19 People Shared Their Wildest Near-Death Experiences, And It'll Send Chills Down Your Spine
Have you ever had a close call? Like, a REAL close call? A moment in life that left you saying, "Wow, that was almost a picture wrap for me." Those moments will rattle you and stick with you for the rest of your life, but they also make you appreciate life more.
Reddit user u/thunderchild10 asked, "Have you ever had a near-death experience?" Here are some of the scariest responses:
1."I was on my bike when I was in year 4 when we were doing this thing in school where we would have a few days of learning to ride our bikes safely on roads. My sister and I were heading down a busy road, and I was holding down my brakes, but they had stopped working. I was frozen in shock and couldn’t move from fear. There I was, plummeting down a hill toward a busy road where a huge lorry was about to pass. ... My sister had jumped off of her bike, and full-on bolted toward me despite the speed I was going..."
"... She managed to reach me just in time, grab the back of my jacket, and yank me off my bike. The lorry passed not even a second later, where I would’ve been if my sister had not saved me just seconds before. ... Still, to this day, I think back and realize just how lucky I was that my sister was there. She saved my life that day, and I will forever be grateful for that."
2."I was jogging a trail at Mount Bachelor. I was about to pass a ledge, and some guy was standing there on his phone or something. As I was passing him, he suddenly took a step backward, knocking me off the ledge. Luckily, I only fell about 10 feet, spraining both my ankles and gashing my knee, but below the little ledge I landed on was a much larger drop of about 150-200 feet..."
"...I was at the mountain with a friend who was a minute or two behind me, and he helped me climb back up onto the trail, but I never did see the dude who knocked me off again."
3."About two to three hours after birthing my daughter (at the time, my son was about 23 months old) and losing about two liters of blood, I got up to use the restroom, wherein I lost another liter of blood. I passed out on the bathroom floor — the cool tiles felt so good and comforting. The midwife apprentices came in, found me in and out of consciousness, freaked out, and started pulling tennis ball-sized clots out of me, yelling, “Oh my god! Oh my god!” I then saw this huge chute of swirling, brilliant white light leaving my forehead..."
"... At that moment, I realized that I hadn’t said goodbye to my children, and I refused to go. All of the light tunneled back into my head."
4."Long story short, without going into too much detail, I'm a pilot and was flying circuits at my airport at night when another pilot, not following procedures and with no lights on, nearly t-boned my plane. He passed less than 500 feet behind at an angle of incidence of 90 degrees. I landed immediately after and put the plane away fine, but on the drive home, I felt like a shell, and it took me a few days to fully recover."
5."I accidentally walked in front of a bus. The driver screeched to a halt a few centimeters from where I was standing. I said thank you but was in total shock. I probably owe him my life. It was very humbling."
6."When I was around 26, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. The disease attacked my organs, and one of them was my lungs. They were slowly filling with blood. I had to be put into a coma, and the doctor always used to remind me how amazed he is I made it — I ended up with kidney failure, too. But I did manage to get another kidney. The worst time of my life. Should've died multiple times."
7."When I was about...4 or so, I think? I came pretty close to drowning. In a fit of rage, my cousin, who was in the pool with me, snatched away my water wings. My brother dove in and rescued me. It's all a blur by now. I don't remember much; wanting to call out for help but being unable, choking and crying to my mom after the whole ordeal, trying to get the words out through my tears to explain what had happened."
8."I was canoeing in Minnesota. A guy in my camping group wanted to line (walk a canoe up a stream) instead of portage (drop stuff off on shore and carry the canoe to the next lake). I was walking up, and the water got deeper. I slipped and fell. I was tossed around in the water, took some scrapes but found purchase and pulled myself up. Directly in front of me was a sharp rock that would've gone right where my head was had I not grabbed the rock."
9."I was 5 years old at that time; my mom and I went out to buy something, and I bought five candies. It's like chewing gum but candy. I tried swallowing it all together at the same time, and my mom was washing the dishes. I ended up choking, and I couldn't breathe or talk. I ran to my mom, and she slapped my back, and the candy that I had swallowed earlier finally came out. Thank you, mom. I'm really glad you were there. If I were home alone, I wouldn't be alive today."
10."I was hit head-on by a speeding drunk driver going the wrong way down a one-way. I distinctly remember the impact and thinking about how I was going to be injured. The keyring in the ignition exploded keys all over the car from the impact. The first thing I did was feel my teeth, too! It felt like they had been knocked out from the airbag. Funny, we both did the same thing! I had a bad concussion, bruising, and whiplash. My dad broke his ribs. But no missing teeth!"
