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Original poster

What's the most dangerous thing you have survived?

365 replies

AbsentmindedWoman · 01/11/2018 15:34

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?

OP posts:
BikeRunSki · 03/11/2018 12:35

I was in a tube that went straight through Kings Cross when the fire started. I should have been getting off there.

I used to get the train to school from Clapham Junction. I was late for school the day the train I should have been on crashed, and 35 people were killed. I didn’t strictly survive this because I wasn’t involved. It was way before mass ownership of personal mobile phones etc. My poor mother was going nuts trying to get in touch with us at school.

Pavlova31 · 03/11/2018 12:37

Almost died from complications during Emergency Ceasarean section.

Close call during plane on runway gaining speed to take off making a sudden braking and stopping just short of a junction.
Good job we did. Moments after stopping a plane came in to land right in front of us.
If we had not managed to stop in time we almost certainly would have collided with it.

A stage hand not securing a rope supporting a scenery counterweight properly causing it to come falling towards the stage. I was stood directly underneath and unaware until someone came and dragged me out of the way at the last moment before it would have hit me.

boatyardblues · 03/11/2018 12:42

I was - close to being rammed into a wall by a car I dropped my purse and had to pick it up and a car crashed into the wall i was walking too

We had a near miss like this on holiday. I stopped to tie my shoelace, so we were about 10m away when a car mounted the pavement at speed and smashed into the wall where we would have been if I’d not stopped. My kids still mention it 5 years later, as we were all very shaken at the time.

MrsJayy · 03/11/2018 12:55

We had a near miss like this on holiday. I stopped to tie my shoelace, so we were about 10m away when a car mounted the pavement at speed and smashed into the wall where we would have been if I’d not stopped. My kids still mention it 5 years later, as we were all very shaken at the time.

It is frightening isn't it i still shudder if I think about it.

bobstersmum · 03/11/2018 12:57

I was riding my horse down a main road on a paricularly cold icy day age 14 all of a sudden I heard a strange sliding noise behind me and then a bang, a car had slid into the back of my horse and knocked her right over onto the other side of the road, she landed on top of me but then managed to get up and made off down the road in a panic, unfortunately my foot was jammed in the stirrup and I was flung around my head banging on the floor. Someone managed to catch her and help me. I was black and blue, my riding hat was totally cracked and broken and I had a broken collar bone. My horse had a fractured hock, the vets couldn't believe that's all, she was ok but wasn't able to be ridden again. Feel quite teary writing that all down as it brought it all back.

Kewqueue · 03/11/2018 13:03

I fell off my bike in front of an hgv. I could hear it braking. I didn't know if it would stop in time. Very glad it did!

VintageFur · 03/11/2018 13:05

bobster thank goodness you both made it. The most traumatic thing I've ever seen/read is the horse whisperer... And as a result I'm petrified of hacking on roads. I've passed up on livery yards close to home because I'll only do off-road.

Mumberjack · 03/11/2018 13:06

Jumped into deep sea water aged 3 and dad had to dive in to get me.

As an adult, things got a bit dicey mid way through surgery for an ectopic pregnancy and I lost a bit of blood, but physical recovery was pretty quick.

Also almost crashed car when we went on holiday 2 months after. Driving in a Black thunderstorm, surrounded by 18 wheelers with no visibility due to spray from their wheels. Somehow managed to get off the highway to safety but it was a tense time.

Dowser · 03/11/2018 13:19

Wow haven’t read the full thread
Page 1 is bad enough

Makes our plane hit by lightning in March seem quite tame
Have flown 3 times since then

driggle · 03/11/2018 13:33

Gosh these are terrifying!

I had HELLP Syndrome with DC1. I thought I just had really bad heartburn and a headache! Dr said if I'd left it any longer we would have died. Had an emergency c-sec that day at 31 weeks and DS is completely perfect and healthy. Went on to have a healthy, full term second pregnancy 

decadance · 03/11/2018 13:50

I passed out with pain and bleeding heavily in the toilets at St Thomas's hospital A& E while waiting to be seen, only to wake up in the private wing of the hospital to be told I had an etopic pregnancy, the tube was about to burst, it was a weekend no one available to operate, but Mr Pinker, a top surgeon, who had delivered the Duchess of York Fergie's daughters, just happened to be visiting the hospital and did emergency surgery on me saved my fallopian tube , and I went on to have another baby 3 years later.
The staff told me I was very lucky he was there that day.

