Thread: Have you ever almost died?

18 or so, riding my XR200 down a main road, had to turn left and luckily the lights changed and I got a green arrow to turn while the cross traffic flowed. Took the corner at some pace and ran into a patch of gravel the council had handily left on the road. Back wheel went out and I was now cross steering directly into an oncoming truck. Revved the fuck out of it, spraying a rooster tail of gravel and finally got traction and pulled myself out of the trucks' path with what seemed like inches to spare.


Same bike, which had no ignition, so when I parked as well as a heavy chain around the wheel I usually put the choke on full so it wouldn't start.
Parked at the pub with a mate for a few beers which due to a massive storm turned into lots of beers. Finally, storm or not we had to go and rushed out into the pissing rain, got the chain off and jumped on, hammering the kickstart. Finally it chugged into a semblance of life it would only maintain on full throttle.
Then the lightbulb went off in my beer addled brain, the choke!
So with it still on full twist I reached down and flicked the choke off. The bike went into a mental wheelie flat chat across the carpark with me partially attached and we both ended up embedded in a hedge separating the park from a major road.

I nearly fell out of my 18th floor condo a while back, after hanging my washing in the laundry room.

There are 2 rails to hang washing on ,high up, that you need a step ladder to reach. I didnt realise the window on my left was open and went to lean on it as I came back down the ladder. My ribs hit the bottom of the opened window and i briefly stared death in the face.

I hang all the laundry on the balcony now.

I figure I've used up at least 5 of my 9 lives so far. I'm easing back a bit now to make it last...

- I've survived 3 serious motorcycle wrecks and a couple of minor ones. One involved crashing a GSX-R1000 in a high side flip and narrowly missed being run over by an on-coming pick-up. The bike landed on my left foot and crushed it.

- experienced severe turbulence over the Pacific on a flight to Taiwan where after having the roller coaster ride of our lives, the plane banged extremely hard on a sudden drop. It felt like we had run into something solid in mid-air. There was a huge collective gasp from most everyone on the plane as we looked around in shock wondering what had just happened. The pilots were very quiet for sometime after that and I think they were checking all the systems to confirm if we were still air worthy

- had a near miss by lightening that struck about 15 feet away, way back when I was in elementary school

Forgot one, flying into DeGaulle airport, jet comes in for landing, touches down, reverse thrusters kick in, then all of a sudden the pilot maxes out the throttles and we are all pushed back in out seats as he does what seemed to be a 45 degree climbout.
Came on the speakers a few minutes later apologising that the airport "wasn't ready for us" which I assume to mean there was another jet on the runway....

Dragged out of a dyke in Morecambe bay when I was about 7. Came round in a bath!

Dillie...Leave the dyke thing out!

Loads of close encounters with the Grim Reaper on scooters.

My most memorable encounter with the other side was after taking a strong LSD tab.
I literally dissolved into liquid and drained down the bath plug hole and was reincarnated in Utopia. Even though this outer body experience lasted for a day and was traumatic at times, i still remember the experience fondly.

CCC

Have lain in hospital essentially numb from the waist down, not able to lift legs, role over in bed etc., with a viral infection. Didn't feel like I was dying at the time but had I not been given expensive immunoglobulin....

Originally Posted by VocalNeal

Have lain in hospital essentially numb from the waist down, not able to lift legs, role over in bed etc., with a viral infection

The clap is not a near death experience, is it ?

I forgot one also:

flying over the Pyrenees in a small prop plane, hit a very bad storm, the other passengers were screaming and praying. I (being British), ordered a whiskey and read a book (can't do anything to help the pilot, whatever will happen will happen etc).

Toulouse airport was closed because of the storm but they opened it for us to land. Took 3 attempts. On landing, I went off to clean myself up in the toilet....

Originally Posted by Dillinger

The clap is not a near death experience, is it ?

Depends how your wife takes the news

In a lifetime of oilfield work around the world (including some VERY dodgy countries that are completely off-limits these days) I should have been dead at least half a dozen times. Each time I manage to get home in one piece and with a pulse the resolve to live life to the fullest kicks in even harder.

got into a difficult situation on an Austrian mountain
couldn't go back, forward or down
a leap of faith really got me to safety.if it hadn't worked i was gone gone gone.
also swimming off Gibraltar and the current dragged me out
was just a dot from the beach but an eagle eyed Welsh guy spotted me.
car crashes, have had a couple but my driving skills saved me.
oh yea and one time in Switzerland when on the bicycle
came within inches of ending up under an 18 wheel truck after skidding for 6 or 7 metres. came racing down a mountain, turned a corner and the fecking motorway was right there. no,,, i didn't shit meself.

