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The closest you have been to death

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MidnightRambler Ich bin nicht schuld! 's ist Gottes Plan! from Germania Inferior Since: Mar, 2011
Ich bin nicht schuld! 's ist Gottes Plan!
#76: Dec 27th 2011 at 4:47:29 AM

When I was a small kid - I guess I was 7 or 8 years old - I crossed a road near my home on my bicycle... without looking left or right before. The speed limit on that road is 80 kilometres per hour. I got off fine, but there might as well have been a truck coming at me, and I'm pretty sure that would have killed me.

Mache dich, mein Herze, rein...
Loid from Eastern Standard Time Since: Jun, 2011
#77: Dec 27th 2011 at 5:15:54 AM

Oh, in that case, I've had hundreds of near-deaths. tongue

"Dr. Strangeloid, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Cleanlink" - thespacephantom
Muramasan13 Since: Nov, 2009 Relationship Status: Not war
#78: Dec 27th 2011 at 4:05:21 PM

Welllll... There was the time that I was in a car crash as an infant. Drunk driver ran a red light and destroyed the passenger's side of my family's car. The drunk driver broke his pelvis; my father died on the scene and my mother broke her hip. I broke my shin, but was discharged from the hospital a few days later.

Then there was the time that I nearly fell face-first into freshly-laid, 260-degree asphalt at age twelve; probably would have asphyxiated after it stuck and hardened. Instead my reflexes saved me and I landed on two hands and one knee. Ended up clawing off a good portion of my palms because of the pain. Walked home, collapsed a couple of times sobbing, then struggled with the telephone clumsily before just giving up and trying to destroy all of the burnt nerves with my fingernails and a steak knife. My mother discovered me thirty minutes later and tried to get me to the ER, but got stuck in traffic. Time elapsed until medical treatment: sixty minutes.

Lastly, there was the time "I" nearly attempted suicide as a result of mental illness. The whole situation's complicated, as I don't really fit any conventional mental illness diagnoses, but the simplified version would be that I have a fragmented internal narration, leading to multiple identities sharing a brain, only one of which is typically in control of our body. Loooooong story short, one of the identities is actively malevolent, and tried to kill off all four of us by supplanting the controlling identity and committing suicide. It got as far as outlining various veins in my hands and wrists with a pen, making sure nobody else was nearby, and sharpening a knife before I wrested control back.

Smile for me!
Kino Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: Californicating
#79: Dec 27th 2011 at 6:36:09 PM

Ignoring all the recent incidents, I'd have to say the time I jumped in the ocean without knowing how to swim.

0dd1 Just awesome like that from Nowhere Land Since: Sep, 2009
Just awesome like that
#80: Dec 27th 2011 at 10:36:23 PM

One time when I was a kid, a bunch of other kids from my school pushed me in front of an oncoming train. I got out of the way before it was very close, but it was still pretty scary.
WTF?!?? Did anyone do anything about it? Did those kids get in trouble for, y'know, attempting to murder you?!??

Insert witty and clever quip here. My page, as the database hates my handle.
Narmer The Quiet One from some state in Mexico. Since: Nov, 2010
#81: Dec 30th 2011 at 2:46:20 PM

When I was around 3 years old I fell off the stairs at my grandma's house.

Inhopelessguy Since: Apr, 2011
#82: Dec 30th 2011 at 2:53:04 PM

I nearly drowned in the deep-end of a pool at a hotel in Greece.

I was about 1.5 metres. The end I was in, was about 1.6 m. I somehow managed to drift from the shallow end into the deep. I got rescued by my uncle who saw me thrashing for dear life.

...

After about five minutes of me thrashing.

CosmicChinchilla Lacking elevenses from A bit left of tomorrow Since: Aug, 2011
Lacking elevenses
#83: Dec 30th 2011 at 3:48:32 PM

I've had three instances. One when a car was speeding down the road and I didn't look whilst crossing. Two, as a kid I ran out into sea to try and grab my spade, doesn't help when you can't swim and seem to sink in water and thirdly in a German swimming pool on a school trip I'd gone further than I thought and when the wave machine turned off the water level was raised to it's usual height. Ended up being rescued by a friend.

Preferred mode of transport: On a flight of whimsy.
LoniJay from Australia Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
#84: Dec 30th 2011 at 4:12:10 PM

I guess I have to change my answer, because I found out just recently that when I was three months old I nearly died of an infection in my eye-socket.

It's always the eyes with me.

edited 30th Dec '11 4:12:27 PM by LoniJay

Be not afraid...
SeizureFerret Since: Nov, 2010
#85: Jan 22nd 2012 at 8:08:29 PM

I've been "lucky" so far: The closest I got to dying was when I fell asleep in the bathtub, but woke up when my face hit the water. I had another time when I thought I was dying, but it turns out I was just drunk. On Night Quil.

eternalNoob Ded from yer mum Since: Oct, 2011 Relationship Status: Longing for my OTP
Ded
#86: Jan 22nd 2012 at 8:35:52 PM

Yeah, lots off people have been close to death. I also forgot to add that one time with the cave

edited 22nd Jan '12 8:42:38 PM by eternalNoob

If you wanna PM me, send it to my mrsunshinesprinkles account; this one is blorked.
Talby Since: Jun, 2009
#87: Jan 22nd 2012 at 9:37:18 PM

WTF?!?? Did anyone do anything about it? Did those kids get in trouble for, y'know, attempting to murder you?!??