Pibplob · 03/11/2018 14:26

Hellp syndrome for me too. Seems there’s quite a few of us who have had it. I don’t really remember that much about it really. Not sure how close I came.
@rememory. I’m hoping you weren’t the only survivor?

CutesyUserName · 03/11/2018 14:27

Childbirth (sadly, only one of us survived), kidney failure and cancer.

treeofhearts · 03/11/2018 15:06

My ex. What a fucking nutjob.

ShirleyPhallus · 03/11/2018 19:24

Placemarking to read this later

StuntNun · 03/11/2018 19:27

Contracting measles aged 3.

Undiagnosed placenta praevia with DS4. At 35 weeks when I should have been on bed rest I was instead running up a hill with DS3 on my back in the sling because they hadn't managed to spot the placenta praevia on any of my nine scans.

peepholepringle · 03/11/2018 19:59

Complications of severe acute Pancreatitis and 3 separate incidents of Anaphylactic shock for me. Each were the scariest things I've ever dealt with.

PeachMelba78 · 03/11/2018 20:02

I have been struck by lightning! Walked away with no scratches but did need physio on my arm and shoulder afterwards.

listsandbudgets · 03/11/2018 20:11

Meningitis when I was 3.

Being knocked over by a bolting horse when I was about 10 . Unbelievably it run over me without touching me but seeing its hooves and underside at such close quarters is not an experience I wish to repeat

I once met a man with a machete who had an intention to use it but thankfully NOT on me he just wanted to show me how well he'd polished and sharpend the bl**dy thing in preparation for the person he did intend to use it on... (I was in a public facing job at the time) I called the police as soon as he left and he was arrested on his doorstep and later sectioned... I sometimes wonder what he'd have done if I'd done anything other than said he should put it away as even waving about might blunt it (the shock only hit later)

Otherwise I guess I'm fairly risk adverse.

Milkandcornflakes · 03/11/2018 20:14

Stage 3 breast cancer..thought my time was up..the treatment was so awfull i thought i was dying
.

Cagliostro · 03/11/2018 20:17

Huge venlafaxine overdose when I was 15. I didn’t want to die, I just wanted help and nobody was listening. Luckily my friend phoned my parents. I felt fine for ages - giggling away at getting to go in an ambulance - but I then had a fit and had the defibs while in it. Spent the night in ICU. Still didn’t get admitted to psychiatric ward for another six months, go figure Hmm

Sethis · 03/11/2018 20:23

Being a fucking idiotic 17yr old overtaking a lorry on the A66. Google the A66 if you don't know it's reputation. Winter, wet, night time. Oncoming lorry. I floored it instead of giving up on the overtake. "Floored it" in a Fiesta from 1989. Oncoming lorry missed me by 12" I swear to god.

Only other near-lethal incident was as a kid, snorkelling in Africa. Picked up a pretty shell on the reef. Saw something living inside. Only identified it when I got out onto land. One of the few cone snail species with a venom powerful enough to kill humans. Spent the rest of that holiday pretty freaked out.

Dragonlight · 03/11/2018 20:29

Massive bleed after giving birth.
Being raped.

Welshmum16 · 03/11/2018 20:42

Having a ruptured ectopic pregnancy after being turned away from A&E by nurse

CisMyArse · 04/11/2018 07:39

Fell into a deep part of a river wearing thigh high waders with shoulder straps. Waders filled and I went down like a boulder, took in water and lost consciousness. Thankfully, was with a group at the time. It took seconds - frightening. Was given CPR at riverside.

Have survived 2 major anaphylactic attacks. Blue lighted for both.

Came off the back of a motor bike - rounded a corner into a reversing lorry. Bike side skidded and I was thrown off, into the reversing lorry. Lorry kept reversing over me - I was perfectly central to the tyres - God knows how - by the time the driver stopped because of other motorists shouting and flagging him down, I was about 10 foot under the carriage. Broken ribs and arm.