Near Death

[The_Dark]

I thought today might be a good day to share tales of Near Death. How close have you come to finding out what comes next?

[CandyQuackenbush]

With an ex-boyfriend.

He was speeding down the other side of my road, and that road has a 90 degree left turn on it, he didn't slow down. We where going 70mph in a 82 Camaro. He lost control of the car, *go figure* and took out a mail box with the passenger side of the car. It hit right behind my head on the passenger window. So it hit the window frame I guess.

Lucky for me, I guess I put my head down or something. I ended up with a small gash on my forehead. It's better than not having a forehead or head alone. The mailbox was on my lap.

He looked at me after that and said, "Just wait til next time".

We broke up a week later.

[The_Dark]

Story The First - Methane is not my Friend

Christmas Day, 1996

The wife, baby and I arrive home after a long day with family at different Christmas events. The house is cold enough to see our breaths. We know we paid the gas bill... something must be wrong with the heater. The wife grabs a blanket and coudles up in front of the TV with the baby while i go to the basement to check the heater... I assume the pilot light went out.

I get to the basement to find that the lights on the end with the furnace are blown out. No problem... all I can smell is musty basement. I'll just get out my trusty lighter. (Can you see where this is going?)

At the furnace now... it's dark and I can't see a damn thing. I should be able to see the pilot light but I can not. Cool, I was correct about the problem. I'll just light that....My brain sends the signal to my thumb to light said lighter about the time my ears are regestering a hissing noise.... NOOOOOOO!!!!!!

This is where time went funky and my brain tore into various thought processes acting independantly....

*flick* went the lighter...

Brain Function 1: Still screaming in my head for my thumb to stop.

Brain Function 2: Taking over arm now to drop lighter and grab coat.

Brain Function 3: Awe... sheer Awe at what I was seeing... I thin azure blue light came out of my ligther rather than a small flame. The light traced around my arm and wandered aimlessly toward the burn chamber of the furnace.

The lighter is just passing my waste and my right hand is grasping the lapel of my leather coat.

Brain Function 1: Screaming in my head to run

Brain Function 2: Pulling coat over head and twisting my back to face the burn chamber

The lighter is passing my knees on it;s way to the floor.

Brain Function 3: It's beautiful. The light has made it to the burn chamber and a flowing ball of flame is rolling toward me in slow motion. Reds, yellows and blues... the edge burning white...

the lighter hits the floor

***discontinuity***

my wife was sitting cross legged on the floor with the baby in her lap. She said it felt like someone had hit her on the ass with a board. She put the baby in the crib and ran downstairs. She found me 15 feet away from the furnace crumpled on the floor. Smoke was coming from my clothes and all my hair was gone. Gone is the wrong word... it was melted to my head and face and on further inspectiont he fire had gone under my clothes. I had not one hair left on my body.

I had first degree burns on my whole head, neck and hands. my shoulder and left side were fucked up from hitting the wall. But I was alive. I couldn;t hear a damn thing but a high pitched whine.. but that went away after a few hours.

[kellygrrrrrl]

NUMEROUS potentially fatal car incedents that came within inches....the kind where you drive silent for the rest of the way home with out blinking.

At least 5-6 of those....2 of them almost being head on with a truck or semi that was not paying attention and crossed over to my lane.....

Robbed at gun point over $70 something dollars......almost got duct taped and thrown into the freezer had I not been smart enough to outwit the dumb fuck.

Theres more. Sometimes I think my time is running out and I just keep getting an extra wind in the clock.

[Onyx]

I've had a few experiences, a couple of close calls with drunken relatives (I hate drunks) and such. Funny how you can get used to living in fear and think it's normal when you're a child.

Once when I was working night shift at the hospital I was nearly hit head-on driving home by a car going the wrong way down the highway.

Another time I was driving a minivan with my youngest who was a newborn at the time. I was on my way to pick up my oldest at school. All of a sudden I heard a loud boom followed by another and the van started swerving all over the road. I took my foot off the gas and just concentrated on steering. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion. The van spun around facing two lanes of oncoming traffic (I had been in the fast lane going around 55) and landed in the ditch facing the other way.

I sat there for a bit looking at my baby in her carseat. She was smiling and had no idea we had nearly been killed. It was raining and there was about half a foot of mud in the ditch outside my door and I was in a dress. I hoped someone saw the accident and would stop to help. So much for southern hospitality and kindness. This was a small town in Florida where I knew most everybody. I had no cell phone at the time. After sitting there for about 20 minutes my baby started to get hungry and I knew I had to get my oldest child at school so I opened the door and it was at such a steep angle I could hardly close the door when I got out.

I waded through the mud carrying her to a hotel where they let me use the phone. I called the school to tell them and then a friend to pick up my daughter until I could get to her. Then I called my ex husband (we were married at the time though) and the first thing he said was "How bad did you damage the van?" He didn't ask about the baby or me or whether we were hurt. That single moment marked the end of my marriage for me.

