Closest you've come to death

[EvoSkins]

I have had experiences......

I don't remember how old I was, less than ten, and I tried to go swimming in the ocean. It was about to storm and the tide was really strong. I got caught in a rip tide and no control of what was going on. If my brother had not grabbed me, I would have been pulled out and drowned.

The other instance was my first and only car crash. I was yielding in the median of a fast highway. I saw an opening and I thought I had time to get to the other side. But, a Toyota Avalon going 60 mph slams into my front passenger side and spins me 360. The whole car was wrenched to one side. Thank God that my window was down because my sunglasses were found in the middle of the intersection. My head would have smashed into the window and I walked away with only two sparined ankles. I loved that car.

[Kosher Ham]

Several times....

1st was when I was 19 and my roommate at the time was home, I stopped home just to change and when out to meet up with family and friends......About 3 hours later a neighborhood friend paged me and informed me that my apartment had been through a fire and my roommate was dead. The story is a crazy one this is the short version.

2nd, A buddy and I used to go to the 94th aero squadron in College Park on Tuesdays (Maybe), it was a well know cop hang out. Leaving the place we were looking for another friend of ours and asked on of the guys standing around in the parking lot.....He pulled a gun on me. His partner/friend quickly grabbed him and pulled out his badge apologizing several times.

3rd, I was sick and on medication, got off work and had 2 drinks before I headed home. Blacked out and hit a telephone pole head on. I never mix Meds and Bevs now. Lesson learned.

4th, I fell asleep at the wheel after a 20+ hour day, crossed the double line on a side street and hit a four runner head on.

Sure there are more but these are just off the top of my head.

[TheSteve]

Originally posted by BlitzFiftySix

I was working at a Army Surplus store as a teenager. At closing time I was counting the cash drawer when my ditzy co-worker decided to point the .22 caliber rifle that was "a store model" dangerously close to my face and mock, "give me the money".

Obviously aggitated by this stupidity of someone pointing a gun in my face raised my right arm and brushed the barrell away from my face only for it go off and blow a small hole in the peg board wall just 5 feet behind my head. The blast from the barrell left a nasty powder burn on my neck.

I'd say closest I've ever come to losing my sight or being severely disfigured. I dont know if would have killed me or not.

Other than that. Had a few close calls - car accidents and near misses on a motorcycle.

I would have killed my coworker.

[Larry]

Originally posted by BlitzFiftySix

I was working at a Army Surplus store as a teenager. At closing time I was counting the cash drawer when my ditzy co-worker decided to point the .22 caliber rifle that was "a store model" dangerously close to my face and mock, "give me the money".

Obviously aggitated by this stupidity of someone pointing a gun in my face raised my right arm and brushed the barrell away from my face only for it go off and blow a small hole in the peg board wall just 5 feet behind my head. The blast from the barrell left a nasty powder burn on my neck.

Just out of curiosity, how close did the idiot who pointed a loaded weapon at you as a joke come to death?

[pez]

When I was in high school, I got into a fist fight, unfortunately the other guy pulled a knife and stabbed my hand as I was swinging at him. The fortunate thing is a bunch of people came in and stopped the thing before I got hit in any vital areas....

oh yeah.... and I got married :laugh:

[codeorama]

When I was 6, I was riding my bike on the street that I lived on. A teenager had a hot rodded camaro and was speeding back and forth along the street. He lost control of the car and hit me.

I don't really remember much about it other than laying on the side of the road and other kids crying. My mom was 8 months pregnant with my brother and the stress of it all caused him to flip over and my mom ended up having a c section because he was breech. I've still got a small scar on my chin and scars on my knees from it. You can't really see them anymore unless I point them out, but they are there.

When I was in college, I caught shoplifters at a department store. One old man pulled a gun on me.

Being the "badass" I thought I was, I assumed it was a toy and slapped it out of his hand. It turned out to be real and loaded.

[Larry]

Originally posted by codeorama

When I was in college, I caught shoplifters at a department store. One old man pulled a gun on me.

Being the "badass" I thought I was, I assumed it was a toy and slapped it out of his hand. It turned out to be real and loaded.

