OT: Close Calls - Things that should have killed you, but didn't
Driving into work today a few cars smashed into each other right in front of me. I had to do a pretty crazy maneuver at about 75 mph to avoid a head on collision and my car was sprayed with broken glass and plastic. This is the second time this month that I very narrowly avoided a serious accident and it has me thinking about my other close calls.
The closest I ever came to actually dying was when I had an allergic reaction to something I didn't know I was allergic to. It happened really fast and being 17 and invincible I was hesitant to seek assistance. Until I looked in a mirror and saw that my now lobster red face had swollen to twice it's normal size.
I drove myself to the nearest ER and my windpipe was almost closed by the time I got there. I'll never forget the look on the receptionist's face. It was like she was looking at a corpse.
What about you? Have you beaten cancer? Dodged a bullet fired by a jealous husband?
Major salomonella, ecoli or something, vomitting, dry vomitting two days later. For a minute there you start to think, I could really just let go and this wouuld be all over.
F'ing place closed, I should have sued them, read their reviews that are still online and one said "daughter got horrible food poisoning, had to come take care of her" or similar. Now I understand why a couple of major religions don't consume pork, all it takes is one ahole to mix the pork and chicken utensils and there you go, death on a platter.
1. I had my appendix removed when I was 4. At that age, you don't articulate symptoms to parents or doctors very well. As it grew inflamed and I was in obvious discomfort, my mother took me to see a doctor. He didn't diagnose me corretly or refer me anywhere else. Thankfully, my mother got a second opinion. The second doctor recognized immediately that the tenderness in my abdomen was a cause for serious concern and had me immediately admitted to the hospital. If the appendix would have ruptured, it very well would have been lights out.
2. Was almost a candidate for a Darwin Award. I was in my young 20's. Was on a stand up jet ski racing some friends in a pontoon. Thought it would be fun to zigzag in front of the boat at highspeed. Lost balance and fell. One of the pontoons just missed me by no more than 5 feet.
the time I saw a dipshit on the Detroit River jumping the bow wake of a 1,000 ft freighter on his jet ski. He did it several times on both sides of the ship before he ended up in the water. That SOB was lucky as hell to survive. I was sure that I was going to see him get sucked under and chewed up by propellers.
Fell into a covered pool when I was very young, 6 maybe. As it turned out, I was never in real danger as I fell near the edge. I slid under the cover but I was a solid swimmer and was able to get out pretty easily. It could have gone much worse though had I fell on top of the cover and got twisted in it as I was loosely supervised at the time.
And "dipshit" is a fair assessment of #2.
I was headed in a rush to meet a friend on the 77th floor of World Trade Center 2 (south tower). Because I overslept, I got to the subway later than I wanted. I reached the train just as the doors shut. Had to wait for the next train which meant I wasn't inside the tower when the plane slammed into it.
Hudson Street. Tribeca area.
you live life to the fullest.
I have been chased by three grizzlies near the headwaters of the Yellowstone River, had a rapid delirious case of dehydration hit me near Grand Junction (had to hide, shaking, under my map for several hours in the mid-day heat), and diagonaled my way out of an avalanche once.
But by far the worst was running across Division at Liberty late in the light cycle and having a car (hidden by other stationary cars in the near lanes) rush two feet in front of me going about 35 miles per hour.
I did the same thing, but with a paperclip. Also almost burned the house down when the christmas lights (old school C9's) I hung up in my bedroom closet shorted out.
My mother had the patience of a saint.
Shocking!
having a similar conversation with a buddy:
" I guess baby proofing wasn't a thing in the 70s."
I remember my mom telling me that 'if I sat back and kept my body quiet, it was just like wearing a seat belt'. I also remember lying on the floor during long trips (older bro and sis had the seat). Car seats were for suckers.
I also had a fair amount of freedom in which to get into trouble.
The seatbelt thing had to change. Not sure the reduction in kids freedom is good.
When I was in the Navy my last command was in Diego Garcia. We would get sent to go TAD to Masirah Oman (little island as you enter the persian gulf), pretty much nothing their at all.
Well I started to feel very sick and having pains in my stomach, and was not able to hold anything down drink some water puke it up and so on. So finally they send me to the Omanie medical center, no real doctors only Oman coreman. The guy checks me out says it might be my appendix and should be sent somewhere to see a doctor. The command sends me to Bahrain on a wonderful 6 hour P-3 flight. Once I get their they check me out say my white blood cell count is about twice what it should be so my body was fighting something. They were not sure if it was my appendix or not so they kept monitoring me. After a couple days I started to feel better and a couple more days my white blood cell count went back to normal and most of my pain was gone. 7 days after getting to Bahrain they sent me back to Masirah.
