What's the closest you have been to death?

[blue whippet]

Many years ago when I'd finished University but hadn't started my graduate job yet I joined by Dad (RIP) on a business trip to Angola (he worked for a large US oil.and gas infrastructure company and managed the operations in Africa).

At that time Angola was in the midst of a civil war between the Government and the Unitas rebel group.

We were taken to a US compound in the outskirts of the capital Luanda, protected by the Angolan military where the oil expats stayed at that time.

One night there was an almighty roar, the windows shattered, you could hear explosions outside and feel the heat from them and we both got under the wooden beds whilst absolute fucking mayhem was going on around us. Bullets were now coming through the windows. It was weird as it seemed to all be in slow motion.

Anyway after a while it stopped and shouts outside the door told us to come out. We came out of the building and went outside and there were burnt out cars, some plastic sheets over dead bodies and black acrid smoke everywhere. We presumed the base had been attacked by Unitas rebels.

What had actually happened is the military who were protecting the compound got word that some Unitas rebels had been spotted a few miles away and these military guys were mobilised to go and fight them. The Luanda Police were then brought in to protect the compound.

When the military came back a few hours later they found a few of the Luanda Police guys in bed with their wives and basically a shoot out between the military and the police took place!!! FML!

I was on a plane to Portugal and then back onto the UK the next day!

That is one of the most peculiar things I have read, what on earth was your father thinking taking you there in the first place?

 

[The Lightbowne Cowboy]

Thank you!

I'm quite a lot younger than the average age for these sorts of problems (I'm 35) so on the one hand, I've had terrible luck, but on the other my recovery hasn't been quite the slog it might have been. There was a point at which it seemed likely I might need a tracheostomy and it might take months to regain my mobility. But I avoided the trach and managed to regain my strength to walk again after just a few weeks of physio.

I'm hoping that's all my bad luck for the forseeable future, though!

Blimey pal, you've proper been through the mill at such a young age. Well done on your recovery btw.

 

[City Hobgoblin]

That is one of the most peculiar things I have read, what on earth was your father thinking taking you there in the first place?

take your kids to work day?

 

[blue whippet]

take your kids to work day?

I'd be giving that one a miss!

 

[Kinkybyname]

my surname is Deato - so in the Yellow Pages

 

[talkativesprout]

Its not the 1800s but in a cotton mill I worked in from 1986... This happened around 1991 (im guessing, read the post)

I got chased down 4 flights of concrete stairs by a fireball, someone in work heard My/Our screams of shock, opened a massive firedoor to see what was going on, and I collided into it, grabbed the handle and threw myself into the warehouse it protected.( this happened in my mines eye afterwards, your arse drops out when you see a "Cloud of Flame" go above yer head and instinct kicks in).

Dennis, or "Quaver Ears" as he was called afterwards was a couple of paces behind me, he lost the use of both hands, its thought because the fireball super heated the door handle he had to grab to escape.

I know this incident fucked me up, I was 18 I think (my memory of it is dreamlike but I know i was on Granada reports sporting a Acid House T-shirt ) many names for it, survivors guilt(even though nobody died) ptsd, fuckin soft.

I remember the aftermath and the management said "right, everyone into the Brunswick because we were hampering the firebrigade by standing on the carpark.

Free BAR...I drank 3 pints and sat on a stool watching the blisters appear on my arm, little pinpoint blisters I later found out were red hot plaster dust.

It so happens the fire may have been started by a "tradesman" flicking a fag not knowing that Cotton was highly flammable, it ignited a box of yarn and the dust and because the lift shaft trap door was left open it acted like a fucking chimney and sucked the fire up the stairs...The fire investigator told me, if you had not face planted the door you would have run into the heart of the fire.


Surviving certain death, fucks with yer mind....I'm the chosen one, God's wants me for their own business thoughts are to be expected....Its fucking LUCK

 

[Travellingman]

We were living abroad and had a house with a big pool. Had a party one night and at around 4am decided to go for a dip. I was so drunk I literally forgot how to swim. I went into a complete panic, couldn’t think straight, arms flapping everywhere, I was drowning, meanwhile my drunk friends are laughing at me.
Fortunately my wife was sober, saw the horror and panic in my face and jumped in to help.

I was in a light aircraft that was hit by lightening as we came in to land. The plane took off with a few more passengers and was never seen again.

A girlfriend stopped me jumping off a train from London to Manchester in the 70’s. I was sleepwalking and had opened the window and was about to open the door from outside. You could do that back then. If I’d gone, nobody would have known why.

 

[give it to gordon]

I guess back in 1985 when I had a melanoma mole removed from the back of my knee.
The hospital had never done a skin graff before and the surgeon was beening shown by an army surgeon !

There was concern that being right behind my knee that the natural movement would cause problems with it taking. So to help this the skin graff was around 6"×4" with hundreds of stitches lol.

There was talk that if this didn't work perhaps I could lose half a leg or worse the cancer could be spreading. The melanoma had been growing for over 18 months as the locom doctor said it was nothing.
In the end it so painful I saw my doctor, who went ape shit. Within 2 days it was cut out and set for testing which came back positive. 3 days later I had the big skin graff. I was shitting myself that it could have spread or I would lose a leg.

Scary for me at 24yrs old. I was very very lucky, no chemo or radiation, the graff took well. The army surgeon was a good laugh and I was the only one on a private ward at the weekends with 4 nurses all looking after me. If only I wasn't so poorly lol.

 

[Blue Mist]

Hell I've led a boring life. I've never been stabbed, unlike most others on here. I've never rolled a car on the motorway at 4am in the snow. I've even met @dronefromsector7G and @snorky and survived. Mind you, as no one else has posted that I must be the only one.
Never had a paper cut that led to major surgery after the doctor did something wrong (most in here)


What a sad bastard

 

[mexico1970]

I guess back in 1985 when I had a melanoma mole removed from the back of my knee.
The hospital had never done a skin graff before and the surgeon was beening shown by an army surgeon !

There was concern that being right behind my knee that the natural movement would cause problems with it taking. So to help this the skin graff was around 6"×4" with hundreds of stitches lol.

There was talk that if this didn't work perhaps I could lose half a leg or worse the cancer could be spreading. The melanoma had been growing for over 18 months as the locom doctor said it was nothing.
In the end it so painful I saw my doctor, who went ape shit. Within 2 days it was cut out and set for testing which came back positive. 3 days later I had the big skin graff. I was shitting myself that it could have spread or I would lose a leg.

Scary for me at 24yrs old. I was very very lucky, no chemo or radiation, the graff took well. The army surgeon was a good laugh and I was the only one on a private ward at the weekends with 4 nurses all looking after me. If only I wasn't so poorly lol.

Glad you survived it and are contributing on here mate, must have been a shit time.