Don't know how long ago this event you're describing was, but,

Does that one go into the dictionary under "stupid criminals"? Anybody besides me think that carrying a gun with you when you go shoplifting is a really dumb way to make shure that, if you get caught, to turn a minor misdemeanor arrest into major felony time?

I mean, that gun really helped that old guy a lot, didn't it?

[codeorama]

Originally posted by Larry

Don't know how long ago this event you're describing was, but,

Does that one go into the dictionary under "stupid criminals"? Anybody besides me think that carrying a gun with you when you go shoplifting is a really dumb way to make shure that, if you get caught, to turn a minor misdemeanor arrest into major felony time?

I mean, that gun really helped that old guy a lot, didn't it?

The guy was a serious crack head, it happened back in 91 or 92. Evidently, he and several other people had been mugging people and shoplifting etc. They were doing huge hit and runs though. They would come into the stores and pull trashbags out of their pants and load them up quickly and run out.

This was a Chesapeake Square Mall. I was young and athletic so they moved me over there from Newport News and I started catching a bunch of people. I got into several fights and altercations.

I was hit with a board by a female.

I broke my hand on another female's face... WAIT, before the judgement starts, she had a baby in her hand, I placed my hand on her elbow to direct her back inside the store, she dropped the baby (and all the merchandise that was laying under the baby) and proceeded to bite my hand. I panicked with all the aids scare stuff so I punched her square in the face and dropped her cold.

For about 3 months, I caught more people than any other person in the company and I had the time of my life. I've got a ton of crazy stories.

But when the gun was pulled, after I realized it was real, I quit within a month.

[PCS]

And no, ( Larry ), I wasn't drinking at all. Though after a few of those incidents, I assure you I did afterwards.

[rdsknbill]

Struck by lightning when I was 11 years old. (Yea, now you know what's wrong with me )

Riding my bike from town back to my Aunt's place in Vermont, trying to outrun a storm. Lightning hits a pole, arcs to the handlebars of my bike. I wake up three days later with a concussion .

Installing a large CNC machine about 6 years ago. Troubleshooting the electrical system be cause all THREE limit switches were popping.

Using a voltage meter, testing voltages between the breakdown transformer (breaking down the voltage from 480 to 240 volts) and the main board. Touched my arm on the metal door of the cabinet. Luckily there was a chair behind me. It shot me back into the chair with such force that the back of the chair broke. I sat there for a second, dazed. Then all of the sudden my tounge started to burn. Turns out that that shot heated up my fillings. :yikes:

I guess I should stay away from electricity. :doh:

Car accidents? How much time have you got?

[TXREDSKINS44]

Originally posted by BlitzFiftySix

I was working at a Army Surplus store as a teenager. At closing time I was counting the cash drawer when my ditzy co-worker decided to point the .22 caliber rifle that was "a store model" dangerously close to my face and mock, "give me the money".

Obviously aggitated by this stupidity of someone pointing a gun in my face raised my right arm and brushed the barrell away from my face only for it go off and blow a small hole in the peg board wall just 5 feet behind my head. The blast from the barrell left a nasty powder burn on my neck.

I'd say closest I've ever come to losing my sight or being severely disfigured. I dont know if would have killed me or not.

Other than that. Had a few close calls - car accidents and near misses on a motorcycle.

I take it she no longer works for you??

[[[ghost]]]

i had a sharpie stuck up my nose once

[nickfox45]

some crazy stuff here, i guess ill add my own story.

I'm in the backseat of my friend's car, and hes just cut off this guy pretty bad who he didnt see in...the parking lot. We both reach the stop light to turn onto the highway and there are two turn lanes, both to turn left, we're in the right lane while the guy we cut off is in the left. However, because my friend was embarassed for cutting the guy off so bad, he doesnt pull up next to him at the stop light, he stays a full car length behind. So the light changes, and my friend starts his usual peel-out in his WRX, and the guy he cut off starts to pull out as well, but stops short. Luckily my friend was watching him and stopped short as well, just in time for a Honda to blaze through the intersection going about 70 mph.

I don't like to think about what might've happened if we hadn't cut that guy off in the first place.:doh:

[skins1972]

This is to all of you:

Lucky M#$#$#$##$ and also thank you for ruining my God Damn Tuesday Morning reading these horror stories!!!

