Asklemmy

Kid me was pretty stupid. My mom, sister, and I went on a trip to Hawaii with my mom's coworker. At that time, I was really bad at swimming. One of the beach trips we went to snorkel. I was left unsupervised for a while and ended up following a sea turtle way too far out. I ended up getting water in the breathing tube, and I panicked. I think I was flailing around for about two minutes going up and down the surface of the water until my mom's coworker noticed and dragged me back to shore. Was pretty sure I would've just drowned if no one noticed.

A couple of years ago my (now ex, for urelated reasons) partner got ahold of some molly. I was pretty new to drugs, but trusted her to keep me safe. We tested a small portion of it, and it came back clean. That night we took it with us to some club and did some lines in the bathroom.

Unfortunately, I was unaware that the chemicals in those test kits have expiration dates, and no one had ever explained the chocolate chip cookie effect to me. Either we just missed the chunk that had fentanyl in it, or those expired tests just weren't accurate, but either way I ended up overdosing.

I'm told my heart stopped for about ten minutes. Fortunately for me, the boyfriend of one of the performers had narcan with him. I had collapsed in front of the bar, and woke up laying in the parking lot with a bunch of strangers crowding around me. My partner ended up bundling me into the car and driving me home. I'm pretty sure I ended up with some brain damage. Years later though, I feel like I'm pretty much recovered, fortunately.

Oh man, I had a few of those. For privacy reasons I won't disclose any of it but I've spent some chunk of my life in hospitals. What I can tell is that none was a life changing experience. I did made some adjustments to avoid such issues in the future but the whole "I almost died, it made me a different person" wasn't my thing.

Got SIBO from a liver or gallbladder issue. Went through 1 to 4 bottles a month of antibiotics. 2 for 2 weeks then next 2 weeks 2 different ones. Done that 15 times. Was given 4 to 8 weeks max to live losing 2 to 4 pounds a week at 105 pounds. Still not sure how I beat it. I'm still struggling but doing a bit better. Hospitals are shit, most Dr.s are shit. Health is wealth!

I used to work at a new car dealership, I didn't have a whole lot of experience. I get a new truck in that the customer wants running boards installed on. I get it up on the lift and start working on it. I get one side loosely on and bend down to do something then the back of the truck falls off the lift and the sides land on the lift arms. For some dumb reason my instinct was to try to catch the truck. Fortunately I wasn't crushed. The problem was that the lift arms did not lock into position, the lift pads were round rubber pads which were pretty smooth and the truck frame had just been undercoated. The lift arms just decided to both slip inwards. They said it wasn't even the first time something like that had happened with that specific lift.

The damage was pretty bad because that running board that was loosely installed bent up the rocker panel. Both bed sides were damaged.

I put a gun to my head, ready to end it all.

Woke up in a hospital. No drugs involved.

I drove myself there. The gun was in the glove compartment. Apparently, I self admitted through ED.

I remember NOTHING from gun to my head to waking up in the hospital.

Not sure if that qualifies as near death, but I think I was.

I am better now. That was years ago, I came close again recently, but this time I have answers about myself and a place to start.

A bunch.

Two while snowboarding. First time I hit some rocks that were hidden in fresh snow. When I checked my helmet, a rock had pierced it in the back of my head. It was easily a fatal hit had I not had my helmet on. The second time I accidentally rode off a cliff (took the wrong line). I landed on my back in powder but a snapped branch was sticking up two inches below my left arm pit. Had I fallen four inches to the left, it would have impaled me through the heart.

I lost count how many while surfing. Lost a surfer I was trying to rescue and almost drowned myself.

Oddly, never while downhill skateboard racing.

Twice while riding a motorcycle.

Once in a car. A pickup hydroplaned on the interstate right ahead of me. It went in the ditch, overcorrected and came right at my door at speed. I turned my wheel into it so it wouldn't t-bone me but instead I missed it entirely and all I got was mud on my car and in my underware.

