What does ‘almost dying’ mean?

[thenamethieff]

I often read on here people who ‘almost died’ and wonder what it means. What is the measure of almost dying. Are you aware of a moment before death, before not actually dying?

I remember being able to see what was going on around me, and could see from the expressions on faces that people were shouting, but I couldn’t hear any of it. I remember feeling incredibly safe, calm, not at all in pain anymore and just wanting to go to sleep 🤷🏻‍♀️
A combination of shock, major limb trauma and catastrophic bleeding.

I’ve had “would have died without immediate treatment” situations a few times. I wouldn’t call it almost dying, it sounds too dramatic and attention seeking. I was given treatment and it was ok in the end... I’d say perhaps if someone’s heart stopped, they were dragged out of water unconscious, was touch and go for days, that type of thing. Other than that, you just were really very unwell or had a horrible accident, and thankfully “didn’t die” no?

Should have added - my heart did stop twice.
Once in the helicopter and once in the hospital.

MIL is famous for talking about almost dying

Her sister almost died last year. This is a 75yr old woman with no major health conditions, who became dizzy at home and couldn't breathe in a controlled manner. Who called her sister, waited for her to drive round and take her to the hospital. Then sat and waited half an hour to be seen and have spirometry tests, prescribed some antibiotics for URTI, then drove home again for tea. But she ALMOST DIED.
My sympathies for my in-laws are quite small

I think a lot of people say it in a quite flippant way. They don’t know for sure that they were inches from death, but it sounds dramatic, so...

I almost died.

My family were told that if I did not have emergency surgery I would die within a few days. The surgery itself was very high risk and so needed additional permission from the hospital to proceed.

I was drifting in and out of consciousness by the time they finally operated.

I passed out after having DS1came round 48 hours later having had 2 pints of blood and was on a drip due to low blood pressure. If I hadn't been in hospital I would have died

I wouldn't call it almost dying but when I had a c-section for my daughter my blood pressure kept dropping seriously low like 47/20 and I remember feeling like I was fading away. It was a really strange feeling and I felt very calm. Of course the anesthetist fixed the problem fairly quickly so my risk of actually slipping away was fairly low.

I don’t know if it actually counts as almost dying but I had a massive PPH after dd was born.

I remember lying on the operating theatre table listening to the doctors talking to each other in very calm voices saying things like “we need to stop this bleed. We need to stop it right now.” And then the nurse ushering dh out with baby dd.

And I was so so calm. I wasn’t at all scared. I was just thinking “I think I might die now. But that’s ok. Because I’ve had the baby and she’s ok. So this is ok.”

Blood loss seems to be quite a nice way to die.

I had an ectopic pregnancy and when I got to A&E they said to my partner “ they would do what they could” when asked if I would be ok. I already a stomach full of blood.
After surgery and two blood transfusions they told me another 30 minutes would have too late to save me.
I was very very grateful I didn’t live in the middle of no where at that point.

On the other hand dh was taken to a room with dd and then the nurse ran back to help with me. He said he kept looking at dd and wondering if it was just going to be the two of them.

Strangely I think I got the better end of the deal!

I think lots of people have had very extreme medical incidents that could have led to their death - anyone who's had an asthma attack could have died, for eg.

I had peritonitis which was horrible and uncomfortably close to nearly dying. It took me a long time to get over, physically and mentally because of the circumstances.
But it's no where near as close to death as my mate whose heart actually stopped and was saved by a bypass machine.

I ‘almost died’ after taking something dodgy many years ago. I ended up on a life support machine with my family being called in saying that if I pulled through it I’d be a vegetable.

I was unconscious and had been for 3 days so had no recollection of anything until I came around.

Mumoftwoyoungkids
Snap !!
I had the same when my dad was born ,and felt the exact same as you .
I knew I was going to die if they didn't stop the bleeding.
But all I felt was calm.
My baby was safe.
I always thought bleeding to death would be an ok way to go .
But then I wondered if it was the euphoria of giving birth that made me so calm. Perhaps bleeding to death from another type of injury wouldn't leave me so calm .
And now when I think about it , I get in a little bit of a panic .
I cannot imagine knowing you are dying and being unable to do anything about it 😢

@mybreadiseggy that sounds very similar to my experience. Was very cross when I wasn't dead!

Ffs dd not dad !

@Mumoftwoyoungkids reading that really made me cry (and I'm not much of a crier.) That feeling of total selflessness when you have a baby is very hard to describe, isn't it?

Dhalandchips
I remember it being a kind of neither here nor their feeling about it Like I really really wanted to go to sleep, and I wasn’t really bothered that meant I was dying. Sleep just seemed like the most important hint in the world....not that my leg was clinging onto my hip joint by a bit of skin and stringy ligament and most of my blood volume was on the floor

Very much concur with the other PPH posters.
When I began to bleed I saw the fear on the midwives' faces and asked them "not to let anything bad happen" because I didn't want to say the words "please don't let me die"
But then I was very calm, very still, very resigned. Felt myself fading, but just...waited.

Mumoftwo same! 😂
Its strange how calm I felt, maybe down to all the drugs is been given during labour!

my df always say he nearly died

he didnt he walked a couple of miles to work then had a heart attack-he was never unconsious never had to be resuscitated but of course he nearly died

hes a narc so i usually just nod or change the subject everytime

My Mum almost died. She was in organ failure and said she almost felt like she was above listening rather than actually there. She heard them tell my Dad she wouldn't live until morning.

Eggy, how did you come to all but sever your leg?!

Oh, to contribute - it's never happened to me, but a relative almost died from an undiagnosed ruptured spleen. Bled into her belly for 4-5 days, pressure hit the floor and she said she went to bed and accepted she wouldn't wake up. Luckily her partner didn't accept the GPs insistence that a couple of paracetamol would sort her out, and called an ambulance. They still didn't know where she was bleeding from when they put her under.

I'd say she very much almost died.

I guess I would take it to be 'in a critical condition that may very likely end in death' I 'almost died' from sepsis, I was in critical care for 2 weeks, my family were told I was likely not to survive, I don't remember much about when I was most unweel, but I can remember hearing nurses talking about me whne I must have appeared to be unconscious - they were saying it was really sad as I was young, and I desperately wanted to say 'no no I'm still alive' but I couldn't speak. It was horrible - like sleep paralysis.

Obviously I didn't die, but I do get your point about it being rather hard to quantify degrees of 'not quite dying'

I was 19, peritonitis, my mum was told to bring up family members. Luckily there was a surgeon in Perth who rushed to my hospital. Laparoscopi and saw poison in my stomach and bowel and operated quickly. If he wasn't so quick thinking they didn't expect me to last the night. I didn't almost die I suppose, I was just heading in the right direction. Pumped full of antibiotics and was home three weeks later.