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?

Well according to some on social media it involves being in the same vicinity as a terrorist attack/natural disaster a decade earlier.

My MIL almost did, in the evening she refused life saving surgery - death was inevitable without it, At 7am the next morning the phone rang, luckily to say that she had changed her mind and would have the surgery, but with decreased chance of it being successful. -It was, but likely more complicated than it would have been.

So I guess she wasn't right at the edge of death, but she initially made a decision that would have resulted in her death.

DP "nearly died" late last year - lost nearly 40 pints of blood during a 16 hour operation, had to have two further surgeries and was in an induced coma for a while. He doesn't remember any of it.
He also "nearly died" earlier last year after a GI bleed meant he needed 10 transfusions (somewhat related to the op he needed). He agrees with pp - bleeding to death seems like a nice way to go.
I'd say the cut off is the point where without IMMEDIATE attention you WILL die imminently (and agree that it's very overused).

I had a PPH and felt the calm feeling others have said. I then lost consciousness. My son was not breathing either and my OH said he had never felt so useless in a room full of busy people.

When I had my dd I said to him that he didn't need to be at the birth because I knew it had had a big impact on him. He insisted that he should be and my dd had a very straight forward mermaids birth - she was born in the cawl.

When I was bleeding heavily, I just felt extremely sleepy, life I couldn't stay awake any longer. There was a fuzziness around the outside of my eyesight, as though it was getting darker, like dusk turning to night and a gentle, swaying, sinking feeling like being in a warm, candlelit swimming pool. It was OK.

When I came round afterwards (and it had taken a long time for them to get me to wake up after the anaesthetic, so much so, I actually woke up with the consultant anaesthetist sitting on the bed stroking my cheek), I felt the darkness go in reverse. I was incredibly calm and just felt 'oh, he's nice'.

When I was being strangled, however, whilst I still saw the darkness closing in and felt calm about that and where my feet were dangling and hitting the wall, it was like I was kicking through water, I also found a reserve of sheer defiance - I lifted my head up, looked the cunt in his eyes and gasped 'Well, come on then'.

Which scared him so much that he dropped me and decided to give me a good kicking instead before running away. I didn't care and felt nothing of it until a couple of days later.

I believe that actually dying (not the process leading up to that point, but the actual act of dying) is probably just like that, but you continue to drift into the darkness until you know nothing more.

I had a broncoscopy and they discovered my airway was over 90% blocked. The consultant told me I had to consent there and then to an emergency tracheostomy or go outside and die. I’m not sure how long I would have survived without the trachy but I don’t imagine for long. I remember I wasn’t scared. It all happened so fast. It’s surreal to think back to it.

Almost died in my mind means you needed cpr, a large amount of blood, perhaps several lots of intravenous antibiotics. Conditions that require advanced medical care to keep you alive, the sort that many places alas lack.

Surely almost dying is as simple as without medical attention your death would be imminent- within minutes I would assume. And I also would say it’s extremely common. Doctors literally save lives in a daily basis, the laws of probability would dictate that some of those they save had genuinely almost dies, no?

So I don’t think it’s attention seeking or exaggerating for people to say they almost died. Sure some will be over egging the reality for dramatic reasons of their own but I would believe many are not.

I'd say you nearly died if you were saved by swift medical intervention.

I'm not sure if, say, a piano landed feet from you after being dropped from above by some bumbling piano movers counts as nearly dying. In that case you could have died, but didn't remotely die.

I think almost died means that without immediate medical intervention you would have been dead in a very short space of time. I was in this position twice when giving birth, once when my blood pressure kept getting lower and lower to extremely low figures. You can see the fear in people’s faces the room atmosphere changes the actions and relationship between the medical staff changes in ways that’s hard to describe although felt very calm and aloof myself (might have been the 16 hours gas and air). Again had severe pph although was under GA for crash c section. So only knew about this later.

Been left with ptsd and depression so often wish that nearly had been really.

For me it would be where a competent medic gave a terminal prognosis which the person recovered despite all odds against them, or where again a competent medic has stated "if you had been a little later getting to the hospital", "if the weather had been a bit colder/warmer", "if the beam/bullet/blade/tumour had been one centimetre larger" then you'd be dead.

My OH said that he could see the concern and worry in the doctors and nurses faces.

I "almost died" when I needed surgery so swiftly there wasn't time to gain my consent and everything went black around me, I tried to move off the bed but they pushed me down and the room was spinning.