Blockage in three of my four main heart arteries. Two were 99% blocked. It required four emergency stents in my heart. I should be dead for sure from that one but a little voice in my head told me to skip the boat trip and go to the ER because I felt "funny".

Stage 3 cancer. Beat it but lost my singing voice. Fuck cancer.

I was around 21-22 years old. My step-dad got a boat and we had a big family picnic at the bay. We went tubing and started with the youngest sibling up to the oldest, me. Each of us got a progressively more intense ride. I knew I was up for a crazy ride, so I sat cross-legged IN the tube. That was a huge mistake and very dangerous, always lay on top of the tube in case what I'm about to tell you ever happens to you.

It was fine for a few minutes, despite the intensity. Suddenly, the way the boat turned combined with the wake and position I was sitting, the actual tube launched out from the cover/rope that attaches to the boat and that wrapped around my neck and luckily, one of my arms. I was pulled behind the boat for a few minutes, slowly blacking out, as I finally came to, floating naked in the bay. Luckily my step-brother noticed the tube was gone and told him to stop the boat. No idea when my bathing suit got ripped off but luckily it was floating nearby. I had a huge rope-burnrash across my chest, under my arm, and around my neck. Pretty sure if it wouldn't have went under my arm, it would have snapped my neck.

That was well over a decade ago and I haven't been in the ocean since.

Thrice, all a long time ago:

• Driving back alone from a group camping trip. Got stuck in a freak snowstorm in the mountains, without chains. Stalled and started sliding back towards a really deep ravine. Hit the brakes, but it kept skidding through the sleet. Had the car door open, ready to bail. The car came to a stop, barely inches from the edge.

• Walked out of the shower in a towel. Faced a tweaker with a gun standing in my apartment. Demanded my wallet. Took out the cash. Wasn't much. He paused, trying to decide what to do next. I really wasn't sure which way it would go. He left.

• Flight instructor had checked off on doing a solo, then left town. Was nervous, but he had told me to put in the flight hours in his absence. Practicing short take-off/landings and go-arounds. Little single-engine trainer. On the first touch-and-go, I forgot to take off full flaps, which meant maximum drag on the wings. Got barely 1000 ft above ground, then the engine began to sputter. The plane stalled, and started a slow-mo, nose-down spin toward the ground. I remember stopping breathing. Then the brain kicked in. Figured it out. Recovered from the spin way too close to the ground. The most sphincter-clenching, stupidest moment of my life.

Heart stopped beating. I could feel the lack of oxygen despite breathing like mad. Thought "Fuck, tomorrow my mom is going to find me dead in my bed" (I still was a student living close enough to university to commute). Luckily, one of the built-in safety mechanisms kicked in and my heart restarted. Spent some weeks in hospital after that so they could find me a better medication than the one I was using.

Almost choked to death on potato. Fell to the ground, which loosened potato.

Rode a horse.

Woke up in a hospital.

Discovered I'm like insanely allergic to horses; airway was completely fucked.

Someone hit me with an epi-pen after recognizing the signs - good chance I'd be dead otherwise. Unsure if it was a staff member or just a random person who happened to be carrying an epi-pen; I was pretty little when it happened, and only vaguely recall getting up on the horse and nothing after, but I'm told I just randomly went all dead-weight and flopped off and face planted in the dirt.

Thanks, random stranger with epi!

Got shot.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/in-court-of-appeals/1982522.html

Does it count if I don't really remember it? I was 8. It was a week before summer break. I was waiting for my mother to come home from work (sitting on the front steps to our house). A friend of mine called me across the street. I went. I didn't make it to the other side. Hit and run driver crashed right into me, dragged me half a block and left me for dead. Neighbors said he didn't even look back. They never caught him. I don't remember waking up in the ambulance. I had a head wound and a broken leg (compound fracture, pierced the skin). I remember them having to set the bone and then take me to another hospital (a children's hospital). I remember being drugged. And waking up to my mom sleeping in the chair next to me. I have no memory of anything from the time I was crossing the street to the time I was in the ICU at the first hospital. They wouldn't let me move my head. I don't remember being scared or in pain or anything until they had to set the bone to straighten out my leg to splint it.

