What's the most dangerous thing you have survived?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

Curious about all kinds of narrow squeaks, really. I find it fascinating because they can be dramatic or terrifying like a car accident or being held up at knifepoint, or something that happens in the blink of an eye and death/ serious damage is averted thanks to sheer good luck! I seem to have had a fair few of the latter experiences (falls off horses, best friend pulling me out of the way of a bus by a hair's breadth, etc) but no big event.

I love how tough human beings are and what we can survive. What's the maddest and baddest thing you have survived?

When I was about 4 years old I was on the top bunk bed and tied a scarf around my neck too tight without knowing what I was doing, stopping me from breathing or being about to call. My baby sister who was only 18months old screamed down the stairs (at the babygate) until our mum came and saved me.

I got caught in a current when I was swimming in Mexico. The sea was calm so I didn't realise how much danger I was in until I tried to swim back and I was moving further and further away from the shore.

It took all my strength to swim back, thankfully I was young and healthy at the time. When I got back to shore, I collapsed out of sheer exhaustion. Terrifying, I thought I was a goner.

I was driving on a motorway and a scaffolding pole came off a van in the next lane and came through my drivers side front window while I was doing 70mph.

I had a bad fall climbing and broke my back.

Got lost in a major snowstorm while hill walking and nearly died of hypothermia.

When I was fifteen, school took us kayaking (one person boat) in a canal basin. I rolled over by accident and got trapped upside down in the weeds/rushes/whatever under the murky brown water. I managed to struggle free at the last moment so that the buoyancy jacket could do it's job. Absolutely fucking terrifying.

Can you imagine a school allowing that now, taking kids on a dirty canal in kayaks at all, let alone without informing or seeking permission from the parents. It was a random one off trip out one afternoon. It was just get in the school van out of the blue. We were all in our normal clothes as it was not a uniform having school. Bloody odd, looking back.

So there's that and I was born blue and underweight with the cord wrapped tightly four times around my throat.

Also, I had a small wheel moped when I was in my late teens. I was riding it one day at it's full 30mph, think I was a bit too close to the kerb, when I hit a rock on the road. The little wheel jerked violently, hit the kerb and bounced the whole bike and me into the path of an articulated lorry. How that driver stopped in time I'll never know.

Our car broke down travelling back through France , consequently we missed our ferry .That ferry was The Herald of free Enterprise .She capsized within minutes of leaving Zeebrugge . Something /Someone was definitely looking out for us that day

Whooping cough aged 6 weeks.

Was drunk at an 18th birthday party which had a bonfire. Was falling backwards into the bonfire when my friend grabbed the front of my top and hauled me out.

I was in an attempted kidnap by pirates in The Gambia while on a locals' "ferry". All the local people handed over money so they would leave me alone.

I understood why the Thompson Rep had advised against taking this local ferry after that....

Booted in the head by a horse when I was in my teens.
Serious head injury, lost sight in one eye for a bit, temporarily paralysed down my right hand side, several major fits in the preceding days.

Now totally fine bar a bit of a scar. Human bodies are amazing

I was born very poorly with rhesus disease. Doctors told my parents I may not make it.

My car was hit by a train while I was driving it.

Had a laparoscopy for a huge ovarian cyst, had a sore throat and chest and gp said it was normal after a general anaesthetic. Turned out I had large bilateral blood clots in both lungs.
Emergency c section with my first I bled heavily and they cut my sons head trying to get him out quickly so I didn't bleed to death, I still have no feeling in my skin from my belly button down to my pubic area. He is now 6.
Strangulated hernia two years ago which cut off blood supply to my bowel.
I'm not a fan of being a patient, even though I am a nurse....

I was a guest at the AUF camp in Utoya when it was attacked by the terrorist Anders Breivik (I was working for a youth development charity in the UK at the time and had been invited to attend).

I was unhurt, but I knew several people who were killed and was later called to give testimony.

I've never actually spoken about this in real life.

Skin Cancer

They got to it just as it was about to start on the cartiledge (sp?) .
Also appendix When they got to it it was found to be full of gangrene and had a abcess round it . . Twice now the Grim Reaper left without me .

In my 20s, on holiday in Wales, my friend had gone to visit an elderly relative and as a really keen amateur geologist, I went fossil hunting. I read about a disused quarry, lowering myself over the edge I gingerly made my way about half way down and started hammering away looking for fossils.

When it was time to go home I realised I couldn't find an obvious way up or down. It took me a couple of hours to find a route to climb back up and on more than one occasion slid back down when my footholds gave way. I eventually made it to the top and thankfully flung myself onto the grass above.

Got back to where we were staying and my friend was just about to call the police thinking something terrible had happened to me. Still, I got a perfect giganto productus fossil, 500 million years old

Had a placental abruption with my 3rd. I remember feeling wet from the blood then it all going grey. My last thought was that I wouldn't know what the baby was. When I eventually woke up I was so happy to be told it was a dd3.

Reading this whilst pregnant was a bad idea 😕

HELLP syndrome. It wasn't fun to say the least. Took 6 months to feel like me again.

I was born blue with the cord wrapped round my neck.

Hit by a car and breaking lots of bones at 17. Could have died. As it was, in time I made a full recovery, and got a shiteload of compo which helped me coast through my 20s and University and to this day is why I'm debt free.

At the time it was awful. Just awful though. I'm wouldn't go through it again just for the money, just grateful there's been some sort of recompense.

Ok that wasn't really a narrow squeak!

MRSA after a cesearean section.

Home invasion by 5 armed gunmen

A lorry went in to my car on the M25, baby and toddler in the back, car flipped, I remember thinking ‘shit I’m upside down on the M25’. Somehow it flipped back up and I steered up a bank on the hard shoulder.

Car a write off, smashed glass all over kids and car seats yet not a scratch on any of us...very grateful. Still nervous around lorries. Had to get back out and drive on the motorway the next day otherwise I may never have got in a car again!

Anaphylaxis twice within 2 weeks.

Also double pneumonia with swine flu when I was 7 months pregnant

An incarcerated umbilical hernia and a pulmonary embolism (not at the same time thankfully!). With both,apparently I was within a couple of days of death had they not been caught and treated.