About 5 days later I wake up in pain I can't even comprehand anymore. I had to get my roomate to help me get out of bed and get dressed and to walk into work. I went back to the Omanie medical center and he was extremely concerned and said there was a Omanie C-130 flight to Musqat Oman in about 2 hours and I could be at a hospital in Musqat in about 3 hours. I was all for this. My command said they were going to wait for a P-3 to come from Bahrain then take me back to Bahrain, which would take at least 12+ hours. I said I need to see a Doctor as soon as possible. So they decided to put me on the Oman C-130 but they called the US Embassy in Oman and they said i should go to this other private hospital and they would have a representative of the Embassy and a Marine to pick me up.
So I get to Musqat and there is an ambulance but no Embassy rep or Marine. I mention that I think they are taking me to the wrong hospital but they say the know where I am going. Turned out yep taken to the wrong hospital. Finally get ahold of my command and they talk with the Embassy and they get me to the correct hospital.
The Doctor gives me an ultrasound and right away notices a large mass in my lower right side. After a CAT scan he tells me that my appendix had burst and my body had basically walled it off. He said about 2% of people if their appendix's burst this would happen. He said that it would be too risky to operate as it is so inflamed, and they would give me medication and hope that it would reduce in size. After 4 nights they moved me to Ramstien US Army hosptial in Germany with a stop in Prince Sultan Air Force base in Saudi. When I got to Ramstien they said they would probably have surgery in the next few days, I let them know what the Doctor in Oman said and they doubted him, but after another CAT scan they realized he was correct. So after spending 10 days in Ramstien they sent me to NAS Cically. After a few nights they released me and scheduled my surgery.
Finally on May 5th about 2 months after this all started I had my surgery. The Doctor said everything went well. He said my appendix was 10-15 times the size it should have been and he had to chip off the sack that was attached to my intestanal wall. My scar was about 6 inches long comparred to normal appendix removals that pretty much are 1 inch or only 2 holes.
Some complete TOOL almost plowed into me going about 50 MPH in Kansas City, during rush hour. He was distracted, I think reading a GPS, and was barely able to pull off the road and avoid killing us both. If I ever find that guy... /s
Had a few things but I'm still here!!
18 years old on a para-rescue course primary chute didn't open properly on my 5th jump. Got that fixed up before hitting the ground.
25 years old got hit head on by a drunk driver while on duty. We were both travelling about 50 mph. He was killed and all I got was a buggered up knee.
About 49 years old got into a scrap while making an arrest. Guy trying to get my gun from me while another guy sucker punched me in the head. Fought through it, torn rotator cuff, happy ending......not that kind!!!
Between 21 and 51, a lot of stupid things that could have ended badly but all worth it.
Not That Kind! made me laugh.
Thanks for your service.
When I was in middle school (still too damn old to be this damn stupid)... I was riding a Mongoose scooter around the neighborhood while chewing on a broken piece of plastic (the bottom piece of a coat hanger that broke - don't ask why, I don't know why).
I wasn't paying enough attention while riding around and hit a pothole. My head went down and the plastic I was chewing on hit the handle bars and jabbed into my throat under my right tonsil. I pulled it out and threw it, just sort of in shock, and walked home with my mangled scooter.
When I got to the hospital later to have it stitched up the doc told me how lucky I had been. Apparently, I came within a fraction of an inch of opening up my carotid with that coat hanger.
Uno
Had to dead stick a single engine airplane onto a gravel runway in Iliamna, Alaska. Some part of the throttle linkage had come loose....engine ran fine, just couldn't reduce power so I could slow down and land. So I shut down the engine, slowed down per Newton, and glided (glid?) her onto the runway. If the Moms say this one doesn't apply in this thread because I voluntarily killed the engine, I'm OK with it.
Dos
The right engine quit on me in a twin engine airplane about 4 or 5 miles from the airport I intended to land at, at about 4500 ft. I guess if an engine is gonna go, that's a helpful time for it to happen. Again.... Moms...maybe this one doesn't count because I don't really feel like I almost died. The thing that makes me think maybe it does count is I got the shakes a little bit after I got on the ground.
The first one is absolutely legit as that is one hell of a judgment call to have to make, that is some damn fine improvisation.
The second one is scary, but I'm guessing you had enough training to be able to deal with it, are you sure the shakes didn't come from having to hold the rudder down? ;).
Rudder force wasn't too bad....I wasn't trying to maintain or manuver, just coming down hill to the airport. First engine out that was real and not training, hence the shakes I guess.
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I can't even joke about it. The first few hours, you're afraid you're gonna die. After that, you're afraid you won't. If you can't hydrate and wait long enough, you will.
