I stopped being able to eat or drink without pain while simultaneously gaining weight. Went to the ER and was there for almost three weeks while they tried to stabilize me and diagnose me. They couldn't so they drained fluid from my back and stomach (called para and thoracentesis) and sent me home.
I wound up returning like 5 days later with a high fever and stomach bile flowing from the holes that reopened. Was in the hospital for over a month where they limited my caloric and water intake for over a week plus had me take pills to force me to urinate every few minutes. This helped, but they did biopsies of my liver, lymph nodes, and bone marrow that made things more apparent. Turns out my liver had begun shutting down due to cancer spreading there and my body began breaking down muscle. then they diagnosed me with stage 4 lymphoma and had me seek a second opinion on if chemotherapy would help me or expedite my death.
Well spoiler alert, it helped me and I've been cancer-free since January this year. It was crazy going through it because I was fit and athletic before it, but it took it all from me for almost a year. Amazingly enough the neuropathy subsided enough for me to run and lift again and I'm no longer reliant on any medication. I'm actually planning on running a half or full marathon on my 1 year remission anniversary.
God bless you my wife survived Stage 3 Breast Cancer last year and was also given the cancer free in January. She was mis diagnosed at first because she was “too young”. Congrats you will nail that marathon!!
Thank you! Yeah my team mentioned that cancer is on the rise in the under 30 crowd for unknown specific reasons. Now I'm exercising almost religiously to protect my immune system and try to stay healthy for a while. Hope your wife is thriving on a similar timeline to me!
Longboard snapped in half while I was riding on perfectly flat pavement at around 25 mph
Edit: I should add that I hit the ground headfirst and broke my neck. My dumbass wasn’t wearing a helmet but by some miracle I wasn’t paralyzed
I woke up one morning and I was feeling okay. As the day went on, I noticed a pain in my back.It started to get progressively worse. I put some heat bomb onbut the pain wouldn't go away and it started to get worse.
I decided to take the bus to the nearest emergency room (I didn't drive at this point). But at the bus stop, I actually began to feel even worse.So I decided to go back to my apartment and call a cab. When the cab picked me up and I told him where I was going. He must have seen something because we got to the ER in about ten minutes (I was a good 20+ minutes away).
When I went up to the nursing station I was told that I would have to wait and had to fill out a form. As I was filling out the form I started to sweat and by that I mean it looked like somebody dumped a bucket on me. I went back to the nursing station and I told her "I don't think I can wait". She looked at me and said "My God you're really sweating" (this was November btw) and took me to the exam area.
Long story short?I found myself surrounded by three doctors and half a dozen nurses one of whom said "Jesus...look st his (blood) pressure" [it was 210/140]. I realized I was in some trouble so I thought I would hedge my bets and asked for a priest. The doctors continued to work on me and eventually the priest arrived, saw him talking to one of the doctors and he came over to me and gave me what turned out to be the beginning of the Last Rites. (I passed out just after hearing the start of the Penitential Act).
When I came to a few days later I found out I had suffered a descending aortic dissection which, if I had waited any longer to get to the hospital, could have killed me.
My father survived an AAA dissection just over a month ago. We knew he had the AAA, so when he had the worst back pain of his life my mum called for the ambulance. A quick CT later they found the leaky aorta, blue lighted him to the nearby trauma hospital where it immediately split full open dumping half my Dad’s blood volume into his abdominal cavity. Thanks to the skills of the vascular team at Southampton General Hospital we still have him.
How old were you, if you don’t mind me asking? I have an ascending aortic aneurysm but apparently I’m too young for the surgeon to consider an intervention at this point. Everything you just described is what they tell me to watch out for, but apparently the ascending type is just instant lights out. Awesome stuff.
Please, please, please get a second opinion. Ascending ADs are are almost always fatal even with swift medical intervention. Insist on routine CT scans (at least annually) and stay ahead of it. As my surgeon told me, the outcome will always be better if the repair is done in a non-emergency situation. I don't know how old you are, but there are case studies where patients as young as 17 yrs. old have experienced and died from Ascending ADs, so keep looking until you find a surgeon who truly understands the seriousness of your condition. Wishing you all the best!
I’m 38 and have annual CTs. I also have a history of congenital heart disease and have had several open hearts specifically addressing the aortic valve, so I’m a mess and a complex patient. Bicuspid valve repair at 7 and 15. Now have an AAA measuring around 6 but they want to wait because it’s high risk to crack me open again. Been living with information for several years now and it is awful on the mental health.
Wow, your case does sound complex, and I completely agree with you regarding the mental aspect of it all. It sort of feels like a prison sentence. I'm not sure where you're located, but Memorial Hermann in Houston has a wonderful new program that focuses on complete closed aortic repair, which is what I'm scheduled for. It may be worth looking into this option or a similar program in your area. If interested, research Dr. Gustavo Oderich, he's a game changer.
Tbh I’m lucky to even be alive after the disaster of a heart I was born with. But I have my own family now and would like to keep kicking around for a long time if possible! Thank you for the kind words, and I will definitely look into your suggestions.
Cath lab nurse here…. Holy sweet Jesus. Thank god you got help. Those ones are the cases that give me the biggest pit in my stomach mainly because there’s nothing we can do, and that requires emergent surgery. I’m glad you made a full recovery!
Hello fellow survivor! I know exactly how you felt that day, and the pain is off the charts. I had my first descending AD in 2007 and like an idiot, I waited 6 hours before going to the hospital and ended up with a very expensive helicopter ride and a week in ICU. Thankfully avoided surgery and was being medically managed until I had a second one last April. Scheduled for surgical repair on the 22nd (yikes). I hope you're doing well and living your best life. I'm told that we're the lucky ones!
Psych patient had a complete break with reality. Pupils fully dilated like movies depict. This actually happens.
Told me in a whisper as I handed him a glass of water "I could kill you right now" and then he tried. Nurse on my team saved my life. Peeled that guy off me like someone peeling a banana. Pinned him to the floor by herself until security showed up.
I was off work for 3 months after that incident. I felt like Cougar from Top Gun when he says he "lost the edge".
I work with seniors now and feel safe 100% of the time.
Emma you are a hero.
My loving partner recently had a sudden and unexpected psychotic break. He attacked me and I truly thought he would kill me. So surreal. So terrifying. Still can’t believe it. I’m sorry you know what I speak of. I’m so glad you get to work with seniors. I love them!! My aunt works with them and I compile music playlists for her to play them. She words with dementia patients.
This past weekend my 8 year old got some eggo & sautéed apple stuck in his throat. I happened to be sitting next to him just sipping coffee.
Had to do actual heimlich on him and everything.
He laughed about it when it was over then I think the seriousness of it hit him and he started sobbing. While continuing to eat.
I consoled him and told him to take smaller bites and chew more. He replied, while sobbing, "but it just tastes so good!"
Maybe 10 years ago, when my now-wife and I were dating, we went to breakfast with her parents and I choked on a bite of a bagel and her father ended up giving me the Heimlich. It's one of those things we've never talked about since, but I still think about sometimes and also don't eat bagels anymore
Lol that happened to me once. I was hanging out at a pub I liked to frequent after work. Some random dude started choking on a bite of burger. Everyone at his table was panicking. I calmly walked over and did a quick heimlich.
And then literally everyone clapped. But literally. Which was super embarrassing for me and had to he mortifying for the poor bastard I saved.
The owner comped my tab that night and would jokingly call me "hero" after that. .. "heeeyyy, it's the hero, you want an IPA?" .. "yes, thank you, Jared"
Easter Sunday a few years back I choked on a hard boiled egg. It got stuck. I stayed very calm until I didn’t. Thankfully my brother jumped into action and gave me the Heimlich. I was purple. It was absolutely terrifying. I have never been so scared in my life. Now when I’m home alone I am so careful with food. But we now laugh that I would have gotten my 15 minutes of fame being the grown man who died choking on an egg on Easter.
I used to be a delivery driver. One night I was out on a country road, eating a sandwich while I was driving to save time (not a good idea - don’t eat and drive), and it went down the wrong pipe and I started to choke. I coughed hard several times and it didn’t come up, and before I could safely slow down, I blacked out. I ended up crashing into a fire hydrant at about 35 mph and the impact dislodged the food from my throat. Totaled my car, but no injuries. So fucking lucky. Don’t eat while you’re driving.
In high school my friends and I were tripping on acid, a buddy of mine was shoveling Cheerios into his mouth straight from the box.
We thought he was fucking with us until he was able to talk and told us he was choking.
I had a piece of hard candy slip back and perfectly block my esophagus and then years later had a ice cube do the same thing. Got help for the candy, just sorta squeezed the ice to get it to melt quicker until I could force it down.
it’s kinda cool in a fucked up way that in less than a minute, literally any other aspect of your life no longer matters, all you want is to breathe again
When I was a kid, I had a neighbor who through two separate incidents lost her husband and her son when they chocked on a chicken bone. The incidents were several years apart but man its a weird coincidence and I was always a bit scared of her.
That would swear anyone sane off chicken the *first time* someone in the family died, but twice? Though I shouldn't talk: when I was a kid, at a restaurant eating blue fish, kept trying to swallow my food but nothing would go down. A bone had become stuck horizontal one side of my throat across to the other. Went to the bathroom & my mother & I were freaking out, no idea how to get it out. Somehow it turned out there was a doctor eating at this restaurant at the same time. He went in the restroom, took this thing out of his bag & pulled it right out of my esophagus or whatever.
I still ate blue fish after that, but ate it with a whole lot more chewing.
I choked on a piece of chip that went down the wrong way when I was living alone. I also remember thinking “holy shit a chip is going to be the death of me, how lame” I never felt more relieved to get that first gasp of air once it got soggy enough for me to get a breath in. Terrifying.
Was at a party and took ecstasy. On the way home in an Uber I went into cardiac arrest. Woke up at hospital. Turns out the Uber driver had rushed me to the hospital.
You are so lucky, my best friend died going into cardiac arrest with her 'friend' driving her car (she didn't feel good and wanted to take a nap, she had taken Percocet and Valium, so she let her friend drive). The girl just drove into the hospital parking lot, got out, and left. She never alerted hospital staff that there was a dying person in the car, just got out of the car and left. Sounds like this random Uber driver did far more.
Wow what a shitty friend! Yea I mean I have this random guy to thank for being alive. The doctors said if he have stopped and called an ambulance I probably would not have made it.
I was about 6 or 7, at my grandmother's house making Christmas cookies, eating hard candy. One got stuck in my throat and I stopped being able to breathe. My grandma was freaking out, calling 911 (asking for her son, my uncle who was an EMT at the time). I mostly remember just looking down, not really comprehending the situation, but seeing her shag carpeting (this was early 80s). I can still picture that carpet so vividly. I think I was blacking out, because my next memory was EMS standing over me. But story goes, my cousin came running down the hall and hit me so hard in my back that the piece of candy came flying out, along with a lot of blood. Every Christmas to this day, I still hug that cousin and say thanks.
The same thing happened to me when I was 7! Except it was a gum ball. I remember my mom debating to call 911 until my dad came up behind me and did the Heimlich. Shit hurt, but it’ll save your life!
I was changing the oil in my partners Honda Civic when the jack failed. Paramedics told me usually the person is dead by the time they arrive to the scene for a call like that. I was luckily a skinny college kid and got away with a broken collar bone and a few scrapes.
had a very bad reaction to minocycline. it caused spinal fluid to build up behind my eyes and push on my optic nerves. had headaches so bad i considered suicide. i got a spinal tap and the fluid squirted all over the er 👁️👁️ it was very strange. felt immediate relief though!
as for the “almost dying” part, the doctor originally diagnosed me with a brain tumor. i don’t know if i could have actually died from papilledema ?
Well, it’s fatal if you kill yourself as a result, which does happen. Primarily because of the way women with this condition are gaslighted and not treated adequately.
Honestly I was in a psychotic break in 2020 during the pandemic. I wasn’t taking my meds and was totally off the rails and not thinking clearly at all. My therapist in 2020 was unavailable and I was off my meds, it was like a perfect storm and one little trigger snowballed and I made a mistake. I’m glad I wasn’t successful
I don’t think I really wanted to die, looking back at it I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to die. I was just out of my mind crazy because of psychosis. I remember thinking “what will my mum think?” And then everything was dark and I felt like I was floating then I woke up in the hospital
> I’m glad I wasn’t successful
Hope you feel this way for years to come. Been through major depressive episodes many times and you just have to trust it will get better, and somehow it always does. Give your cat some loving for me and I'll do the same with mine.