Nothing happened at the time IIRC, although one of the kids later got expelled for bringing a knife to school, so that's something, I guess.

0dd1 Just awesome like that from Nowhere Land Since: Sep, 2009
Just awesome like that
#88: Jan 23rd 2012 at 12:19:08 AM

[up]...I have lost what little faith I had before in the ability for schools to deal with the crap their students do to other students.

Insert witty and clever quip here. My page, as the database hates my handle.
Talby Since: Jun, 2009
#89: Jan 23rd 2012 at 1:34:56 AM

This was a while ago, mind you. 1998 or '99 I think. Fortunately I was a nimble little scamp.

Bur from Flyover Country (Living Relic) Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
#90: Jan 23rd 2012 at 7:28:48 AM

Lessee... I think there's only been two. First was when I was about ten or so. We were in Hawaii and I had a battle with the undertow. To me it felt like just forever, but looking back I think I was just trapped underwater for a half-minute or so. It still scared the piss outta me. [lol]

The second was late last year when I had to grab my dogs and dive off the sidewalk and into a ditch because a drunk driver decided to ignore where the road was. He crashed into a tree a hundred yards or so past me.

ACrackInTime Since: Aug, 2012
#91: Jan 23rd 2012 at 1:49:46 PM

Was nearly hit by a speeding car in Italy one and a half years ago.

MidnightRambler Ich bin nicht schuld! 's ist Gottes Plan! from Germania Inferior Since: Mar, 2011
Ich bin nicht schuld! 's ist Gottes Plan!
#92: Jan 23rd 2012 at 4:21:57 PM

Oh, in that case, I've had hundreds of near-deaths.

Well, OK, it wasn't an actual incident... but it did bug me for quite some time afterwards: the thought 'Fuck, I might as well have died then and there'.

Mache dich, mein Herze, rein...
Mukora Uniocular from a place Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: I made a point to burn all of the photographs
Uniocular
#93: Jan 23rd 2012 at 4:46:59 PM

Uh... I was mugged once, with a knife at my neck. Then I've been raped... three times.

So those are the closest I've been to death.

"It's so hard to be humble, knowing how great I am."
MajorTom Since: Dec, 2009
#94: Jan 23rd 2012 at 5:51:27 PM
Thumped: Wow. That was rude. Too many of this kind of thump will bring a suspension. Please keep it civil.
Legionnaire The Leading Man from Australia Since: Oct, 2010
The Leading Man
#95: Jan 23rd 2012 at 5:52:48 PM

Why would he lie about something like that?

Against all tyrants.
MajorTom Since: Dec, 2009
#96: Jan 23rd 2012 at 6:04:23 PM

I don't know. But it wouldn't be the first time somebody's tried to pull a fast one on us.

0dd1 Just awesome like that from Nowhere Land Since: Sep, 2009
Just awesome like that
#97: Jan 23rd 2012 at 7:22:10 PM

It's best to assume the truth and be compassionate to a liar than to be skeptical of such a thing & risk offending someone who's gone through that. Besides, why the hell would anyone without a serious personality disorder lie about that?

edited 23rd Jan '12 7:22:30 PM by 0dd1

Insert witty and clever quip here. My page, as the database hates my handle.
x86x2 Eternally dreaming... Since: Nov, 2011
Eternally dreaming...
#98: Jan 24th 2012 at 5:04:18 AM

Let's see here...My childhood dentist's building was in a large tower that shared its building with that of an easy listening station. Once when I was walking out of the dentist, the letters from the sign of the station fell off right in front of me. What stopped me from dying was the fact that my brother was a bit of a weakling when it came to operating push doors, so I don't know what my life would've been if he wasn't.

Either that or one time as a kid I almost touched an electric fence to see if it would shock me while I was wearing gloves.

Someone wake me from this nightmare, I've become my darkest fear...
YonTroper Since: Aug, 2009
#99: Jan 24th 2012 at 6:38:33 AM

Actually, I've been pretty lucky injury-wise. But there are a few noteworthy incidents.

  • When I lived in Beijing, I caught quite serious cases of bronchitis both of the winters I was there. I was off school for about 3 weeks in the latter case, and got a touch of pneumonia. I suspect that it would have escalated if I'd stayed, due to the very polluted air and my weak chest.
  • When I was 10, we were doing prints in art. When I was cutting out the outline of my print with a knife, the knife slipped and I cut straight to the bone on my left index finger. That's the only time I've been to A&E - I had to get stitches, and I had a rather large scar for quite a while.
  • On a cycling holiday in Laos last year, I parked my bike at the side of the road in order to let a car pass, and didn't realize the side of the road was on an incline. I fell off the edge of the road, with my bike. Luckily I was wearing a helmet and wasn't too badly injured (I fell about 5 feet down a dirt incline onto some small rocks), but if I'd fallen any further than that, I would have gone over the edge of a cliff and died. Despite the fact that I wasn't injured very badly, that was probably the closest I've ever got to dying.

edited 24th Jan '12 6:39:17 AM by YonTroper

PinkamenaDianePie Stabby Stabby Party Pony from Sugarcube Corner Since: Dec, 2011
Stabby Stabby Party Pony
#100: Jan 24th 2012 at 6:39:18 AM

Drive by shooting.


Total posts: 166
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