Close Calls

Ever came close to certain death or could have been severely injured and something happened to intervene? I’ve got several stories I’ll share throughout this thread that constantly remind me to be thankful, humble, and appreciate that I’m still here!

First Story-
At 3 or 4, I almost burned to death in a house fire. I had no clue the house was on fire, I thought I was having a bad dream, laying in bed with my back to the flames, crying because the heat I was feeling on the back of my head was so intense (but still thought I was dreaming).
My mom rushed in the room and picked me up out of bed and carried me outside the house. I had no clue what the hell was going on until we were standing outside watching our house burn down to the ground.


*Tell me about some of your close calls.

 

Damn man bet you had some nightmares over that! At such a young age.

 

About 17 years old I was working underneath my car. I had it on a jack with one of the back tires removed, wheels not blocked off and no cider blocks underneath. I got out from under it and started talking with my brother and 10 seconds later the car rolled back and fell off the jack. We just stared at each other a few seconds. I finally said something like "I just almost died" or whatever. Closest I've been to death I think. Damn that was stupid.

 

Oh man eric. That's one of my worst fears. Glad you're here to tell the tale

 

When I was 16 my friend and I skipped school and took a stupid amount of vodka shots..we had just started drinking, we had no idea how to moderate or what too much could do to us.

I dont really remember anything after taking the shots except throwing up in the bathroom and it hurt so bad and I realized I was in a bad spot and started praying to God to please not let me die.
Woke up in the hospital like 12 hours later, I had had my stomach pumped and was put on a ventilator for a while. I was also still drunk and kept embarrassing my mom by being overly friendly to the other patients in the hospital lol

 

Pretty much every time I travel by train an oncoming train passes within a few inches and I praise The Good Lord that I'm still alive.

 

Too fucking many times...

 

About two weeks ago i had a chunk of pork jammed in my windpipe for a good 15 - 20 or so seconds. I was well and truly choking.

Wife was banging on my back it wouldn't come. She then did the ol Heimlich on me, it came out thank f...

Another 10 seconds i would've passed out and curtains. Funny ending, my pooch swooped in on the chunk of meat and devoured it.

 

At 3 or 4, visited my grandparents in the Virgin Islands and they had or maybe rented a boat. We were on it, at one point, I went to feed fishes lucky charms while the adults were inside. I fell overboard, didn't know how to swim, had sort of a dream-like experience as well, time seemed really slow. Just remember not being able to move how I wanted and some abstract sense of abyss, toddler version of it.

Apparently my dad got me only after a few seconds, probably nowhere as close to actually dying as your op but it potentially could've been bad and as I'm sure you can relate, time seems to dialate in these circumstances, especially at that age.

I've never been on a boat in the ocean since.

 

Wow, that’s something right there. Can you imagine how many people have had the same exact experience? I watched my grandpa pick up one of my very young cousins, turn her upside down and pat her on the back one time- and the hard candy she was choking on shot out of her mouth like a bullet!

Your dog was on it for sure, bro, LMAO! That would have been a perfect seen in any comedy movie!!

 

I remember when I was about 6 years old and it was the first time I ever went swimming. We went to a pool at one of the city parks and I watched all these kids jumping off the diving board, popping back up laughing and having a good ol time. “Shit, I wanna do that” I thought to myself. So, without any clue how any of this works - swimming that is- I jump in, hit the water, start flailing my arms and feet around slowly at first. But when I noticed that I was still sinking, I panicked and starting thrashing around faster...swallowing water, and starting to pass out- then I felt a life guard pull me out!

 

A few times that I remember and I am sure countless times that I don't even know about. I wonder how many near-death experiences we go through from day to day without ever realizing it.

 

Good question and I’ve often wondered that myself. Something as simple as turning down a road a specific time, etc.

 

In late 2014 I woke up to find what I thought was an undercover police van surveilling my house. I also remember crawling under my car looking for a police tracking device and then later calling my Mum to ask her to come pick me up (I imagine I must of sounded drunk or drugged....as much as I remember much of that day very vividly I don't remember exactly what I said). The literal craziness of this day later culminated in me thinking very clearly: If what's happening to me is real I'm going to get my car up to 100mph and smash into a tree! I got as far almost writing a suicide note.