My first assignment in the Air Force was as a Pilot Training Instructor, so as a young and dumb 23 year old 2LT I was responsible for teaching people how to fly in the T-37 and introduce people to fun like recovering from spins, maintaining control while flying three ft. from another airplane and go through formation maneuvers, etc.
While I finally got to the point where I could pretty easily anticipate things going wrong and stopped having anything resembling a close call, I had to build up some calluses and so my first year and a half was full of close calls, such as:
Landing gear up due to a mechanical malfunction(won an Air Force wide safety award for crashing an airplane out of that one)
Having to get the plane through an overcast deck of clouds when my left wingtip had magnetized and screwed up all of my instruments,
Watching a buddy do a barrel roll over my plane so close I could nearly read his nametag(This was due to his student coming into the turning rejoin maneuver https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK_XreBZYDU too fast and going belly up to compensate, rather than leveling out the wings and flying out behind us like you're supposed to, so the barrel roll was a good way to redirect momentum and get out of our way).
I think the one where I felt the most helpless was when my student(a rather large young man) started a spin and then locked up during the recovery and wouldn't move. I couldn't get control of the airplane back through normal means and so I punched him in the solar plexus as hard as I could, the guy gasped and let go of the stick and I got the plane back, recovered from the spin, used the time to fly back up to altitude to calm down and to talk the guy through what happened and then had him try it again. He did much better the second time around and given it was the last flight of the day, I very happily grabbed beers out of the fridge for my student and I to consume during the debrief(this was typically only allowed on Fridays, but I decided this merited an exception). My flight commander looked at me sideways, I explained what had happened during the flight and he went back to the fridge and grabbed us refills.
She 's tiny, but FIERCE!
Sorry about your Dad, Mabel. Between RichRod, Hoke and Jim Leland's pitching strategy, I'm amazed my Dad made it.
If anyone know what it's like driving through DC on I-495 near the I-270 interchange, you know it can be a bit hairy with all those lanes of traffic merging. I was driving on the outer loop going from Maryland into Virginia. My sister, brother-in-law and two nieces were in the car with me. About 1/4 quarter mile ahead, a truck in front lost it's load of tires onto the freeway. As I slowed down, another driver in the next lane sped up and clipped the rear of my car, spinning me across three lanes of traffic, in rush hour, towards the concrete median. As I approached the last lane of traffic, another car hit my car but this time sent me spinning towards the shoulder, where I was able to finally stop the car.
I was still able to drive my car home with no problem, though it looked like I was the loser at a demolition derby.
EDIT: +1 to Hatter for this OT topic. One of the best I've seen on this board. +1 to Drake Johnson for living so we could tell our stories of our own blue twisted steel.
I live in the DC area. The Beltway is a perpetual disaster. There is seldom a day without an accident on it that halts traffic.
When I first moved here, i didn't realize that you had to pick a "quadrant" to live and work in. Even though it may only be 20 milles away, if you have to go from one quadrant of the beltway to the other, like Tysons to New Carrollton, it ain't happening.
Yeah it's the worst. When I lived in Ashburn, I had to go to the office in Rockville once a week. 30 miles, 2 hours occasionally. I either left at 5:30am or 11am.
It was only 20 miles, but an hour each way if I was lucky. I changed my work schedule to 10AM-7PM so I could miss rush hour. If only there was a Metro station in Tysons Corner or Reston* (*shakes fist at new Silver line).
If I could cobble enough cash to buy a house in walking distance to a Metro station, I would do it.
Well, had I not been goaded into going to the hospital in December, I might have experienced total heart failure inside a couple weeks, or something else had I allowed the fluid in my lungs to gel and cement. Definitely fortunate there.
I was actually caught in a small building that was mostly obliterated during a torando many years ago, and as it was plowing through, I was pretty sure for a few minutes that, well, that might be that. I was 20 and we were golfing out near Pinckney on a July afternoon when the sky began to darken a little bit - like a lot of storm fronts, it's pretty gradual, or so it seems. From the look of the sky, we thought we could get in at least a few more holes.
As the wall cloud approached, we noticed it was quite low and suddenly it became eerily quiet, which in many cases is a bad, bad sign. We ran for the nearest structure, which was small, partially enclosed cabana, got under a picnic table, and hoped for the best. It turns out the roof of that cabana can be supported by picnic tables, because in the howling, deafening wind (and this was an EF1 tornado, so not so impressive) down it came. Once it had passed, we crawled out from under the table and then along one of the few newly created small corridors made in the confusion.
I am not easily frightened, but I was fucking frightened in those minutes. I was pretty sure that might be it.
One hellofa good thread idea Hatter. Sucks you almost had to die to come up with it but this is one I'm revisiting as it builds responses. Amazing stories found here.
