Share your near-death experiences

[bimmette]

Based on EALm4's scary event last night, thought we could share our stories.

I have two instances of being close to death.

I was supposed to be in Thailand during the massive tsunami of 2004 and the resort I was booked at was completely wiped out with everyone killed. I had a beach hut booked and I would have been sleeping for sure at the time of the tsunami. When I was buying the plane tickets, my dad was watching a football game and was too slow giving me his passport number. Due to that, we had to take a later flight, which saved our lives. (I did have to help evacuate some colleagues from there and did have other colleagues that died that day.)

The other time I thought I was gonna die was when my car was fish tailing across a slick highway in a sudden rainstorm and there were huge trucks behind me. I barely made it off to the side without getting crushed. I actually cried after.

[dreamingat30fps]

My friend got married at Lake Tahoe. For reasons unknown to me he and some other guys decided to go jet skiing on the lake. Now it was in June, but there was still snow on the mountains and at night it got pretty cold so I knew that water was fucking cold.

I was like fuck this shit you all can go I will stay right here. Anyways they somehow convinced me to join them. Everything was fine at first we each had a jetski and it was a little chili but not too bad. So my friends time ran out and since I started later than him I still had time so he decided to come ride on the back of mine.... that's when it all went down hill. Now with him in the back fucking around we ended up in the water.

That's when I thought I was gonna die. That shit was sooo cold all the air instantly went out of my lungs. I couldn't breathe even though I was above water. We manage to get back to the jetski and I'm like no way we can do that again. We will paddle back if we have to before I risk falling back in that water.

Of course a few min later back in we go. This time I really thought I was dead I couldn't even swim, I honestly don't even remember how I got back to the jetski. Of course to make things even better all this somehow occurred out of sight of the jetski people and everyone else so we could of just died there and no one would have known.

[GuidoK]

something like this?

Luckily my car has really good brakes (bbk front&rear) and I dont have the tendency to panic steer. It's in the alps, here it's not that steep, reaching the bottom of the mountain pass, but 10km back it went down hundreds of feet next to the road.
It happens, ignorant people overtaking cyclists when entering a blind corner and disobeying the not overtaking line.... even with the disciplined swiss...
Makes life interesting
I even held back the throttle a bit approaching the corner (not that that slows you down, going downhill...) because there was something funny about the driving lines those motorbikes took....

[smoosh]

So this one's from my road trip about six weeks ago...

I took a solo road trip from DC to San Diego for work. I decided to go the northern route (KY, WI, ND, SD, WY, etc.). So I get going on this trip, having the time of my life. I chose to stop at every major attraction (National Parks and cities, mainly). Some of these attractions were completely deserted. Not a single soul in sight; especially the northern ones, like in SD and WY. I have everything I think I will need in my car, food, water, emergency kit, etc. One day, on like a Wednesday evening, I'm driving and see a sign for some river. Can't remember which, but it was in Wisconsin. Seemed like a good scenic route to go hiking. Mind you, this is a Wednesday evening in bumfuck nowhere Wisconsin. Not a single soul anywhere to be seen...

I park my car and hop out. Soon as I get out, torrential downpour. It literally felt like I was walking through a monsoon. The hike took me through an area with a lot of trees and rocks...about a two mile hike. Of course, it's getting dark with the grey clouds. I make it to the lake and look around. Amazing view. Spectacular. Probably one of the best hidden gems I've seen in my lifetime. But, again, this is in bumfuck nowhere, so I'm sure not many people visit it.

So I start snapping some pictures, posing, modeling, getting my Calvin Klein on (no, seriously, I stripped naked and posed in my CK underwear...). The monsoon actually made for a pretty cool scene: cloudy overhead, sunny in the background, rainbow over the lake, etc. Now, where I'm standing, one is not supposed to stand. I had to hop over a fence to get to that spot...stupid, I know. But, I placed my tripod on the other side of the fence on top of a bench, with my phone on the tripod. It was placed about 15-20 feet away...so I can get a cool background shot. Now, the spot I'm standing on is only about 5x6 ft...very small. And it's about 400 feet up from the lake...

