Have you been close to death and how did it feel?

[thirddan]

similar stoyr, i was young around 4, got my hand stuck in the drain of my spa, parents thought i had just gone under the water... and my mother had jump in and pull me out...don't remember what i thought, but i still have a scar on my wrist...

[wacki]

Well if people are giving serious responses:

Ok, let me count the ways...

Got mugged, the first hit was in the back of my head, but all I felt was a pop in the front of my face. I didn't even see it coming. When I came to, I was covered from head to toe in blood and on my way to the hospital. Apparently I was saved by a 90lb woman.

Bike wreck, flew 30-40 feet and my shoulder/head head landed on pavement which snapped/cracked my neck. I still can't believe it didn't break.

Bouldering accident #1: I was a bit cocky and went too high. Fell 20-30 feet and landed on my back. Broke my chestplate, that thing took forever to heal.

I've had a few scares in my caving career. When they fill up with water, it is never a good time.

Climbing accident #1:

Walking along the top of a cliff, the moss/thin layer of dirt gave way underneath me and I started sliding with it. As my body went over the edge, I was able to grab a root no bigger than a pencil. The rock ontop was smooth and wet so it was very hard to grab onto. I screamed for help but my buddies had just gone back to camp 5 minutes before and I was all alone. That was not fun.

I could go on, but it would only get boring.... I have to get to the lab. Cya.

[jasonHoldEm]

When I was in my early teens I recieved allegy shots. For those not familiar with the process they inject you with a (very) small amount of what you are allergic to and over time you build up a resistance to it. I'd go to the Doctor's office after school one day a week, get the shot, wait ten minutes or so, and then they'd check the reaction size to measure how I was doing to determine when the appropriate time to increse to the next dosage.

I was just starting my shots (maybe a month or two into them) and the bottles got mixed up by the nurse, instead of pulling from the first bottle she pulled from the last one giving me an injection 10,000 times more powerful than I was supposed to recieve. I had gone back to the waiting room and after a few minutes I started sneezing and then a few moments later I started going into full blown anaphylactic shock.

I remember grabbing my throat being unable to brethe, standing up to try and get to the front of the waiting room, and falling down on the floor. Everything was in slow motion...as I'm headed to the floor I remember quite clearly the look of terror on the receptionist's face as she saw me falling and then begining to jump out of her chair to go get help. I hit the floor and don't remember very much for the next few minutes, just pieces of things - strong arms grabbing me and dragging/lifting me into a examination room, something being stuck in my mouth (I later learned this was a failed intubation attempt, unsuccessful because my airway was completely closed), and a number of injections.

I woke up strapped down to a gurney and puking in an ambulance and then being absolutely freezing. The paramedics had every single blanket in the ambulance on me as well as a fireman's coat and it didn't help any. We got to the emergency room and I threw up again, some more hot/cold flashes, injections, etc. and then I finally started to come out of it. Spent the night in ICU covered in hives and pretty [censored] miserable, but went home the next day without any lasting side effects.

I'm certain that if it had taken five minutes longer and I had left the doctor's office before going into shock I certainly would have died, as things turned out it was pretty damn close I guess. The worst part was probably right at the begining, the panic of not being able to breathe and then a strange acceptance of my fate...in a way it was relaxing. No lights or tunnels or anything, just darkness and relaxation. That being said, I wouldn't recommend it and plan to avoid death as much as possible in the future.

J

[astroglide]

[ QUOTE ]
strong arms grabbing me and dragging/lifting me into a examination room, something being stuck in my mouth, and a number of injections.

[/ QUOTE ]

so i guess it wasn't a jewish hospital?

[tek]

If it was, they would have performed a wallet-ectomy [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Snowslide]

One time when I was maybe 5 or 6, my parents went out for the night and left me with a babysitter. We lived out in the country, and the baby sitter came straight from work, and had a shower while my parents finished getting ready. The baby sitter was almost finished the shower when my parents knocked on the bathroom door telling her their ride was there, and she said she would be out in a couple minutes, so my parents left. There were left overs on the counter for the babysitter, and I grabbed a piece of chicken as I watched my parents drive away. The shower was still going. I started choking on a chicken bone, and kind of panicked, I just stood there, choking, not knowing what to do. I watched my parents get to the end of the driveway (being in a farming community, the drive way was probably 500 yards long), I remember seeing the car turn around, after that I don't really remember much. Basically, my mom left her purse or something, and came in to find me on the floor with a piece of chicken beside me, and game me the hymlec manouver (sp), and I can sorta remember gasping for air. My throat hurt like hell, but I was fine. Probably killed a few brain cells though!!
Wow, this turned into kind of an essay.
I mooned about 200 hells angels once too. I did not realize how stupid this was at the time. I was 17.

peace,
*mike*

EDIT:
To answer the question how it felt, kinda sureal I guess. It was not until I was much older that I realized how close I was to dying.

[ChoicestHops]

Ive almost overdosed on coke and alcohol before. Did only about a half gram, but drank way too much. I think I had about 3/4 of a bottle in a few hours. I was sitting there trying to go to sleep, and it felt like my heart was going to explode. My heart felt like it was beating 3-4 times a second. The tv was on, but I kept losing focus and everything was very dizzy.

Ive got about three near-death accidents under my belt as well.

[Wayfare]

[ QUOTE ]
The worst part was probably right at the begining, the panic of not being able to breathe and then a strange acceptance of my fate...in a way it was relaxing. No lights or tunnels or anything, just darkness and relaxation. That being said, I wouldn't recommend it and plan to avoid death as much as possible in the future.


[/ QUOTE ]

I hope it's that way when it's my turn to go...

[Ten7offsuit]

Tried to kill myself when I was 18, just overdosed on some pills and tried to go to sleep. My body went insane, my skin turned white as hell, I started breathing heavily, I just lost all energy and coordination, I could barely walk in a straight line, I had such little control over my body, so I just kind of lay in my bed getting ready to die.... it was scary as fu[/i]ck, but an interesting experience.

[Matty]

[ QUOTE ]
Bike wreck, flew 30-40 feet and my shoulder/head head landed on pavement which snapped/cracked my neck. I still can't believe it didn't break.

[/ QUOTE ]Bike or motorcycle?

I came about two inches (quite literally) from a head on collision going 95 mph once in high school while racing Indiana backroads after school let out. The whole time I was thiniking "[censored] [censored] [censored] [censored]". afterwards it was "I'm a [censored] idiot I'm a [censored] idiot I'm a [censored] idiot." I almost felt like turning around, finding that poor lady, giving her a baseball bat and letting her beat the crap out of me. I didn't get a good look, but I think there were kids in the car.

Besides that, my step-dad stabbed me in teh back once, but it wasn't anywhere near life-threatening. Just sorta traumatic.