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?

PPH here also. I just drifted off and was aware of lots of urgent shouting and being pummelled literally inside and out, but I wasn’t aware of anything other than how very sleepy I felt and how easy it would have been to shut my eyes and go.

There were days when I wished I had in the months that followed because the toll it all took was so severe.

I’ve also had three very close calls with severe asthma attacks and that is, quite literally, fighting for life and breath. Utterly terrifying.

MrsPear, that is my experience in terms of having that feeling that it all hinged on my decision of going to hospital or not. I suffered traumatic flashbacks after my son's birth remembering standing at the bus stop and trying to decide whether to go to the hospital, because a consultant had told me a week before that I was worrying unnecessarily and to stop going in for checks. That one choice made the difference between life and death for my son so I do still go back to it in my head and it's very hard.

PinkPaperCrown
That was very similar to my experience.

I also had a PPH, but as I only requiredx2 units of blood and never lost consciousness I don't count it as catastrophic compared to my earlier experience (see previous post). I only lost just under 2l anyway, didn't need any additional care beyond midwives etc. My reaction when I started bleeding and throwing up was just to say "Oh no." like Phoebe in Friends. I know others who had similar experience and do talk about it as if they were on the brink of death. I suppose its all relative though, if thats the worst blood loss you've had it must feel pretty scary.

I've had a couple of other serious times - meningitis when I was very small and even though it was viral the doctors didn't know if I'd be strong enough to get through it so told my parents to prepare themselves; and a burst appendix where I had the beginnings of sepsis. My DM likes to trot that one out, but I basically had IV antibiotics for 3 days then they discharged me.

I've had to audit maternal/neonatal death cases before and they do make for some really upsetting reading.

I don't mean to discredit anyone's PPH experience here. They all sound pretty horrific. I meant that I have known people who have lost a lot less blood than posters here but then talk up their "massive haemorrhage".

I think there’s a difference between “could have died” if someone didn’t act very quickly, like many of the PPHs I’ve seen described on MN - not specifically talking about people on this thread and “nearly died”. I see “almost died” as needing a significant amount of medical intervention to keep you functioning. I had a traumatic c section, crash call and I know if they hadn’t acted quickly, my baby would have died. It’s terrifying. However, I actually almost died of septic shock when I was younger. I was in intensive care, ventilated, kidneys beginning to fail and my family being told the doctors were not expecting me to survive. I am aware I may be sensitive and I am still traumtisised by my experience and was left physically disabled as a result and also have PTSD.

I was a SID. I'd been born 2mths early & at 3mths old, had only been home a few days. Mum put me down to sleep one weekend afternoon, checked on me after an hour & found me blue & not breathing. She totally lost it apparently & it was my Dad who called an ambulance & started to breathe very gently into my lungs to revive me. I don't know what would've happened if it had been a weekday & my Dad not there.

Heart attack on the operating table, had to suspend three operating theatres, 30 people working for 10 hours to stabilise, 8 days on ECMO then a further three days intubated, bringing round ..... I'd say pretty dead at one point ... but when push comes to shove the NHS kicks in.

Why does the OP NEVER come back ?

I had a renal drain put in under CT guidance (v painful procedure). The kidney in question was hugely infected and within a minute or two of the drain being fitted I started to feel icy cold (though according to the nurses my temperature had zoomed up sky high). Cue a lot of people running around speaking urgently to each other in tight controlled voices. It turned out a bit of infected matter had got straight into my bloodstream (no-one's fault, normal risk factor). I remained conscious while they injected me with large doses of antibiotic, etc but I could not slow my breathing/heart rate and things did not seem to be improving. I work in hospitals/medical practices and realised there was a very huge chance I was about to die. I made a conscious effort to try to slow my breathing down to a more normal rate and kept my eyes open - I could see and hear everything - all the faces peering down at me around the trolley, the voices saying my medical team must be bleeped "stat"! - and then they all stuck, like a film that has jammed and started moving further away. I thought, "If I shut my eyes, I'll die so I must keep sight of them". At that very moment the antibiotics must have started to work because the faces came back nearer and moving again, the voices told each other I was responding and the crisis was over. When I came back to CT in a week's time for drain removal, they all hugged and kissed me and said it had been a very upsetting episode for them too and they'd all had to go the pub for a drink afterwards. They had not realised until I told them then that I had understood and heard everything. I was not frightened or in pain (just really, really cold and shaking with cold despite very high temperature) but I was really cross that I might be about to die (before I reckoned it was my time to go). but when push comes to shove the NHS kicks in - ABSOLUTELY, I have huge admiration for them.

I was clinically dead for 2mins after a car accident when I was 3. Had a "near death" experience which I remember 40 years later, and which my mother says hasn't varied in content since I described it to her straight after the accident.

Don't remember anything else except my parents using their arms to brace me against the impact of the oncoming car - we were in a pick up truck (with me in the front between them) in the days before middle seatbelts, and my father dislocated his shoulder and my mother broke her arm - they saved my life. Next thing I remember after that was my aunt holding me up to the mirror in the hospital to see my "war wounds".

My father was put on a life support machine due to pneumonia in both lungs that they couldn’t get under control.

His vitals just got worse and worse. We were told that he was dying.

Somehow he survived. A miracle.

According to a search the only time I said i almost died on mn was when I jumped barefoot off a bed and landed on an upturned 13a plug

Which I think is fair enough

For me almost dying was a 12 hour operation in which my heart was removed from my chest cavity. It was a surreal experience where I was put to sleep, but I knew something was going on, I saw everything but like it was a dream. It was horrific and the worst experience of my life ever.