I get done taking shots (Bluetooth camera shutter for the win) and turn to head back toward the fence. I don't know what, but something caught my big toe and I stumbled. 400 feet up on a 5x6 platform. Fuck me. I throw out my arms and grab ahold of the fence to keep me from falling back. Well, this fence is wooden. I immediately notice a very sharp pain in my hand. I feel secure enough on the platform to let go of the fence and look down at my hand. Apparently, I split open the inside of my right middle finger, and I can only see skin peeled off. I can see the bone inside my middle finger. Add this fact with the adrenaline rush from nearly falling off a 400 foot platform, the fact that I hadn't ate/drank much water all day due to an upset stomach (from changing water sources from state to state)...and I literally just pass the fuck out. I kid you not, the clouds go darker, the rain hitting my face started to feel tingly, and everything went black...

...so here I am, 400 feet up on a 5x6 platform, in the middle of a monsoon, a bloody arm and skinned finger, and absolutely no one in sight, passed the fuck out. I have no idea how much time goes by, but I eventually snap out of it and get conscious again. Luckily, I'm still on the platform, and I seem to be alive. I look under me, and the platform is now dyed red from my blood. Fuck me. I get up and things are still feeling a little hazy...almost like I'm in a state of delusion. I feel a scorching pain in my middle finger, a tingly sensation on my face from blood rushing to it and rain hitting it, my stomach in pain, growling with hunger, and I see god damn vulture-looking birds above me circling the platform. I grab a hold of the fence and make my best effort to climb it to get to the other side. I stumble a bit, and wind up faceplanting in the gravel and eating shit. Welp, at least that took care of the hunger issue...

I grab my stuff and just want to get the hell out of that godforsaken place. I start limping out...and go figure, I see a pack of bears fucking (yes, having sex) about 200 feet away in the woods). What. The. Fuck. I have no idea if they were real or not because I was still in a slight state of delusion, but their moaning was sure as hell real. I can't even tiptoe out of there because I'm limping from the fall on the platform and over the fence on the gravel. I somehow mange to stumble away from them and not make eye contact (because eye contact is what to avoid with bears and not a piece of meat hanging off your hand part of what used to be a middle finger, right?).

Two miles and about an hour later. I make it to my car. The monsoon begins subsiding, what was an empty parking lot when I left begins filling...and I swear to you, I see Jesus Christ standing in the distance. I drive away and hit the open road.



I will never be driving through Wisconsin again.

[t3chnobrat]

Three friends and I were going out to do my first antenna base jump. We are all experienced skydivers and they had a quite a few base jumps logged so they did a couple dry runs with me and things were good ;-) We hotwired the service elevator and rode up to 1700 feet.. woohoo i can still feel my heart pumping.. Friend Paul and Tracy jump.. all is good they float between the wires and drift off. Now it's my turn. It was either going to be the single most exiting thing i've ever done or single dumbest.. either way the Byron the third guy had the helmet cam and jumped a few seconds behind me. I jumped and started floating away from the antenna (probably a steeper than i should have angle) everything was good and i throw out my pilot shoot (small rolled up parachute with attached hacky sack that pulles all the other crap out when it catches air) I felt the hacky bounce off my foot before the chute deployed. I so pumpin' by this point.. i fly off and land casually in someones backyard. Scared the crap out of a lady who was gardening and gathered and ran off into the woods woohooing all the way to the meeting spot. So after the high fives the camera comes out.. Byron filmed my pilot chute hacky had not just bounced off my shoe.. the pilot chute had wrapped twice around my leg and you could see the hacky hit my shoe just before the pilot chute miraculously unwrapped and opened. Soooo kinda never did that again..

[shoei]

On the motorcycle... My fault, 405 south to the 101 east has a huge swooping merger - can practically get your knee down as you throttle through... There was a mini van broke down right in the middle and didn't see it / expect it coming through the apex... Rear locked, bike slid out sideways, everything shut down, thought for sure I was going to end up like one of them Garfield's suction cupped to the rear window... Last possible nano second, I was able to get bike upright, swung the tail around and felt my right leg brush the rear fender... Was still coasting because bike had shut off and had a car pull up to me with a bunch of dudes giving me thumbs up and hollering and yelling... From their angle must've looked cool, would rather not ever chance it like that again...