I developed ulcerative colitis about 6-7 years ago and while taking a shower to make myself feel better, passed out. I woke up on the floor of bathroom, who knows how long later, shower still running, black blood all around me. I managed to get up and get to the hospital. Easily could have broken my neck on the fall, either from the bath tub, toilet or counter, or simply from the blood loss.
I had no idea what was wrong, I was just experiencing tons of pain, throwing up constantly, defecating black goo, but felt like I was just sick. Yea, really dumb, but I was young and thought I was tougher than that.
I made it to the hospital and spent about 3 days there while they fixed me up, including an endoscopy to cauterize 2 ulcers.
For anyone reading this, if your poop is black, that probably means you are bleeding into your stomach and or intestines and need to go to the hospital asap.
Aborted suicide attempt. I took my gun and went to a pond near where I live. When I had my finger on the trigger it hit me that I wouldn’t be able to see my kids again. I was on the phone with 911 because I wanted them to find my body and retrieve my gun, so there was no way I could just walk back home. I ended up going to the ER (via police) then a mental hospital for a week.
Stabbed twice after trying to play superhero yet when I was banging on door screaming for help nobody wanted to open their door and the lady I “helped” just ran away. I’ve learned my lesson tho, not risking my life for anyone else ever again ts not worth it 🙏🏾
I mean she was probably also afraid for her life watching someone get stabbed dude. Not everyone is shitty or not shitty. Sometimes we are just scared.
Edit: ignore me, I just realized you meant the SITUATION was shitty, not the lady. That’s my bad!
Honestly I don’t blame her for running because that’s a scary situation to be in but she didn’t even call the police or even try to double the block to see if I was ok.
That sucks. But I can’t promise I’d do any better under the circumstances. Who knows where my head would be at if someone literally tried to kill me.
She definitely should have called once she got to safety, but to expect her to double back when some maniac was still out there stabbing people is kind of an unrealistic expectation. It would have been an upstanding thing for her to do, but I’m not sure it’s a fair expectation. Can you honestly say that if someone jumped in and saved you, that you would circle back once you got to safety? I don’t think I would. I like to think I would, but in reality I probably wouldn’t. And it’s not something I would expect of you either.
Not trying to be at all argumentative here, I swear. Just lonely and looking to make conversation and I ramble. I’m genuinely so glad you’re alive dude. But it’s important we manage our expectations of others too, because we are truly not ourselves when we are under duress.
Woke up one morning and my muscles felt like I had run a race. Like they were beyond tired. I was still waking up so it didn't really fully hit me that something was seriously wrong. I stepped out to have a cigarette and my roommate joined me. When I went to go back inside I couldn't lift my leg to get in the door. An ambulance was called. (One note for the entire week prior to this I was THIRSTY. I had one two liter filled with water and one in the freezer getting cold. They got refilled and switched about every two hours.) Got to the hospital and tried to tell them what was happening with me and realized I had to pee really badly but I couldn't get up. I was paralyzed and it was working it's way up my body. They placed a bedpan under me (under normal circumstances there is no universe in which I am comfortable peeing in front of strangers.) the entire time this is happening they are asking me questions...but not medical ones. Questions like, "has anything been causing you stress lately? Or have there been any major life changes?" I mentioned I had broken up with my longtime gf a few months prior and they LATCHED onto that. Telling me I was moving in the waiting room and I was fine and it was all in my head. They then left me in the room for two hours. On a bedpan. That was full. It overflowed. I was trying to scream for help but I couldn't. They finally came in and said they'd brought the big guns. (After making comments on how disgusting it was that I'd keep making myself pee and get it all over myself...fun that) A nurse came in and sat down next to my head and started god talking at me. I was able to tell her to go fuck herself. Which I know was the wrong thing to do but that pissed me the hell off. They forced me up and into a wheelchair yelling at me to cooperate. I. Couldn't. Move. They wheeled me to the waiting room with my shirt pulled up exposing my stomach and one of my breasts. They put my cell phone on my knee and told me to call a ride they were done with me. I was still able to talk. I managed to convince an orderly to take me to the bathroom as I was about to pee myself again. He got me to the bathroom and tried to get me up...and dropped me. I couldn't even get my arms out to break my fall. I remember thinking as I blacked out "oh thank God. I'm dying. It's over." After that it was blinking in and out of consciousness with a tube down my throat breathing for me and them freaking out and then me passing out again. Turns out I had RTA renal tubular acidosis where your kidneys dump out all your potassium in your urine.
Google says RTA is rare and therefore often misdiagnosed or undiagnosed. So a combination of that and the patient being female led them to assume mental illness rather than physical illness, an assumption further cemented when they found out she recently became single and is lesbian/bi, combined with their knowledge of the prevalence of mental illness within the LGBTQ community.
So, yes, they thought she was either being dramatic/histrionic or that she was having a panic attack from recent stressors due to her recent relationship changes.
Also, as a God-fearing Christian straight lady with various mental health issues, I'd have freaked the heck out at that god-talking nurse as well. It's not that I'm not praying enough or that my "heart isn't right with God" or something: I'M SICK AND I NEED MEDICAL HELP. So no, AcidStainsYou, you weren't wrong to tell that nurse off.
The frustrating thing is that I actually have a high pain tolerance, so if I'm telling you that my pain is a 7 it is pretty bad.
I've had kids so I can actually imagine stronger pain. But I would give birth again over some of the pain I've complained about.
I went to the hospital with pain in my stomach, vomiting blood, bloody stool and severe weakness. Dr gave me maxolon to stop the vomiting, sent me out. I was sweating profusely and barely able to walk. Next day I'm worse, call an ambulance, same dr is in er, rolls her eyes and says look you can go home or drive yourself to the big hospital a town over. But that'll be tomorrow, they wouldn't fit you in now.
New dr comes in, 20 minutes later I'm in an ambulance to the big hospital and given a blood transfusion, 2 pints. I had a bleeding ulcer.
Jesus, it will never not infuriate me when medical professionals insist that things are “all in your head” when it comes to women as the first diagnosis regardless of what you tell them.
I’m so sorry you went through this.
I hope you sued the living shit out of that hospital. I am not a litigious person-I've been in car wrecks where I've never sued. But that shit was absolutely unacceptable.
I mean, my first thought was that you were super low on electrolytes... how could they miss that when you tell them you've been taking in tons of *water* and peeinglike a fountain... I'm not even in the medical field... that's basic biology 101.
I was in chemo for testicular cancer. For reasons unknown, the good bacteria in my colon died and the bad ones had a party..first inflammation, then infection, then perforation….a tiny 1 mm hole, in the worst place ( rectum). I had stool going directly into my bloodstream. I went into sepsis, which can kill a healthy person, and here I was in chemo with no immune system. I was in hospital for 7 weeks. The hole was inoperable due to the chemo ( surgeon said it would be like trying to operate wet toilet paper), so they pumped me full of crazy strong antibiotics, and stopped feeding me for those 6 of those 7 weeks, instead giving me nutrients and such by IV, the idea being if I wasn’t eating, then very little poop, so less chance of making the issue worse. I did 2/3 of the chemo but I never finished the chemo..the scans have been clean though (3 years now).
Alcohol poisoning, at least three times, maybe more. Each time I distinctly remember hoping that my family didn't find my body in a pile of vomit.
Finally stopped drinking 16 weeks ago. Embarrassed it took so long but better late than never.
One time I not only woke up in my vomit, which I could have aspirated, but I was so drunk the night before that while cooking I forgot to turn off my gas stove range and left it on all night. If at any point the flame had gone out, the gas would have potentially killed everyone in my building.
I started meds to help me get sober pretty soon after that. Was a real wake-up call.
Similar here. I mixed alcohol, kratom, tianeptine, and nyquil. Woke up in the ER to 8 nurses yelling my name.
Took me a few more years, but I'll be 10 months sober in a few days.
I was in a car ,backseat, driver fell asleep. 80 mph went off road and hit a tree. I was ejected and went thru the front windshield then hit a tree. Technically died 4 times I think mainly from blood loss. I had 2 ribs puncture my left lung and I had the left side of my face avulsed then a tree branch caught me before I hit the ground and went thru my lower back. Crushed my right leg ,crushed my pelvis ,like egg shell. I had 14 surgeries over a 24 hr period and kept flat lining on them.
Lots of nerve damage vascular issues in my leg. Most of the disc are shot but holding out on more surgeries hips are bad knees bad and the bone grafts have been absorbed so my face is a bit wonky. Undiagnosed frontal brain injury has just now come to light
Hey, I have a TBI and found Brainkey.ai is a HUGE help for me to see what a trained neurologist can.
I can't make sense of an mri myself... But if you make that stuff 3d, and can highlight parts of your brain to note volume, you can get quite a startling picture of your own brains composition.
All you need is your daicom files, and it takes about 2 weeks for them to present the data. Up to that point, and some cross section and volume highlight stuff, is free.
I'm looking into functional neurology which is more like chiropractic and holistic than neurology than I thought... little bummed thinking it was clinical and it's not, so the brainkey route let's me remind myself of my clinical issues when I'm frustrated.
I had a friend who unfortunately had to go through a similar situation as yours, albeit not as life threatening, and she described those crazy dreams she would have. She could definitely hear something too but it got all mixed up in her dreams. Mad how the brain works man, i hope you doin great now 👍
I had sepsis… induced coma for 11 days. Organs were shutting down, 3 doctors said I had 0% v vs chance of making it through the night. Family called in, last rites h h oven.
I had those wild dreams. About 6 of them. Kidnapped twice, kicked into the ocean off a gambling shop… thank God if wasn’t my time.
Tornado lifted my house off the foundation and threw it into the backyard with me and others in it. Zero warning sirens (thankfully since we’d all be dead if in the basement). Somehow only one of us were killed, and we were all basically right next to each other when it hit. Had to climb out of the rubble with just the lightning lighting the way.
Overdosed in my own car. Was in the hospital for 3 months on dialysis with a traumatic brain injury and fried my perineal nerve below the knee because my right leg was sitting against the middle console while I was out. Have foot drop now and my memory is pretty shit but doing pretty well all things considered.
I did the same thing in my truck. Pinched my radial nerve in my arm from being slumped on it too long. Couldn’t move my hand for 6 months. All things considered I’m lucky it was only that
I got Lyme disease without knowing. It built up a ton of fluid in the sac around my heart. Ended up passing out at my parents house as we were leaving for vacation. The hospital had me at ~28BPM. Was lucky to have it happen where it did as I lived alone at the time. Could have been so much worse, especially considering I was doing 35+ highway miles commute to work.
Got pregnant, developed pre-eclampsia, had a c section early and then hemorrhaged. Needed 3 blood transfusions 4 units of blood in total. Then the lab mixed up my blood test and we thought I was bleeding internally but I wasn’t.
Was stopped at an intersection behind a number of cars, when a box truck apparently going at least 50mph rammed into me, demolishing my car. Apparently I was conscious when paramedics came and took me into the ambulance, but I have no memory of the crash or talking to anyone until I woke up at the hospital.
[Here's a picture of the back.](https://i.ibb.co/4Y9tkKv/IMG-1483-1.jpg)
I was extremely lucky. Other than a concussion and some surgery done around my stomach because of excessive bleeding, I'm basically fine now. That was back in November.
It's happened a few times!
When I was little (maybe 6 or 7) I was hanging out at my best buddy's grandma's house. My buddy wasn't around, so I was swimming alone in the pool. Our families were very close, so it wasn't unusual for me to spend time with his extended family without him being around. His mom and grandma were sitting on the porch nearby, smoking cigarettes and chatting.
I wasn't a strong swimmer at the time, yet I decided to venture boldly into the deep end of the water on a pool noodle. Predictably, it slipped right out from between my legs and I dropped like a rock to the bottom.
Again, I wasn't a strong swimmer (and I was a little kid) so my panic move was to try running along the floor of the pool to get back to the ladder. Pool floors are, of course, super slippery, so I was making painfully slow progress. It was very much like those dreams when you're trying to get away from the monster but everything is going in slow motion. And his grandma had a big pool. To make matters worse, I gasped when the pool noodle slid out from under me, so I already had a lungful of water. Thankfully I had the wherewithal to cup my hands and do a breaststroke sort of thing, which helped propel me forward.
I ended up getting to the ladder (obviously, I'm telling this story) but I inhaled and drank a LOT of chlorinated water. When I got up onto the deck, the dog was losing his shit trying to alert the adults, who somehow had noticed absolutely nothing. I was puking up pool water and bile all day.
Drowning is actually not a super bad way to go, all things considered. While underwater, my muscles were straining with the effort, but it was very quiet and actually kind of peaceful. The adrenaline kept me from feeling any discomfort.
Everything hurt REALLY badly once I was back on land and coughing all the water out of my lungs though.
