re: Closest you've ever been to death

When I was 9, I got ran over by a drunk driver in a pickup truck. I was playing in my grandparents' yard. It broke both my pelvic bones and my left leg in 7 places. I was in a coma for a week and had to stay in a hospital bed for 4 months.


When I was 16, some of my friends and I got into a fight with some guys that were doped out of their minds. One pointed a gun at me, and everyone stopped fighting. I thought I was a gonner.

When I was 20, traveling home for Thanksgiving from college, I got hit head-on by an 18-wheeler. It totaled my truck. Luckily, I was not wearing my seatbelt. The impact threw me into the passenger seat, and my whole driver side of my truck was gone.

At 24, I got stabbed while trying to break up a fight between one of my friends and some guy at a bar. I guess I really wasn't in any danger to die though.

Truck hit a patch of ice at the top of a mountain in Mitchell County, NC, on New Year's Day 1998. Went over a very steep bank sideways. Tumbled numerous times but didn't blow up like in the movies. Finally came to rest against a tree - one of only three in the area. If I hadn't hit that tree I would have plunged a thousand feet or so. There was nothing else behind it to stop me.

Once it came to rest, you couldn't see the truck from the road unless you were standing right at the edge. Had to climb about a hundred feet up an ice-covered 'cliff' to get back to safety. Truck was totaled.

Somehow, I escaped with few obvious injuries.

Nov. 21, 2016. Week after open heart surgery while still in the hospital I started hemorrhaging from the sutures in my heart. Long story short I bacially slowly bled to death and coded about 9:00 PM that night. They revived me and did another emergency open heart surgery that night to stop the bleeding.

3 day canoe trip bachelor party when the river was too high and dangerous. hit a submerge log and flipped, got caught under the log and was struggling to get out. I thought for sure i was going to drown. When I eventually made it back above water I was so out of breath I had to lay on the log for a few minutes before floating down river on an ice chest since my canoe was gone

quote:

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Damn you are lucky to be alive

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But for the grace of God and skill of my doctors and nurses, I'd be in the ground right now.

Vacation in Mexico with my parents when I was about 15. There were huge waves. When in a sitting position on the beach, a wave would pick you up and move you about 10 feet over. I thought it was really cool and showed my Dad.

What I didn't know was that there was a lunar eclipse the night before, so the tide was abnormal - even though the flags were still green.

Big waves eventually moved us to a rip current and sucked us out about 40 yards offshore.

Swimming in, I could just get my toes in the sand before I got moved out again. After about 10 minutes of straight hard swimming, I started thinking this was it...and thought about my options. Then I heard my Dad sputter out "Try to swim to shore...". The thought that he was in trouble too really sobered me up for a second and I tried harder - but didn't make any real progress.

And then this Hulk-like Mexican lifeguard grabbed both of us by the arm and lifted us out of the water and said "Dis Way..". Pulled us out and we both were pretty beat. I at least tried to maintain some dignity and went up to my towel and dried off. I looked back and my dad was lying on the beach like a beached whale - he was pretty close to not making it.

Rest of the day we watched from a beach side restaurant as boats and Jet Skis pull people from the water, and rescued the crew of a small catamaran that got flipped by a wave. We found a newspaper and translated the lunar eclipse info...and they put up red flags eventually.

Was born premature and weighed just 2.5 lb at one point.

Had Meningococcal meningitis when I was 7 or 8.

Seemed like every time I went to Scotland for work I was nearly hit by a car while crossing the street. Damn fools drive on the wrong side of the road.

Darth, I don't know if you read through this entire thread, but no one has shite on PJ. According to him, he has had 14 surgeries in the past 2 years so no one has dealt with anything as bad as he has.