11."At age 33, with no warning, I developed epilepsy. I woke up strapped to a backboard with a cervical collar on as EMTs were loading me into an ambulance. Apparently, I was walking downstairs when I froze in place and then just tumbled, hitting my head and breaking several bones. The seizure lasted several minutes, and then I was unconscious for a while afterward. I remember absolutely nothing. There's just about a 30 to 45-minute period of my life that is a giant black hole."
12."I was on my way home to my mom's house with my sister on a Thanksgiving morning when it started to rain... I can’t see anything in front of me... I was going about 40-45mph and hydroplaned from the right lane to the furthest left lane with the concrete wall. I managed to turn my car just enough not to hit the wall but drifted straight into the dirt shoulder, where I felt like everything slowed to almost a halt. Everything went upside down, and I saw the traffic coming toward us, and my only thoughts at the time were to cover my sister's head from the impact. When I blinked, everything started up, and the initial bang landed on my side of the car. Not once had I left my hand even to protect me. ... We rolled about eight or nine times until we halted on my window, and I immediately told her if she could move to a clearing away from the car and climbed out while I felt the rain hit my face where the glass had just kissed me."
"...The adrenaline kept me up and running to escape what I thought would be my tomb. When I climbed out of the car, about six people rushed to my help, but I kept telling them to go help my sister because I knew she had a panic attack. EMS arrived shortly after, and I didn’t realize I was covered in blood because the rain kept washing it down. My car was banged up, the food I cooked was flipped, and my sister was safe. I was thankful for her being alive."
13."I was 8, and I was choking on a peppermint. My mom had to stick her finger down my throat to get it out. I almost passed out right before she managed to get it out. I never liked hard candy after that!"
14."When I was 17, my (ex) boyfriend was super into cars. He didn’t have his license yet but was able to take his car down the street and stuff without getting in trouble. One day, he picked me up; however, while leaving, at the red light to the right of us was his grandpa. ... When the light hit the green, he started speeding. We took a right into a more residential area. He took the turn far too fast... There was a telephone pole and a large tree. We slammed in between the two, and when I realized we were going to hit it... I remember the cop telling me very sternly that I needed to break up with him, as he’s someone who would willingly put my life in danger. ... If we had been an INCH in either direction, we would’ve hit the tree or the pole, and it would’ve killed us..."
"...This was six years ago, and I’m still very traumatized by it. I hate being a passenger in a car to this day."
15."I had the swine flu, but we didn’t know it. I thought it was just a bad cold, and it quickly went downhill. As I was laying in bed, feverish and coming in and out of consciousness, I felt as if my soul was slowly seeping out of my body horizontally. The top few inches of me, from my forehead to my tippy toes, felt as if it were in another plane. I woke up in the hospital the next day alive and on the mend. My mom was there and told me when she came in to check on me, I wasn’t the right color, and I was burning up with a fever, which is when she called 911 and had me brought to the hospital."
16."We have our gym unit this week. Earlier today, I tried to bench about 90 pounds, got it off the hook things, lowered it down, and my arms just gave out. My friend who was spotting me caught it just before it was about to cave my head in. I got up and decided never to bench again."
17."I dived into the sea off some rocks, and it was much deeper than I thought. I went to push off the bottom, and it wasn't there. I inhaled a load of water and blacked out, woke up on the beach getting mouth to mouth. Bought the guy who pulled me out lunch."
18."...I was around 6... at a water slide park... (my mother) was hanging around the eating area. I was going down waterslides with my uncle... We were halfway down, and I was uncomfortable with how I was sitting, so I started to change my position on it, and that's when I fell out of it... I was fully prepared to swim... But once I hit the bottom before anyone else did, I went swimming up for air... That's when my uncle's float hit me straight on the head with him on it. I then fell back deeper into the water; things were starting to get a bit blurry, but I kept pushing myself. I finally made it to the top a second time, and before I could get a breath, I was hit straight on a second time by some other float, and I almost drowned..."
"...then, I heard a woman screaming at me, and I came to."
19."When I was 10, I think, my family and I were at the beach with my aunt's family. This was a beach with no lifeguards, but for some reason, they just let people in any way. ... My two cousins and I went a bit too far into the water and were struggling to swim back. There was barely anybody else on the beach or in the water because it was a pretty cloudy day. My mom and aunt couldn't hear me and my cousin (one of my cousins got away and got back to shore) yelling that we couldn't get back, and we were struggling for about three whole minutes before my mom swam out and saved us. Fun fact: The second we got back, the cousin that got away started teasing my cousin and me about our obviously traumatic experience. I remember I accidentally swallowed a bunch of salt water while out there as well, along with my cousin, so I remember that the adults gave us Capri Suns afterward."