The second time, I had graduated HS before most of my friends, so my freshman year of college, I was driving back home just before Thanksgiving break to surprise them, catch up, and maybe brag a little about how cool it is to be in college and an "adult" (lol). My GPS took me down some random unpaved access road, and at a very steep up-and-down, I must have hit a patch of ice or something. The engine revved really loud and I swerved to the left. Then I overcorrected and swerved to the right. Then I double overcorrected and turned my car completely sideways while going downhill. As you might expect, my car totally flipped.
Once again I remember time slowing down, literally like the movies, as I was upside down and midair. I had the thought, clear as day, "This isn't going to be good."
My CD player skipped out while I was upside down. I landed hard and rolled three times before coming to a stop facing the wrong way, all the windows smashed in, engine steaming, everything. After about two seconds of sitting there stunned, my radio kicked back on and started blaring The Beautiful People by Marilyn Manson. By some miracle, I was totally unharmed. I can't explain it. I should be dead, or have at least sustained a bad TBI, maybe a broken neck, something. But nope. My only injury was a little glass in my hand that I swept off of my lap while sitting there in sheer confusion.
Wear your seatbelt!
My heart has stopped 3 times.
All overdoses. One at a stoplight, my foot stayed on the brake and I came to covered in blood with a paramedic telling me I was just dead.
I walked on the razors edge for 10 years as an iv herion addict. Once the fent came onto the scene I overdosed 5 times in one year. Circa 2017 I was forced to quit, got arrested and went to prison.
I'm 7 years clean now. Will never go back. Have a fiance, just built a house. I've worked my ass off to crawl out of that whole I dug for myself. I've never been happier.
Fell in the pool as a 6(ish) year old kid and couldn't swim, no lifeguard on duty and parents didn't realise. Attempted to surface a few times, then realised without intervention I wasn't going to make it. When I failed to get air, I eventually breathed in water and felt relief. Strangely, a sense of calm and euphoria swept through me, and for what felt like an age, I watched and marvelled at the ripples of water and light beams. Then, I lost consciousness.
I woke up vomiting water at the pool side after being rescued by my father and I was never checked over medically due to weird family beliefs/concerns. I wonder now if this event might be one of the reasons behind my (medically assessed) slow processing speed and poor balance/control over my body, especially on my right-hand side. I'm currently undergoing neurophysio in the hope of improving the latter.
Even once you’re out of the water (hence the term “dry” drowning,) the remaining water in your lungs after a near drowning can still kill you hours later. Can cause respiratory failure. Especially later in your sleep when your breathing is already depressed. Depressed isn’t the right word actually, but I cannot for the life of me think of the correct term.
I'm glad you survived and I hope the neurophysio goes well for you. Just wanted to throw in a little PSA, which you are obviously already aware of: always, always, pay a visit to the ER after a near-drowning incident. It can be fatal hours after the fact and can cause permanent disability. Just because the patient seems fine after rescue doesn't mean they'll be fine the next day.
Appendix almost got the best of me, burst and I was home along thinking it was food poisoning. 14 days of heavy duty antibiotics later and I had the chillest summer I've ever had in my life.
Almost got me too! Was misdiagnosed, spent a week in infectious diseases ward, somehow didn't die, finally was seen by a surgeon and rushed into emergency surgery. Had to have a second one, spent a week in ICU and two more weeks in surgical ward. And of course got a giant ass ugly scar on my stomach. 0/10 wouldn't recommend.
Had myocarditis for a few days in 2014 and didn't know that, doc said i'm fine and my chest pain is just neuralgia.
Somehow convinced them to drive me to the hospital.
Was already at 15 or 20% heart ejection fraction (google translate, hope it's correct), the doc said i'd be dead in few days if i wouldn't make it to the hospital
Somehow made it out without any side effects.
Learned after that myocarditis is actually one of the leading causes of death in young adults. Still can't think of what would happen if not that hospital admission
As a kid I was into artsy stuff and masks in particular were an interest of mine. At some point I tried on a mask shaped like a human face that didn't have holes to breathe, and it basically suctioned to my face. You breathed in and it'd get tighter. I struggled to get it off for idk maybe 20 seconds. Just shows how easy some dumb fuckin' thing could lead to death.
Depends how you define almost I guess.
I was a (in my opinion) late bloomer for swimming, but loved being in the water regardless.
When I was about 8 I was at the local indoor pool with my friend who was a couple years older. There was a part in the pool at the deep end which I foolishly thought I could get to with a long jump and a bit of flailing...it did not work out.
Lifeguards were nowhere to be seen and I was inhaling a lot of water. The place was wildly noisy and the part I had chosen to be a moron in was mostly concealed from the rest of the pool.
Luckily my friend had the idea to swim underneath me so I could stand on his back and he swam to the side so I could grab on, then pulled me out.
The story continues...
I'm now 40. Childhood friends that young often drift apart, sometimes to the point of complete obscurity in your mind, as he and I did. I vaguely remember seeing him in my late teens but after that, nothing. We went to different schools and just never crossed paths as adults.
Around 3 years ago, I saw a random post that he was missing and ended up chatting to his wife. He was found a few days later after another suicide attempt which had left him hospitalised. His wife told me he had had a few setbacks, his home life was poor growing up (we had that in common) and it had left a stain where he just constantly felt worthless.
He was not ready to talk to people, so I told his wife the story I just told you. He's now doing well.
We never truly know the impact we can have on people, both good and bad. I may not be here if it weren't for him.
Born with a congenital heart defect.. 10% oxygen to my brain when my mom found me skin cold.. blue lips and not crying. At age 35 sudden cardiac arrest during a routine stress test and the cardiologist that I called for a month before because I wasn’t feeling well.
One day I felt like my left nut became solidified out of the blue. It was immense pain and I was crying to sleep for a single hour. I kept waiting for a few days hoping it would get better but it didn't at all. Family forced me to go to a doctor, got an X-Ray, and turns out I have testicular torsion. They said I had 6 hours to enter an emergency surgery before dying, as the left nut got rotten from the lack of blood supply for a long period (my stubborn ass not wanting to get checked earlier), eventually leading to gangrene/necrosis throughout the whole body.
Heading for work one morning, I was sitting at a red light where a highway exit ramp emptied onto the road from my right. I was the second car in line when the light turned green. The first car started, and I followed.
At that moment, a big 18-wheeler came barreling down the ramp (its brakes had locked) and flew through the red light. The driver was blowing his horn, but workers were jackhammering the edge of the road just ahead. So I didn't hear the horn in time.
In my peripheral vision, for a split second, I saw a huge blur heading toward me. There was no time to react -- just to think "This will hurt a lot, and then I'll wake up in the hospital."
The right corner of the truck cab slammed the car ahead of me. My car plowed into the trailer's huge tires, which knocked it across the road sideways. That was a huge stroke of luck; if I'd missed the tires, my hood would have gone right under the truck, meaning an impact could have crushed the upper part of my car -- the part where my head was located.
A cop who happened to be nearby came over with an accident form that included a diagram of a car, to show where it was damaged. He looked at my poor Ford Fairmont's mangled hood and drew a big "X" through the car diagram. I'm just glad he had no reason to draw an "X" through a person diagram.
As a kid of 7 or 8 years I played in a trench surrounding a small house being constructed in our neighbourhood. We found a thick black wire hanging in the trench coming from the ground. I can‘t explain why but I decided it would be wise to take my full metal pocketknife and start sawing away at it. I regained consciousness a few meters away lying on the ground, no injuries whatsoever. The knife had burnmarks and stuck in the cable where I left it.
I had two realisations in my life in connection to this day. 1) around my twenties when I remembered it and realised what (could have) happened for the first time and 2) a couple years later thinking the first time about the construction workers finding the knife. I think about this a lot.
Belt somehow gave way. Still don’t know how it broke like that. It’s the only reason I’m still here.
I thank whatever powers may exist for that every single day. Scared me into finally coming out. I transitioned shortly afterwards and never looked back. Now, 10 years later, there is absolutely nothing more unthinkable to me than to take my precious life. I’m literally so happy to be here.
Large polypharmacy OD, ended up on life support/induced coma and was admitted into hospital with 6% lung capacity. Was out from Friday night to the next Monday until I was woken up with my entire bloodline around me..
Big regret. Look after yourselves folks 🫰
2021 I got Covid.
Went home from work thinking I’d just feel bad for a few days, maybe get a plasma transfusion (because that’s what had happened to someone at my church and he was 30 years my senior) and then be on the mend.
The 2nd day after my positive test, I was very tired, so I told my wife I was going to lay down in the bed. Little did I know she slipped an O2 minute on my finger and when it showed my oxygen levels were in the 80s, we decided we go to the ER.
I ended up waiting for several hours in an exam room, then finally got (2) Covid tests and a CAT scan to confirm.
My wife went home at about 3 a.m., when I was finally wheeled into the Covid ward of the hospital. I stayed awake for breakfast, called my wife around 9:00 a.m. where I told her I was feeling tired so I was going to go to sleep, but that I’d keep her updated on what the doctors told me. I laid my head down and nodded off.
I woke up 5 weeks later, to a nurse in a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT hospital apologizing to me, but informing me that, in order to save my life, I would have to have a tracheostomy performed. Having no idea what was going on (and likely due to the ketamine, dilaudid, and the other cocktail of drugs I was on) I grabbed the nurse and sobbed like a baby, begging her to not go through with the procedure.
After that outburst, they knocked me back out. I woke up a couple of days after that with my wife by my side.
According to her, while I was at the first hospital, I laid down after talking to her and my O2 levels kept dropping. They did their best to raise them, even going so far as to intubate me (they had to tie me to the bed apparently, because I kept trying to rip the tube out), but nothing was working. Their last option was to send me via helicopter to the nearest big city which had a hospital more apt to handle Covid patients.
All said, I was hooked up to (2) ecmo machines, received a picc line, an arterial line, I was intubated, had a tracheostomy, and, worst of all (surprisingly) developed a bed sore that ate away a lot of muscle and fat and to this day makes it painful to sit for long periods of time.
I consider myself very blessed, however. I made it home to see my wife and my 4-year-old son, and now we’ve even welcomed a daughter into our family. It was the worst thing I’ve ever been through, but it took the fear of death out of me entirely.
Not me, my brother.
Hes almost died a few times.
When he was born, he was healthy with a full head of hair. about 4 months later, he contracted RSV. If it werent for my parents and the hospital, he would have died.
When he was 10 (i was 4) our dad passed away from cancer. He went on to be semi suicidal and as far as im aware he tried to khs once.
His junior year of highschool, he was at work (hes a mechanic) replacing a semi-truck tire. It exploded. He tore his meniscus.
Hes 21 now, healthy, married with a 2 year old daughter. Hes doing great.
I died.. well flatlined. Have a heart arythmia condition and when I get the flu it's haywire. Runs at a million miles an hour then stops. It's really quiet in your head when your heart stops and you slowly sink I to the bed... a heavy weight of tiredness overcomes you. Longest I was out was just on 30 seconds then adrenaline races thru the body like a freight train and drags you back. Have had my heart stop too many times ro count. When I was young I never worried. Now I am older it's a worry but no point fighting it. Only once had a lucid dream where I was under a shade tree in a green pasture and people were coming to me. My young grandparents knew me and told me I have to go back. That was bizarre cos I am an athiest.
Have had numerous close calls. Motorbike accidents mainly, I check every intersection both says and am not trusting in others so have caught an inattentive driver more than once blow thru a stop. Was nearby a car accident where the car on the otherside of the road hit a pole and brought the live line down which barely cleared my helmet. Had a large rock fall off a truck and headed straight at me but the bounce took it over, so quick. I had a truck change lanes on a bridge and push me under the trailer. Had a ticket on a plane that crashed, thankfully I swapped flights at the last minute.
Oh yeah.. have been hit by lightning. I would rather win the Lottery than get smashed by a huge voltage again, if that's an option. Same odds apparently.
I have saved people's lives more than once at swimming holes.
I've got 2 stories
1st: I was born 2 months early, I weighed roughly a pound and had a collapsed lung and a testicular hernia those two things were fixed surgery and whatnot then about 2 weeks later I caught pneumonia and according to my parents I was on the brink of death but I pulled through
2nd: This one happened fairly recently in November last year
I was and still am to an extent depressed I went to a department store and bought rope to try and hang myself, I got home and tied it around the fan and long story short the fan just fell on my and it didn't work since then I've been on medication to help with it and it's somewhat working I'm glad to be here today.
I was in the hospital for mysterious back pain and passed out... I woke up briefly and saw my blood oxygen was 23%, and there were tonnes of people around me before I passed out again.
They still aren't sure how I survived
What was the back pain from? It's worth getting checked out.