He told me to call a tow truck and so I hung up and searched the yellow pages and found one. When the tow truck driver saw the van and how it was sitting he asked me how in the world I kept from flipping it. There were two tires blown out on the same side of the van, and that was the side it was sitting on in the ditch.

[Msterbeau]

I got nuthin. I've been in a few car crashes...both with race cars and on the street. No big-deal injuries to speak of. The worst was a slow-ish head-on in highschool. I was a passenger. Bumped my head and re-sprained my neck. (Previous skateboarding injury) I recall very vaguely a few situations that probably put me well on the path towards finding out...

I'm pretty damn lucky I'd say.

[Fierce Critter]

<-- ditto Marc.

I have been blissfully free of anything even close.

I spent a year or so doing really stupid stuff that involved drinking to stupor, and ending up in cars with strangers, and then spending the night at said strangers' home. I truly believe a higher power was kind enough to put me in the care of true good Samaritans who never tried anything - ANYTHING - with me, and only made sure I didn't drive drunk and kill myself or someone else.

But I quit drinking to avoid that fateful day when I ran out of luck.

Other than that, no serious car wrecks, no serious injuries, no run-ins with crime, etc.

[wheresmypiggy]

Where to begin?

Which overdose to start with?

How about something a little more exciting?

Over 2 years ago before I moved back home to Michigan, I was kidnapped by a man named Giuessippi Giacalone for 8 months. Throughout this endeavor I had several close calls but the worst was when I tried to run away for the last time.

I made a break for the door. Was slammed into the wall. Grabbed by my neck and choked until I passed out. When I came to I made a mad dash for the window. I was determined to break through it. To no avail. The glass didn't shatter. I was thrown back and landed with a thud. No sooner did I try to get up when I was grabbed from behind and hit on the back of the head and dragged into the bathroom where scolding hot water was run over my face. I was forced to have my head submerged in water until I began choking violently and felt dizzy. My head was then jerked back up and I was dragged back out into the living room where I was raped and then choked until I blacked out again. This time didn't feel like a black out. I felt my life slipping away.

He must have thought I was dead because when I finally came around again he was passed out on the bed. With my ears, eyes and nose bleeding freely I stumbled out the door. I couldn't see very well everything was so blurry and felt like it was coming in and out. I tumbled down a flight of concrete steps and crawled to his car. Determined to get away.

One of his thugs was waiting for me. I was dragged back up into the room by my hair and kicked repeatedly in the back, side and legs until I couldn't feel the bottom half of my body. I was allowed to clean up my face and was placed in the back of a car and sent back to Michigan with a driver to pick up two girls. I was drugged before the trip and don't remember much of it. When I got back to Mi Skunkboy tried to come to my rescue but was unable to. All he could do was just look at my mangled face and watch me hobble around.

I now have alot of black outs. I can't walk right. I have back problems. I'm blind in one eye. Have trouble hearing out of one of my ears and have never been the same since.

I didn't see any light or any god but what I did feel when my life was slipping away was peace at last. Waking up from what I thought had been death was the worst experience ever. So much pain and confusion. I miss the peace.

-----------------------------------------------------

I will tell of an od and narcan story later.

[The_Dark]

Story the Second - That log is not safe

Summer. I was 14 years old. A friend and I were out shooting bull frogs with a pellet guns so we could get the legs and eat them. We were camping near a lake. The lake is one of those with the much bottom that so many people call "bottomless".

I had spotted a rather large bull frog but could nto get a shot at it. A large oak tree that was growing on the edge of the lake was blocking the shot. The tree was so close that some of it's roots extended intot he lake. I carefully climbed across roots to get to the lake side of the tree.

Just as I was taking aim the root I was standing on snapped. Down I went. Swimming in this was not an option. There was only 4 inches of water. Then god knows how much muck.

I managed to grab another large root on my way down.

So here I am. Just my head above water. My body firmly planted in the muck with a large tree between me and the shore.

My friend was freaking out. He thought I was gone. I managed to finaly yell out that I was ok.

We tried for 10min to pull me out. The suction of the muck had me good. We were a 30min hike to the nearest house. Even then, it was a long shot that anyone would be there... it was a weekend home.... my friend took off running. His older brother lived about 45min away.

So, there I sat. For just over an hour and a half. only my head above water... "things" in the muck crawling in my clothes.

My friend and his brother showed up with a truck and a long rope. He pulled me out with the truck in about 5min.

I ended up with bruised ribs from the rope wrapped around my chest... but no other real injurys.

I don't do water well anymore.

[DJ Nocker]

I have an "I should be dead experience" but no one ever believe me when I say it, so i wont even bother

[Hellion]

1.Messing around with homemade explosives,years ago

2.taking M.A.O. inhibitors,with the wrong food.

[Msterbeau]

I have an "I should be dead experience" but no one ever believe me when I say it, so i wont even bother

Oh c'mon. We need amusement here dammit!!!

[Brenda Starrr]

And to think that all I had was a really bad asthma attack. You know the one-where your face is whiter-than-white, lips are blue.....

Yeah.

They were thisclose to hitting me with a needle in my chest. Hence why I'm trying to quit smoking.