What's the scariest moment of your life?

[Lonelydaisy]

Following on from a thread I read earlier..

What's the most scariest life event you've been through?

Mine would be a stroke at 25 years old.

Emcs . Heart rate down to 68 , they pulled him out and he was grey and floppy ,that minute felt like forever .
When he was 9months or so the gp called an ambulance for suspected sepsis. Blue lights and all

Dd flipped over in the swimming pool Il never forget the sight of her legs in the air even though Dh was in with her my heart felt like it stopped till he got her out .

Dh had a fit and fell off the sofa and banged his head there was blood pouring from his mouth . He bit his tongue but I thought he was dying .

Finding my 3 day old blue in her cot, unable to make a sound with glassy eyes. I picked her up and did what I had been shown in a mothercare taster session for baby CPR. Got the mucous out, then husband came downstairs, I handed her him and then burst into tears. Cried when we went to hospital too as I was worried I may not have done it properly or there would be damage as I didn’t do it quick enough. I am convinced that set off my PNA.

DS1 experiencing a medical episode on a plane, he was really poorly, and helped by the cabin crew, but it was very scary, for us and the passengers around us too.

Anaphylaxis. Knowing a reaction was coming and Stupidly stupidly not having any antihistamine or epipen with me. I can remember my friend screaming on the phone to ambulance ‘peanut allergy peanut allergy’ and I felt like I was sinking into a hole and was quite convinced I was dying and would never see my DC again. I had been very very sick everywhere, and apparently the ambulance crew initially thought I was drunk. I will never go anywhere without medication again, and now always wear a medical bracelet if I am going somewhere where I will eat.

When my husband had sepsis and I was told that he might not make it. Also being on a boat in a huge storm and a bumpy airplane ride. And seeing a massive spider of course.

Bloody Hell you have all been through a lot haven't you?

Mine is nothing so bad. My Brother was driving me back to Mum's after I had visited his family over Christmas Holiday for tea. It was vary dark (area of New Forest). We were driving up to a pub when I was sure I noticed some eyes in front of our car. It is very weird trying to explain this but it went fast and very slow. My brother and I looked at each other. He managed to stop fast. We realised a horse had broken out of it's field. Either I haven't had much of a life (very possible) or my life just did not flash before me! We were a bit shook up but continued on our merry way. I remember saying to my brother that thank God he was driving and not my aunt as the horse would have been pate.

Every time I am driven by car or bus through the New Forest and pass the pub I remember that Christmas night!

On the subject of my aunt, we were driving along the road to the same brother's house where he lived before. I was aware of a monster lorry hurtling towards us. My aunt who was driving did NOT see it! Lots of loud shouting from me!

@Eatingsoupwithafork

Thank God you did that course and a massive hats off for you keeping your cool and being able to help save her life. It may have triggered anxiety, but rest assured that in an emergency you will cope better than you think. Give yourself some credit for that!

Being told my four day old newborn needed to go to the neonatal unit immediately for treatment for starvation.

We’d been in hospital since giving birth and I kept telling staff I wasn’t producing milk, they ignored me repeatedly and gave me patronising shit about how I was just anxious, my body would meet his needs, just relax, my body is designed for this, he only needs a droplet rubbed into his gums. They said this for days while missing the fact that he was wasting away in front of them. By the time they weighed him and realised I was telling the truth he was desperately ill, severely jaundiced, too weak to feed anymore, needed a tube to be fed, and was very close to brain damage and requiring a full blood transfusion.

I was so exhausted and delirious from lack of sleep, a four day induction, nursing him fruitlessly, having to stay awake as he was inconsolable with hunger, that I just kept ignoring my instincts and reasoning that they were the professionals and I was a clueless new mum.

Looking back it has caused a lot of trauma, I have PTSD. I feel like I was gaslit. That moment where they said he was that poorly was the scariest of my life as they had told me again and again I would make enough milk for him so I didn’t click he was starving and thought that he’d been born with some disease, I thought he was dying. He was ‘just’ starving.

