What's the scariest thing that's ever happened to you? (NON WOO)

[FlyHighLittleBee]

Enjoying the woo thread so much but I've finished it now so thought I would reenact another of my favourites.

So what's the scariest, non-woo situation you've even been in?

I try not to think about this one as I'm wracked with guilt at how stupid I was and how much worse it could have been but

Parked up a very steep side street briefly. Nose of the car facing upwards. Returned to car and strapped DS2 aged 3 in his car seat which was front facing in the passenger seat (yes I know)
Shut the passenger door and whilst I was walking around the front of the car to get in, DS decided to let the handbrake off!! Side street was so steep, it immediately took off backwards at a terrifying speed. Straight across an extremely busy main road. Narrowly missed a double decker bus by an inch and finally stopped about a foot away from the glass shop windows of a big carpet shop. How he is still alive after that I don't know. I cried for hours and it took me weeks to stop thinking about that.

Earthquake in Gisborne, NZ. The whole house was swinging as if it was a boat on a choppy sea. Luckily for us, no one was hurt, but I was on my own with the kids as DH was at work and I was very, very frightened.

Having a very fast labour with my DC. Midwife told me baby was going to be breach and asked me to push. I explained that it felt like baby was hitting a wall and I couldn't push to which she replied " that's perfectly normal".
Pregnancy wasn't easy and I was in and out of hospital a lot.
After about 5 hours there was a staff changeover and the new midwife took one look at my cervix and said " Cord prolapse, we have 10 minutes to get this baby out NOW!" A crash team was called and I woke up from the aesthetic expecting to find my baby dead, I really did as I knew the chances of survival were slim.
She wasn't of course, she was bloody perfect and her agpar score was almost 100%
I often wonder what would have happened if I had gone into labour 1/2 later.

Oh Dexter , how awful, even without such an experience I occasionally find myself hanging over my 6 mo's cot checking she is breathing. You are doing well not to camp by your babies beds

Mine is an attempted mugging in Kenya, I was walking between two friends, one of whom was 6ft3 and somebody ran up and grabbed my bag. I always had a tight hold so I was pulled to the ground. I got a rush of adrenaline each time I heard a runner behind me for a while. I still had to walk the same route daily, often on my own, to get a bus after work and it took the shine off. The next attempted mugging (there were 3, they don't call it Nairobbery for nothing) was by a bunch of 11 year olds. A bit less scary but more saddening.

to all of you

French we cosleeping with the babies, it upsets me that he died on his own in his cot because he didn't like to be on his own. He'd only been in bed 90 minutes when I found him and he was already gone. I now check his sisters a lot more than most parents do x

Snorkelling off a remote tropical island, following an octopus and realising I'd been carried quite far out of the bay. Used all my strength to get back and only just made it to the very tip.

seeing a friend die on the ground a few feet away from an extreme sports accident.

I've not had anything else really scary - never mugged, never followed, never threatened.

Lots of scary stuff at work - have been strangled , intentionally pricked with a needle by someone with HIV , which necessitated a load of tests , some nasty medicines and a tense wait for 3 months , been chased by someone else with a machete .

Not at work , the day ds2 fell over and hit his head aged 18 months , then collapsed as he walked towards me . That was the day the air ambulance came out and we met our new neighbours, having moved house a mere 6 days earlier . He'd fractured his skull .

Waking up after giving birth to DD2 , in a pitch black room on a hospital bed , dead silence and no sign of DD anywhere . For a few moments I managed to convince myself that I'd died ( there had been a lot of possible risk ) . It turned out she had decided I needed some rest and recovery time , so after she'd given me an Indian head massage and sent me to sleep , she'd whisked Dd2 off to keep an eye on her at the nurses station instead . She was amazing .

I was knocked down and was unconscious, gained consciousness in the ambulance, but I wasn't at all scared. I just remember seeing this car coming towards me, and the driver had her head turned round talking to her two kids in the back, and I thought - she is going to hit me. But I actually felt very calm.
I was really scared though on holiday abroad with a friend. I was young, and we had missed our train back to the city we were staying in. So we had to walk down this large hillside road that was deserted and poorly lit, to get to the train station. It was about a 30 minute walk. A car overtook us and pulled up a bit in front of us. And sat there as we walked closer and closer. There were no mobile phones at the time, and nowhere else to go except back up the hill to a wood. As we got very close, the car suddenly started up and drove away.

fell asleep on the sofa in my living room after a night shift. Woke up to see a man staring through the glass panel in the door. when he realised I was looking at him he held up a kitchen knife to the glass. I feel like I lay there for hours looking at him looking at me but it must have been seconds. He ran off through my flat front door. He'd come in through my flatmates open bedroom window. Shudder

When my not quite 3 year old dd somehow got passed dh at the top of the stairs and fell from top to bottom and somehow went through the gap in the baby gate instead of hitting it. She didn't have so much as a bruise, dh on the other hand had friction burns on his hands where he practically jumped down after her and slowed himself on the walls, while I had horrendous Brixton hicks for the rest of the night and thought I'd gone into early labour. I'll never forget that sickening thud as she hit the bottom of the stairs.

The other was finding my mum when she'd had her first, and thankfully last, hypoglycemic shock. She'd not been answering the phone during the morning which was highly unusual so I called in on the way to taking ds to nursery. Thankfully I have a key and when I went in she was in bed but just looked 'wrong', I couldn't wake her for a long time and when I finally managed to rouse her slightly she couldn't speak. The paramedics said it was very lucky I found her when I did as she was minutes away from slipping into a diabetic coma.