I nearly died twice, once was an exploding ectopic (dr said I had a few hours at most) onve was when I had one of my kids. Three of my children almost died several times (prem 27,28 and 29 weeks) amd the 29 weeker has almost died 11 times since (hes five, and has hydrocephalus)

Agree it is overused. Most recently by niece who told me she almost died at her grandmother's (because the WiFi was down ) but neighbour had literally saved her life by sharing their password. I could not get through to her that 8 hours without Internet was in no way lifethreatening

Two in laws had babies within a couple of months of my twins. One baby got bronchiolitis at a few weeks old and was in hospital for a weekend. One baby was small and had to spend a week in special care while feeding got up to speed. They are both described by family as having almost died. One of our twins was 1.9kgs, got very unwell in NICU and was rushed from the maternity hospital to the children's hospital for emergency open heart surgery. Was too unwell to operate on initially then stabilized. Had a cardiac arrest post op. Was unstable for 24 hours. We were told on multiple occasions that he mightn't make it. Thankfully after a week in cardiac icu and a week on the ward he got home and is doing great. Resilient little guy. Reading what I've written I'm realizing how tough it was andthat I'm definitely not over it

I had a PPH. It was a few hours after I'd given birth. I'd finished bf-ing my DD noticed I was bleeding but decided to change her nappy, sort her out before ringing the alarm. The blood was all over the floor covering about 2 metres square. When the nurse came and I showed her - all hell broke loose. There was placenta left in the womb. I didn't want a general anaesthetic so they sorted it out on gas and air. I remember the Surgeons bright blue eyes. She was so nice. I don't remember the first few days of my recovery.
I didn't realise how dangerous it all was. If I hadn't already been in hospital it would have been too late.

I flatlined several times during several operations and then there were the times I was put on breathing machines because I had severe asthma attacks that almost killed me, there’s severe allergies I have where I’ve gonw into anaphylactic shock.

I've had three death adjacent experiences. The first didn't seem that bad at the time...endocarditis at 16 yo, in hospital for 6 weeks, part way through I had fluid in my lungs for some reason and was complaining about pain on breathing, when my parents complained about the pain, the doctor essentially yelled at them that of course I was in pain, of course there were difficulties, I'd narrowly avoided dying. This was the first we'd heard of it.

Childbirth wasn't so much a case of being near death as being so utterly mentally destroyed that I assumed when they finally gave me the general anaesthetic that I would die. Boy was I confused to wake up 2 hours later.

Then there was the time I was in such mental pain that I knew I would end it if I could only get downstairs to where the knives were. I don't think I actually was close to death because I couldn't summon control of my body enough to do the deed....but it did feel like it.

Another PPH here. First I knew about it was when I'd become unconscious without realising it, then was briefly roused by the sound of running feet and the sound of the alarms going off and the consultant and the midwife having a panicked conversation about 'Not again, this is the third one this week!'

My notes record my bp as being 60/40, having cyanotic lips and being unconscious. I needed lots of blood and wasn't right for 24 hours at least and couldn't walk without being dizzy for a few more days and a few more transfusions.

DH watched the whole thing and him trying to wake me up to look at DD and him wondering what the hell was going on really shook him up

Muddiecuddles, it will keep on hitting you. I don't know what the answer is. I remember weeks later when I brought him home, a friend pointing to the mark left from the cannula on ds1's wrist and asking what it was. Fragile newborn skin. I started crying as I told her. It wasn't even the operation scar ffs it was nothing really in comparison. for the blindsiding. I had massive anxiety about him for years, in all sorts of situations that were completely unrelated. I think once you've been to the brink with a child, like that, part of you stays there.

My/my DDs placenta abrupted and if i hadn’t been in hospital at the time I’m not sure either of us would have been so lucky but I’ve never thought that I “almost died” before reading this thread, I’ve sometimes thought of the fact that I could have died. I don’t really like to think of it though as it was incredibly traumatic and I don’t think I’ve come to terms with it yet

I ‘almost died’ as a baby, my parents were told if they hadn’t got me to hospital when they did, I wouldn’t have lasted the next 24 hours. I was 6 weeks old.

My DF had a cardiac tamponade (where the fibrous sac around the heart fills with blood compressing the heart and stopping it beating) as a complication of treatment for a heart condition. If they hadn't immediately stabbed him in the heart with a very big needle he would have been dead in seconds.

He said he could remember someone saying his blood pressure was 50 systolic and that they stabbed him in the heart with a massive needle BEFORE putting him back under anaesthetic!! Then waking up in recovery.

I had meningitis when I was 16 and almost died, it was touch and go for a while.
I don’t really remember a lot about what happened but I was in hospital for weeks.