Your closest brush with death?

[The Grim Squeaker]

Inspired by this lovely BBC Documentary of a lizard escaping a (literal) nest of snakes :

What's the closest you've come to (violent or sudden) death?

(Try to avoid anything involving cars, those aren't as interesting).

In my case, (not counting yanking a friend away from a car that sped through a zebra crossing, and pushing the speeding car as part of it) - probably one of 2 cases:

1. I almost squished my whole family, myself included under a giant glass mirror. I was about 6, and my parents bedroom had a huge (~ 2.5 by 4 meters) glass mirror with a heavy back leaning on the wall in front of the bed. Whilst the whole family was having breakfast in bed, I toddled over and pushed it. My goal at the time was to do so jokingly, since I had no idea what the momentum and weight of something that size would be. Fortunately, it tipped over and smashed without falling atop the bed and pancaking my family, or myself (I was right by it, but stood to the side).
2. In a mountain hiking expedition by some ice caves, we set off a rock fall, including a (in my memory at least) goddamn Indiana Jones sized boulder. We were in a narrow, icy pass. Fortunately, the guide with us shoved us to the side so the rolling stones passed by us. Very close to us, given that as the outermost person, it grazed him, and we had to rush him to the hospital sharpish from there.

[Crazedwraith]

Nothing exciting, when I was a kid a nearly swallowed a coin and it blocked my airway for (what felt like) quite a while before I coughed it up. If I hadn't managed it that's one dead me.

Also taken a couple of falls down hills that I remember, that could have nasty consequences but didn't. Not even broken a bone.

[Gandalf]

Probably an epileptic seizure while driving.

[Mr Bean]

1. 8-9 years old eating to fast and choked, the other kids laughed at the funny face I was making. The teacher who saw me not breathing did not and managed to heimlich maneuver to spit out the food.

2. 22 years old hit an 270* exit ramp which was under construction and unfortunately for us covered in oil thanks to a work truck with a bad oil leak. I hit the oil skidded and bounced down the ramp at 40 mph with oil covered wheels that never stopped until I rammed it into the side of the barrier. That was not the dangerous bit, the dangerous bit was getting out of my car and standing in the road not thinking until the NEXT car went skidding down the same exit and nearly sandwiched me between the barrier and my car but I managed to back flop over the barrier as the driver propped my car at me. It was not an action movie roll it was a panicked flop over the wall that ended up with me hitting my head on the roadway.

[Broomstick]

In my tweens I was, admittedly, trespassing on a property (we'd climbed up on someone's garage roof). Homeowner opened fire on us with a handgun. None of us were hit and he may have been intended to scare us rather than hurt us, but it's not like we stopped to ask.

Late teens, cross-country skiing over a frozen lake. Stopped for a rest, was about to remove the skis but as I looked down to release the bindings I saw cracks spreading from under my skis, water seeping up through them. Very, very, very, very carefully my companion and I moved to thicker ice.

Also late teens, driving down Woodward Avenue in Detroit someone shot a hubcab off my dad's car, which I was driving alone further south into Detroit than I was supposed to go.

Much later in life, mid-30's, was caught by a sudden weather change while flying and found myself, a not-completely-trained-pilot, in instrument-flight conditions without instrument training. A condition that, on average, has a life expectancy of under 3 minutes. I opted to land in a field. End result was nobody hurt and nothing broke, but it could have ended otherwise and none of you would have ever known me.

In my mid-40's, had a "food borne illness" that put me in the hospital for a week. In a prior era it would have killed me.

Arguably, the skiing on thin ice and the forced landing were the two closest brushes with death that I've had.

[LadyTevar]

Besides the head-on collision with a driver so drunk he AIMED FOR MY HEADLIGHTS?


Age 5, a massive kidney infection and fever that put me in an oxygen tent for days. Mom was sleeping beneath my bed, and got woken up in the night because I was convulsing so badly I was shaking the whole bed (hospital beds weren't flimsy, even in the 70s). For some reason Mom's forgotten they gave me a drug called Isopril which seems to be long gone*. Isopril caused an allergic reaction that broke me out in ORANGE Hives, and I needed fast treatment to stop the reaction.

*There is now a drug called Isuprel, which is used to treat the symptoms of Adams-Stokes Attacks, Cardiac Arrest, or Heart Block, Shock, and Bronchospasm during Anesthesia. I am not sure if there's any connection from Isopril, other than the similar name.

[Zwinmar]

Between the hmmwv rolling over cluster munitions the night previous, having a 60mm mortar land 5 feet away, and getting shot at in country....yeah have had a few.

[Zaune]

Probably the acute pancreatitis that put me in the ICU for a week, with second place going to the time I got hit by a car when I was 15 and third for the time someone ignored a Give Way sign and pulled out right in front of the car I was riding in with my dad, his second wife and my little brother.

