Have you ever thought you were REALLY going to die?

I was 16, driving my friend's 280zx down the Gulf Freeway in the fast lane, in the middle of the afternoon, when all of the sudden there was a German Shepard right in front of me standing in the middle of the lane just looking at me. Instinctively, I swerved real fast to go around him. The next thing I know the car has no reaction to the steering wheel. It was on its own. The car started doing 360s while moving across the lanes. I was going backwards doing 70mph. But luckily I didn't hit anyone and the car came to a stop in the slow lane perfectly facing the right direction. All the other traffic stopped and some guy asked if I was ok. I was fine. I let my friend drive the rest of the way. That was a fun one.

 

And you don't believe in God?

 

They caught the guy a mile away after a short car chase. He carjacked someone on the way to rob the bank and the dye-pack someone gave him (thanks for doing that when he said not to….) went off and splashed red paint all over the inside of the car. Turns out he was just some 18-year-old punk. He was convicted and got something like 20 years.

Hard to believe you can actually rob a bank in this day and age, but it happens all the time and most of the time, they don’t get caught.

 

I did then, so I got out and shot the dog because its purpose was to make me almost die.

 

exactly what I was thinking.

I don't remember this but when I was 2 years my parents were instructed to put me in a bath tub filled with ice because of an extremely high fever.

 

When I started reading this thread, I thought to myself, "I don't really have any stories like this."

But upon further pondering, I do. Eeeeek!

1. On my way to Houston from Dallas last Christmas holiday with my wife and daughter. We are driving at night, to avoid the traffic around rush hour on a Friday. It's about midnight, and we had a rental car (my wife's car was being serviced) and we were in the fast lane, just having passed a slow car in the right lane on 45. As I look in my rear view and check my blind spot to get back in the right lane, I see headlights moving up on me VERY quickly in the fast lane. I was going about 75 mph, so they had to be going over 100 mph. I quickly get over into the right lane to get out of this person's way, and as I do, I hear their engine rev really loudly and tires screech on the pavement. As I look into my rear view mirror, I see this truck take a hard right, lose control, and run into the guard rail on the right hand side of the road. Thinking it was over, I began to reach down to grab my phone to call 911, and then all of the sudden (this had to happen in an instant) the truck had launched off the guard rail, engine revving loudly, and is coming at me FAST again to my right rear side. I FLOORED the Dodge Stratus (nice) and veered to my left quickly. I didn't know if there was a car in the left lane, and didn't have time to check, I just reacted. I ended up narrowly missing him and he plowed over into the grassy knoll in the middle of 45. My daughter slept through all of it, amazingly. But I really thought we were done for.

2. I was swimming in my neighborhood Olympic size pool that had just been built/installed and opened for the summer back in 1984. Several of us were there, and we were conducting our own swim meet of sorts, racing the length of the pool. Someone decided it was a good idea to race the length of the pool solely underwater. I was rather good at holding my breath for long periods of time, so I was in. As about 4-5 of us take off from one side of the pool, one of the kids (I guess) was swimming with his eyes closed, and ended up directly below me. He could not hold his breath any longer about halfway through the race, and launched off the bottom of the pool and his head hit me right in the stomach. Naturally, it knocked the wind out of me, and I sucked in a TON of water in the process. Somehow, I swam to the side of the pool but could not breathe, at all, through my nose, my mouth, nothing. There was a lifeguard, but since I was not making any noise (I couldn't cough, nothing) he was not alerted, nor was anyone else. I was freaking out thinking I was about to pass out, seeing spots, etc. Then all of the sudden, I felt sick, and began to dry heave. Finally, I began to get very small amounts of air into my lungs, and the noise of me dry heaving was enough to alert the lifeguard (no, he didn't perform mouth to mouth) and they instructed me how to get back to breathing normally.

 

Car wreck w/ my bro driving. It was raining, heading back to austin TX from houston to go back to school. It was raining, we were in the left most lane on katy Freeway (i-10) right past katy mills. We hydroplaned from the left most..to OFF the freeway...miraculously not hitting a single car...and driving into the road baracade that was on the feeder....someone above was definately looking after me and my bro..

 

I had that feeling when I was carjacked by three mexicans gunpoint all three were baldheaded. They took my wallet my platimun chains watches diamond rings even my polo boots. I was actually saying my last prayer outloud and took off running zig zag pattern just anticipating the bullets hiting my back. But thank god not one shot was fired. Till this day I havent bought any rings or necklaces just plain citizen watch.

 

I was longboarding, board fell on the street after I slipped on a wet spot. Went to grab the board and didn't see the car. It went right past my head.

When I was little we had a school meeting in the gym. One of the speakers about the size of a large box on the ceiling fell down and landed right next to me.

