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?

Childbirth. Lots of nasty tropical illnesses as a child. But the one that stands out is our car being held up by a young soldier with an AK47 during a coup when I was about eight.

My "mother" holding a knife to my throat, drawing blood and asking me how long I want to live. Apparently I was found, woke up in hospital two days later. I was 8 years old. I count that as the worst thing that happened to me, but also the best, because after that I was taken away from her.

Meningococcal septicaemia

Was 2 1/2. Still have memories from it and scars

When I was 5 I was leaning over the full uncovered water butt my DF had by his greenhouse. I was throwing pebbles in, over reached and fell head first into the water. The only reason I didn't drown was that our neighbour at the time was cutting the low hedge between the houses and heard the splash. He pulled me out abd saved my life.
50+ years later, If I close my eyes I can still feel/hear/imagine the sensation of my head being immersed.

The very lucky thing is that about 3 weeks later said neighbour had a massive stroke and never worked in his garden again.

Anaphylactic shock when miles from any possible treatment.

Nearly drowned when I was about four - left to play on a beach on my own

Cycled down a mountain pass on black ice - when I was young, stupid and thought I was invincible.

Being shot at. Twice.

They missed....

Was in an armed bank robbery.

Ive told this before. We emigrated to Australia when I was 3. Measles swept through the kids on the ship and I was put into quarantine in the hospital. My mum wasn't allowed to stay. None of the nurses spoke much English and mum was upset. First night I woke up (still remember the bunks) and there were no adults about. So I got up, walked down two flights of steps and across the decks and knocked on my mums door in the middle of the night. It was always family legend and I thought "yeah ok" growing up. It was when I was a mother myself, I thought "holy shit" I coukd have fallen down stairs or overboard.

Oh yes tempname. I remember a dr saying sorry we can't do anymore to help so I just thought ah well nothing matters anymore and I can just sleep I feel peaceful and maybe I'll see Dad where I'm going, but of course the dr was wrong and I'm still here albeit incomplete

Getting caught in a rip tide on our honeymoon and swimming to the point of exhaustion then suddenly escaping it and getting back to sure.

Suffering eclampsia and having emergency section. Thankfully we both survived.

Drowning, twice.

My dad tried to kill me & my mum with a drill when I was about 3...then he committed suicide.... but we survived and I genuinely think it has made me a stronger person

Nearly drowned at the age of 8 in a swimming pool that had wasps floating on the top 🤢 this is what I remember from it.

I was in the Turkey earthquake in 1999 that was 7. Whatever on the Richter Scale.

I had a 40ft near miss coming into Paris Charles De Galle airport. The passengers never knew, but looking at the pilots faces when they came out of the cockpit dripping in 😓 and shocked faces said it all.

I had a retainer placenta with dd1. Her umbilical cord unknown to us was only 15cm long. She could have suffocated on delivery. Luckily for us dd was fast in her appearance to the world, and my retained placenta came out in its own with no surgery needed. Dh said I was very calm ‘yes dear, I was as high as a kite on g&a’.

I fell off Llamrhaeadr Waterfall when I was a teenager.

*Llanrhaeadr!

Also can identify with the feeling of calm when you're really seriously ill.

I was admitted at about 36 weeks pregnant with my first. I had had a course of antibiotics for a chest infection which hadn't worked and the infection just ran riot in me. It's all a bit hazy but I do remember being hooked up to a sats machine which would not stop sounding the alarm as my oxygen levels dropped and dropped. My heart was racing, I was clammy, confused, swore at the doctor trying to get arterial blood gases from me.

Then it just all went very calm and quiet and all I wanted was to go to sleep. I'm not sure what they did to me but it involved huge quantities of steroids and IV antibiotics.

I'm very grateful to the amazing midwives and doctors who saved me. What was lovely was that in my second pregnancy a couple of years later I came across one of the doctors again who remembered me and told me she'd used my treatment as a case study for her thesis or something.

Being suspended over a motorway bridge over the M6 by my ankles until I agreed not to end the awful relationship I was in.

