this is it, I'm going to die

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Or at least the thought crossed my mind. Happened to me a couple of years ago. I was tooling down a Southern California freeway, day-dreaming and singing along with the radio, when all of a sudden I look ahead of me and, Holy Mother of God!, everyone is at a dead standstill while I’m cruising at 80 miles an hour. I slammed on the brakes and closed my eyes (I was in the far left lane next to a cement wall, and the right lane was jam-packed with cars, so I didn’t have much choice.), and waited for the crash. And I said to myself: (see subject line.)

But I didn’t die, I heard a lound CRASH! and my car pushed four cars in front of me into each other, spun around and was hit by another car in the side, and then everything went quiet. I had big bruises and my car was totalled, but it turns out that no one was (visibly) injured! I was a lucky man. The passenger in the car behind me ran out to see if I was still alive (since their car had smashed up the driver’s side of mine the were, I imagine, as horror-struck as I was.) While two lanes were closed off for the debris to be cleared, I was leaning against the aforementioned cement divider, shaking. The huge traffic jam created was obviously raising the tempers of the other freeway denizens, because one of them took the trouble to yell at me “Learn how to drive, asshole!” Needless to say, I’ve taken his admonition to heart, and am much more careful now.

So, what’s your close brush with Mr. Death?

2

Well, according to the anti-gunners, I’m due to be shot (or commit suicide) any day now, since I have several handguns at home. Is this what you’re looking for?

3

I was robbed at my old job once, and I had a gun pressed to my head. The robber was insisting that I open the safe, and I would have, if we had a safe. I was sure I was going to die that day.
Then there was the time I had to wait 2 weeks to find out the results of a biopsy. Longest two weeks of my life. I was preparing myself for the worst, and towards the end of the wait, I was sure I was dying of cancer. Boy was I relieved when it wasn’t anything serious. :slight_smile:
Rose

4

I was having chronic headaches and vision problems, and my doctor told me I probably had brain cancer. Just had to wait a few hours for a CAT scan to find out.

Picture this: A frightened 17-year-old girl in her hospital room with her sobbing mother. Then, the tv from the next rrom plays a comercial with “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong playing on the backgroud. Not a fun moment.

Luckily, it was nothing serious. :slight_smile:

5

Two. Both medical.

About seven years ago I was having chronic chest pain and shortness of breath. My doctor sent me for some tests, one of which was an echocardiogram. I worked at the hospital, knew the tech who did the test, and we were laughing and joking and all of a sudden she goes dead quiet. Now, even a total rookie in medical circles knows something’s up with that. So she finally finishes the test, tells me to put my shirt back on, and to wait for her. She was taking an awfully long time, and as I knew my way around the department, I went looking for her. I heard her on the phone, telling whoever she was talking to that “Dr Baker needs to get in here and read this thing NOW.” Needless to say I about passed out. Turns out it was a major pericardial effusion, but it resolved itself through medication.

Another time the lab report came back all out of whack, which led my doctor to believe I most likely had advanced cervical cancer. Turns out the lab made a mistake, but for those couple of weeks…

6

Can’t really say that I have ever been afraid I was about to die (mostly because I was too stupid to notice at the time). But I have come really close to killing someone once and I think it probably had an even greater impact on me.

I was driving down a four-lane road (two lanes each way with a median) going about forty in the right hand lane. Didn’t even notice that a pick-up in the left lane had come to stop until I was about to pass him when all of a sudden a teenaged girl came running our from in front of the pick-up. The stupid pick-up driver had stopped in the middle of the block to let her finish crossing from the median!

Somehow I managed to swerve behind her and narrowly avoid killing her. I would say I came within half a foot though. Had the shakes all day.

7

Arnold, I am very glad you did not bite the big one and I’m glad you are ok!

Oh, btw, to learn to drive in So. California, you need a handgun, a pile of blow next to you and a police helicopter chasing you. It’s true, I saw it on tv.

8

Nacho4sara – friend of mine went to a funeral yesterday – the man had died of a brain tumor – What a Wonderful World was one of the songs played at the funeral.

9

Not really my own “I’m gonna die, experience”, but…

About 8 or 9 years ago I was driving home with my girlfriend. A guy came barrelling down a blind side street, running a stop sign, and broadsided us HARD! We both had time to realize it was going to happen, and as he hit, my girlfriend said, “Goodbye!”

(Nobody was hurt beyond bruises.)

10

And beatle, don’t forget your being stalked experience, worse than near death I’d say.

11

Arnold,

I thought that “This is it. I’m going to die.” was the thought you had when you were about to go flying with me! :smiley:

12

Glad you made it!
It never gets easier.

Been there, only my thought was “This crash is going to kill my sister!” in the passenger seat. It didn’t, luckily.
Neck braces all around for 6 months, though. And a goofy head-in-a-sling thing at nite.

Also been the guy stopped and looking in the rearview mirror as someone rams into me and it wipes out my car and the two cars in front of me. This time, no injuries. We were all on ice and the cars went like hockey pucks.

I still have a lead foot, the Highway Patrol reminds me from time to time, but never with other cars around. Just when I’m all alone and forget to check my speed.
Relax in traffic is my motto- low tension. Let the bastards pass. Bye bye!

13

This is a really silly childhood thing, dating to when I was about five or six years old, and involving absolutely no physical danger to my person whatsoever. At the time, however, I was honestly convinced I was done for.