[His Divine Shadow]

A beam, can't remember if it was wooden or steel, fell right infront of me as a kid, so close I got scratched, but it missed my feet, landed between them. I can't remember if it fell towards me or away from me or what happened afterwards. My dad was working in the greenhouses and was maybe 8-10 meters up in the air at the top of the greenhouse and it fell, he hadn't seen me coming to check out was he was doing.

[Rogue 9]

An encounter with a copperhead viper while rock climbing as a teen. The snake probably wouldn't have killed me, but the fall might have.

[muse]

Went to the hospital for a routine vaccination, woke up several days later in the ICU. I'm told my heart stopped and I was clinically dead, but I don't remember anything between thanking the doc after my shot and waking up in the ICU.

[Lord Revan]

I think the closest I've come to death was when I fell down and hit my head to the pavement rather badly, I feared I had died because of that hit (thankfully I was fine but I feared I had suffered brain damage when I did the pavement however it seems nothing too serious did happen).

[The_Saint]

Fell about 8m out of a pine tree as a child and landed flat on my back. Luckily the area under the tree had been covered in saw dust (my father probably predicted something like this might happen). At the time I knew it was SERIOUSTM but didn't fully appreciate how lucky I was to walk away after some time struggling to breathe.

As an adult taking a group caving, we had a high water issue and I went for a swim into an area with no (a small) idea whether there would be air to breathe when I got there. I am not a trained cave diver. At the time I'd weighed the odds but mostly subconsciously. With hindsight I rate this as one of my top three dumbest conscious acts.

Rock climbing with a close friend, he managed to dislodge a rather large boulder that clipped him (leading me to think he was at minimum seriously injured if not deceased) and left me standing on a 1m2 ledge several metres above the Great Southern Ocean, at the bottom of a large, remote cliff with a 1ton boulder aimed square at my head. I did a bad impression of spiderman and managed to avoid getting hit. Friend was pretty badly beaten up and we were both quite shaken.

Several other incidents ranging from bladed objects to driving on ice but those qualify as some of my closest brushes with death.

[Solauren]

Let's see....
Oddly enough, despite my track record of 'should be wearing body armor', the only incident that comes to mind as 'probable', is last December. Turns out I have a variant of Anaphylyxia, and I collapsed getting out of the shower during an attack (showering with my variety - Exercise or Food/Exercise induced, the shower helps cool me down and relieve the rash, welts, and itching), might have hit my head (my wife didn't see, but the way I was laying I could have hit my head and slide down the wall), and was in the hospital afterwards (for about 8 hours).

Which is odd, since I've smashed through several glass doors, fallen of roofs, out of trees, slammed my head off of stuff hard enough I've bleed, been in several vehicle accidents (one was a bus crash - the school bus I was on was hit by a drunk driver at 4:00pm in the afternoon, several people had to go to the hospital, the other two I was riding my bike and effectively got T-Boned), been held down and stomped on by a group of about 10 people (note - they lost), someone tried to beat me down with a baseball bat, I've belly-flopped onto water with no one around - swallowed water trying to get my breath back and yet made it to shore, wiped out a dirt bike and had the engine laying on my leg for about 20 seconds while I got my wind back (First degree burns), been mildly electrocuted twice. (First, wire came off the spark plug while the lawn-mower was running, I didn't turn it off before reconnect. Second was climbing out of a horse corral and my back touched the electrified rope that was the 'doorway' in and out. Crappy set up), and used liquid model glue in a room for several hours without ventalation (vent was covered, window was closed).

Man, I had an interesting decade from Age 10 to 20 (the glass doors were pre that).

[phred]

Rolled a van once. Could very easily been killed by any of the tools and supplies bouncing around in the back.

Another time the armrest on a couch I was sitting on broke. When I put my hand down to stop my fall, there was a piece of wood sticking out that tore a large chunk of skin out of my forearm. If it was a couple millimeters longer it probably would have opened a vein or something.

[Raw Shark]

I think the closest I've come to death was when I fell down and hit my head to the pavement rather badly, I feared I had died because of that hit (thankfully I was fine but I feared I had suffered brain damage when I did the pavement however it seems nothing too serious did happen).

Similar situation in 2018, except the back of my head hit the edge of the curb and the docs told me I actually did die for 10 seconds on the operating table and may have some brain damage. My memory, in my estimation, went from "scary flawless" to "pretty much normal," in my non-clinical estimation, so I reckon that's accurate. For the record, I get asked a lot if I saw the white light and my grandma waving me in with airport flashlights and I did not.

But I don't remember that. What I do remember is the time a guy tried to shove a big hunting knife into my guts. I remember fighting like ten tigers, thinking that this could be the last thing I ever do so I'd better go big. Long story short, I won. I stopped being afraid of anybody that day.

[Isolder74]

I guess my closest was going into anaphylactic shock from second hand smoke. Not fun, and I had the taste of blood in my throat for a week.