Originally Posted by Simon43

I forgot one also:

flying over the Pyrenees in a small prop plane, hit a very bad storm, the other passengers were screaming and praying. I (being British), ordered a whiskey and read a book (can't do anything to help the pilot, whatever will happen will happen etc).

Toulouse airport was closed because of the storm but they opened it for us to land. Took 3 attempts. On landing, I went off to clean myself up in the toilet....

Too loose !!!!!

Originally Posted by Dillinger

Originally Posted by VocalNeal

Have lain in hospital essentially numb from the waist down, not able to lift legs, role over in bed etc., with a viral infection

The clap is not a near death experience, is it ?

I guess not it is bacterial. But then again I suspect neither of us is a doctor.

Strewth, YES.
Looking back my luck has been outrageous.
Without going into details;
Motorbikes
Oil rigs
drugs
fights
cars
self inflicted
airplanes
disease
War
Revolutions
Fuck knows what else.

I was actually declared dead by Doctors in Italy at one point. They reckoned it lasted 3 minutes. I've still got the medical reports . An interesting experience followed by 3 months in intensive and then 2 months putting my face back together.
At least the insurance paid out.

Fuck it, life is for living.

Originally Posted by luckyjim

Strewth, YES.
Looking back my luck has been outrageous.
Without going into details;
Motorbikes
Oil rigs
drugs
fights
cars
self inflicted
airplanes
disease
War
Revolutions
Fuck knows what else.

I was actually declared dead by Doctors in Italy at one point. They reckoned it lasted 3 minutes. I've still got the medical reports . An interesting experience followed by 3 months in intensive and then 2 months putting my face back together.
At least the insurance paid out.

Fuck it, life is for living.

LUCKY Jim ??????????

When I was a kid I was 6 days in hospital. Doctors told my Mum and Dad that I had ruptured my spleen and would die within a few hours (behind a curtain, me listening in). Turned out to be OK (clearly) - don't know why or how, but they got it wrong and I was OK. So although I didn't die, for a day I thought I was about to which was a bit shit.

Originally Posted by luckyjim

Strewth, YES.
Looking back my luck has been outrageous.
Without going into details;
Motorbikes
Oil rigs
drugs
fights
cars
self inflicted
airplanes
disease
War
Revolutions
Fuck knows what else.

I was actually declared dead by Doctors in Italy at one point. They reckoned it lasted 3 minutes. I've still got the medical reports . An interesting experience followed by 3 months in intensive and then 2 months putting my face back together.
At least the insurance paid out.

Fuck it, life is for living.

Pics or it never happened.

I was shot 3 times by the Royal Anglians British army in 22 /5 1974 , I'm still here ,

Almost Died....??
I'm on my third life as we speak.

I could tell ya stories.

You lot of failures.

I was dumped by a wave surfing and sucked in by a rip. Woke up in hospital. Bastard sharks didn't get me as this was on an unpatrolled bitch.

Going up a treacherous mountain road behind a heaving double trailer, about 4am, no hurry, was tired and happy to ease up behind him for the next 10-15 minutes before the clear patch I knew was ahead for overtaking, the occasional car came by, and the truckie had his indicator flashing left to let me know not to make any crazy moves. Peaceful enough scenario.

After a while truckie switched his indicator to right, moved over the few inches of spare road that he had and physically waved me through. I moved out a bit to make sure it was clear, he was still waving, I saw no oncoming headlights and committed myself by moving straight out - just as he started frantically waving me back, with his air horn blaring and headlights flashing.

I thought we were dead when the bus appeared bang ahead from round a sharp bend, which was probably why truckie didn't see its lights, now I had the truck on my right, drop into nothing on the left and a bus coming at me, the only way to avoid a heads on was to make way for the bus, and the only way to do that was to reverse which I still don't how but I did, with a dead stop from second before slamming into reverse and panic boot to the floor to get back behind the truck without hitting it, as the bus whisked by literally inches away.

Pulled over shaking like fok, needed a couple of smokes, and never since then, 1974, have I ever trusted the judgement of another driver in a critical situation.

Originally Posted by roger77

Originally Posted by luckyjim

Strewth, YES.
Looking back my luck has been outrageous.
Without going into details;
Motorbikes
Oil rigs
drugs
fights
cars
self inflicted
airplanes
disease
War
Revolutions
Fuck knows what else.

I was actually declared dead by Doctors in Italy at one point. They reckoned it lasted 3 minutes. I've still got the medical reports . An interesting experience followed by 3 months in intensive and then 2 months putting my face back together.
At least the insurance paid out.

Fuck it, life is for living.

LUCKY Jim ??????????

Well, he got through it...