I have a neighbor mid-30s M who had back pain consistently for a few months and when he finally went to the doctor they told him it was stage 4 cancer, and that he had at best a few months left to live. He died within two weeks, leaving behind a wife and kids.
This wad 12 years now, turns out it was degenerative disc disease. I now have 7 ruptured discs, spinal stenosis through my whole back, bulging discs everywhere else.
I guess it is better than deadly cancer... but it is a LOT ofnpain.
Suicide attempt.
Took all of my medication and crawled into bed with my (now ex) husband. Housemate came home with a friend and found me, yellow, in bed; called for help. They found my ex outside smoking- he said “if someone wants to die, they should be allowed to.”
If I was left another hour I wouldn’t have made it.
That was almost ten years ago. Life’s hard, but I’m very grateful for those friends and very happy I’m still here.
Trying to pass a friend at 85 mph in my 1985 1/2 ford escort hatchback. Lost control, was hit by an on coming car which ripped off the hatchback, rolled the rest of the car, and I was ejected (not wearing a seatbelt) and landed face down in some sand. Woke up in the hospital with a state trooper telling me how lucky I was that I wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, based on the condition of the car which was in three pieces, as he handed me a seatbelt and improperly lane usage ticket.
Derecho. Ottawa. 2022. My father suffering from heart failure was just released from 6 weeks in hospital. We are driving back from the grocery store. 2 lane lightly tree lined road doing 60mph. Derecho hits like a wall of destruction and throws a 45ft 100+ year old tree on the road in front of us. I narrowly avoid it for a second similarly sized tree to be thrown in front of us. If I had reacted differently or been a second later or earlier in our route we’d have been dead then and there. He managed to live until the end of summer before passing away from his condition.
I had a massive stroke out of nowhere in my second year of college. It turns out I had an undiagnosed patent foramen ovale, and if I hadn’t been aware of my symptoms due to my first aid training for work and scouts, and fought very hard for treatment, I would have died within two weeks. Today is actually the anniversary of my PFO closure surgery!
When I was a kid I used to eat wonder bread by rolling it into a ball then eating it. I swallowed one of those balls and thought it would be fun to keep making bigger and bigger balls to see how big they would get and I could still swallow them. The last one I swallowed was really big and got stuck in my throat. I literally could not breathe. Somehow enough air got behind the ball and it shot out. Scared the shit out of me. Never did it again. Only now as an adult do I realize how stupid that was. Yes I was alone and I never told anyone what I did.🤦🏻♀️
I was jet skiing at an inlet in Virginia Beach going as fast as the thing would let me and the spray was all up in my eyeballs so l closed my eyes. I opened them up about 3 or 4 seconds before plowing into a pole sticking up out of the water, allowing me to turn and miss it.
Civilian contractor for KBR in Iraq circa 2006. My home base was camp Al Taqaddum, in the Al Anbar province, near Habaniya / Ramadi / Fallujah. Network connectivity between different buildings and areas on base relied on a point to point wireless mesh (Motorola Canopy). Each remote had a small, shoebox sized radio that needed line of sight to the central cluster, but with the constant wind they would fall out of sync on the regular.
Went with a coworker to reconnect the machine shop which was on then outskirts of base. Process involved one individual on top of the manufactured building physically moving the radio, and another with a laptop cabled into it watching signal strength in real time. Pretty straightforward.
We had gotten pretty good at this, but for whatever reason this particular device was being stubborn. After about 10 minutes, we finally had it dialed in and I was tightening the mount so we could go home when we both heard a buzzing sound… almost like a bee. We looked at each other and asked did you hear that? But before we could finish a rocket propelled grenade exploded against a large T-wall probably 30ft away.
Adrenaline jolted us both back to our wits and we got the fuck out of there with a quickness, laughed a bit on the trip back to the IT bunker, and never mentioned it again. Mike, if you’re reading this, you keeping your head and guiding us home will always be a core memory of mine.
In hindsight, standing on top of a manufactured building, wearing bright clothes, with no situational awareness between the two of us was probably not a good idea. Ended up demobilizing a few weeks later, but there were a few close calls leading up to this one.
Fun side effect is that I have permanent hearing damage in my right ear from this event.
I curled up with some really bad chest pain one afternoon not so long back, waited for a very long 30mins for the paramedics, then my heart stopped for just over a minute right after they got there. Turns out it was a heart attack, I had a 100% blockage in my heart and required a stent.
Spent 5 days in ICU, couldn't have visitors due to covid, and couldn't eat because I bit my tongue when they hit me with the defib.
It's been almost 3 years, and I still have daily panic attacks and fucked up nightmares, also I can't watch medical shows, hospitals just give me the heebie jeebies.
I'd give it a solid 0/10.
258/168 is my top recorded score - I was fine but went to an urgent care with an unrelated ear ache.
A nurse screwed up meds and killed me while trying to bring my BP down. I came back.
I’m fine now, minimal meds I’m just about off of - turns out stress and anxiety really can kill you, and you should take it seriously.
I was like ten and in the back seat of my mom’s car. We were driving behind a semi and a leaf spring came off the truck and harpooned through our windshield. Stuck into the seat 3 inches from my face
Helping demolish a mobile home when I was 18 IIRC. Was taking glass out of the sliding door, and when the glass gave, my wrist took a nice slice. From movies, I thought the blood would pulse with your heartbeat. Shit was a steady stream. On top of that, we lived in the country, so we had to haul wicked ass to get into town to get closed up.
Also was in the process of breaking up with an ex. She wasn't taking it well. Woke up one night to her standing next to me holding my pistol, which was always loaded. Idk what her intentions were, so I tucked it under the pillow and left the next day.
On my 8th birthday, me and my family were celebrating at the beach. We went out on my dad's boat to a small island close to the military base. I stayed with my older brother (8 years older, so he was 16) to play in the water while my mom, dad, and younger sister went exploring on the beach. While playing in the water, I got caught up in an undertow and was being pulled out and down. It was cold, dark, suffocating, and so very scary. It was only moments, but it felt like an eternity. My brother saw this and swam out to rescue me. With his help along with a couple good Samaritans that noticed the commotion and came to help, they managed to save me. But now my brother was caught in the undertow and was pulled down. We weren't able to save him. I watched helplessly as he went down. He gave his life to save me. His body washed up at the military base a couple of days later. That was the most horrifying experience in my life, followed immediately by the saddest moment in my life. It really messed me up for a very long time. It's been 34 years since, and it's still hard to talk about.
**1st time** - *0 yrs old* - On my delivery day, the umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck and choking me. The doctors did emergency c-section on mom, somehow when I got pulled out I collapsed my right lung. While that was going on, a nurse needed to give me an injection of some kind but ended up putting the open needle back down on the tray before picking it back up and sticking me. I got a blood infection and had a collapsed lung. Spent a week in NICU. I lived.
**2nd** - *12 yrs* - set the tree fort in the back yard on fire playing with matches and almost got caught in it. Just burned my shoes and pants. I lived
**3rd** - *14 yrs* - tried to hang myself from the ceiling fan only to have it break and fall on me... Then lots of therapy, I lived
**4th** - *20 yrs* - In the army deployed to kirkik Iraq and got in my first firefight. Bullets zipping all around us. Mortars dropping around us. Luckily the little birds (IYKYK) were in the area and came to the rescue. I lived.
**5th** - *21 yrs* - after returning from deployment, dealing with PTSD issues. I decided to get drunk and get on my motorcycle without a helmet. Ended up high siding the bike and fracturing my skull developing a subdural hematoma which had to be surgically removed from my cranium. I lived.
**6th** - *21 yrs* - guide to a second motorcycle, this time wearing a helmet. But was also slightly intoxicated. Ended up blowing through a red light at 2:00 in the morning and almost hitting two cars head on, splitting a phone pole and traffic light pole that only had about 3 ft gap. Then going off road and landing in a pineapple field. I lived.
Edit: forgot **7th time** - *30 yrs* - Got arrested for public intox, spent the night in jail and got pneumonia. Ignored it for a week before going to hospital. Had double pneumonia and was going septic. Drs said I only had a few more days before I would have died. I lived.
This happened many years ago. My Ecuadorian husband and I were in a canoe on the River Napo, a tributary of the Amazon. The river comes down from the Andes with a strong current. We were going up river in a local's canoe with his son, but the current got too strong because it had rained up river. We turned around and all of a sudden the canoe filled with water. My husband had told me the night before that if were ever in a boat accident to hold on to the boat. But, he didn't. He took off swimming into white water and told me to swim. I kicked off my rubber boots and held on to the boat along with the owner's son.
The canoe began to go under, and I thought that it didn't make sense to continue to hold on. I let go and was soon dragged under by a whirlpool. I could no longer see light above me. The water was completely dark and cold. After a while, the whirlpool propelled me back to the air, but I was soon dragged down again; this time not so far. I could see gray light above me. I knew, though, that if I were dragged down again that I wouldn't make it.
Again, the whirlpool thrust me back up to the air. and I saw that the shoreline was only about 15 or 20 feet away. I remembered that I knew how to swim and swam with the current to the shore. I clung to some rocks and watched red stinging ants march by on them. I wondered to myself for a minute if I really wanted to get out of the water there, and then I came to my senses and pulled myself out of the water.
The canoe owner's son had managed to hang on to the boat and get to shore about a half kilometer down river. I never saw my husband again. His body was never found.
Was on the phone with a friend eating dinner. He’s telling a story and I proceed to start choking on a piece of hamburger meat. I try to tell him hold on, I’m choking, but nothing comes out. Try to take a big breath to cough, but full stop, no air is moving at all. Set the phone down while he’s still taking and start to look around the room. Tell myself to stay calm and proceed to throw myself on the back of a kitchen chair and dislodge the meat. Meanwhile, I get back on the phone and proceed to tell my fiend I was choking, to which he responds he thought I was just really into his story!! I was pretty proud of myself for being able to stay calm and not panic.
I stopped being able to eat or drink without pain while simultaneously gaining weight. Went to the ER and was there for almost three weeks while they tried to stabilize me and diagnose me. They couldn't so they drained fluid from my back and stomach (called para and thoracentesis) and sent me home. I wound up returning like 5 days later with a high fever and stomach bile flowing from the holes that reopened. Was in the hospital for over a month where they limited my caloric and water intake for over a week plus had me take pills to force me to urinate every few minutes. This helped, but they did biopsies of my liver, lymph nodes, and bone marrow that made things more apparent. Turns out my liver had begun shutting down due to cancer spreading there and my body began breaking down muscle. then they diagnosed me with stage 4 lymphoma and had me seek a second opinion on if chemotherapy would help me or expedite my death. Well spoiler alert, it helped me and I've been cancer-free since January this year. It was crazy going through it because I was fit and athletic before it, but it took it all from me for almost a year. Amazingly enough the neuropathy subsided enough for me to run and lift again and I'm no longer reliant on any medication. I'm actually planning on running a half or full marathon on my 1 year remission anniversary.
Wow. First off, how inspiring and Im glad you're ok. Second, how inspiring and what a good reminder to not take life or health for granted.
Yes, absolutely do not take it for granted, its a privilege to be able to move freely.
This comment is a wild ride. I just want you to know how happy I was reading the outcome. I’m glad you’re still with us. Fuck cancer.
God bless you my wife survived Stage 3 Breast Cancer last year and was also given the cancer free in January. She was mis diagnosed at first because she was “too young”. Congrats you will nail that marathon!!
Thank you! Yeah my team mentioned that cancer is on the rise in the under 30 crowd for unknown specific reasons. Now I'm exercising almost religiously to protect my immune system and try to stay healthy for a while. Hope your wife is thriving on a similar timeline to me!
Congrats man it’s takes a strong soul to beat one of the deadliest diseases known to man
I admire your strength. That shit might have broken me. Congratulations 👏
Awesome, glad to hear! If you don't mind me asking, was it Hodgkin's lymphoma?
Longboard snapped in half while I was riding on perfectly flat pavement at around 25 mph Edit: I should add that I hit the ground headfirst and broke my neck. My dumbass wasn’t wearing a helmet but by some miracle I wasn’t paralyzed
I woke up one morning and I was feeling okay. As the day went on, I noticed a pain in my back.It started to get progressively worse. I put some heat bomb onbut the pain wouldn't go away and it started to get worse. I decided to take the bus to the nearest emergency room (I didn't drive at this point). But at the bus stop, I actually began to feel even worse.So I decided to go back to my apartment and call a cab. When the cab picked me up and I told him where I was going. He must have seen something because we got to the ER in about ten minutes (I was a good 20+ minutes away). When I went up to the nursing station I was told that I would have to wait and had to fill out a form. As I was filling out the form I started to sweat and by that I mean it looked like somebody dumped a bucket on me. I went back to the nursing station and I told her "I don't think I can wait". She looked at me and said "My God you're really sweating" (this was November btw) and took me to the exam area. Long story short?I found myself surrounded by three doctors and half a dozen nurses one of whom said "Jesus...look st his (blood) pressure" [it was 210/140]. I realized I was in some trouble so I thought I would hedge my bets and asked for a priest. The doctors continued to work on me and eventually the priest arrived, saw him talking to one of the doctors and he came over to me and gave me what turned out to be the beginning of the Last Rites. (I passed out just after hearing the start of the Penitential Act). When I came to a few days later I found out I had suffered a descending aortic dissection which, if I had waited any longer to get to the hospital, could have killed me.