I will never forgive those staff members for being so ignorant and neglectful tbh: and not once during my entire time pregnant and the NHS feeding class did anyone tell me that 1-5% of women don’t produce enough milk, if I’d have known it would have saved me so much stress and guilt but I didn’t think it was a thing and in hospital they just kept saying it was all fine. Nobody ever acknowledged that some women simply can’t ebf and their babies survive.

Also when I was told I had Multiple Sclerosis, I will never forget the shock, the room, the fear. And arguing with the Neurologist that it might not be correct, when he was talking me through the MRI Scans. Took me a good 6 mths to accept the diagnosis.

When DD was born, her heart rate was dropping with every contraction. They had to use forceps to get her out, the cord was round her neck and she came out grey and floppy. Those few seconds it took for them to bring her round were the longest of my life. Thankfully she was OK.

Then when DS was born, again his heart rate was dropping, loads of doctors etc suddenly arrived. I was in so much pain I was barely with it and I just remember a doctor saying we need to get him out, push! so I pushed with all my might, no pain relief. He was back to back with hus hand on his face, I got really bad tears. Thankfully he was ok the second he was delivered.

I got PND after having him, I suspect I had it after having DD but I never saught help.

I still get very anxious with both of them in certain situations and I'm terrified of something happening to them but I keep that to myself.

Whilst I was at university I went on a caving trip, it had been snowing and snow was starting to melt and the instructors should never have taken us. On the way out we had to cross a stream by stepping down into it with one foot and then up the other side with the other foot. The instructors commented that it was a lot faster flowing than usual. I lost my footing and started to slip, and I really did see my whole life flash before my eyes. Luckily my friend in front was a massive rugby player and grabbed me one handed and lifted me out. If he hadn’t been there I’d have been swept away and unlikely to have ever been found. I didn’t go back for the second day!

Mine was stroke at 28. No health issues ever other than then. Had a 1 and 2 year old at the time. All the time knew what was happening around me but couldn’t communicate. Rushed into surgery when they realised what it was (after 24 hours) and was awake throughout waiting to die, it was awful, had PTSD after but now am completely fine. It is amazing how people survive horrific things.

Being on a flight in a snowstorm and coming down to land seeing the left wing almost touching the floor, thinking I was going to die. The plane made an emergency pull up and finally landing in a military airport a 6 hour drive away from where we were meant to be staying, being greeted by armed guards with machine guns.

Emergency c section after baby's heartrate plummeted. Laying on the hospital bed knowing she'd been born but wasn't crying and not being able to see what was happening but knowing it was bad from DH's face (she was being resuscitated). I've never felt so scared or helpless than in that moment. The relief when she finally cried was completely overwhelming.

@BanginChoons

Finding out my unborn daughter's prognosis and knowing she wouldn't live very long and would be very ill. And then the realisation that I was going to be asked to choose, and that choice would cause her death to avoid her suffering. And then getting up every day since, living with that choice.

I'm so very sorry .

You really didn't have a choice, though. You took the bravest path, like any good mother would, to protect your child from pain and suffering.

I really hope you find peace with it. RIP your little one.

Giving birth to my DD, and having the emergency crash team come to revive her as she wasn't breathing, or alive at this point, and didn't for 6 minutes. Longest 6 minutes of my life.

Or, actually 4 days later in the special baby unit when they told me I'd likely not take her home, as she was so desperately poorly and they didn't know what it was. It was sepsis and she made a miracle complete recovery just 2 days later. I can't look at photos of the first week of her life without feeling sick.

Probably first baby going into peri-arrest about four hours after birth due to hypoxia and birth trauma.
Maybe phone call from his CO to tell us our was son missing when on military exercises in South America. He was fine, but call was scary.
Maybe brakes failing as I was joining M3 and already accelerating on slip road.
Maybe workin in Sefawa, in Sudan in the 80s and realising we had a measles epidemic starting.
Maybe being called back into work after the Harrods bombing and not knowing what we would be dealing with.

Who knows how to compare one situation with another? It’s usually the unknown that is most unsettling. What we imagine is usually far worse than the eventual reality.