[JasonCSU]

Originally Posted by bimmette

I was supposed to be in Thailand during the massive tsunami of 2004 and the resort I was booked at was completely wiped out with everyone killed. I had a beach hut booked and I would have been sleeping for sure at the time of the tsunami. When I was buying the plane tickets, my dad was watching a football game and was too slow giving me his passport number. Due to that, we had to take a later flight, which saved our lives. (I did have to help evacuate some colleagues from there and did have other colleagues that died that day.)

Damn, that's crazy! I imagine situations like this cause one to seriously ponder life and how fragile it is.

[bimmette]

Originally Posted by JasonCSU

Damn, that's crazy! I imagine situations like this cause one to seriously ponder life and how fragile it is.

Yeah, and I imagine drowning is a terrible way to die too.

[PJinCA]

LOL, do you want one near death experience or all of them?

[bimmette]

Originally Posted by PJinCA

LOL, do you want one near death experience or all of them?

Ok the closest 3

[1LRM3]

classified... sorry.

[PJinCA]

Originally Posted by bimmette

Ok the closest 3

Sure, I guess biggest one was being in 2 World Trade Center on the morning of 9/11. I had worked there since 1997, obviously that morning was my last day. I got out after seeing flaming debris pass our office windows.

1993 Somalia, as a young USAF PJ, I was deployed with the Rangers when after the first helicopter went down. I got shot, woke up on the hospital ship USS Mercy in the Indian ocean - coincidentally, the same ship that 8 years later fed me when I was working at the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management after 9/11

Then there's the 7UP truck I mentioned in the previous thread: I was pulling up to the light, and it turned green as I was stopping (don't you love when that happens?), I got off the brakes and hit the gas. I get into the intersection look left and see a 7UP truck in full brake lockup heading right for me, he had run the red light. I hit the gas hard, and boogied out of his way.

[08njSTEP]

I was in basic training and the drills had made this big angry dude a platoon leader. He was acting like an ass and I was kinda making fun of him. We get back to the barracks and I go to my locker and there he is. He grabbed me by the throat and started choking me. We fell to the ground with him on top of me and NO BODY around. I start to black out and thought to myself,"so this is how I'm going to die, really? Fuck!" Just before I blacked out the soldier across from my locker came and knocked the guy off. He the went and threw a guy against the wall and broke his collar bone. He didn't do drills with us after that.
Almost got run over by a tank
A guy I knew came to my house with a gun. I opened the door and he rushed me and put the gun in my face. Going to skip a bunch of stuff, but we went down into my basement(where my garage is) and the whole time the gun was touching me. I guess he thought he could knock me out by striking me with the butt. He hit me on the shoulder 2x and the third time I saw the gun so I grabbed it and it went off. I had 2 hands on gun and he had one on gun and one around my throat. We fell to the ground with him on top of me and behind me. He tried to choke me but couldn't and we finally came to a stand off. I negotiated with him and he just robbed me and left.
That's my top 3. I have probably 6 more brushes with death

[smoosh]

Originally Posted by 08njSTEP

I was in basic training and the drills had made this big angry dude a platoon leader. He was acting like an ass and I was kinda making fun of him. We get back to the barracks and I go to my locker and there he is. He grabbed me by the throat and started choking me. We fell to the ground with him on top of me and NO BODY around. I start to black out and thought to myself,"so this is how I'm going to die, really? Fuck!" Just before I blacked out the soldier across from my locker came and knocked the guy off. He the went and threw a guy against the wall and broke his collar bone. He didn't do drills with us after that.
Almost got run over by a tank
A guy I knew came to my house with a gun. I opened the door and he rushed me and put the gun in my face. Going to skip a bunch of stuff, but we went down into my basement(where my garage is) and the whole time the gun was touching me. I guess he thought he could knock me out by striking me with the butt. He hit me on the shoulder 2x and the third time I saw the gun so I grabbed it and it went off. I had 2 hands on gun and he had one on gun and one around my throat. We fell to the ground with him on top of me and behind me. He tried to choke me but couldn't and we finally came to a stand off. I negotiated with him and he just robbed me and left.
That's my top 3. I have probably 6 more brushes with death

Holy FUCK.

