of some kind.

[Fozzie_DeBear]

Twice..

Once on the way home from the bar my (sober) friend was driving down the highway...I (very drunk) decide to climb out the window and onto the roof of the car for about 5 min.

The second time I had a bear follow me at about 5 meters...

Neither time did I get so much as a scratch...but if anything had gone wrong...

[jhunt223]

Was walking to catch a bus to school and got hit by a car while walking through a cross walk. Suffered quite a few broken bones, a punctured lung and my face got sliced and ground to hell, but I lived. Had it not been a really low sitting Saturn that hit me I figure I probably would have died.

[AR_Six]

Have been hit by cars 4 times when not in cars... 2 on bike, 2 on foot. One, when I was 10 years old biking to school, was pretty bad - passenger side headlight caught my bike right behind the front tire at about 40, I rolled up the hood and off the windshield, went flying, bike went flying, yet somehow all I ended up with were some scrapes and bruises from the concrete, not to mention I had no idea what happened. Luckily my brother was there and there were no other cars to run me over once I was on the ground. That was a hit and run, too. Who hits and runs a 10 year old?

But have had much closer calls skiing, or more accurately, hiking backwards down rock faces in ski boots trying to get to a line. There are some great spots on blackcomb where the way in unfortunately doesn't have much in terms of footholds. Have made a couple of stupid calls on whether the way in was do-able in the current conditions and have had to bail out many a time. Never had an avy situation I could call close to death, though, thankfully.

[jhunt223]

Originally Posted by fotze

It was a woman who hit you, wasn't it?

Yes it was.

[black rubber disc bunny]

Originally Posted by AR_Six

Who hits and runs a 10 year old?

I guess there's no need to formally address the reason for this thread bump now.

[missdpuck]

I went off an exit ramp too fast and flipped my Camaro 3 times. It ended up on the roof and I can't remember getting out of it but I was okay. Just really embarrassed.

Another time the car I was driving caught fire, and I was afraid it was going to explode before I got it safely off the road away from other people. I ended up in a scrubby dune and some people threw sand on it so it never exploded. Whew.

I got rear ended by one of those huge trucks that take garbage to the dump. The trunk ended up just behind the front seat. Fortunately it was my land yacht surfer-mobile. Loved that 74 Caddy-mint condition. In a smaller car I would've been dead.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by AR_Six

Have been hit by cars 4 times when not in cars... 2 on bike, 2 on foot. One, when I was 10 years old biking to school, was pretty bad - passenger side headlight caught my bike right behind the front tire at about 40, I rolled up the hood and off the windshield, went flying, bike went flying, yet somehow all I ended up with were some scrapes and bruises from the concrete, not to mention I had no idea what happened. Luckily my brother was there and there were no other cars to run me over once I was on the ground. That was a hit and run, too. Who hits and runs a 10 year old?

Jesus H Rollerblading Christ son, keep your goddamn head up!

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by 4X4

But then walked away with mere scratches? I've had a couple close calls, but yesterday really tripped me out. I've been trying to forget about this for ~24 hours, but I can't.
I work in land development (we build custom homes) so I'm around constructions sites daily. Yesterday, I was going into one of our projects and the ramp gave way and I fell about 3 feet and landed on my back. Doesn't really sound like much until you consider that as I rolled over to get up, I encountered a piece of rebar sticking up out of one of the pilings for the (future) deck. This thing is sticking up about a foot out of the ground. And it wasn't close to my leg or my ass, it ended up between my back and my arm. Imagine that. Falling a few feet off a gangplank, landing on your back, and a piece of metal separating your torso and your arm.
So I was within inches of having a long piece of metal pierce my lung or heart, but instead, it did nothing at all. My elbow hurts. That's all. Oh, and my clothes got dirty.

Needless to say, I drank heavily last night.

This is my post from the "Creepy Stories" thread from back in February:


About ten years ago a bunch of us decided to take a midnight trip to the bombed out building in the farmer's field out east of Forrest Lawn. This was the guy who would set his dogs after you and come chasing himself weilding some kind of rifle. Anyway, we all crept up through the tall grass like ninjas, managing somehow to not bother the dogs. We then head for the 'school.'

It looked like some kind of school-house built at the turn of the last century, and looked as if something had bombed it or smashed into it. Only two and half walls and a partial ceiling remained. As we're nagivating up a broken section of wall and into the building itself I step on a rotten piece of floor and fall through into the basement.

This is where I was so lucky on two counts I nearly pissed myself I was so scared. One was that the basement was full of rubble, and my ten foot fall became a two foot drop landing on my back. So as I'm laying there looking up at the stars through the hole in the floor with the GF at the time screaming, my buddies calling out trying to find me, and the dogs barking I look to my left. No more than a foot away was a mangle of rebar jutting straight up out of busted concrete. I froze in total horror and shock. One foot to the left and that fall impales me clean through the chest.

Finally my friends find me and pull me out before we run like hell to escape the dogs. I've never forgotten the look of that rebar.
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