32 Terrifying Times and Wild Ways People Almost Met Their Maker
Sometimes, the line between life and death is so thin.
Published 1 year ago in Ouch
Life is fragile. Most days, most of us can forget that. With the majority of our days in a modern society spent trying our best not to pull the trigger on that quadruple-patty fried chicken pancake burger sundae or to discover what new Netflix show is least worst before the boredom can set in, it becomes all too easy to take each moment that comes and goes for granted. It's only when we get stark reminders that the near-death experiences down below that we remember that each of those moments could easily be our last.
2
Went to go visit a friend in Gloucester Mass in winter back in high school far from my home. I was planning on staying overnight at their house but their mother who I now know has mental health problems wouldn’t even let me in the house because the father "wasn’t home" working a night shift. Friend said sorry bro and closed the door. Almost froze to death waiting outside in 10 degree F at night. A cab driver saw me slumped on a bench and woke me up. Let me get warm and drive around in the passenger seat while he picked up drunk people out on the town all night. When he finished his shift he dropped me off at the train station and handed me 7 bucks for the fare. Dude probably saved my life and I can’t even remember his name.
3
I walked into a back room freezer of a grocery store. The huge door was designed to close automatically. I knew this and went in and did what I was there to do. After 30 seconds, I couldn’t catch my breath. I thought maybe I was just working to hard so I stopped and took several huge breaths, nothing. I felt like I was drowning out of water. I had to move as quickly as I could back outside of the freezer and feel to my knees gasping when I got out. It was only afterwards I realized for some dumb reason someone kept open dry ice in a cart inside of the freezer. Dry ice removes oxygen out of the air in enclosed spaces. I almost died from lack of oxygen and would have been an icicle when they found me. Don’t mess with dry ice.
6
Stuck my head out the car window bc I wanted to see why dogs loved it. My grandpa didnt notice, rolled up the window, and I choked. He freaked out when he heard the cat like noises (ironic) I was making while my neck was trying to squeeze through the small opening of the window, but kept raising the window in his panic. Eventually he got it and I was left with a red mark on my neck and no closer to understanding dogs. My grandpa passed earlier this year so its a nice way to remember him and I know he' get a chuckle to know people found it funny. it was meant to be funny so dont feel bad for laughing. My lil sis was in the seat next to me when this happened and she was laughing too, funny then, funny now.
7
I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, I was getting off the school bus and was walking around to the other side to my driveway. Suddenly the bus driver hits the horn, scared the heck out of me and I stopped at the edge of the front of a bus and a dump truck good speeding around. I dunno if the dump truck driver didn't see the lights of the bus or whatever but that driver made a dumb mistake that could have cost me my life. Thinking about it my older sister was up at our driveway waiting for me, probably would have messed her up for life. After that the school district changed bus routes to avoid students having to cross the road to get on or off the bus
8
Waited too long to go to the hospital (pre-Covid) I thought I just had a cold. Husband said, go to the doctor. I said no. Three days later, still not great. Husband said, go to urgent care. I said I will if I don't feel better tomorrow. Next day, I tell husband, I need to go to the ER. A collapsed lung due to pneumonia.Three days in hospital plus breathing issues for the next year. Moral: Listen to your spouse. And yeah, got a whole lot of "I told you so"s. Deserved every one of them.
16
Swam under a shipyard pier at night (solid concrete above me) and lost my sense of direction. Got lucky and found my way out. To add more detail - A friend and I were "assault swimmers" attacking a ship for a training exercise at night. We would swim from pier pylon to pylon underwater. Take a breath, go under, push off, and swim ~20' to the next pylon, surface and repeat. My mask broke and I was doing it with my eyes closed due to having contacts at the time. One time I just kept swimming and felt like I missed the pylon. When I went to slowly broach the surface I found myself under the concrete above. I had no idea the pier was even built like that. Put my hands up and oriented myself. It looked dark in all directions but my gut told me to the right is where I came from. After that, I stayed on the surface! Cheers!
24
Fell through the ice. The great lakes freeze partially in the winter. Far out there was an ice ridge, and on the other side was this clear glassy ice as far out as I could see. I climbed over the ridge to take a leak in privacy, but it wasn't solid. Went through. Wife had to put down our first infant son to fish me out.
25
Choked on a small potato at the Pizza Hut salad bar. Completely lodged in my throat. I raced to the loo and shoved my fingers down my throat, and it popped out. Walked back to my table and finished my salad. I was with my boyfriend. He did nothing. I grabbed the waitress’s arm. All she did was say “is she okay?” to my boyfriend. Hence running to the loo to deal with it myself!!
28
I was very small (probably around 5) and when my mum wasn’t looking I tied some clothes around my neck and hooked it to the stair railings, then tried to jump off the railings to see if they would hold me. Fortunately I was too small to climb over the railings and my mum found me before I would’ve jumped.
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