Few thoughts:

1. Thank FUCKING god I'm going the officer route
2. Regardless, if anyone tries to choke me out, platoon leader or not, I will fucking rip their arms out of their shoulder sockets
3. Not surprised at the tank part. People don't realize how dangerous military jobs are, especially on carriers (ask me how I know)
4. You had the guts to grab a gun while being robbed and didn't wind up dead...

[Sara]

Does child birth count?

[08njSTEP]

Originally Posted by smoosh

Holy FUCK.

Few thoughts:

1. Thank FUCKING god I'm going the officer route
2. Regardless, if anyone tries to choke me out, platoon leader or not, I will fucking rip their arms out of their shoulder sockets
3. Not surprised at the tank part. People don't realize how dangerous military jobs are, especially on carriers (ask me how I know)
4. You had the guts to grab a gun while being robbed and didn't wind up dead...

The guy was HUGE!
The tank was about 20ft away at night and I was in a fox hole and it was raining.
Yes the first chance I had I grabbed it. I was in awesome shape and the dude(although much bigger than me) was 6 mos recovered from a coma he was in for 40 days. Changed him completely.

[csu87]

Ive had 2 close calls, both involving vehicles and both involving plummetting to my death.

1st was in highschool up in the mountains near Winter Park. My buddy had a cabin up in the middle of nowhere that you had to take a winding dirt, or in our case, snowpacked with a foot of fresh snow on them, up the mountain. Made it up at night in pitch black no problem, but coming down the next morning we started fishtailing around a curve, bounced off the bank side and instead of flying off the cliff side, somehow got wedged between a tree and big boulder. Both front wheels were hanging over a 100ft drop. Scariest moment ever and it all seemed to be going in slow mo. Used his dad's bobcat to pull it out, and drove home. Car wasnt too banged up and I kept it dented as a reminder to not get crazy in the mountains.

2nd time was in the rain and my car hydroplaned over a bridge and smashed into the gaurdrail and jersey barriers. Happened so quick that I didnt have time to be scared in the moment, but once I got out and realized I hit the barriers at just the right spot to not go flying off, I got a little freaked out.

[bimmette]

Originally Posted by Sara504

Does child birth count?

Nope

[UglyBuzzard]

Originally Posted by Sara504

Does child birth count?

A lot of women have passed during this. A lot of men have fainted...

[Sara]

Ok then the closet I've come is when my BM (barn manager) found me face down in the pasture on December 6, 2003 unresponsive.


I went for a ride. It was a cold, dark, grey day. It was around 5pm. At the time when all the horses were being brought in from the pasture to be fed in the stables. The horses were all wearing blankets. I decided to take my bridle out instead of my halter and hop up on my horse for a quick ride bareback (with just her blanket on) before feeding her. She was 5 months pregnant (you can ride a horse well beyond that) she was hormonal. I remember having a hard time trying to grip my legs around her since her blanket was slick. We were cantering around the pasture. Only thing I remember is she put her head down and started bucking. I remember thinking should I bail off or hold on and ride it out? Only thing is I don't actually remember what I chose to do. My BM said she heard the sound of running hooves outside and saw my horse riderless. She grabbed my horse and put her in her stall and when I didn't show up she got concerned. She went looking for me and found me face down and not moving. The only thing I remember is waking up in the ambulance with no memory of hitting the ground or even falling off. At first it felt like I was waking up from a deep deep sleep. When I came to, the pain set in. It was excruciating I don't wear a helmet when I ride. The ground was frozen and very hard. I split my head open. Had to get stitches and X-rays for a broken arm.

[F80Dreamer]

Two for me, both in the last year...

First, ran with the Bulls in Pamplona last year...was actually at a global meeting in Barcelona at the time so me and a buddy extended the trip and decided to do it. Came incredibly close to an unusually mean bull but got out OK

Second time was just a few weeks ago...4 day hike in the Grand Canyon on the toughest trail out there (tanner trail). I ended up taking a wrong turn (trail is unmanned so tough to always know which way to go) and was on a cliff wall with 50 mph winds and death on the other side with a huge drop off. Managed to get out of that situation...my buddy (same as above) had a good laugh but I was shaking like a leaf

As I sit here typing this, I am thinking I need a new buddy

[ASBSECU E93]

I have run until I passed out (3 times)....does this count?!?!