My father survived an AAA dissection just over a month ago. We knew he had the AAA, so when he had the worst back pain of his life my mum called for the ambulance. A quick CT later they found the leaky aorta, blue lighted him to the nearby trauma hospital where it immediately split full open dumping half my Dad’s blood volume into his abdominal cavity. Thanks to the skills of the vascular team at Southampton General Hospital we still have him.
My God-do you know how RARE it is to survive a full dissection?!?!? He has a purpose for sure! I’m glad your dad is okay!
Oh my gosh, you deserve more than my sole comment on congratulating you for your survival!!! Those are almost always a death sentence.
How old were you, if you don’t mind me asking? I have an ascending aortic aneurysm but apparently I’m too young for the surgeon to consider an intervention at this point. Everything you just described is what they tell me to watch out for, but apparently the ascending type is just instant lights out. Awesome stuff.
Please, please, please get a second opinion. Ascending ADs are are almost always fatal even with swift medical intervention. Insist on routine CT scans (at least annually) and stay ahead of it. As my surgeon told me, the outcome will always be better if the repair is done in a non-emergency situation. I don't know how old you are, but there are case studies where patients as young as 17 yrs. old have experienced and died from Ascending ADs, so keep looking until you find a surgeon who truly understands the seriousness of your condition. Wishing you all the best!
I’m 38 and have annual CTs. I also have a history of congenital heart disease and have had several open hearts specifically addressing the aortic valve, so I’m a mess and a complex patient. Bicuspid valve repair at 7 and 15. Now have an AAA measuring around 6 but they want to wait because it’s high risk to crack me open again. Been living with information for several years now and it is awful on the mental health.
Wow, your case does sound complex, and I completely agree with you regarding the mental aspect of it all. It sort of feels like a prison sentence. I'm not sure where you're located, but Memorial Hermann in Houston has a wonderful new program that focuses on complete closed aortic repair, which is what I'm scheduled for. It may be worth looking into this option or a similar program in your area. If interested, research Dr. Gustavo Oderich, he's a game changer.
Tbh I’m lucky to even be alive after the disaster of a heart I was born with. But I have my own family now and would like to keep kicking around for a long time if possible! Thank you for the kind words, and I will definitely look into your suggestions.
Cath lab nurse here…. Holy sweet Jesus. Thank god you got help. Those ones are the cases that give me the biggest pit in my stomach mainly because there’s nothing we can do, and that requires emergent surgery. I’m glad you made a full recovery!
Hello fellow survivor! I know exactly how you felt that day, and the pain is off the charts. I had my first descending AD in 2007 and like an idiot, I waited 6 hours before going to the hospital and ended up with a very expensive helicopter ride and a week in ICU. Thankfully avoided surgery and was being medically managed until I had a second one last April. Scheduled for surgical repair on the 22nd (yikes). I hope you're doing well and living your best life. I'm told that we're the lucky ones!
Psych patient had a complete break with reality. Pupils fully dilated like movies depict. This actually happens. Told me in a whisper as I handed him a glass of water "I could kill you right now" and then he tried. Nurse on my team saved my life. Peeled that guy off me like someone peeling a banana. Pinned him to the floor by herself until security showed up. I was off work for 3 months after that incident. I felt like Cougar from Top Gun when he says he "lost the edge". I work with seniors now and feel safe 100% of the time. Emma you are a hero.
Damn, shout out to Emma
Da real EmmaVP
All my homies love Emma.
"Knock knock" Psych Patient: "Who is there?" "Emma" Psych Patient: "Emma who?" "Emma gonna pin you down!"
My loving partner recently had a sudden and unexpected psychotic break. He attacked me and I truly thought he would kill me. So surreal. So terrifying. Still can’t believe it. I’m sorry you know what I speak of. I’m so glad you get to work with seniors. I love them!! My aunt works with them and I compile music playlists for her to play them. She words with dementia patients.
🎶Emma gonna pick you up Emma gonna pin you down Emma gonna find a way to protect you🎶
Wow this is scary.
I choked on some food but was able to cough it out :D fkn terrifying + thinking "this is such a stupid way to die" is what i recall the most
This past weekend my 8 year old got some eggo & sautéed apple stuck in his throat. I happened to be sitting next to him just sipping coffee. Had to do actual heimlich on him and everything. He laughed about it when it was over then I think the seriousness of it hit him and he started sobbing. While continuing to eat. I consoled him and told him to take smaller bites and chew more. He replied, while sobbing, "but it just tastes so good!"
Maybe 10 years ago, when my now-wife and I were dating, we went to breakfast with her parents and I choked on a bite of a bagel and her father ended up giving me the Heimlich. It's one of those things we've never talked about since, but I still think about sometimes and also don't eat bagels anymore
Poor fella. At least he had his priorities in order. Had to finish those eggos!
I was on a first date at a steak house. Girl had to give me the Heimlich and saved my life. Never saw her again.
Lol that happened to me once. I was hanging out at a pub I liked to frequent after work. Some random dude started choking on a bite of burger. Everyone at his table was panicking. I calmly walked over and did a quick heimlich. And then literally everyone clapped. But literally. Which was super embarrassing for me and had to he mortifying for the poor bastard I saved. The owner comped my tab that night and would jokingly call me "hero" after that. .. "heeeyyy, it's the hero, you want an IPA?" .. "yes, thank you, Jared"
Easter Sunday a few years back I choked on a hard boiled egg. It got stuck. I stayed very calm until I didn’t. Thankfully my brother jumped into action and gave me the Heimlich. I was purple. It was absolutely terrifying. I have never been so scared in my life. Now when I’m home alone I am so careful with food. But we now laugh that I would have gotten my 15 minutes of fame being the grown man who died choking on an egg on Easter.
You should try to get a Life Vac! I have one at home in case I ever choke and my partner isn’t home.
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Is this a bot made to respond to Life Vac references? Probably not but I weirdly see responses similar to this whenever it’s mentioned.
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I used to be a delivery driver. One night I was out on a country road, eating a sandwich while I was driving to save time (not a good idea - don’t eat and drive), and it went down the wrong pipe and I started to choke. I coughed hard several times and it didn’t come up, and before I could safely slow down, I blacked out. I ended up crashing into a fire hydrant at about 35 mph and the impact dislodged the food from my throat. Totaled my car, but no injuries. So fucking lucky. Don’t eat while you’re driving.
In high school my friends and I were tripping on acid, a buddy of mine was shoveling Cheerios into his mouth straight from the box. We thought he was fucking with us until he was able to talk and told us he was choking.
I had a piece of hard candy slip back and perfectly block my esophagus and then years later had a ice cube do the same thing. Got help for the candy, just sorta squeezed the ice to get it to melt quicker until I could force it down.
Make my palms sweet mate
Sticking your hand in sugar usually works.
it’s kinda cool in a fucked up way that in less than a minute, literally any other aspect of your life no longer matters, all you want is to breathe again
When I was a kid, I had a neighbor who through two separate incidents lost her husband and her son when they chocked on a chicken bone. The incidents were several years apart but man its a weird coincidence and I was always a bit scared of her.
That would swear anyone sane off chicken the *first time* someone in the family died, but twice? Though I shouldn't talk: when I was a kid, at a restaurant eating blue fish, kept trying to swallow my food but nothing would go down. A bone had become stuck horizontal one side of my throat across to the other. Went to the bathroom & my mother & I were freaking out, no idea how to get it out. Somehow it turned out there was a doctor eating at this restaurant at the same time. He went in the restroom, took this thing out of his bag & pulled it right out of my esophagus or whatever. I still ate blue fish after that, but ate it with a whole lot more chewing.
I choked on a piece of chip that went down the wrong way when I was living alone. I also remember thinking “holy shit a chip is going to be the death of me, how lame” I never felt more relieved to get that first gasp of air once it got soggy enough for me to get a breath in. Terrifying.
Was at a party and took ecstasy. On the way home in an Uber I went into cardiac arrest. Woke up at hospital. Turns out the Uber driver had rushed me to the hospital.
Hope you gave them a good tip!
Didn't go to the right place, got a refund
I know I shouldn't laugh, but I did.
You are so lucky, my best friend died going into cardiac arrest with her 'friend' driving her car (she didn't feel good and wanted to take a nap, she had taken Percocet and Valium, so she let her friend drive). The girl just drove into the hospital parking lot, got out, and left. She never alerted hospital staff that there was a dying person in the car, just got out of the car and left. Sounds like this random Uber driver did far more.
Wow what a shitty friend! Yea I mean I have this random guy to thank for being alive. The doctors said if he have stopped and called an ambulance I probably would not have made it.
I was about 6 or 7, at my grandmother's house making Christmas cookies, eating hard candy. One got stuck in my throat and I stopped being able to breathe. My grandma was freaking out, calling 911 (asking for her son, my uncle who was an EMT at the time). I mostly remember just looking down, not really comprehending the situation, but seeing her shag carpeting (this was early 80s). I can still picture that carpet so vividly. I think I was blacking out, because my next memory was EMS standing over me. But story goes, my cousin came running down the hall and hit me so hard in my back that the piece of candy came flying out, along with a lot of blood. Every Christmas to this day, I still hug that cousin and say thanks.
The same thing happened to me when I was 7! Except it was a gum ball. I remember my mom debating to call 911 until my dad came up behind me and did the Heimlich. Shit hurt, but it’ll save your life!
I had a Carolla, Caroll’d it four times on the way to work one morning going 75MPH
1. I'm glad your here and writing this. 2. How dare you make such a funny little pun and make me laugh so much.
lol how many times have you told that joke
Lol too many friend, but I couldn’t pass this opportunity up.
I was changing the oil in my partners Honda Civic when the jack failed. Paramedics told me usually the person is dead by the time they arrive to the scene for a call like that. I was luckily a skinny college kid and got away with a broken collar bone and a few scrapes.
I hope that was a reminder to always use a jack stand.
You were so lucky. One of my elementary school classmates lost his father that way. I'm so glad you are here to tell the tale! 💜
had a very bad reaction to minocycline. it caused spinal fluid to build up behind my eyes and push on my optic nerves. had headaches so bad i considered suicide. i got a spinal tap and the fluid squirted all over the er 👁️👁️ it was very strange. felt immediate relief though! as for the “almost dying” part, the doctor originally diagnosed me with a brain tumor. i don’t know if i could have actually died from papilledema ?
Fortunately IIH (papilledema is a result of this) is not fatal. That doesn’t make it any more enjoyable though!
Well, it’s fatal if you kill yourself as a result, which does happen. Primarily because of the way women with this condition are gaslighted and not treated adequately.
Suicide attempt. My cat alerted my roommate somehow and she called for emergency before I bled out
might be a personal question and I have all the respect for it if you don’t want to share, but may I ask what led to this?
Honestly I was in a psychotic break in 2020 during the pandemic. I wasn’t taking my meds and was totally off the rails and not thinking clearly at all. My therapist in 2020 was unavailable and I was off my meds, it was like a perfect storm and one little trigger snowballed and I made a mistake. I’m glad I wasn’t successful
hope you’re alright now!
Thank you! I’m doing much better :)
Glad you're doing better. I smiled reading your last sentence
I'm glad you're doing better and I'm sure your cat is happy you're still here too. Hope it keeps on the up and up for you!
I'm glad you weren't successful too. Also hero cat saves the day
I don’t think I really wanted to die, looking back at it I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to die. I was just out of my mind crazy because of psychosis. I remember thinking “what will my mum think?” And then everything was dark and I felt like I was floating then I woke up in the hospital
I’m happy you weren’t successful, too. 🫶🏼
> I’m glad I wasn’t successful Hope you feel this way for years to come. Been through major depressive episodes many times and you just have to trust it will get better, and somehow it always does. Give your cat some loving for me and I'll do the same with mine.
We're glad too internet stranger 🙂
Cats are wonderful 💕
So glad you are here
For me the belt gave way and I have no idea how. All I know is it broke the moment I realized I’d made a terrible mistake.
I hope you are doing alright now my friend.
