TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

The closest you have been to death

Go To

HellmanSabian Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
InverurieJones '80s TV Action Hero from North of the Wall. Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
'80s TV Action Hero
#102: Jan 24th 2012 at 10:21:42 AM

[up] Sleeps suspended by a thread over a pit filled with rabid honey badgers.

'All he needs is for somebody to throw handgrenades at him for the rest of his life...'
HellmanSabian Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
#103: Jan 24th 2012 at 10:24:21 AM

.......The first I've heard about it.

-Looks at Jones suspiciously-

InverurieJones '80s TV Action Hero from North of the Wall. Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
'80s TV Action Hero
#104: Jan 24th 2012 at 10:25:24 AM

Uh, yeah...been meaning to tell you about that.

'All he needs is for somebody to throw handgrenades at him for the rest of his life...'
Mukora Uniocular from a place Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: I made a point to burn all of the photographs
Uniocular
#105: Jan 24th 2012 at 12:05:30 PM

@Major Tom: I am telling the truth. Now, you of course have no cause to believe me, but it is true.

"It's so hard to be humble, knowing how great I am."
GameChainsaw The Shadows Devour You. from sunshine and rainbows! Since: Oct, 2010
The Shadows Devour You.
#106: Jan 24th 2012 at 12:53:11 PM

My dad hauled me out of the way of a moving vehicle after I stepped out into the road without warning. Think I would've been seven or something.

The term "Great Man" is disturbingly interchangeable with "mass murderer" in history books.
MajorTom Since: Dec, 2009
#107: Jan 25th 2012 at 4:15:43 PM

^^ I'll take your word for it then.

Anfingrimm Beardless from Australia Since: Jul, 2010
Beardless
#108: Jan 25th 2012 at 10:23:52 PM

Well, lemme think. First time was... August 2001, I think. My dad was completely shitfaced and did a powerslide into a tree. My legs were literally an inch away from being crushed. I doubt that it would have been fatal, but walking around on prosthetics for the rest of my life wouldn't be much fun, would it?

Then early in the following October, my dad tried to murder my whole family and died in the process. I was one flight of stairs away from a drug-addled, knife-toting maniac, so I guess that counts as 'close to death'.

edited 25th Jan '12 10:24:13 PM by Anfingrimm

I have no beard. I have no beard, and I must scream.
SenatorAwesomePants not a role-model from the Neuro Tower Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: In bed with a green-skinned space babe
not a role-model
#109: Jan 26th 2012 at 3:59:13 AM

OD-ed twice. Spent 15 hours puking for every 15 minutes the next 15 hours each time. The next day after each I was ridiculously weak.

Also once woke up in a large pool of my own vomit. If I'd passed out on my front rather than my side I'd not be here now, I'd have choked on it. Same as if I hadn't stop to fix my umbrella once. That time a bus passed within 6 inches of me. I could have touched the damned thing.

No.
Zarkyrtex Zarkyrtex from EVERYWHERE Since: Sep, 2011
Zarkyrtex
#110: Mar 13th 2012 at 12:10:24 PM

When i was little, I tripped and almost fell into a bonfire. Maybe not lethal, but still...

Insanity is a blessing and a curse. Munchkinlope!!!!
ACrackInTime Since: Aug, 2012
#111: Mar 13th 2012 at 12:13:22 PM

I was nearly hit by a speeding Italian driver couple of years ago. He was doing 70mph on a rural road where there were no pavements, and he sped round the corner on the wrong side of the road and caught my cousin's dress. If I had been where she was, as I'm larger and older, I would have died.

And earlier today, I was nearly hit by a 4x4.

ElRigo I'm freezing! Send help! from Baja Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Awaiting my mail-order bride
I'm freezing! Send help!
#112: Mar 13th 2012 at 1:11:32 PM

When I was young I got carried by the undercurrent and almost drowned out in the sea.

I still swim by the way, that goes to prove that I dont learn about my mistakes.

EDIT. And more recently I rolled down a mountain side. Thankfully I am made of Iron.

edited 13th Mar '12 1:12:13 PM by ElRigo

TamH70 Since: Nov, 2011 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
#113: Mar 14th 2012 at 5:26:22 AM

I have seen Death close enough on enough occasions to know that She has a cute little mole on her left cheek. Nice smile as well. Even when She was waving Her finger at me as if to say, don't be that stupid again, or I may not bother to stop My work on you.

My Death looks like Neil Gaiman's portrayal of Her. Funny how I capitalize the Incarnation of the end of things and refuse to do the same to god.

somerandomdude from Dark side of the moon Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: How YOU doin'?
#114: Mar 14th 2012 at 7:07:52 AM

I went kayaking in the Catskills when I was 12 and a current pulled my boat into a thicket. The thicket blocked the water from going any further, so the boat slid up against it after it turned over. Conclusion? I'm under water in a relatively strong current with no way to surface for air. I'd have drowned if my dad hadn't pulled me out of the water. (He was strong enough to swim against the current; at 12, all 5'3" and 104 pounds of me couldn't've hoped to do it.)

ok boomer
GigglesMcYummy wobbledewopple wob woppl from Ohio Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: Reincarnated romance
wobbledewopple wob woppl
#115: Mar 14th 2012 at 8:16:11 AM

Mine is probably an instance I'm not even aware of, like crossing a street too early or something. But one I do know of was last summer, the day before 4th of July me and a couple friends went to some creepy-but-facsinating KKK grounds (I'm getting off topic..) so they could find a can of computer duster they had used a couple days prior. I had tried duster once before, and yes, I'm aware of how dangerous it is. I decided to hit it a couple of times, and one turn I took 2 hits, the second one too fast, and everything just completely rushed to my head, and my vision faded so the corners of what I could see were faded and black, and getting bigger. For a second I thought "This is it. This could be the end." but then my mood quickly shifted and I realized I didn't want to die, and I didn't know what else to do but hug someone and scream in terror, my high idiot friend of course didn't take that very seriously when he started rubbing my ass while he hugged me, and in the middle of my screaming I just said "..Are you touching my ass?" and he said "Maybe", and by then my heartbeat and vision felt normal again. Granted, I feel lucky to have gotten out of that and have been very careful the times I inhaled duster after that, but I haven't even hit the stuff since October.