I was nearly killed at school, someone tried to drown me in the pool (they knew I couldn't swim so thought it would be funny to hold me under) - somehow I managed to get from one side of the pool to the other, bobbing up and down snatching occasional gasps of air before being plunged back under again. That was pretty scary in retrospect though in the moment my "fight or flight" response kicked in and I was just focused on survival.

Having to tell my mum that my sister had died. We were in Luton airport having just landed back from a holiday. I switched in my phone and got and urgent message to ring someone who told me the news.

I debated for 10 mins where and when I would tell her as we waited by the baggage carousel. I've never felt such fear knowing what I was about to do as well as the raw grief I was feeling too. I told her by passport control in the end. It was awful.

Many years ago my drink was spiked at a college event. I was a mature student on masters course at the time, married, two young kids, but developed a good relationship with the younger crowd (I was not the only older student though!). At some stage our large group was moving on somewhere else, and I was feeling awful, confused and asked to be taken home. My closer friends were gone.

Some guys (I knew one) took me outside, but a taxi would not take me, I was getting sick, it was pouring raining, I could barely walk, not speak, but I still knew what was happening. The guys took me to a place (later, it was a nice studio appt) above a shop. I was passing in/out of consciousness, they took off most of my clothes and put me on a bed. Over the next few hours I'm not sure what happened.

Next morning I was woken up by some of my closest friends they had managed to contact. I was paranoid for a few days since my underwear were taken off, checked for blood, soreness, std test, but gradually was able to piece the evening together. I'm 99% sure nothing happened. I never told DH the full story of what happened. I reported the event to police a few days later too.

I had been raped as a college undergrad, but this was another level of fear.

Watching my then 2 and a half year old have his first febrile seizure (ear infection) the ambulance not coming for nearly half an hour as massive incident in town near us, paramedic using defibrillator on him as his heart couldn't cope, him going straight back into seizure. Luckily he is an 8 year old now- but forever changed, epilepsy, scarring on his brain, global developmental delay, adhd and autism on top of that. Every seizure since ( a lot) has me feeling the same now. I'm still grieving the healthy child I had and trying to cope with an eternal toddler with no awareness of danger and the strength of a small adult. I'm not the mum I used to be, iv piled on weight and am scared to sleep. My children deserve better.

Wow, there are some incredible stories on this thread, hats off to you all!

Mine was being trapped at the back of the top deck on a double-decker bus when two teen gangs broke in to a fight in the aisle, and one boy pulled a machete out. I knew he wasn’t concerned about any of the other passengers - just the other gang - but it was huge and he was waving it about wildly and screaming.

It was over really quickly, they all got off the bus and started fighting on the street and someone had called the police who I could hear were close by… but my god I shat myself!

Also a dodgy minicab experience in my late teens: never again!

Watching my Mum die of cancer - she deteriorated rapidly and her last word was my name. I'd been over a few weeks earlier when she'd been released from hospital and nobody had any reason to believe the end was coming so quickly.

The thing is that she had shielded me from the many deaths in my family over the years - some natural, some tragic - and I was always terrified of when her day would come. But that fear dissolved into relief that she was no longer suffering, followed by the usual post-death feelings - laser focus re. the practicalities, confusion, exhaustion and eventually raw grief.

Before then I'd had various scary moments (hey, I grew up in a war zone ) but they pale into comparison in context. I faced what I feared most, and I handled it as best I could.

Having a bad experience on drugs once and hearing my friend on the phone to a helpline saying ‘we think our friend’s going to die’

@Raffles1981

Some of these stories are heartbreaking. I am amazed at the strength of you MN ladies Not my story, but many years ago, my DP was in Zimbabwe and canoeing. He drifted away from the others and suddenly felt the whole atmosphere become incredibly still. He turned to see a hippo, rising out of the water, mouth wide open. He somehow leaped out, swam away and turned to look, just as the hippo crushed his canoe. He goes white when we see hippos on the TV. And it's been 30 years.

Oh my goodness!!! What about crocodiles?! What a scary experience. Glad he is safe.