What's the closest you have been to death?

Boxing Day, 2023.

Woke up feeling ill, couldn't catch my breath at all.

Called an ambulance, went straight to A&E. Scans showed pneumonia. Blood tests showed life-threatening anaemia - less than half the haemoglobin a healthy person has.

They pumped me full of blood and antibiotics and for a few hours I was stable, then all of a sudden I just couldn't keep up the effort of breathing.

Respiratory failure, both lungs partially collapsed. I had to be intubated and put on a ventilator. Spent 4 weeks in ICU. At one point they told my family I was probably the sickest person in the hospital. Nobody knew if I was going to make it.

Out of hospital at the end of January. Underwent a few more investigations as to what had caused the anaemia. April, diagnosed with cancer. End of May, surgery to remove it.

I'm on the mend now, just very tired! And hoping that's the end of this year's dramas.

Thanks as ever to all who work in the NHS and all who can and do donate blood.
 
Probably 3 times on my motorcycle over the last 44 years . Nearest while overtaking a aggregate lorry and it`s 8 wheel trailer on the Lyme Park bends around 88 while another was coming in the opposite direction . Had no more than a inch either side of the handlebars to get between them both ! In my 60`s now and tend to take a bit more care while out riding .
 
Held under water by a labrador, in a park paddling pool when I was a toddler, pulled out by a random bloke! my old dear would never and still wouldn't go in any water, other than a bath.....despite her mother being a national standard swimmer!!
Probably came close, without knowing at the time, at being caught in a flashover/backdraught a few times in Fire Service.
 
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Not me, a work-mate, who collapsed in front of me, clutching his chest and obviously in extreme pain....i was about to start CPR wich would have killed him for sure, as it wasn't a heart attack, it was a collapsed lung.
 
Lauz9888 said:
Boxing Day, 2023.

Woke up feeling ill, couldn't catch my breath at all.

Called an ambulance, went straight to A&E. Scans showed pneumonia. Blood tests showed life-threatening anaemia - less than half the haemoglobin a healthy person has.

They pumped me full of blood and antibiotics and for a few hours I was stable, then all of a sudden I just couldn't keep up the effort of breathing.

Respiratory failure, both lungs partially collapsed. I had to be intubated and put on a ventilator. Spent 4 weeks in ICU. At one point they told my family I was probably the sickest person in the hospital. Nobody knew if I was going to make it.

Out of hospital at the end of January. Underwent a few more investigations as to what had caused the anaemia. April, diagnosed with cancer. End of May, surgery to remove it.

I'm on the mend now, just very tired! And hoping that's the end of this year's dramas.

Thanks as ever to all who work in the NHS and all who can and do donate blood.
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Fucking hell, that is rough , glad you are on the mend
 
69FACUPfinal said:
I nearly drowned on my honeymoon, mid 80s. The sea had been calm, we were swimming suddenly a storm blew up, tremendous waves. Neither of us strong swimmers, I told hub to leave me. I lay on my back as waves engulfed, remember thinking how sad to go on honeymoon, I'm only 26. The gods were smiling on me, sea and beach quiet, but a German guy swam over to me dragged me onto his back and with me clinging to him swam the quarter mile back to shore. I never did find out his name. I won't hear a word said against Germans, even though they did bomb our chippy during the war ( see Stan Boardman Fokker Wolf joke). I have never been in the sea since.

My son was born 9 months to the day after the incident.
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He had strong swimmers then as well as being a strong swimmer!
ColinBellsjockstrap said:
As per thread title.

In my youth, when I was about nineteen, myself and a few mates were messing about in an old quarry near Hyde.

There was a stone wall about fifteen metres high and for a dare I decided to try and climb it.

The first few metres were easy enough, but when I got three quarters of the way up, hand holes were few and far between, so I decided to do the sensible thing and go back down.

I looked down to the bottom, and froze in terror, one slip and I would have broken every bone in my body on the rocks below

I was petrified.

Eventually after about an hour I made it down to the bottom in a cold sweat.

I still think about how stupid I was even today.

Rock climbers must be crazy.
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Mine similar. Me and mates thought we would take the short cut around some rocks when on our first lads holiday in Lloret. Got stuck half way when the waves came in so we either had to swim which probably would have killed me as I can’t swim more than 50 meters. We therefore climbed up a rock face which I guess was 100 ft high with no safety equipment. Mad when I think back. We made it. I was 18. Invincible in my own head. Couple of lads who I knocked around with on our estate died at 17 and 19 on motorbikes.
 
Millwallawayveteran1988 said:
He had strong swimmers then as well as being a strong swimmer!

Mine similar. Me and mates thought we would take the short cut around some rocks when on our first lads holiday in Lloret. Got stuck half way when the waves came in so we either had to swim which probably would have killed me as I can’t swim more than 50 meters. We therefore climbed up a rock face which I guess was 100 ft high with no safety equipment. Mad when I think back. We made it. I was 18. Invincible in my own head. Couple of lads who I knocked around with on our estate died at 17 and 19 on motorbikes.
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The sea is a cruel mistress! My incident was in the Mediterranean too.

The folly of youth x
 
In Mauritius, sheltering from a sudden thunderstorm under an awning in a forested area, lightning hit a tree about 5m away, scared the crap out of me and my wife, we felt the "fizz" in the air before it hit the tree, the loudest noise I've ever heard.
 
There's been a couple

Car accident on the M62. The car flipped over a couple of times and landed on it's roof. I had a couple of broken bones for my troubles, was very lucky. If I was driving a smaller car I would have resembled an interesting looking pancake...

On another occasion I had suffered multiple stab wounds. The doctor at A&E said if the one on my thigh was an inch to the left I would bled out in less than a minute.

I now make a habit out of telling my nearest and dearest I love them as you never know when your allotted time may be up :)
 
Got Malaria in 1993 , I was in so much agony I didn't care if i died ,as long as i was unconscious.
Been inches away two times from being run over,both abroad, Acapulco and George Town,Penang Malasia .
 
Fell down a mountain in Scotland in winter. Crashed a motorbike at 70mph , survived but in hospital for a week or so, spun a car out on the M6 in traffic across all three lanes without hitting any other cars or wagons, went up an the embankment through trees, spun round and came to rest on the hard shoulder. Been shot at in Cyprus, luckily they missed! Caught heamoragic dengue fever in Thailand and was severely ill. Reacted badly to a drug in hospital and woke in resuss. Got stuck down a flooded cave in Ingleton with five others, we all thought we were going to drown. All a bit near miss. But still alive and kicking. :-)
The cave was by far the worst.
 
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