Luckily what was happening to me wasn't real and after going to my GP to explain my symptoms (although I didn't see them as symptoms at the time) I got help for psychosis and I lived to tell the tale

 

lmao. I was a kid that could swim swim, and I was in the deep end 9ft. Me tossing stones to the bottom to retrieve, and Im at the bottom when all the sudden this lifeguard swoops me out and as she roll me over the cement she thought I was dead, and Im just holding my breath looking for my stone. she called me an asshole or something and smacked me and told me to go back to the 3/6 area.. I had a way of boosting off the bottom to the surface, one my favorite things to do was rock hunting and shoot back to the surface, cant do that in 6ft.

Did loose my breath once swimming in the river. I was getting pulled out by current. Id been ok in calm water and just relaxed to float down but I was tired had my friend come and rescue me.

 

I ate a sixteenth (half-ball) of meth. My heart sped up/breathing got weird. I just wanted to lay down. It felt awful. My friend tried to get me to get up and move around. He said he thought I should get my heart moving or something to that effect. He had been the one driving. I think that they towed his car that day... I didn't have one at that time. We almost got busted. But I think that's an overdose!

 

Perhaps he biggest fright that I got was on a construction site back in my early 20's. I took a young guy with me to check some measurements quite late one evening and after climbing the stairs, we just manage to finish them before the light failed.
As we went to leave, as I was heading for the staircase, I suddenly noticed that he was heading for an adjacent opening and was about so step into the lift-shaft.
A couple more steps and he would have walked into an abyss that led directly to the ground floor, some 15 stories below.
Similar accidents have led to dozens of deaths over the years and strict regulations are now in place regarding sealing lift shaft openings during construction.

 

Wow! That would have been a hard hit on the cement floor too, damn he’s lucky!!

 

Drag racing 1958. '57 chevy and a '58 Plymouth. 2 guys in the Plymouth and me and the driver in the Chevy. We topped a little rise going close to a'hundred and a truck driver ahead stopped at a stop sign on the right, having a truck and a long trailer loaded with lumber figured we were only going the speed limit, I suppose. He pulled out in front of us and the only thing said was what I said said just before we hit. " Ï don't think were going to make it." We only left 28 feet of skid marks before we hit--the Plymouth was ahead of us and hit first. The two boys in the PLymouth were killed, my driver was a near veg for the rest of his life and then---there was me. Lost a few teeth, but considering no one wore seat belts in those days----lucky me.
Next one was when a guy from another town with a bunch of his gang members came to my town, saw me there fixing to go to a dance. The main one jumped out of his car with a gun and headed toward me---Ök ( _my name________)--you've had it!"He looked away from me for a second to check his gun and that's when my feet did their duty!! Friend just happened to pass by and I jumped in her car, got on the floor and suggested we make an immediate egress from the area!!
Being in the roofing trade since I was 27----it was inevitable that I would be testing gravity a few times. Suffice it to say that falling off in various situations heightened my belief in the efficacy of such. 4 times over.

 

close calls ? I was a firefighter for 30 plus years. I have had number of them over the years. A few stick in my mind as "Oh Shit" moments.

There is nothing like being in a burning building on the end of a hose line with full turnout gear on and SCBA ( self contained breathing app. ) A air pack. Then to have the fire roll over the top of you and you find the fire on all sides of you. Normally in such a case you shut down your line and follow the fire hose to the outside of the building. I was only about 4 feet inside the building when it flashed on me. Since I was on the hose line by myself at that moment I had lopped the hose line to have better control of it at the time. My backup was in the doorway getting ready to back me up when the flash over happened. He yelled for me to back out ASAP. I started to do exactly how I was trained. I followed the hose . Only in that moment of "oh shit" I followed the hose in a circle 2 times. And I knew something was wrong because I was only a few feet in the doorway. I should have reached the exit by now. Now I was starting to get a little nervous. Like where the hell is the doorway type nervous. When suddenly two hands grabbed me and jerked me out of the doorway. Later my back up told me that when he saw me go past once. He figured I was going after something. When he saw me go past the second time. He figured I was getting confused as to where the door was. The next time he and another firefighter grabbed me and yanked me through the doorway. Between the fire , The sudden flood of water on top of me by another hose line and zero vision with fire all around me I had lost sight of where the exit was.. That is one of many moments that sticks with me. Because I feel that I screwed up. But really the conditions went down hill so fast that I did not have time to react fast enough. On screw ups you get written up or go through a "refresher course" What I got was a " holy Christ man...Are you okay ? Go to rehab and get checked out before you go back in" Type of comment.