Have you ever had a near death experience?

I wouldn't say I have had any myself but I did slip while walking down the stairs holding my son the other week and that was absolutely terrifying. He went up in the air and I managed to catch him as i fell without him banging anything. He was only upset his sleep had been disturbed but it was terrifying and left me shaken I now take absolutely ages walking up and down the stairs with him.

There was a big tree (prob 25-30 foot tall) in my Dad's garden which he wanted reduced to about 8 foot. I'd read a Ladybird book of trees when I was small so obviously I knew exactly how to fell it, so I said I'd do it for him.

I climbed up, cut out a notch in the direction I wanted it to fall, and then started cutting in the reverse side. This thing was huge, so of course I'd prepared a space for it to fall. As I cut it, it started to fall - towards me, rather than where I'd planned it.
I managed to leap out of the tree as it crashed down onto part of the garden and against the fence, it literally would have killed me if I hadn't jumped.

I hadn't taken account of the weight of branches, wind direction, the lean of the tree or anything - I just literally based my (with hindsight, potentially lethal) plan on a drawing in a children's book.

I still have flashbacks.

Edit - I just looked up the ladybird book of trees on Amazon in case anyone wanted to buy a copy

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ladybird-Book- ... B0031DHUEC

£916

I had septic shock in December 2013. I was in the ICU for a week, the nurses there were great, the doctors... not so much. They kept trying to feed me and make me eat although I wasn't hungry in the slightest, and I ended up having a feeding tube inserted up my nose and into my stomach. After being sick for an entire day (I couldn't stop throwing up), and feeling worse than ever, this one brilliant doctor appeared. I honestly dont know what would have happened if he hadn't come. He looked at my charts, looked at what was being pumped into me (I had an A line put in, like a pipe in my neck for meds) and said to the team surrounding him "why is that feeding pipe in her? Get that out immediately, look at the medication she's on, it's no wonder she isn't eating. Give her a rest. Leave her be for today and we'll see how she is tomorrow."

Next day I felt a better. Still didn't feel great, but i felt better. A day later i was moved onto the wards where I spent a week there. My first night was interrupted by a very miserable nurse who came in and said "ugh god, why the hell are you here? What's wrong with you?" As she took my blood pressure. I was glad to be out of the ICU, and luckily I didn't see that nurse again.

I've been in hospital since with another infection but luckily I havent had to be put in ICU again. I didn't get to rest much, one woman was diabetic in there and her blood sugars were out of control. She kept saying there were people at the window (there was no way of that actually being true, we were on the second floor) and punched a couple of the nurses saying she had to escape as the man was out to get her. She was quiet during the day but at night she just wouldn't stop. I hope she got better in the end.

I was lying on the grass of Sunday morning of last week
Indulging in my self-defeat
My mind was thugged, all laced and bugged, all twisted, wrong and beat
A comfortable three feet deep
Now the fuzzy stare from not being there on a confusing morning week
Impaired my tribal lunar speak
And of course you can't become if you only say what you would have done
So I missed a million miles of fun


Anyway, there was a nest of poisonous catterpillars about 1m away from my head. That scared me.

Had a pulmonary embolism then fell down the stairs

Woke up having near OD'd with vomit all around me - if I'd fallen asleep on my back I would've been strawberry floated

Got lost in Bulgarian mountains by myself with a rabid dog and snow around me, sun setting, and I was only wearing a tshirt

I had a bad case of flu and pneumonia at Christmas in 2009 which had me bedbound from Christmas day until some time in early January, during which time there were several occasions where I genuinely thought I was going to die.

Fell out of a tree when I was 12. Landed on a concrete post which split my liver and caused massive internal bleeding. Several operations, 20 pints of blood and a collapsed lung. Somehow they finally stopped the bleeding and I was ok.

I still have amazing scars.

Got shot at with an RPG in Afghanistan. They missed.

Somebody Else's Problem wrote:Got shot at with an RPG in Afghanistan. They missed.

He then slipped on a D20.

You all have pussy stories compared to me seeing some ugly caterpillars, you should be ashamed.

Ironhide wrote:I had a bad case of flu and pneumonia at Christmas in 2009 which had me bedbound from Christmas day until some time in early January, during which time there were several occasions where I genuinely thought I was going to die.

I had that a couple of years ago where I was hospitalised for over a week, that gooseberry fool's no joke.

I can't remember it because I was black out drunk but a loved one had to stop me from choking to death on my own vomit. Never touched the stuff ever again.