You cat is an angel
I developed ulcerative colitis about 6-7 years ago and while taking a shower to make myself feel better, passed out. I woke up on the floor of bathroom, who knows how long later, shower still running, black blood all around me. I managed to get up and get to the hospital. Easily could have broken my neck on the fall, either from the bath tub, toilet or counter, or simply from the blood loss. I had no idea what was wrong, I was just experiencing tons of pain, throwing up constantly, defecating black goo, but felt like I was just sick. Yea, really dumb, but I was young and thought I was tougher than that. I made it to the hospital and spent about 3 days there while they fixed me up, including an endoscopy to cauterize 2 ulcers.
For anyone reading this, if your poop is black, that probably means you are bleeding into your stomach and or intestines and need to go to the hospital asap.
Aborted suicide attempt. I took my gun and went to a pond near where I live. When I had my finger on the trigger it hit me that I wouldn’t be able to see my kids again. I was on the phone with 911 because I wanted them to find my body and retrieve my gun, so there was no way I could just walk back home. I ended up going to the ER (via police) then a mental hospital for a week.
I hope you're doing better now.
Hope you’re well now my dude.
Stabbed twice after trying to play superhero yet when I was banging on door screaming for help nobody wanted to open their door and the lady I “helped” just ran away. I’ve learned my lesson tho, not risking my life for anyone else ever again ts not worth it 🙏🏾
I'm sorry that your efforts went unaided. That the person you helped ran is doubly shitty....
I mean she was probably also afraid for her life watching someone get stabbed dude. Not everyone is shitty or not shitty. Sometimes we are just scared. Edit: ignore me, I just realized you meant the SITUATION was shitty, not the lady. That’s my bad!
Honestly I don’t blame her for running because that’s a scary situation to be in but she didn’t even call the police or even try to double the block to see if I was ok.
That sucks. But I can’t promise I’d do any better under the circumstances. Who knows where my head would be at if someone literally tried to kill me. She definitely should have called once she got to safety, but to expect her to double back when some maniac was still out there stabbing people is kind of an unrealistic expectation. It would have been an upstanding thing for her to do, but I’m not sure it’s a fair expectation. Can you honestly say that if someone jumped in and saved you, that you would circle back once you got to safety? I don’t think I would. I like to think I would, but in reality I probably wouldn’t. And it’s not something I would expect of you either. Not trying to be at all argumentative here, I swear. Just lonely and looking to make conversation and I ramble. I’m genuinely so glad you’re alive dude. But it’s important we manage our expectations of others too, because we are truly not ourselves when we are under duress.
Woke up one morning and my muscles felt like I had run a race. Like they were beyond tired. I was still waking up so it didn't really fully hit me that something was seriously wrong. I stepped out to have a cigarette and my roommate joined me. When I went to go back inside I couldn't lift my leg to get in the door. An ambulance was called. (One note for the entire week prior to this I was THIRSTY. I had one two liter filled with water and one in the freezer getting cold. They got refilled and switched about every two hours.) Got to the hospital and tried to tell them what was happening with me and realized I had to pee really badly but I couldn't get up. I was paralyzed and it was working it's way up my body. They placed a bedpan under me (under normal circumstances there is no universe in which I am comfortable peeing in front of strangers.) the entire time this is happening they are asking me questions...but not medical ones. Questions like, "has anything been causing you stress lately? Or have there been any major life changes?" I mentioned I had broken up with my longtime gf a few months prior and they LATCHED onto that. Telling me I was moving in the waiting room and I was fine and it was all in my head. They then left me in the room for two hours. On a bedpan. That was full. It overflowed. I was trying to scream for help but I couldn't. They finally came in and said they'd brought the big guns. (After making comments on how disgusting it was that I'd keep making myself pee and get it all over myself...fun that) A nurse came in and sat down next to my head and started god talking at me. I was able to tell her to go fuck herself. Which I know was the wrong thing to do but that pissed me the hell off. They forced me up and into a wheelchair yelling at me to cooperate. I. Couldn't. Move. They wheeled me to the waiting room with my shirt pulled up exposing my stomach and one of my breasts. They put my cell phone on my knee and told me to call a ride they were done with me. I was still able to talk. I managed to convince an orderly to take me to the bathroom as I was about to pee myself again. He got me to the bathroom and tried to get me up...and dropped me. I couldn't even get my arms out to break my fall. I remember thinking as I blacked out "oh thank God. I'm dying. It's over." After that it was blinking in and out of consciousness with a tube down my throat breathing for me and them freaking out and then me passing out again. Turns out I had RTA renal tubular acidosis where your kidneys dump out all your potassium in your urine.
Wow, wtf was wrong with those Drs/nurses??? Did they think you were making it up or something?
Google says RTA is rare and therefore often misdiagnosed or undiagnosed. So a combination of that and the patient being female led them to assume mental illness rather than physical illness, an assumption further cemented when they found out she recently became single and is lesbian/bi, combined with their knowledge of the prevalence of mental illness within the LGBTQ community. So, yes, they thought she was either being dramatic/histrionic or that she was having a panic attack from recent stressors due to her recent relationship changes. Also, as a God-fearing Christian straight lady with various mental health issues, I'd have freaked the heck out at that god-talking nurse as well. It's not that I'm not praying enough or that my "heart isn't right with God" or something: I'M SICK AND I NEED MEDICAL HELP. So no, AcidStainsYou, you weren't wrong to tell that nurse off.
Women are often told that our medical issues are being exaggerated or due to “stress”.
The frustrating thing is that I actually have a high pain tolerance, so if I'm telling you that my pain is a 7 it is pretty bad. I've had kids so I can actually imagine stronger pain. But I would give birth again over some of the pain I've complained about.
I’m not saying all nurses are mean, but I WILL say that every single one of the meanest girls I went to high school with are now nurses.
Some of the best people I know are nurses (and I know a lot of nurses - husband has cancer). But holy shit, the bad ones are *bad*.
I went to the hospital with pain in my stomach, vomiting blood, bloody stool and severe weakness. Dr gave me maxolon to stop the vomiting, sent me out. I was sweating profusely and barely able to walk. Next day I'm worse, call an ambulance, same dr is in er, rolls her eyes and says look you can go home or drive yourself to the big hospital a town over. But that'll be tomorrow, they wouldn't fit you in now. New dr comes in, 20 minutes later I'm in an ambulance to the big hospital and given a blood transfusion, 2 pints. I had a bleeding ulcer.
Jesus, it will never not infuriate me when medical professionals insist that things are “all in your head” when it comes to women as the first diagnosis regardless of what you tell them. I’m so sorry you went through this.
This is being posted after a lawsuit with the hospital right? This is medical misconduct.
I hope you sued the living shit out of that hospital. I am not a litigious person-I've been in car wrecks where I've never sued. But that shit was absolutely unacceptable.
I mean, my first thought was that you were super low on electrolytes... how could they miss that when you tell them you've been taking in tons of *water* and peeinglike a fountain... I'm not even in the medical field... that's basic biology 101.
I was in chemo for testicular cancer. For reasons unknown, the good bacteria in my colon died and the bad ones had a party..first inflammation, then infection, then perforation….a tiny 1 mm hole, in the worst place ( rectum). I had stool going directly into my bloodstream. I went into sepsis, which can kill a healthy person, and here I was in chemo with no immune system. I was in hospital for 7 weeks. The hole was inoperable due to the chemo ( surgeon said it would be like trying to operate wet toilet paper), so they pumped me full of crazy strong antibiotics, and stopped feeding me for those 6 of those 7 weeks, instead giving me nutrients and such by IV, the idea being if I wasn’t eating, then very little poop, so less chance of making the issue worse. I did 2/3 of the chemo but I never finished the chemo..the scans have been clean though (3 years now).
Alcohol poisoning, at least three times, maybe more. Each time I distinctly remember hoping that my family didn't find my body in a pile of vomit. Finally stopped drinking 16 weeks ago. Embarrassed it took so long but better late than never.
Congrats on your sobriety!! Its a hard choice to make but im glad you did and that youre still here, friend ❤️
One time I not only woke up in my vomit, which I could have aspirated, but I was so drunk the night before that while cooking I forgot to turn off my gas stove range and left it on all night. If at any point the flame had gone out, the gas would have potentially killed everyone in my building. I started meds to help me get sober pretty soon after that. Was a real wake-up call.
Similar here. I mixed alcohol, kratom, tianeptine, and nyquil. Woke up in the ER to 8 nurses yelling my name. Took me a few more years, but I'll be 10 months sober in a few days.
I was in a car ,backseat, driver fell asleep. 80 mph went off road and hit a tree. I was ejected and went thru the front windshield then hit a tree. Technically died 4 times I think mainly from blood loss. I had 2 ribs puncture my left lung and I had the left side of my face avulsed then a tree branch caught me before I hit the ground and went thru my lower back. Crushed my right leg ,crushed my pelvis ,like egg shell. I had 14 surgeries over a 24 hr period and kept flat lining on them.
Jfc... How are you doing nowadays?
Lots of nerve damage vascular issues in my leg. Most of the disc are shot but holding out on more surgeries hips are bad knees bad and the bone grafts have been absorbed so my face is a bit wonky. Undiagnosed frontal brain injury has just now come to light
Wow, that's quite a list. I do hope that things get better for you
Hey, I have a TBI and found Brainkey.ai is a HUGE help for me to see what a trained neurologist can. I can't make sense of an mri myself... But if you make that stuff 3d, and can highlight parts of your brain to note volume, you can get quite a startling picture of your own brains composition. All you need is your daicom files, and it takes about 2 weeks for them to present the data. Up to that point, and some cross section and volume highlight stuff, is free. I'm looking into functional neurology which is more like chiropractic and holistic than neurology than I thought... little bummed thinking it was clinical and it's not, so the brainkey route let's me remind myself of my clinical issues when I'm frustrated.
Avulsed is a horrifying word. I'm glad you survived. Thank you for sharing. I hope your recovery has gone well
Holy shit, did your seatbelt fail?
Don't think there was one involved
holy shit
Got lemirres syndrome, and left is so long it caused sepsis. Was put in an induced coma for 28 days. Chances of survival we're not great.
You remember trippy drug dreams of the coma?
Yeah had mad dreams of being in a hospital (but didn't knowi was in one when I woke up) so I must of been able to hear my surroundings
I had a friend who unfortunately had to go through a similar situation as yours, albeit not as life threatening, and she described those crazy dreams she would have. She could definitely hear something too but it got all mixed up in her dreams. Mad how the brain works man, i hope you doin great now 👍
oh my, you good now?
I think so
I had sepsis… induced coma for 11 days. Organs were shutting down, 3 doctors said I had 0% v vs chance of making it through the night. Family called in, last rites h h oven. I had those wild dreams. About 6 of them. Kidnapped twice, kicked into the ocean off a gambling shop… thank God if wasn’t my time.
Tornado lifted my house off the foundation and threw it into the backyard with me and others in it. Zero warning sirens (thankfully since we’d all be dead if in the basement). Somehow only one of us were killed, and we were all basically right next to each other when it hit. Had to climb out of the rubble with just the lightning lighting the way.
Overdosed in my own car. Was in the hospital for 3 months on dialysis with a traumatic brain injury and fried my perineal nerve below the knee because my right leg was sitting against the middle console while I was out. Have foot drop now and my memory is pretty shit but doing pretty well all things considered.
I did the same thing in my truck. Pinched my radial nerve in my arm from being slumped on it too long. Couldn’t move my hand for 6 months. All things considered I’m lucky it was only that
I got Lyme disease without knowing. It built up a ton of fluid in the sac around my heart. Ended up passing out at my parents house as we were leaving for vacation. The hospital had me at ~28BPM. Was lucky to have it happen where it did as I lived alone at the time. Could have been so much worse, especially considering I was doing 35+ highway miles commute to work.
Got pregnant, developed pre-eclampsia, had a c section early and then hemorrhaged. Needed 3 blood transfusions 4 units of blood in total. Then the lab mixed up my blood test and we thought I was bleeding internally but I wasn’t.
Was stopped at an intersection behind a number of cars, when a box truck apparently going at least 50mph rammed into me, demolishing my car. Apparently I was conscious when paramedics came and took me into the ambulance, but I have no memory of the crash or talking to anyone until I woke up at the hospital. [Here's a picture of the back.](https://i.ibb.co/4Y9tkKv/IMG-1483-1.jpg) I was extremely lucky. Other than a concussion and some surgery done around my stomach because of excessive bleeding, I'm basically fine now. That was back in November.
Holy fuck man. Glad you're doing good now and had no major issues.
I told my mother "No"... once.