Some of these have me literally sitting here shivering with fear. Especially the Aldgate one. That was my line - but I'd left the UK by then. I felt so awful watching that on the TV, desperately trying to get through to my ex-colleagues and friends to make sure they were okay.

I've got three.

I ruptured my liver falling off my horse when I was 13. Only time I didn't get straight back on, somehow I knew not to move, and sent my friend to get another friends Dad to get my Mum. Apparently I was approximately 20 minutes away from death.

Then we got a nine tonne truck in the face in a head on collision on a one way bridge in the middle of nowhere. Thank goodness for the Austin Allegro being built like a brick shithouse. I was asleep, woke up to see the headlights, and started screaming. DH had the forethought to start reversing when he realised what was going to happen, and when we started getting shunted back, he said, 'it's okay, we're going to be okay, we're going backwards now'. I looked at him, momentarily silent, and then decided I was going to keep screaming thanks very much.

Thirdly, going through the Canterbury quakes in New Zealand. I was lucky. Thankfully all my family were lucky. My friend, and another friend's husband - not so lucky. Along with another 185 people.

I had a pulmonary embolism when I was 11 weeks pregnant with my fourth child

Being born dead(as in blue no heart beat left on the side by the midwife untill my Dad kicked off)was very lucky and had my heart started.

Had whooping cough at 3 years old(my Mum never had me immunised)and my parents were told to take me away for what would be my last holiday,I'm still here 40 years later.

Aged 9 years old and I was in a road traffic accident a guy was driving down the wrong side of the road and he ran me over and my scarf got caught around his front wheel and he carried on driving and I was dragged down the road with my head and neck going under the wheel of the car.

Childbirth with my 1st DC they let me go 2 weeks over and by then I had full blown pre eclampsia and it was about to turn into eclampsia and then as soon as my DS was born I hemorrhaged and lost 3 pints of blood within a couple of minutes.

Pregnant with my 2nd DC and my kidney started failing.

I developed Ulcerative Colitis when my 2nd DC was 18 months old and I started hemorrhaging from my bowel,was rushed into hospital because they thought I had bowel cancer and they thought I was having a heart attack and I went from a size 12 to a size 6 within a few weeks.

I had my 4th DC,a planned homebirth and everything was going fine until the MW messed up big time and my uterus closed whilst the placenta was inside me and she decided to pull it out with forceps,4 days later I was rushed into hospital,I had an emergency operation to remove all of the retained products and I spent the next week in Intensive care fighting for my life.

I was in labour with my 5th DC and the hospital(same sodding hospital)messed up again and gave me something I was allergic to and so my heart started failing,they then forgot to turn the drip on and I was bleeding to death(the floors and bed looked like something out of a slasher movie)I had to stay in for a week,was home for 2 days and rushed back in because I had retained products again.

A year later I had what they thought was a massive stroke(I was 31)I'd suffered a rare form of brain damage(that usually ends a life within 72 hours) because I'd contracted an infection from a member of staff when I was in labour with my 5th DC and they hadn't thought to tell me
at the time.

I have been left disabled and with lifelong health problems,I'm being tested now for M.E but I am still here and enjoying life and living as well as I can

Torn between 3...

I had meningitis at 2.5 which caused me to lose my hearing

I got ran over by a car. Literally. I was sat on the kerb outside my neighbours house and he backed out of his drive over me. Luckily I was able to lay flat and he passed over without the wheels running over me but I was badly bruised, scraped and traumatised

And I’ve almost drowned too. Stupid me as a kid went down a water slide on my front with a rubber ring. Landed face down and couldn’t get up. The life guard took ages to get me.

Also survived electrocution, faulty iron. I no longer iron anything.

Going up a volcano and looking down into the crater on a very windy day.

Don't actually remember it but when I was about 3 or 4 before car seats and seatbelts were enforced I was thrown from the middle back seat of the car into the footwell of the front passenger seat when my dad had to break suddenly. Lucky I didn't shoot out the windscreen!