- nearly bled out last year, losing nearly 70% of my blood volume - minor miracle I didn't stroke out or have a heart attack
- skied into a tree and knocked myself out (pre-helmet era)
- high speed auto wreck - everyone other than me went to the hospital, one of which ended up in ICU for weeks but ultimately pulled through
- married 23 years (kidding! but maybe not...)
Moved to the South and my first summer I got bit by a bunch of those bastards. At the time I had no idea I was allergic to fire ants and didn't think anything of it until I felt like I was having a heart attack. I went into anaphylactic shock and woke up in the hospital with a swollen hand from the bites and a broken face and jaw from the fall.
I have had two really close calls while driving:
The first one, I was driving 60 down a back road in the country. I was approaching a busy cross road that had a light. Light turned Yellow and I pushed my brake pedal. Due to the fact I was a poor college student, I was driving a rust bucket. My pedal "popped" and went to the floor. I had ruptured my brake lines! Light turned red and I flew through that intersection luckily avoiding everyone and everything. Nearly shit my pants.
The second one, I was driving home from work about 8 years ago. Driving about 60 mph again and approached an intersection. I had the green light. Out of nowhere a kid driving an old 1980s Suburban with a lift kit came at me and hit my drivers side. Luckily there was a truck of firefighters behind me who witnessed the whole thing. Estimated he was going 45 mph and they said because of my reflexes, I jerked my car to the right to avoid the crash. That spread the impact and caused the suburban to hit the rear door of my car instead of having his bumper go through my window. I required 6 months of rehab for my back/neck, but at the salvage yard they showed me a similar accident to mine (same speeds, same cause of running a red light) where the driver did not jerk the wheel, and they died. Felt like someone was watching over me that day.
I rolled my car coming back from college when i was 20. Was about a mile from my house when coming out of a curve on a single lane road I reached down to pick up mail that was on the passenger floorboard. Not sure why I felt the need to get it then but before I knew it, my right side tires were off the road on the right and in gravel. I jerked the wheel back to the left and entered the ditch on the opposite side. Being 20 and stupid, instead of just slowing down and driving out of the ditch, I tried to drive out of it still doing 40. Both tires blew out on the right and i rolled over 3 times. Came to a stop and climbed out of the car when it was upside down. Driver side hood was fine. Passenger side was touching the top of the car door. AND I wasnt wearing my seatbelt. Walked away with an inch gash in my left arm and some cuts from broken glass on my back.....so.....yeah.
I'm not going to sleep well tonight.
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I also have a bit of satisfaction now knowing that JJH has seen Dantonio act like a douche with his "Where did all the Wolverines go?" display -- in OUR house. This makes me anticipate the beatdown MSU is sure to receive this fall.
The scariest was wake up while flying off the highway with the passenger screaming that ttenage girl scream of death. Friend was going 70 hit black ice I was sleeping unbuckled. Trail of plastic, tires etc about a half mile+ going off the highway. Missed a concrete drainage ditch by under an inch or we'd have flipped and I imagine I'd have died.
Closest to death may have been heat stroke/exhaustion last year. Laying on the floor barely clinging to consciousness water streaming out of my pores in a pool of sweat having trouble breathing. Long story short I'm okay now but was effed for over a week and in that moment I thought I was going to die.
Glandular fever in Vietnam. That's mono, but hearing them call it glandular fever made it much scaier. May not have been life threatening but I definitely felt as though I was going to die as my throat got so swollen I could barely eat/drink anything. Had to cut my trip short, hit a clinic in New Zealand on my way home. Was worried about foreign hospitals but the clinic was nicer than the majority of US places I've been into and they were.... nice and friendly?
I had a beard after 911 and was in Europe. Woke up to 3 Swiss policeman with guns a few inches from my face, scary, not really life threatening though. Also saw them comparing my face to a few print out sheets of terrorist suspects when I was going through customs in Ireland, pretty funny really. Had a similar thing happen to my sister entering Chech republic, they laughed after and were obviously trying to scare though that time.
Was driving A2 to Detroit for work, well this was driving home Detroit-->A2. Was driving around 20-30 in 6 inches of snow when my tire caught the tracks of someone who had changed lanes and spun me. A 540 spin later I'm facing a semi truck head on a few hundred feet going towards me. Luckily they were also going slow and I managed to get to the shoulder in the nick of time. I then commensed sitting in my car for another hour shaking and sweating through my clothes. I then later saw an SUV barrel by going over 70, only to lose control slam straight into a concrete divider right after they passed me.
Also was sick with food poisoning for 3 weeks exploding out of both ends after a flight home from China. That was a "I want to die" situation though.
"That would have killed a lesser man!"
Or something to that effect, right?