Now lets see more

[B&GPride44]

Chomerics, my brother had the same sort of injury but he had a full aortal tear. Luckily the medics in the helicopter knew that he was on the verge of death and decided to divert from PG Shock Trauma to Baltimore Shock Trauma at UM. Best thing that could have happened for him. He was rushed to surgery upon arrival and they actually had to graft tissue to his aorta to close the tear. Needless to say he has the same wicked scar. After they took care of his heart they then turned to his brain in what they call Priority Care. In which they treat the most life threatening injury first and then move on from there no matter the consequences. So first off they had to make sure his heart was pumping that good oxygenated blood through his body and once it was...They realized that he had some pretty severe brain swelling. Luckily through medication and observation they got the swelling down withough surgery and 2 weeks later he was off the respirator but still in somewhat of a semi-vegetated state where he had to kind of re-learn everything which he did amazingly fast and one month later he came home. Six months later we returned to Baltimore on better terms my brother was one of 2 patients selected from the hospital as participating in the hospital's night of heroes. In which they honor the life saving measures taken by everyone involved from paramedics to nurses to dispatchers and then ask the person they saved to give a speech on their behalf. It was an amazing gala and something I'll never forget. Wow I've went on enough. My brother is perfectly fine almost 4 years later. Sorry to take up so much time...Just wanted to share!

[Dead Money]

I was on a 30ft boat that broached and tossed the owner over the top of the fly bridge right into the water. I went in after him with a throwable in my teeth and then she sank in 5 minutes.. I then had to swim into her to get the life raft out from inside the cabin in 6ft seas. While I was inside her underwater she was rolling around on the sea floor.

Thankfully we were only in 18 ft of water so we were able to get the raft and the ditch bag with the first aid kit and radio and patched up the owners head and called for help.

We were rescued by a private vessel who watched the whole thing happen from a couple of hundred yards behind us.

Thought I was gonna eat it that day.

2nd runner up was a time I was surfing in a huge NE swell in the winter in NJ and got washed up on some rocks. I was standing on the end of a jetty looking up at a humungous wave and thought it was the end... Luckily it smashed me away from the rocks and I swam back to shore with my tail between my legs and went home and wiped myself.

[big z]

when aikman hit the rocket in that overtime game, i came pretty close, but the shower rod broke.

i had one accident where i fell asleep and hit a parked car, but i was wearing my seatbelt at the time, which i rarely do, so that was no biggie.

and i jumped off a horse once (1st time rider) when he was galloping toward a barndoor opening that would have beheaded me...but that was just a knock the wind out of me experience...

Glad the rest of you made it though!

[E-Dog Night]

I flipped a car when I was drunk (age 17). Should have died, really. Somehow walked away without a scratch. Don't ask me how, I don't know and barely remember.

But the closest I think was when I was about 20 years old. Rock climbing, Joshua Tree. On shrooms. With no ropes.

Dumb, very dumb.

All of a sudden I slid down on a ledge about 50-60 feet above certain, rocky death. There was no way to climb back up. I had two choices: stay there and hope someone found me (no one knew where I was, because I had decided to wander off, and everyone else I was with were on shrooms too) or jump to another ledge where I could climb to a new area. The jump was about 5 feet onto another very small ledge, with nothing to hold on to. In between was a crevace, with a drop that would have either killed me or left me in a state where I would wish for death.

I made it the jump, barely. And barely held on, after a few horrifying seconds of wobbling and slipping (if you have ever been to the Joshua tree you know what kind of rocks I am talking about).

It makes me cringe to think about it today.

[SkinsNut73]

When I was in my late teens I was out cruising in my convertible one night with three friends. Some clown runs a red light and just misses us...so my friends prod this clown, yours truly, into chasing the guy down. What we were planning to do once we got to him I don't know....but we chased him. We came upon an intersection and there was a red light....aha...we got him now. My friend in the passenger seat is getting ready to get out of the car at the light...when all of a sudden this dude swerves to the right and stops in the breakdown lane. We pull up alongside him and my buddy starts to open the door when all of a sudden we realize he has a gun pointed right at us. Oh Crap! Punched the gas to the floor and ducked. No shots fired, but it sure scared the crap out of us. One of the stupidest things I've ever done for sure...