My PM box is always open to anyone who wants to talk/vent.
MyGodItsFullofStars Since: Feb, 2011
#116: Mar 14th 2012 at 8:36:50 AM

Let's see...

Fell off a 100 foot cliff and just barely managed to grab hold of a tree that was growing over the edge when I was ten. I still cannot stand heights.

Almost froze to death one night camping when I was 12 - we didn't expect it to drop to 2 degrees Fahrenheit below in Florida.

Male elephants enter this phase where they are overdosed with testosterone and will charge and trample stuff with little to no provocation. This is called "musth". While I was in Africa, an elephant in musth entered our campground and nearly ran me and my brother down, but our guide saved us - by imitating the roar of a lion and spooking the beast.

One time while drift diving in Malaysia our drunken boat guide forgot about us and headed home. We drifted for two hours until we came across a small island. Just as we were swimming to the shore a freakin' tiger came out of the jungle, sniffed at us, then stalked off. We were latter told that it was a man-eater, but that we were safe because it had already killed and eaten an elderly man earlier that day and wasn't hungry.

I've been lucky to escape from not one, but two separate tornadoes. Both times I was out walking my dog, and both times she freaked out before the tornado touched down and dragged me home.

And finally, I was ten feet away from a tree when it got hit by lightning. Ever run your hand under a faucet when the water is too hot, then reflex action makes you pull your hand away? It was like that - I basically dropped to the ground without even thinking about it.

edited 14th Mar '12 8:37:58 AM by MyGodItsFullofStars

CrystalGlacia from at least we're not detroit (Living Relic)
#117: Mar 14th 2012 at 8:58:11 AM

My mom told me this story from when I was first brought to the United States after being adopted from China, when I was about seven months old. There was some point in my life before coming to the orphanage when I was kept in unsanitary living conditions at a foster home, possibly a farm, and ended up catching E. coli there. Since this was 1995, the orphanage, of course, wasn't really a very caring place, physically or emotionally.

My mom had a doctor's appointment for me scheduled for the day after they got home, I had a fever and runny nose that just wouldn't stop. The doctor thought that my mom was just being a paranoid new mother but he gave me antibiotics anyways.

It turned out that if I had been given just a few more days, I would've died. At the age of seven months. Of E. coli.

And then my mom got a call from Social Services because they thought it was my mom's fault and that she was some idiot rather than an irresponsible Chinese foster home's fault.

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
Immi Since: May, 2009 Relationship Status: I know
#118: Mar 14th 2012 at 11:56:16 AM

Sepsis, last month when my central line got infected.

PM box is always open.
Lemurian from Touhou fanboy attic Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Buried in snow, waiting for spring
#119: Mar 14th 2012 at 12:01:03 PM

Been close to drowning twice, once by the sea when I was very little and another time in a pool. I also almost walked in front of a bus once a couple of years ago.

Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!
BrainSewage from that one place Since: Jan, 2001
#120: Mar 14th 2012 at 1:53:51 PM

At birth. I was two moths premature, and my lungs weren't developed enough to breathe normally. My parents said for the first day they were worried, but I improved pretty quickly.

How dare you disrupt the sanctity of my soliloquy?
InverurieJones '80s TV Action Hero from North of the Wall. Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
'80s TV Action Hero
#121: Mar 14th 2012 at 2:07:51 PM

Once you got your spiracles unblocked you'd have been fine, I'm sure.

'All he needs is for somebody to throw handgrenades at him for the rest of his life...'
joeyjojo Happy New Year! from South Sydney: go the bunnies! Since: Jan, 2001
Happy New Year!
#122: Mar 14th 2012 at 4:45:57 PM

.... Nope can't think of anything.

I mean sure there were plenty of Could Have Been Messy moments in my life but I don't think there has ever been a clear case of 'an itch away from death' situation. I never took unnecessary risks as a kid.

edited 14th Mar '12 4:49:08 PM by joeyjojo

hashtagsarestupid
rikalous World's Cutest Direwolf from Upscale Mordor (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
World's Cutest Direwolf
#123: Mar 16th 2012 at 3:42:19 AM

My moment happened during rehearsal for a high school play. Or possibly a series of short plays; I don't remember that part too well. Anyway, me and this other kid were goofing off and roughhousing because we had some time to kill before we needed to be ready, and I ended up in a headlock. This headlock ended up cutting off my oxygen, and because I am dumb I opted to keep futilely struggling instead of tapping out or showing any signs of sincere distress. So I ended up blacking out and woke up lying on the floor with all the actors around a lot more concerned than I ever was.

Madison14 Since: Dec, 2015 Relationship Status: Crazy Cat Lady
#124: Sep 19th 2019 at 8:50:20 PM

Six years ago, I was hit by a car while jaywalking home from high school. I wasn't badly injured - somehow I managed to fracture my toe and nothing else. But during the moment the car was rushing towards me, I really thought I was going to die.

Andrei_Bondoc Since: Jan, 2019
#125: Sep 19th 2019 at 10:05:40 PM

At the beginning of this year, I was almost killed in a car accident. And I was in the backside, without a seatbelt! If I live today, someone up there definitely protected me, my brother and the driver who took us.

"Scooby Dooby Doo!"

Total posts: 166
Top