[Khaat]

Hmm. Would have to say getting nose-to-nose with a copperhead snake at age 5-6 on a hike, after I pushed the top-half of a rotted fence post over. Snake came up out of the rotted post, curled over and stared at me from inches from my face.

Before that, my older sister (8?) took me (3) and my older brother (6) out during the eye of a hurricane in Okinawa, into the habu grass (habu are a venomous pit viper, and the local USAF Name for the SR-71). No snakes, just a storm and not-a-place-to-be-during-a-storm.

[Col. Crackpot]

1994 I was illegally exploring the abandoned Fort Weatherill in Jamestown, RI. It's an old Civil War era gun fort that protected Narragansett Bay. We were young and stupid and crawled in through a broken door. Had a tiny and inadequate flashlight. I took a step in the dark and there was no floor. Felt myself falling. Screamed like an eight-year-old hit with a cattle prod. Fell like six inches. Embarrassingly announced I was fine. Damn near shit myself. thus concluded my exploration of abandoned civil war forts.

[Raw Shark]

I drove a taxi for fifteen years. Fight me.

[His Divine Shadow]

Monday nights dinner probably put me a lot closer to the grave.

[Lonestar]

(1)Stacked up as the #2 guy on a hose outside the mainspace when a fire started. Halon put it out quickly, it ended up being a nothing burger and basicaly no damage as I recall(we still deployed on time).



(2)Yard period and I'm on topside over, wandering aorund with a M-14. Gunshot goes off very close, right across San Diego Bay. Security force mobilized.

Well, the topside over on the other ship on the pier, a patrol craft full of high speed low drag sailors, had a ND. I got to see their force protection guy screaming at their rover through the bridge windows of their craft. I determined that the rover had probably claimed he dropped his M-16 or something, because the guy just started picking it up and throwing it very fucking hard against the bulkhead over there, I guess ot prove that guns can't go off it your finger isn't on the fucking trigger.

[Raw Shark]

Honestly, I think every day living in NYC was my closest brush with death. I never walked to the store for smokes withuot Ol' Blackie in my pocket. Death and I have a deal: I'll see ya when I see ya, and it's gonna be spectacular. Fire. Blood. Awesome. I'm not sure how I'll die, but I am sure it will be awesome. When I go out, it'll be with a bang.

[The Infidel]

Is this necro? I'm not sure anymore.

Anyway...
My closest brush with death... Let's see...
In 2012 I got a bad case of pulmonary embolism. I could breathe, but the oxygen didn't reach my blood and I was exhausted by just standing up. Thankfully, I was at a friends place and she was educating herself to become a nurse. I thought it would pass, but she nagged me into going to the hospital. Once there, I stayed 17 days (5 in the ICU) and the head nurse said it was an 7/8 on a scale to 10. I was lucky it ended in my lungs and not my brain. That would have been the end of me. Even in the lungs, they might have done a lot of havoc as it also made my blood pressure skyrocket and prevented oxygen from reaching my body.

In traffic... Probably a few times, but two I remember:
This was when I was young and my driving license was fresh, early 90's. It was winter and slippery. I was accelerating after an intersection and I noticed a trailer approaching me in the ongoing lane. Suddenly my rear wheels slipped and my car turned into the path of the trailer. Luckily, I had enough momentum to do a full 360 (I didn't let go the accelerator) and then managed to regain control while in my own lane as the trailer passed me.

Another time, when I was young. I was behind a long trailer, but had forgotten that the triangle on the rear of it meant that. I thought I was behind a slow, normal lorry. I tried to pass it just to realize it was a trailer, My car was in line with the front of the trailer it as I saw a car approach. A fraction of a second, I thought I'd make it and hit the accelerator. Nope! No can do! Hit the brakes HARD, but so did the trailer and the oncoming Merc, I guess. I just managed to slip behind the trailer as the Merc passed me and I bet if my side mirror had been dirty, it would have left a scratch. I was very lucky the gap I left behind the trailer hadn't been filled with the car behind me. Since then, I'm always careful when overtaking other cars.

A more recent experience: I don't remember the time of the year. I was driving on a main road towards a roundabout doing about 80kmh (speed limit). I suddenly see something in the rear mirror that caught my attention. It was just a car passing another one behind me, but it took my attention away from what was going on in front of me a few seconds. I just noticed a shadow in front of me and as I looked forward and didn't have time to react to the car doing at least a hundred approaching in my own lane. It was about 1-2 meter away from clipping my car as it hurled into its own lane.
It was a jerk that thought it was a brilliant idea to drive the wrong way in the roundabout to overtake a few cars. As I had my attention on the rear mirror, I didn't hit the brakes at all. That could have been very ugly, indeed.

That was 4 times, but as I'm a bloke in my 50's, there's probably many other times, but I can't think of them at the top of my head.

Edit: Just saw the "try to avoid cars"... Still think they were pretty interesting.