The most recent one was a fire at a local foundry last Memorial Day. We got called out for a report of heavy smoke on Main St. Turns out that a furnace in the foundry had "exploded" and there was a working fire in the foundry. We were up on the roof of this 200+ year old building doing the ventilation when the tar on the roof starts bubbling from the heat. So we vacate and head back down to the ground. No biggie right? Well, on Tuesday of that week all firefighters were asked to report to the foundry for a tour. They fed us pizza and soda for dinner and then the management team took us on a tour of the factory....where they explained to us if something like this happens again, do not attempt to save the building. Let it burn. Since the building is over 200 yrs old they do not invest a lot of money in it for repairs...so they patch large holes in the roof with sheet metal and slap tar over it...easy enough for a 210 lb. firefighter with 60 pounds of equipment to cave in. And if we were to survive the 60 foot drop to the ground below we would have landed in a chemical bath which would have surely done us in. At the time we had no idea how bad things were/could have been...but I almost poop my pants everytime I drive by that building now thinking what might have been.

[SkinsNut73]

Originally posted by big z

when aikman hit the rocket in that overtime game, i came pretty close, but the shower rod broke.

:laugh:

Yes...forgot about that one. That was my first game as a season ticket holder and lets just say it's a good thing there is a big fence around the top of the stadium because I was ready to jump that day...

[CanadianSkinsFan]

Years ago, when I knew I was invincible, I decided to take up skydiving.

The high you feel, no pun intended, is out of this world.

They go through the process of training you for a day and inform you that your first 6 jumps will be with a static cord. (An extended ripcord is hooked to the plane which enables the chute to be opened as you jump from the plane).

The site itself consisted of a large barn, acres of fields with the east end bordered by a large forest. The first jump was terrifying. They take you up in a small Cessna which has been stripped of all seats except the pilots. They circle the site and throw a wind streamer out of the plane to check wind variations. The jump master calls your name, pilot stops the engine and glides and you literally climb out onto the wing holding onto the wing strut. Believe me this was the most difficult part of the jump. The jump master slaps your knee and you let go. You freefall for about 10 seconds and then the chute opens. The feeling when the chute has opened is unbelievable. Relief that the chute has actually opened mixed with an incredible high as you drift to the ground. There are two toggles. Pull left and you go left, etc. pull both at the same time and your descent speed increases. As you got your bearings you realize you are gently descending toward the fields and barn area. You also have a 'one way' radio attached to your chest where a ground crew would direct your toggle pulls if he felt you were drifting into trouble. There were always many friends and families watching the jumps and the ground crew asked you to wave and kick your legs if you were having fun etc.

My first three jumps were incredible. I was addicted and spent every weekend at the site. You had to wait until winds dropped to less than 10 mph. You would hit the ground at 8 mph plus the wind speed. So they never wanted you to hit at higher than 18mph.

My fourth jump is one I will never forget. We had to wait most of the day for the wind to drop. It was at about 15-20mph most of the day. Finally they agreed to take us up. I was the first one out of the plane. After my chute opened the first thing I noticed was that I was very close to the forest AND drifting deeper into it. Hmmmmm nothing on the radio. I pulled my left toggle to adjust my descent direction. Nothing! I just couldn’t pull the toggle at all. It was obviously tangled. Pulling the right toggle just spun me in a tight descending circle AND I am now over the forest and getting much deeper into it. WTF? Still nothing on the radio! I am now yelling WTF? Still nothing and the forest getting closer. 2-300 feet above the trees the ground instructor is suddenly yelling "Jumper #1 PULL YOUR LEFT TOGGLE" over and over again. I'm screaming, to myself basically' "its F#^*^* stuck!” I now realize I'm in serious trouble and remember reading the world war two stories concerning the number of jumpers that lost their lives falling into to trees. Believe me at this point I’m truly thinking I'm screwed. As I drop closer to the densely packed tree tops I follow the steps I learned in my training. 1) Cross your legs and protect from branches crushing your groin. 2) Cross your arms across your face and head area.