 

Hispanic?

 

Crazy stories!

I had that feeling when me and my ex were mugged at night. There were two black dudes that came up to us and pointed a gun at us. I never felt so terrified in my life. I thought they would shoot us and take off after taking our rings. I only had my ring and phone but my phone was in my back pocket. They took his ring, cell phone and wallet. Thank god.

I've had near misses while driving but nothing major.

 

New Year's Eve 1989: 5 hits of LSD and 5 hits of X ingested simultaneously. I don't think I've ever actually come down from that one.

Surfing in Puerto Escondido, Mexico ca. 1993. I hit the bottom with my head so hard I couldn't breath and the wave just kept forcing me down. Totally scary...

Coming back to Austin from a wedding in Tucson, AZ (1998?) on I-10 just past Ft. Stockton where I-10 and I-20 diverge, my wife (girlfriend at the time) was in the far left lane going about 85. When I noticed she was veering onto I-20 I said "Hey! Stay right!" Well, she just jerked the wheel all the way right and we began to spin out of control. I think we did about a 720 in one direction and then a 360 in the other direction (due to her over-correcting). I was in the passenger seat and at one point I looked out the side window and saw a sign coming right for my side. In a nanosecond, we were all the way back across the freeway and parallel-parked on the left-hand side of the road facing the proper direction. Crazy. (Incidentally, cfans user dsnow23 was in the back seat of the vehicle. We rented a Pontiac minivan for the trip.)

 

When I was a little less than a year old, I caught was was then called the "Hong Kong Flu". I was in the hospital for several weeks. A few of those weeks I wasn't doing well and had to be in an oxygen tent/bubble.

I don't have any memories of it and probably had no idea at the time, but that was the closest I have been.

 

Im a firefighter/paramedic been in the ghetto a while now .....ive almost died a few times guns, knives, crazy ass cops doin stupid stuff.. not even to mention running into 100+ burning buildings.

 

While traveling through South Asia, I contracted malaria. I was pretty sick, and had to go to the hospital. If you haven't been to a hospital in a third world country you haven't lived!

 

Too many to name but I will try anyway:

1) When I was like 7 or 8, I got pushed accidentally into the deep end of the local swimming pool and we are talking about 8 feet high or more of water. Also, I was in the process of taking swimming lessons but I wasn't able to swim at the time. Luckily a lifeguard saw me struggling and dove in to save me.

2) Also when I was about the same age, I choked on a brussels sprout while I was eating lunch at a friend's house. I remember falling to the ground and finally being able to expel the object out of my mouth.

3) When I was in college, I had a couple of close calls while driving from my hometown to Murfreesboro (went to Middle Tennessee). a) One night I was driving back and I ran over some shrapnel in the exit ramp. It wound up bending the linkage and I had the hardest time shifting down (my car was a 4 speed escort with reverse at the very bottom right). Eventually the linkage problem worked itself out, but I had the car put on a rack and they discovered that there was a hole in the bottom of the car where I had struck the object - inches from the gas tank. I still remember the mechanic looking at it and saying, "Wow, you were only a couple of inches away from having an explosion on your hands!"
b) Another time I was driving to school and a red-tailed hawk swooped down on my windshield as I was doing 75 mph. Luckily, it pulled up at the last very possible second. I know if it had crashed through my windshield, I would have had a very bad wreck.
c) Finally I hit black ice on the interstate going home one day and skidded into the median of the interstate; this was after doing a couple of 360s and then slamming on the brakes as an 18 wheeler was barreling down on my ass. That was the most frightened I have ever been - I really thought I was going to die at that point. Incredibly, I didn't do any damage to my car and was lucky enough to see a family that I knew from church league softball coming back home from Nashville to hitch a ride with. It took us an hour to go 4 miles - I kid you not!

Then there was the time in 2000 when I was out water skiing and I wiped out really bad. I was thrown up in the air and actually landed in the water head first and my head hit one of my skis! How I did not get hurt from that is beyond me.

Also I fell off a ladder around 2003 while cleaning leaves out of my gutter. As I was falling, I about ripped the gutter off the side of the house. The only thing that saved me from falling on my face and breaking multiple bones was that I was in the best shape of my life as I was working out and running every day.

And this last one doesn't qualify but back when I had my 350Z, I, one time, passed 7 vehicles at once on a 2 lane country road. Looking back at that, I was incredibly stupid to try to do something like that even in a hot car like that. That was back in the days of being single and not having any kids - young and reckless.

 

You shouldn't do stuff anymore.

 

In middle school I had scarlet fever and strep throat at the same time. I thought I was a goner.

 

When I was going through benzodiazepine withdrawal, I thought I was going to die everyday for about 6 months.