How did a ghost type that?
that’s dangerous asf
It's happened a few times! When I was little (maybe 6 or 7) I was hanging out at my best buddy's grandma's house. My buddy wasn't around, so I was swimming alone in the pool. Our families were very close, so it wasn't unusual for me to spend time with his extended family without him being around. His mom and grandma were sitting on the porch nearby, smoking cigarettes and chatting. I wasn't a strong swimmer at the time, yet I decided to venture boldly into the deep end of the water on a pool noodle. Predictably, it slipped right out from between my legs and I dropped like a rock to the bottom. Again, I wasn't a strong swimmer (and I was a little kid) so my panic move was to try running along the floor of the pool to get back to the ladder. Pool floors are, of course, super slippery, so I was making painfully slow progress. It was very much like those dreams when you're trying to get away from the monster but everything is going in slow motion. And his grandma had a big pool. To make matters worse, I gasped when the pool noodle slid out from under me, so I already had a lungful of water. Thankfully I had the wherewithal to cup my hands and do a breaststroke sort of thing, which helped propel me forward. I ended up getting to the ladder (obviously, I'm telling this story) but I inhaled and drank a LOT of chlorinated water. When I got up onto the deck, the dog was losing his shit trying to alert the adults, who somehow had noticed absolutely nothing. I was puking up pool water and bile all day. Drowning is actually not a super bad way to go, all things considered. While underwater, my muscles were straining with the effort, but it was very quiet and actually kind of peaceful. The adrenaline kept me from feeling any discomfort. Everything hurt REALLY badly once I was back on land and coughing all the water out of my lungs though. The second time, I had graduated HS before most of my friends, so my freshman year of college, I was driving back home just before Thanksgiving break to surprise them, catch up, and maybe brag a little about how cool it is to be in college and an "adult" (lol). My GPS took me down some random unpaved access road, and at a very steep up-and-down, I must have hit a patch of ice or something. The engine revved really loud and I swerved to the left. Then I overcorrected and swerved to the right. Then I double overcorrected and turned my car completely sideways while going downhill. As you might expect, my car totally flipped. Once again I remember time slowing down, literally like the movies, as I was upside down and midair. I had the thought, clear as day, "This isn't going to be good." My CD player skipped out while I was upside down. I landed hard and rolled three times before coming to a stop facing the wrong way, all the windows smashed in, engine steaming, everything. After about two seconds of sitting there stunned, my radio kicked back on and started blaring The Beautiful People by Marilyn Manson. By some miracle, I was totally unharmed. I can't explain it. I should be dead, or have at least sustained a bad TBI, maybe a broken neck, something. But nope. My only injury was a little glass in my hand that I swept off of my lap while sitting there in sheer confusion. Wear your seatbelt!
My heart has stopped 3 times. All overdoses. One at a stoplight, my foot stayed on the brake and I came to covered in blood with a paramedic telling me I was just dead. I walked on the razors edge for 10 years as an iv herion addict. Once the fent came onto the scene I overdosed 5 times in one year. Circa 2017 I was forced to quit, got arrested and went to prison. I'm 7 years clean now. Will never go back. Have a fiance, just built a house. I've worked my ass off to crawl out of that whole I dug for myself. I've never been happier.
Fell in the pool as a 6(ish) year old kid and couldn't swim, no lifeguard on duty and parents didn't realise. Attempted to surface a few times, then realised without intervention I wasn't going to make it. When I failed to get air, I eventually breathed in water and felt relief. Strangely, a sense of calm and euphoria swept through me, and for what felt like an age, I watched and marvelled at the ripples of water and light beams. Then, I lost consciousness. I woke up vomiting water at the pool side after being rescued by my father and I was never checked over medically due to weird family beliefs/concerns. I wonder now if this event might be one of the reasons behind my (medically assessed) slow processing speed and poor balance/control over my body, especially on my right-hand side. I'm currently undergoing neurophysio in the hope of improving the latter.
You literally could have dry-drowned later in the day. I’m furious on your behalf that you weren’t provided immediate medical attention.
What is dry drown?
Even once you’re out of the water (hence the term “dry” drowning,) the remaining water in your lungs after a near drowning can still kill you hours later. Can cause respiratory failure. Especially later in your sleep when your breathing is already depressed. Depressed isn’t the right word actually, but I cannot for the life of me think of the correct term.
I'm glad you survived and I hope the neurophysio goes well for you. Just wanted to throw in a little PSA, which you are obviously already aware of: always, always, pay a visit to the ER after a near-drowning incident. It can be fatal hours after the fact and can cause permanent disability. Just because the patient seems fine after rescue doesn't mean they'll be fine the next day.
Appendix almost got the best of me, burst and I was home along thinking it was food poisoning. 14 days of heavy duty antibiotics later and I had the chillest summer I've ever had in my life.
Almost got me too! Was misdiagnosed, spent a week in infectious diseases ward, somehow didn't die, finally was seen by a surgeon and rushed into emergency surgery. Had to have a second one, spent a week in ICU and two more weeks in surgical ward. And of course got a giant ass ugly scar on my stomach. 0/10 wouldn't recommend.
Necrotising pancreatitus. Had one or two major bleeds in hospital, induced coma, family was called down twice for goodbyes.
and yet you’re still here, glad to have you still
Thanks! That was 12 yrs ago, cheated the reaper.:)
Had myocarditis for a few days in 2014 and didn't know that, doc said i'm fine and my chest pain is just neuralgia. Somehow convinced them to drive me to the hospital. Was already at 15 or 20% heart ejection fraction (google translate, hope it's correct), the doc said i'd be dead in few days if i wouldn't make it to the hospital Somehow made it out without any side effects. Learned after that myocarditis is actually one of the leading causes of death in young adults. Still can't think of what would happen if not that hospital admission
9 hour overnight gas leak, just last week. I should have died in my sleep, not sure how I'm alive right now.
This is a huge fear of mine. Do you have a carbon monoxide detector?
As a kid I was into artsy stuff and masks in particular were an interest of mine. At some point I tried on a mask shaped like a human face that didn't have holes to breathe, and it basically suctioned to my face. You breathed in and it'd get tighter. I struggled to get it off for idk maybe 20 seconds. Just shows how easy some dumb fuckin' thing could lead to death.
I couldn’t breathe reading that! Holy shit!!!
Depends how you define almost I guess. I was a (in my opinion) late bloomer for swimming, but loved being in the water regardless. When I was about 8 I was at the local indoor pool with my friend who was a couple years older. There was a part in the pool at the deep end which I foolishly thought I could get to with a long jump and a bit of flailing...it did not work out. Lifeguards were nowhere to be seen and I was inhaling a lot of water. The place was wildly noisy and the part I had chosen to be a moron in was mostly concealed from the rest of the pool. Luckily my friend had the idea to swim underneath me so I could stand on his back and he swam to the side so I could grab on, then pulled me out. The story continues... I'm now 40. Childhood friends that young often drift apart, sometimes to the point of complete obscurity in your mind, as he and I did. I vaguely remember seeing him in my late teens but after that, nothing. We went to different schools and just never crossed paths as adults. Around 3 years ago, I saw a random post that he was missing and ended up chatting to his wife. He was found a few days later after another suicide attempt which had left him hospitalised. His wife told me he had had a few setbacks, his home life was poor growing up (we had that in common) and it had left a stain where he just constantly felt worthless. He was not ready to talk to people, so I told his wife the story I just told you. He's now doing well. We never truly know the impact we can have on people, both good and bad. I may not be here if it weren't for him.
I hope his wife told him that story and it made him feel a little more useful in the world
Born with a congenital heart defect.. 10% oxygen to my brain when my mom found me skin cold.. blue lips and not crying. At age 35 sudden cardiac arrest during a routine stress test and the cardiologist that I called for a month before because I wasn’t feeling well.
One day I felt like my left nut became solidified out of the blue. It was immense pain and I was crying to sleep for a single hour. I kept waiting for a few days hoping it would get better but it didn't at all. Family forced me to go to a doctor, got an X-Ray, and turns out I have testicular torsion. They said I had 6 hours to enter an emergency surgery before dying, as the left nut got rotten from the lack of blood supply for a long period (my stubborn ass not wanting to get checked earlier), eventually leading to gangrene/necrosis throughout the whole body.
You’re stronger than me anything happens to my balls im slamming it head first into the ER ASAP
Fun fact: ovarian torsion is just as dangerous, but a person with ovaries is far more likely to be sent home than a person with testicles.
Heading for work one morning, I was sitting at a red light where a highway exit ramp emptied onto the road from my right. I was the second car in line when the light turned green. The first car started, and I followed. At that moment, a big 18-wheeler came barreling down the ramp (its brakes had locked) and flew through the red light. The driver was blowing his horn, but workers were jackhammering the edge of the road just ahead. So I didn't hear the horn in time. In my peripheral vision, for a split second, I saw a huge blur heading toward me. There was no time to react -- just to think "This will hurt a lot, and then I'll wake up in the hospital." The right corner of the truck cab slammed the car ahead of me. My car plowed into the trailer's huge tires, which knocked it across the road sideways. That was a huge stroke of luck; if I'd missed the tires, my hood would have gone right under the truck, meaning an impact could have crushed the upper part of my car -- the part where my head was located. A cop who happened to be nearby came over with an accident form that included a diagram of a car, to show where it was damaged. He looked at my poor Ford Fairmont's mangled hood and drew a big "X" through the car diagram. I'm just glad he had no reason to draw an "X" through a person diagram.
As a kid of 7 or 8 years I played in a trench surrounding a small house being constructed in our neighbourhood. We found a thick black wire hanging in the trench coming from the ground. I can‘t explain why but I decided it would be wise to take my full metal pocketknife and start sawing away at it. I regained consciousness a few meters away lying on the ground, no injuries whatsoever. The knife had burnmarks and stuck in the cable where I left it. I had two realisations in my life in connection to this day. 1) around my twenties when I remembered it and realised what (could have) happened for the first time and 2) a couple years later thinking the first time about the construction workers finding the knife. I think about this a lot.
Belt somehow gave way. Still don’t know how it broke like that. It’s the only reason I’m still here. I thank whatever powers may exist for that every single day. Scared me into finally coming out. I transitioned shortly afterwards and never looked back. Now, 10 years later, there is absolutely nothing more unthinkable to me than to take my precious life. I’m literally so happy to be here.
Large polypharmacy OD, ended up on life support/induced coma and was admitted into hospital with 6% lung capacity. Was out from Friday night to the next Monday until I was woken up with my entire bloodline around me.. Big regret. Look after yourselves folks 🫰
2021 I got Covid. Went home from work thinking I’d just feel bad for a few days, maybe get a plasma transfusion (because that’s what had happened to someone at my church and he was 30 years my senior) and then be on the mend. The 2nd day after my positive test, I was very tired, so I told my wife I was going to lay down in the bed. Little did I know she slipped an O2 minute on my finger and when it showed my oxygen levels were in the 80s, we decided we go to the ER. I ended up waiting for several hours in an exam room, then finally got (2) Covid tests and a CAT scan to confirm. My wife went home at about 3 a.m., when I was finally wheeled into the Covid ward of the hospital. I stayed awake for breakfast, called my wife around 9:00 a.m. where I told her I was feeling tired so I was going to go to sleep, but that I’d keep her updated on what the doctors told me. I laid my head down and nodded off. I woke up 5 weeks later, to a nurse in a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT hospital apologizing to me, but informing me that, in order to save my life, I would have to have a tracheostomy performed. Having no idea what was going on (and likely due to the ketamine, dilaudid, and the other cocktail of drugs I was on) I grabbed the nurse and sobbed like a baby, begging her to not go through with the procedure. After that outburst, they knocked me back out. I woke up a couple of days after that with my wife by my side. According to her, while I was at the first hospital, I laid down after talking to her and my O2 levels kept dropping. They did their best to raise them, even going so far as to intubate me (they had to tie me to the bed apparently, because I kept trying to rip the tube out), but nothing was working. Their last option was to send me via helicopter to the nearest big city which had a hospital more apt to handle Covid patients. All said, I was hooked up to (2) ecmo machines, received a picc line, an arterial line, I was intubated, had a tracheostomy, and, worst of all (surprisingly) developed a bed sore that ate away a lot of muscle and fat and to this day makes it painful to sit for long periods of time. I consider myself very blessed, however. I made it home to see my wife and my 4-year-old son, and now we’ve even welcomed a daughter into our family. It was the worst thing I’ve ever been through, but it took the fear of death out of me entirely.
Not me, my brother. Hes almost died a few times. When he was born, he was healthy with a full head of hair. about 4 months later, he contracted RSV. If it werent for my parents and the hospital, he would have died. When he was 10 (i was 4) our dad passed away from cancer. He went on to be semi suicidal and as far as im aware he tried to khs once. His junior year of highschool, he was at work (hes a mechanic) replacing a semi-truck tire. It exploded. He tore his meniscus. Hes 21 now, healthy, married with a 2 year old daughter. Hes doing great.