Even the aftermath (10 weeks in a body cast that went from my breast bone down to cover everything but the toes of my broken leg) is kind of a hazy mess. Except that I then fell down the stairs and broke my arm too. Added insult to injury.

Bumped my head with another kid in 6th grade at recess. When we went back in for reading time I realised I couldn't read and had a headache, so I told my teacher and went up to the front office. I remember sitting down waiting for my mum to pick me up, then next thing I know I'm laying down in a hospital bed. Apparently I got a really bad concussion and went crazy and I don't remember a thing, I'm glad I don't lol.

According to my brain, every time I have to interact with a stranger.

I've been on a motorcycle for over 25 years now and I've had some near misses but nothing serious.

That's an amazing story and lucky you for making it through. I've known of two people in my circle who died from motorcycle accidents and a few more in my community and region who died .... it's also amazing to realize that you don't need to be riding fast in order to get killed on a motorcycle. One woman in my town was at an intersection, moved across in an awkward way, got hit by a truck and neither were moving fast, she just got hit in a particular way, knocked down, pinned down by the truck, crushed and then died on the way to the hospital.

My near death experience was not as dramatic as yours. I was a dumb teen on a four wheeler on gravel. I did a major jump without knowing it out expecting it, launched about 20 feet in the air, landed front wheels first, launched forward and smashed my face in the gravel. Thankfully the atv went flying in a different direction and didn't land on me. I also didn't have a helmet on. I didn't get knocked out and I was aware the whole time. I was just lucky I was fit strong and landed in a lucky way that didn't hurt me too much.

I have a cousin who fell off an atv as a passenger, landed the wrong way, hit her head (again no helmet) severely injured, treated in hospital for a day before she died from injuries.

Motorcycles and ATV are dangerous machines

I fell out on fent twice, both times I ended up in the ICU. I experienced the exact same shit I felt from a MeO-DMT trip. And both times a clockwork elf literally put their long weird arm on me and said "it's not your time yet friend." Then I felt felt extreme whiplash and despite not being fully conscious I distinctly remember hearing the pulse monitor beeping and knew I wasn't dead.

High stress job led to alcohol, smoking, high risk lifestyle almost ended me at 27 with a bleeding ulcer. In bed for a day or so before my then girlfriend found me and called the hospital. ER, blood transfusion, 2wk stay, 2wk recoup at home with daily iron injection, prescription meds for a month to keep the acid low.

Special diet for a month (no processed food, no caffeine, no nicotine, no pepper, no hard foods-spft, mushy, etc.

Got my shit together, woke up. No more smoking, alcohol (eventually) in moderation, healthier coping mechanisms- at one point when the stress ramped up in the job (still in the same career field) I was training/running triathlons. Married that then girlfriend, 25+ years on, 2 grown ass kids.

27 club is no joke...just happy I wasn't a celebrity.

Everyone I have met who rode motorcycles has a story like this. Then they lift up their pant leg or shirt to show you ghastly huge scars.

Nearly drowned once falling into a lake and not knowing how to swim. I didn't think about death, it was more "how do I get out". Luckily someone else got my hand.

Lights turn green, I step on the road, I have no words for this other than spidey sense tingles, I step back, car shoots past me.

I believe god was with me that day because I did not see or hear the car approaching it was that fast.

Found out I'm allergic to a medicine after being administered via IV in one shot, luckily for me I was already at the hospital and the nurses figured out what was happening.

Overdose (Xanax and Alcohol)

I was meeting a friend from out of the state and got a bit big for my britches trying to show off how cool I was and made some poor judgment.

Somehow ended back in my apartment with a bunch of medics checking me out, I don’t even remember getting home from the bar.

First and only time ever using Xanax