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?

Wow, these stories are incredible. I am glad you all survived your close calls.

Urgh, some of these are making me shudder!

I had a huge horse riding accident when I was 12, came off at a full gallop, straight onto my head. My mum didn't know I was that badly hurt so made me a cheese sandwich and popped me on the sofa in front of the telly. She only took me to the GP when I started violently throwing up and couldn't see. The GP took one look at me and called an ambulance, was blue-lighted to hospital in a back and neck brace, and sedated on arrival. I don't really remember much else, but I was very very lucky to not have broken my neck, I got away with a compressed disc and some nerve damage (and a severe concussion).
More recently I nearly died whilst having a c-section for my son. I remember feeling warm and content, and just so so peaceful. I turned to my husband, and as my vision started to fade I said "I'm going now, love you", before all the machines started bleeping madly and a very nice doctor squeezed a whole IV bag of fluid into me to bring my blood pressure back up and whoosh! I was back in the room, and a midwife handed me my baby wrapped in a blanket. I had missed the whole thing! It was great though, I hope my final moments are like that, it felt so calm and gentle.

Child birth. Emergency c/section, major bleed.Had a massive blood loss with two full body’s worth of blood transfusions and they were about to close me up and let me die when I suddenly stopped bleeding. Someone was looking out for me that day.

On holiday in Ibiza when I was 3. Went down the slide with no armbands on. Can remember seeing my dad doing a running dive from the side of the pool and remember standing on the bottom of the pool looking around me before my dad hauled me up.

A few close shaves hitch hiking in Africa.
Malaria.
PPH at home after giving birth a long way from hospital. I thought my number was really up that time. Felt the fear, then a quiet resignation and stillness.

@theboxofdelights I was working that Saturday too, my office was in Moorgate and was a bit subterranean. I heard a muffled boom, had no idea what it was, emerged onto the street and into chaos. Not a near miss for me but I remember it well.

My mother strangling me when I was around 13. I remember thinking she's not going to stop and battling to keep conscious before my step father pulled her off me and dragged me into the bathroom to splash cold water into my face ripping the only t-shirt I had, that wasn't a cast off from my sister in half, in the process.

Giving birth to DD2 at 31 weeks after being told she would be deformed and would die before, during the birth or shortly after, made worse by having a cord prolapse during the birth which called for emergency stations rather pointlessly in the end. The scariest thing was seeing and holding her but I had no need to worry as she was perfect. I will never forget my body going into shock mode when my waters broke with a massive pop and I realised it was happening and I couldn't stop it.

Almost losing my mind due to childhood abuse and truly believing my children would be safer with me dead while living in a high rise apartment with balconies! Not sure how I got through that.

Had 3 car crashes (all non fault and write offs) in one year but no serious injuries.

DH rolled his pick up truck 3 times after hitting black ice when we lived in Canada. He called me briefly sounding in a very bad way when he'd clambered out from someone else's phone to let me know he was being taken to hospital but didn't know which one. Couldn't find him for 5 hours and then had to drive through a blizzard with 3 DC in the car to get to him. When we saw the car in the police pound the roof was caved in to steering wheel height. He's very lucky.

A huge bilateral (saddle) pulmonary embolism after leg surgery

Sepsis when giving birth to my youngest
Miscarriage with my first baby and went into hypervolemic shock because of the blood loss.

Giving birth and being born, stopping breathing at ten days old, nearly drowning taking water wings off on holiday before I could swim, couple of nasty car accidents, almost not recovering from a general anaesthetic, and one or two near miss asthma attacks.

I'm quite clearly not supposed to be dead yet!

Sepsis, organ failure and acute kidney injury stage 3. Caused by pneumonia which I didn't know I had, just had a bad headache and a bit of a cough must've collapsed and woke up in ICU 5days later.

Wait... what happened? Where HAD you gone?! (am I having a really daft moment here?)

Not a daft moment - I don't know how I finished up on the pavement looking on. I may have gone under the bus and climbed out the side when he braked.