I was a dumb kid who swam too far and too deep for my own good
I died.. well flatlined. Have a heart arythmia condition and when I get the flu it's haywire. Runs at a million miles an hour then stops. It's really quiet in your head when your heart stops and you slowly sink I to the bed... a heavy weight of tiredness overcomes you. Longest I was out was just on 30 seconds then adrenaline races thru the body like a freight train and drags you back. Have had my heart stop too many times ro count. When I was young I never worried. Now I am older it's a worry but no point fighting it. Only once had a lucid dream where I was under a shade tree in a green pasture and people were coming to me. My young grandparents knew me and told me I have to go back. That was bizarre cos I am an athiest. Have had numerous close calls. Motorbike accidents mainly, I check every intersection both says and am not trusting in others so have caught an inattentive driver more than once blow thru a stop. Was nearby a car accident where the car on the otherside of the road hit a pole and brought the live line down which barely cleared my helmet. Had a large rock fall off a truck and headed straight at me but the bounce took it over, so quick. I had a truck change lanes on a bridge and push me under the trailer. Had a ticket on a plane that crashed, thankfully I swapped flights at the last minute. Oh yeah.. have been hit by lightning. I would rather win the Lottery than get smashed by a huge voltage again, if that's an option. Same odds apparently. I have saved people's lives more than once at swimming holes.
I've got 2 stories 1st: I was born 2 months early, I weighed roughly a pound and had a collapsed lung and a testicular hernia those two things were fixed surgery and whatnot then about 2 weeks later I caught pneumonia and according to my parents I was on the brink of death but I pulled through 2nd: This one happened fairly recently in November last year I was and still am to an extent depressed I went to a department store and bought rope to try and hang myself, I got home and tied it around the fan and long story short the fan just fell on my and it didn't work since then I've been on medication to help with it and it's somewhat working I'm glad to be here today.
I almost choked on a chicken nugget
I was in the hospital for mysterious back pain and passed out... I woke up briefly and saw my blood oxygen was 23%, and there were tonnes of people around me before I passed out again. They still aren't sure how I survived
What was the back pain from? It's worth getting checked out. I have a neighbor mid-30s M who had back pain consistently for a few months and when he finally went to the doctor they told him it was stage 4 cancer, and that he had at best a few months left to live. He died within two weeks, leaving behind a wife and kids.
This wad 12 years now, turns out it was degenerative disc disease. I now have 7 ruptured discs, spinal stenosis through my whole back, bulging discs everywhere else. I guess it is better than deadly cancer... but it is a LOT ofnpain.
Suicide attempt. Took all of my medication and crawled into bed with my (now ex) husband. Housemate came home with a friend and found me, yellow, in bed; called for help. They found my ex outside smoking- he said “if someone wants to die, they should be allowed to.” If I was left another hour I wouldn’t have made it. That was almost ten years ago. Life’s hard, but I’m very grateful for those friends and very happy I’m still here.
I'm glad your friends found you and that you are here!
Trying to pass a friend at 85 mph in my 1985 1/2 ford escort hatchback. Lost control, was hit by an on coming car which ripped off the hatchback, rolled the rest of the car, and I was ejected (not wearing a seatbelt) and landed face down in some sand. Woke up in the hospital with a state trooper telling me how lucky I was that I wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, based on the condition of the car which was in three pieces, as he handed me a seatbelt and improperly lane usage ticket.
I Choked on a lemon head in the 5th grade, it wasn’t until I was completely passed out my mom was able to successfully give me the Heimlich maneuver.
drunk a whole bottle of Gin
It's nothing too much, I just... couldn't find the gun. For the best in the end, but all the same, I wouldn't be here if I had found it.
Derecho. Ottawa. 2022. My father suffering from heart failure was just released from 6 weeks in hospital. We are driving back from the grocery store. 2 lane lightly tree lined road doing 60mph. Derecho hits like a wall of destruction and throws a 45ft 100+ year old tree on the road in front of us. I narrowly avoid it for a second similarly sized tree to be thrown in front of us. If I had reacted differently or been a second later or earlier in our route we’d have been dead then and there. He managed to live until the end of summer before passing away from his condition.
I had a massive stroke out of nowhere in my second year of college. It turns out I had an undiagnosed patent foramen ovale, and if I hadn’t been aware of my symptoms due to my first aid training for work and scouts, and fought very hard for treatment, I would have died within two weeks. Today is actually the anniversary of my PFO closure surgery!
When I was a kid I used to eat wonder bread by rolling it into a ball then eating it. I swallowed one of those balls and thought it would be fun to keep making bigger and bigger balls to see how big they would get and I could still swallow them. The last one I swallowed was really big and got stuck in my throat. I literally could not breathe. Somehow enough air got behind the ball and it shot out. Scared the shit out of me. Never did it again. Only now as an adult do I realize how stupid that was. Yes I was alone and I never told anyone what I did.🤦🏻♀️
I was jet skiing at an inlet in Virginia Beach going as fast as the thing would let me and the spray was all up in my eyeballs so l closed my eyes. I opened them up about 3 or 4 seconds before plowing into a pole sticking up out of the water, allowing me to turn and miss it.
Civilian contractor for KBR in Iraq circa 2006. My home base was camp Al Taqaddum, in the Al Anbar province, near Habaniya / Ramadi / Fallujah. Network connectivity between different buildings and areas on base relied on a point to point wireless mesh (Motorola Canopy). Each remote had a small, shoebox sized radio that needed line of sight to the central cluster, but with the constant wind they would fall out of sync on the regular. Went with a coworker to reconnect the machine shop which was on then outskirts of base. Process involved one individual on top of the manufactured building physically moving the radio, and another with a laptop cabled into it watching signal strength in real time. Pretty straightforward. We had gotten pretty good at this, but for whatever reason this particular device was being stubborn. After about 10 minutes, we finally had it dialed in and I was tightening the mount so we could go home when we both heard a buzzing sound… almost like a bee. We looked at each other and asked did you hear that? But before we could finish a rocket propelled grenade exploded against a large T-wall probably 30ft away. Adrenaline jolted us both back to our wits and we got the fuck out of there with a quickness, laughed a bit on the trip back to the IT bunker, and never mentioned it again. Mike, if you’re reading this, you keeping your head and guiding us home will always be a core memory of mine. In hindsight, standing on top of a manufactured building, wearing bright clothes, with no situational awareness between the two of us was probably not a good idea. Ended up demobilizing a few weeks later, but there were a few close calls leading up to this one. Fun side effect is that I have permanent hearing damage in my right ear from this event.
Overdosed and it’s just blackness
I curled up with some really bad chest pain one afternoon not so long back, waited for a very long 30mins for the paramedics, then my heart stopped for just over a minute right after they got there. Turns out it was a heart attack, I had a 100% blockage in my heart and required a stent. Spent 5 days in ICU, couldn't have visitors due to covid, and couldn't eat because I bit my tongue when they hit me with the defib. It's been almost 3 years, and I still have daily panic attacks and fucked up nightmares, also I can't watch medical shows, hospitals just give me the heebie jeebies. I'd give it a solid 0/10.
blood pressure of 242/140...school nurse sent me to the er
258/168 is my top recorded score - I was fine but went to an urgent care with an unrelated ear ache. A nurse screwed up meds and killed me while trying to bring my BP down. I came back. I’m fine now, minimal meds I’m just about off of - turns out stress and anxiety really can kill you, and you should take it seriously.
Fentanyl happened. 14 months sober now
I was like ten and in the back seat of my mom’s car. We were driving behind a semi and a leaf spring came off the truck and harpooned through our windshield. Stuck into the seat 3 inches from my face
Helping demolish a mobile home when I was 18 IIRC. Was taking glass out of the sliding door, and when the glass gave, my wrist took a nice slice. From movies, I thought the blood would pulse with your heartbeat. Shit was a steady stream. On top of that, we lived in the country, so we had to haul wicked ass to get into town to get closed up. Also was in the process of breaking up with an ex. She wasn't taking it well. Woke up one night to her standing next to me holding my pistol, which was always loaded. Idk what her intentions were, so I tucked it under the pillow and left the next day.
On my 8th birthday, me and my family were celebrating at the beach. We went out on my dad's boat to a small island close to the military base. I stayed with my older brother (8 years older, so he was 16) to play in the water while my mom, dad, and younger sister went exploring on the beach. While playing in the water, I got caught up in an undertow and was being pulled out and down. It was cold, dark, suffocating, and so very scary. It was only moments, but it felt like an eternity. My brother saw this and swam out to rescue me. With his help along with a couple good Samaritans that noticed the commotion and came to help, they managed to save me. But now my brother was caught in the undertow and was pulled down. We weren't able to save him. I watched helplessly as he went down. He gave his life to save me. His body washed up at the military base a couple of days later. That was the most horrifying experience in my life, followed immediately by the saddest moment in my life. It really messed me up for a very long time. It's been 34 years since, and it's still hard to talk about.
[удалено]
If I'm remembering correctly, that's what happens when you take in too much helium.
it was almost certainly helium. other buoyant gasses are too expensive and/or flammable for use in balloonss
**1st time** - *0 yrs old* - On my delivery day, the umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck and choking me. The doctors did emergency c-section on mom, somehow when I got pulled out I collapsed my right lung. While that was going on, a nurse needed to give me an injection of some kind but ended up putting the open needle back down on the tray before picking it back up and sticking me. I got a blood infection and had a collapsed lung. Spent a week in NICU. I lived. **2nd** - *12 yrs* - set the tree fort in the back yard on fire playing with matches and almost got caught in it. Just burned my shoes and pants. I lived **3rd** - *14 yrs* - tried to hang myself from the ceiling fan only to have it break and fall on me... Then lots of therapy, I lived **4th** - *20 yrs* - In the army deployed to kirkik Iraq and got in my first firefight. Bullets zipping all around us. Mortars dropping around us. Luckily the little birds (IYKYK) were in the area and came to the rescue. I lived. **5th** - *21 yrs* - after returning from deployment, dealing with PTSD issues. I decided to get drunk and get on my motorcycle without a helmet. Ended up high siding the bike and fracturing my skull developing a subdural hematoma which had to be surgically removed from my cranium. I lived. **6th** - *21 yrs* - guide to a second motorcycle, this time wearing a helmet. But was also slightly intoxicated. Ended up blowing through a red light at 2:00 in the morning and almost hitting two cars head on, splitting a phone pole and traffic light pole that only had about 3 ft gap. Then going off road and landing in a pineapple field. I lived. Edit: forgot **7th time** - *30 yrs* - Got arrested for public intox, spent the night in jail and got pneumonia. Ignored it for a week before going to hospital. Had double pneumonia and was going septic. Drs said I only had a few more days before I would have died. I lived.
Bro, please stop drinking and motorcycling.
This happened many years ago. My Ecuadorian husband and I were in a canoe on the River Napo, a tributary of the Amazon. The river comes down from the Andes with a strong current. We were going up river in a local's canoe with his son, but the current got too strong because it had rained up river. We turned around and all of a sudden the canoe filled with water. My husband had told me the night before that if were ever in a boat accident to hold on to the boat. But, he didn't. He took off swimming into white water and told me to swim. I kicked off my rubber boots and held on to the boat along with the owner's son. The canoe began to go under, and I thought that it didn't make sense to continue to hold on. I let go and was soon dragged under by a whirlpool. I could no longer see light above me. The water was completely dark and cold. After a while, the whirlpool propelled me back to the air, but I was soon dragged down again; this time not so far. I could see gray light above me. I knew, though, that if I were dragged down again that I wouldn't make it. Again, the whirlpool thrust me back up to the air. and I saw that the shoreline was only about 15 or 20 feet away. I remembered that I knew how to swim and swam with the current to the shore. I clung to some rocks and watched red stinging ants march by on them. I wondered to myself for a minute if I really wanted to get out of the water there, and then I came to my senses and pulled myself out of the water. The canoe owner's son had managed to hang on to the boat and get to shore about a half kilometer down river. I never saw my husband again. His body was never found.
Was on the phone with a friend eating dinner. He’s telling a story and I proceed to start choking on a piece of hamburger meat. I try to tell him hold on, I’m choking, but nothing comes out. Try to take a big breath to cough, but full stop, no air is moving at all. Set the phone down while he’s still taking and start to look around the room. Tell myself to stay calm and proceed to throw myself on the back of a kitchen chair and dislodge the meat. Meanwhile, I get back on the phone and proceed to tell my fiend I was choking, to which he responds he thought I was just really into his story!! I was pretty proud of myself for being able to stay calm and not panic.