Not really. The closest was when I jumped down a floor of a multi-storey car park when drunk.

Ended up not being able to walk properly for around a week. Had to practically walk on my heels.

Every time I see a funny picture I'm like who did this and I almost die.

I ruptured my liver when I was 17 (21 years ago) by falling off my bike into a wooden stump. Went off to hospital in an ambulance all checked over in A&E I thought I had broken my collarbone as I had a big pain there but all ok so sent home with some strong painkillers, after getting home I fall asleep upstairs then wake up and puke a lot of blood down the toilet then I collapse but only come around to my mum screaming down the phone for another ambulance. Once the paramedics arrived my vision was really poor only seeing about 1 meter in front of me which they found out quickly I had internal bleeding. Back to A&E for a scan then shipped off to another hospital for an emergency operation. A few days in ICU then a few more days in high dependency.
The doctors reckon I lost around 6 pints of blood and had to cut away about 25% of my liver which took around 2 years to grow back also a nice big scar across my stomach. But I did get to go in three ambulances in one day.

I still race mountain bike and ride BMX I haven't learnt.

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:Every time I see a funny picture I'm like who did this and I almost die.

Do you also scream?

darksideby182 wrote:I ruptured my liver when I was 17 (21 years ago) by falling off my bike into a wooden stump. Went off to hospital in an ambulance all checked over in A&E I thought I had broken my collarbone as I had a big pain there but all ok so sent home with some strong painkillers, after getting home I fall asleep upstairs then wake up and puke a lot of blood down the toilet then I collapse but only come around to my mum screaming down the phone for another ambulance. Once the paramedics arrived my vision was really poor only seeing about 1 meter in front of me which they found out quickly I had internal bleeding. Back to A&E for a scan then shipped off to another hospital for an emergency operation. A few days in ICU then a few more days in high dependency.
The doctors reckon I lost around 6 pints of blood and had to cut away about 25% of my liver which took around 2 years to grow back also a nice big scar across my stomach. But I did get to go in three ambulances in one day.

I still race mountain bike and ride BMX I haven't learnt.

Sounds like we're liver twins.

I got hit by a car on the way to college. It couldn't have been too serious because I went to college rather than than the hospital like everyone at the scene wanted me to. But I had an assignment to hand in and didn't want to get marked down. Apparently I didn't think being hit by a car was extenuating circumstances

Moggy wrote:

darksideby182 wrote:I ruptured my liver when I was 17 (21 years ago) by falling off my bike into a wooden stump. Went off to hospital in an ambulance all checked over in A&E I thought I had broken my collarbone as I had a big pain there but all ok so sent home with some strong painkillers, after getting home I fall asleep upstairs then wake up and puke a lot of blood down the toilet then I collapse but only come around to my mum screaming down the phone for another ambulance. Once the paramedics arrived my vision was really poor only seeing about 1 meter in front of me which they found out quickly I had internal bleeding. Back to A&E for a scan then shipped off to another hospital for an emergency operation. A few days in ICU then a few more days in high dependency.
The doctors reckon I lost around 6 pints of blood and had to cut away about 25% of my liver which took around 2 years to grow back also a nice big scar across my stomach. But I did get to go in three ambulances in one day.

I still race mountain bike and ride BMX I haven't learnt.

Sounds like we're liver twins.

The scars are the best bit

darksideby182 wrote:

Moggy wrote:

darksideby182 wrote:I ruptured my liver when I was 17 (21 years ago) by falling off my bike into a wooden stump. Went off to hospital in an ambulance all checked over in A&E I thought I had broken my collarbone as I had a big pain there but all ok so sent home with some strong painkillers, after getting home I fall asleep upstairs then wake up and puke a lot of blood down the toilet then I collapse but only come around to my mum screaming down the phone for another ambulance. Once the paramedics arrived my vision was really poor only seeing about 1 meter in front of me which they found out quickly I had internal bleeding. Back to A&E for a scan then shipped off to another hospital for an emergency operation. A few days in ICU then a few more days in high dependency.
The doctors reckon I lost around 6 pints of blood and had to cut away about 25% of my liver which took around 2 years to grow back also a nice big scar across my stomach. But I did get to go in three ambulances in one day.

I still race mountain bike and ride BMX I haven't learnt.

Sounds like we're liver twins.

The scars are the best bit

Yep

I still have a stitch inside of me (hospital forgot to take it out) that you can see at the top of my belly/bottom of my chest. I used to love freaking people out by getting them to touch it (no context).