I drop and drop. At the last second I see a space between two trees that I'm getting closer to. I pull hard on the left toggle, my feet dragging across the higher branches, I fall into the space. The chute catches the top of the tree and jerks me, very quickly, like a pendulum toward the closest tree. I get my feet up and bounce of the tree, wrecking my ankle in the process. My face and arms are scratched to chit. My ankle is killing me, I’m being swarmed by mosquitoes, and I'm hanging 4 feet from the ground. I've never been more relieved in my life! After a few minutes of catching my breath I unhook myself and fall into the marsh. In training they tell you to wait by your chute to enable the crew to find you quicker. I wait about 5 minutes and hear yelling etc. They finally take me by van back to the barn area.

The whole jump was a fiasco! I have no idea why I ended up where I did. The other jumpers ended up very close to the forest. We were supposed to be no where near that area. The ground crew/radioman was obviously not at his post when he was supposed to be. The toggle/chute malfunctioned. It was a mess. However I am here to tell you about it and for that I am thankful.

Sorry for being long winded. Memories.

:dallasuck

[Mooney]

Coming back from losing our 2nd straight National Championship in flag football in Orlando, our team had 3 mini-van loads of players. You had to make a U-turn on a 50 mph road thru the median to get to our motel. We were in the 1st van, made the U-turn and got stuck behind a car that had stopped in the middle of the road rubbernecking an accident right in front of our motel. Behind us was one of the tractor-trailer tow trucks, a big one, coming down the highway right at us honking its horn as it really had no where else to go, while the other 2 vans were watching from the median. The car in front of us finally moved, and our driver pulled onto the shoulder. I was sitting in the back corner of the van and the tow truck missed us by about 2 feet. The rest of the night, at Hooters, everybody called us "Ghosts".

The next day when I flew back into BWI, I found out that my 8 year old son had woken up from a nightmare, saying that he had a dream that I was killed in a car accident. It was at the exact time the tow truck barely missed us.

[big z]

that parachute story was awesome....i don't think i could ever do it...props!

[Kilmer17]

Ive posted this before, but it's appropriate again-

http://www.extremeskins.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=50568&highlight=Jeep

When I was 18, I got into a jeep wrangler with 3 of my friends. We were drunk. It was snowing. And we decided that it was a perfect night for some offroading fun (top off of course). After an hour or so of fun, we drove into town and got gas and more beer (smart right). Getting back into the Jeep, I hopped into the front passenger seat and threw on my belt and for some reason told the two in the back that it would be smart for them to do the same. Even though NONE of us had been wearing them before. We had been almost bouncing out.

No less than 5 minutes later we were in a new development. No roads in, but they had been graded, so the mud was great. We were spinning a donut when the driver stopped suddenly and screamed. We were less than 2 feet from the edge of a steep embankment. We all started to breath a sigh of relief when the mud underneath gave out and we went down the embankment.

The police estimated we flipped 14 times spinning like a gyroscope. We ended up over 100 yards down at the bottom, upside down, in a creek bed. All of us had rings of mud around our heads where we had sunk into the ground on the way down. All 4 of us walked 5 miles to the hospital. The biggest injury was a slight concussion and a scaped back. The Jeep was a complete total. Every person I have even shown the picture of the Jeep refuses to believe than any, and certainly not ALL, involved had survived.

Needless to say, I will refuse to even start the car if everyone (backseat included) is not buckled up. I also wont ride in a car if the driver wont wear it.

Just thought Id share.

[Huly]

After having my tonsils taken out I started hemorrhaging from the coratic artery. Luckily I woke up coughing as this started in the middle of the night. I was only 12 so my parents rushed me to the ER. The doctors being the idiots they were tried to remove the clot. First after telling me none of this would hurt, they tried to suck it out (I bit a hole in the suction tube because it hurt like hell) secondly they tried to cauterize it with acid while I was awake. I bit the tongue depressor in half. By this time my mom heard me screaming from the back of the ER and came running. Once she saw the blood (looked like a mass murder horror movie scene) and how frantic I was she told them to take me to the OR to fix this clot. Well the Dr finished and came out to tell my mom I was in recovery and also then proceeded to tell her that it was a good thing I fought them as the blood clot was on my main artery in my throat. He said if he would have broken that clot any looser in the ER I would have been dead before I reached the OR.

The worst part of this story is all of that took place the summer after my brother passed away.