My mother always warned me that electricity is dangerous, as all good mothers should. The only thing worse than electricity, she said, is electricity and water together. She warned me about never unplugging anything while my hands were wet, to never get electrical appliances wet, etc. However, in my young mind, the message got garbled somewhat. Somehow, I came to believe that touching an electrical cord with a wet hand would cause instant death. Finally, the day came. My two sisters and I had all developed a case of the sniffles, so my mother made us take a warm bath and go to bed. While we were in the bath, she set up the humidifier in the hall so it could spray its moistness into all of our respective bedrooms. Anyway, I got out of the bath, walked out into the hall, and accidentally stepped on the (insulated) cord to the humidifier (which wasn’t on), with my wet feet. For one second, I stood there in terror. I had touched something electrical with something wet! As soon as Mom turned on that humidifier, I would be a goner! I decided, first things first. I must under no circumstances tell her about this. I didn’t want the last thing I heard to be my mother yelling at me. So, I went to bed, with the attitude of the condemned going to the gallows. I lay there in bed, trembling between my sheets, as I listened to the sounds of my mother picking up the cord, plugging it into the wall. I fought down a scream as I heard the humidifier come to life in the hall. I squeezed my eyes shut, and waited for my young life to be snuffed out forever. And waited. And waited. I opened my eyes. I was still in my room, the humidifier was still going, and I wasn’t dead, as far as I could tell. Clearly, something was amiss.

To make a long story short, I learned several important things about electricity that night, namely that electicity can not travel long distances to get you after the fact. I learned that humidifiers, even though they look vaguely menacing and make funny noises, are not really scary at all. And most importantly, I learned that while listening to one’s mother is a good thing, it is always possible to take things too far. Okay, I didn’t learn that first part until much later, but that’s neither here nor there.

We now return you to riveting stories of near-death that actually involve almost getting killed.

14

Arnold: Did this get any media play? Was it on the 101, by any chance?

15

When I was 21 I was working in the Middle East. We were driving to the coast at dawn to go fishing and we rolled our Land Rover on some soft sand at 50 MPH. When we stopped upside down gasoline poured over us. We were all smokers but no-one had one going at the time.

Then there was the time I was sky diving and the wind picked up when we were in the air…

Every day is a sweet and precious gift because it’s all over in “the blink of an eye it’s that quick” (quote from James Lee Burke’s book “Burning Angel”).

16

Sorry, I just went and checked the exact quote from the book:

“…yes, just a careless wink of the eye, just that quick, and you’re among them, wending your way with liege lord and serf and angel, in step with the great armies of the dead.”

17

Omigosh, sunbear, I’d forgotten.

What a laugh! That’s only been posted ~6 or 7 months ago; we probably need to give it a year before we call it a Golden Oldie or some such.

Regards

18

Ex boyfriend. Domestic abuse. Long Story.

19

I was about 18 or so. I was due to housesit with my friend, and we were to meet at the house to get the low-down on how to feed the dogs, etc. I didn’t know where I was going, as the housesittie was a friend of Claire (friend)'s mom. I was on a gravel road, and Claire passed me in the opposite direction, oblivious. I quickly turned around, and was going about 40 mph attempting to catch up to her. Not fast. But WAY too fast on a dirt road. I came around a blind corner, thought the turn was wider than it was. To my left is a 50 foot drop into a rocky river. To my right is a grove of trees. The car (my dad’s, mine was in the shop) began fishtailing. Suddenly everything slowed down. I quite logically thought “Well, I’m gonna crash. If I crash into the river, I will die. If I crash into the trees head on, I will die. Therefore, it makes the most sense for me to broadside the trees.” which is exactly what I did, along with $2500 worth of damage to my father’s car. I started shaking and didn’t stop for a long time. He was on a motorcycle trip at the time, gone for 2 weeks. He called two days later, and telling him was the scariest thing I’ve ever had to do. Luckily, my boss forbade me from coming into work, and my mother insisted on what she calls “dooga-doogas” which is stroking my hair and telling me it’ll be alright.

I have not come close to a car accident again. ::knock on wood::

20

Arnold, my close brush with death was a role-switch of your experience: I was the one at a standstill in traffic who was hit by someone realized too late I wasn’t moving.

This was on the 10; I was on the way to pick up my now fiancé at the airport (Ontario). I was in the far right lane as my exit was coming up, when everyone stopped. I saw the brake lights, but it took me a few moments to realize they were going slow, they were stopped. (Later on I found out there was a large tire tread in that lane.) I braked, stopped, waited for traffic to move. This was unnerving–I felt like bait. Traffic was zooming along at 80 miles an hour on my left, and there was a concrete wall to my right. I was nearly hit twice by people flying up behind me, and of course, third time was the charm.

I heard screeching brakes behind me and looked in my rear-view mirror…to see a 55 ton 18 wheeler skidding toward me. He almost jackknifed trying to avoid me, and all I had time to think was, “He isn’t going to miss me…” WHAM. Fortunately, he had turned the semi enough that rather than hit me head on, he essentially shaved the right rear corner off of my car. (Note, my car was one of those itty-bitty Honda Civic hatchbacks. They typically don’t do well against semis.) I was pushed up on the concrete wall–my two right tires were up on the wall–and the entire back end of my car was destroyed. (I later saw a 6-8 foot streak of blue paint on the cab and part of the trailer on the semi from where he’d scraped me.) What was amazing was though the entire back end of the car was detroyed, the front cabin was unscathed. My engine kept purring, a/c kept blowing, Sheryl Crow kept playing in the stereo. The glass from the shattered windows didn’t even get thrown into the front section. Neat!

His story was like Arnold’s–he was cruising around at 55mph, looked up, and suddenly saw 5-6 stopped cars in front of him. He braked and swerved, the wheels locked up, and all he could do was hope. Though my car was totaled, I walked away with just a sore neck. The collision report was a fascinating read; I couldn’t believe just how heavy that monster was.

In the glove compartment of my new car, I had a small ziploc bag with pieces from my first car in it. It’s just a reminder of how fortunate I was that day.