Accident at the local town show when I was a small child. I was sat watching a girl jump her motorbike over some cars. What she didn't know and we didn't know was that her exit from the jump had been cordoned off and me and other children were sat there. She knew she was going to hit us, she tried to swerve and I just remember waiting. It all happened so fast but luckily no one was badly hurt.

Lots of scary moments at work, worst being the prisoner who lept off his hospital trolley and walloped me in the face. He was on a very long chain and the guard was the other side of a screen. I did wonder what was coming next.

When I was a teenager, walking home one night, got dragged down an alley by some bloke, managed to escape by scratching his face. Had skin and blood under my nails when I got home. Never reported it, didn't tell family. Was living in another country, at cinema with boyfriend. This cinema was underground in a shopping mall. The film stopped and we didn't know what was going on. Someone went to the foyer and came back saying there was a fire. We rushed to the emergency exit which was locked. Only other way out was through the fire ... all staff had run away and left us. Auditorium was now filled with smoke and we crawled along the floor to the projection room. We lay on the floor in there with wetted clothes over our faces until help came. No action was ever taken against the staff, and I couldn't go anywhere underground for years.

In rural France, waiting with DD(3) for my DH and other DD (7) to canoe downriver to us - we were picking them up. We'd parked up and were walking aimlessly around a deserted car park, about 50 yards from the river. A white truck drove by, the driver staring at us, then he turned, drove by again, staring harder. The third time, he slowly drive into the car park. Feeling uneasy, I picked DD and ran into some public toilets, again empty, but they were closer to us than the car. I locked us into one of the cubicles and held my breathe and I heard this man walk in and stop outside the cubicle door. He just seemed to stand there for ages, then he quietly walked off. The strangest thing was, DD was silent and watchful , almost as if she sensed me being tense.

I waited for as long as I could, then I bolted out of the loo and out the opposite entrance. Man was back in his van but watching like a hawk. He opened his door to get out and I just started walking as fast as I could towards the river (it was my only route- he was blocking my way to my car). I remember praying that I'd get to the river and find some canoeists. I was in such a panic that I tore at my skin with the brambles and foliage and by some miracle, I saw a couple relaxing in chairs in the trees. They must have heard me crashing through in panic because they were on their feet in seconds. I was close to terror by the time I got to them because I was convinced this man was going to grab me, or grab DD. The couple were Dutsh but with excellent English and after a quick and terrified explanation, the Dutsh man was striding towards this stranger - but he'd already turned back and was walking away back to his van. The couple insisted I stay with them and even walked me to the meeting point for the canoes when DH returned. I'll be forever grateful to them.

I have no idea what this man was up to but I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that it was sinister.

Being raped was pretty scary. I actually thought he was going to kill me.

Also when my sister phoned me in hysterics and insisting that she was going to kill herself. I managed to calm her down and got hold of her DP so he could take her to hospital.

I later found out that she had self harmed that day and had been keeping a secret stash of paracetamol "just in case".

Dsis was fine btw.

When DD was a few days old, DH took my son, four at the time, to the optician. They took pictures of the back of the eyes and as the picture was on the doctor's screen the optometrist said to DH that he had to take DS to our local children's hospital immediately, not even stopping at home first. A huge mass was apparent behind DS's eye and the optometrist assumed the worst; that it was a malignant mass. DH relayed this to me over the phone as I was struggling to BF a newborn and, well, you know how you are on day 3. DS was rushed to the hospital and seen immediately, then prepped for surgery, just in case, but after consulting four different eye specialists they realized it was a genetic condition that hadn't been picked up when he was born. Over the four hours that this happened I almost lost my mind. DS is fine - he'll always have it but it can be treated with a patch and maybe glasses as he gets older.

The stories on this thread are something else. How quickly life can change.

I've not read the thread yet, sorry, but I've been in a plane crash. It was at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, there was an engine fire and we made a crash landing, we had to evacuate amid a cabin full of smoke, and slide down the inflatable slide.
It was October 2001. 3 weeks after 9/11 ...

Oh my word you brave, incredible women.

I've found myself in 2 earthquakes (Turkey and Japan), one avalanche that killed a friend (France), run over by a coach, raped, mugged, goodness I can't remember what else.

But the scariest thing for me was thinking I was quite literally insane. As I descended into madness I was terrified. My lovely brother read my diary, as he knew something wasn't right with me (we are v v close, in a non Cersei-and-Jamie way). He took me to a doctor, and after seeing psychiatrists and all sorts I realised I was ill. The relief, eventually, was immense.

Those of you who have lost people, I am so sorry

I was in the North world trade center tower on the morning of 11th September 2001 when the plane hit.

Wetsthefinger I bet that was terrifying

motorbike crash at 80 mph was quite exhilerating and somehow also in slow motion. somehow I survived to ride another day.

I was one of the lucky ones, making my way there for a 9am meeting. I'd arrived at about 8.35am and went through security, then spotting a lift about to leave for the top floors I trotted towards it, before deciding last second to wait for 10 minutes downstairs first. I still think of the beautiful man who had held the lift door open for me and wish I could go back in time and drag him and the other occupants out. But the doors shut and up they went. I wonder how many of them were lost that day.

When I and some other friends found out the nice old man within our social group was a convicted paedophile. He'd been in our homes, near our kids (although I felt he was a bit funny around them - sitting as far away as possible etc - obviously conditions of his release to not be within a certain distance) and done voluntary work with vulnerable people.

I had nightmares for weeks.

Also gave me nightmares: an announcement on a train I was on asked for any first aiders to give assistance in another carriage. I'm qualified, so I walked down and found a man sprawled on the floor. Everyone tried their hardest, but he couldn't be saved. The sight of it all was terrible.