Sepsis here too

Post partum psychosis. Not sure how I'm still alive, I was very determined not to be.

Oh yeah - and getting on the circle line train at Liverpool Street towards Aldgate on 07/07/05 just before 9.00 and jumping off as the doors closed as I was running a bit early, had a hangover and decided to grab a coke from the platform kiosk. It blew up not long after it left the station.

Being knocked off my bike by a car reversing round a corner onto a main road right into me. I saw it coming, I couldn't get out of the way fast enough, I fell off and it stopped right up against my body. I had tyre marks on my clothes. I didn't cycle on roads again for months and I am super-cautious all the time. I see disaster round every corner now which is an exhausting way to live.

Nothing half as dramatic as others, but my near miss was being diagnosed with lung cancer, on Friday the 13th. Six weeks later I was told they could operate with a view to a cure. They did, it was. I'm one of the 13 who are diagnosed each week and survive.

Guess what I now think my lucky number is?

I was born with TOF and re-fistulsted so had to have a second operation that the hospital hadn't done before. Not sure I was ever very close to death but my parents were certainly scared they'd lose me.

I've been in a couple of earthquakes where people died, but the buildings I was in were okay. Some of these stories are terrifying!

@sewinginmyfreetime I know that feeling of calmness. On the operating table just after having epidural for them to repair 4th degree tear. Everything went black and I could hear alarms going off and someone said "we've got to get this girl back" 

Posted too soon- Remember thinking "oh right. I'm dying that's why there's kerfuffle. Right. Well that's that then, can't complain I suppose. Ooh this feels nice. Happy with this, yes"

Woke up in ICU

Fell into a river aged 9.
Got caught in a riptide (?) on holiday in Portugal. I was thrown about and swallowed loads of water, it was terrifying.
A bomb in my town. It blew the windows in. I was standing looking out one and got threw onto the floor . We had a giant wall cabinet full of albums.
As I was laying on the floor I realised it was on its way down. I had to commando roll out of the way before I was crushed.

I was hospitalised with Asthma attacks as a child. A few years ago I got a job in London but had to give up my job after a few weeks due to asthma being exasperated by the commute. 6 months later the 7/7 attacks happened, that would have been my tube train to work. Asthma has tried to kill me and conversely saved my life.

Years ago I was in New Zealand staying at s backpackers off the beaten track. They had kayaks and we took one out on the Marlborough Sounds, of course round the next corner and out of earshot the kayak started to sink. I'm a terrible swimmer and panicked and screame, luckily my ExBF was calm, reassuring and a stronger swimmer, he got us to dry land. Before we set off I had looked at the life jackets and wondered if we really needed them. I couldn't sleep all that night afterwards, I knew if I hadn't made that split second decision to wear the life jacket there I wouldn't be here.

Being on a tiny little ferry boat in between Cozumel Island and the Mexican mainland on the edge of a hurricane. Very, very hairy crossing. Not nearly enough lifejackets to go round. Boat almost capsized about three times and the little Mexican granny next to me was praying the rosary. Absolutely terrifying.

Hit by a car (totally my fault) aged 8. It wasn't very fast luckily, but unfortunately I hit my head on the kerb, fracturing my skull from crown to base.

I didn't know until some years later, but the docs said to my parents 'If she makes it through the night, she'll be OK'. In the end, the big fracture was actually a good thing, because it meant that the fluid around the injury didn't put a deadly level of pressure on my brain.

Nothing like these but something that scared the shit out of me.

We were travelling back to catch a ferry from France and were on the motorway in the early hours, no car other than ours.

We caught up with a car in front of us with the boot up ( why?) and the driver just would not let us pass , whichever lane we went to it swerved to stop us, it was bewildering then terrifying, we did not think slowing down and stopping was a good idea.

Our ds’s were all young ( 8 and under) so we tried to keep calm. I was convinced we were going to be forced off the road , anyway ( we had a bloody fast Audi) at some point Dh got us past this bastard and drove like the fucking clappers.

It sounds nothing but at the time I was convinced there was a gunman in the boot ready to shoot us off the road.