What have your near-death experiences been?

[Wes Marrakesh]

Just out of curiosity, if you've had any near death experiences, what are they? I'm suddenly morbid.....

 

 

It was a few years ago, I was about 7 I think. I was staying at my grandparent's house, and me and my grandmother were out for a walk. They live in Marin.

 

It was by the bay and you could literally walk to the water. Being the curious and fearless youth, I was on the low, kinda-rocky hills by the water. One side was the path and the other was the pebble-strewn shore.

 

Anyway, I noticed what I thought was another way down. A thin ledge was on the water side and I thought it lead back to the path. In reality it did but was far from what I expected.

 

I hopped down and started walking. Climbing, rather. The ledge was probably only three inches of shale (loose rock you can pull out with your hand effortlessly) and it was going down. I slipped going down another level but the time I was semi-scared was when a spider crawled out from behind a rock I disgorged.

 

By no means am I strong and am not really athletic, but I somehow made it. I don't even remember looking down but had I fallen I probably would have sustained serious injury from the rocks if not death...

 

After what was probably 15 minutes but felt like half an hour my grandmother came walking on the shore. She looked up and said something along the lines of "There you are! What did you think you were doing up there?" She guided me to a shaft of gravel that I could have slid down but it would have gone over poison oak/ivy, so I clambered back up to the path.

 

Strange thing is, I wasn't scared at all ('cept for the spider part). Probably didn't look down until my grandmother called to me. I was cool headed and concentrated on moving along the face. Hell I don't know if I can be that calm now, about 5 years later.

 

I find that rather freaky in retrospect...

[ShockV1.89]

Hmm, junior rock scrambling? Sounds like fun.

 

Mine was pretty scary. We were in the middle of a big snowstorm, and being bored and stuck inside, I felt the urge for a book. But I had already read all of mine, so I decided to drive down to the bookstore and use the giftcard I'd gotten for Xmas. I took my mothers SUV (Honda Passport) and headed out into the snowcovered roads.

 

Halfway there, I rounded a bend a little faster than I intended. It would have been ok, but I gave it too much gas before I straightened the tires. The car fishtailed right, then overcorrected to the left. I slid sideways into a telephone pole doing about 35 mph. It hit the drivers side door and back door, caving in the whole left side of the car. If I hadnt taken my hand off the wheel at the last second, my left hand would have been crushed against the steering wheel. As it is, my head whipped left through the window. I suffered a minor concussion as a result, but all things considered, I think I got off well. The cop who arrived said that if I'd been going much faster, I might have sustained serious injuries.

 

I cant drive in the snow anymore without tensing up... I'm just glad it hadnt been my car ('97 Mits. Mirage). If it had, I wouldnt be talking with any of you right now...

[Elijah]

I Think I have told my story before… anyways here it is:

 

June 9th 1998, I was 11 years old… My father had rented a tractor to grade down a few areas of our yard so we could set up a pool, the first few days went fine and we got a lot of work done… the final days and the day my dad was to return the tractor to the rental yard we did some last minute work.

 

We graded down the driveway of my house, during the process my dad hit a brick wall while backing up, Curiosity overcame my 2 brothers and I as we saw paper come out of the bricks. We picked them up and started reading the almost 25-year-old newspaper. All at once both my brothers where running in different directions and all I could hear was the sound of the 2 Ton (4,000 LB) tractor backing its way down the drive way, with me in its path… 8 feet… 4 feet… 1 foot… I quickly realized the danger and screamed at my father to stop (he couldn’t hear anything over the load roar), I threw my hands forward to stop the bucket of the tractor from smashing me into the wall (He was backing up at an angle and couldn’t see me, the bucket was also about neck high to me) I Felt the cold metal touch my skin as I let out a final breath before the impact… I FLEW straight up 4 feet in the air (By the hands of an angel, no other explanation) the bucket caught my leg and arm (left side) I spun as the bucket rolled against the brick wall. I hit the ground and the world around me spun in circles, my right knee was on the ground where is should be… my left knee was behind me (still connected but broken… badly) I couldn’t feel it but was relieved to find it still intact, my arm was very sore along with all the bones in my hand. I saw my older brother chase my father (who still didn’t know what had happen) and told him that he just killed me (everyone thought I was dead) I looked up and saw an angel, standing 15 feet tall and glowing like the sun… suddenly it vanished and I felt the strong arms of my father pick me up. We rushed to the local fire station where the ambulance came and picked me up, the paramedics told me I shouldn’t be alive and they had never seen someone live through something like that, My chest should have been flattened. The doctor at the hospital asked my why the tractor hadn’t hit my chest, I told him and he assumed it to be an illusion of mine while in pain… I had knee surgery, a cast on my arm and a lot of prayer… beyond all odds I made a speedy recovery of walking in 7 weeks, the doctors, totally amazed. In all his years the head of bone repair had never seen a patient recover that fast after breaking the biggest bone in the human body.

 

I believe to this day that I was saved by the hands of an angel and grace of God.

[X R Kun]

Theres this holiday a few years back and my family drove up this mountain in malaysia. The weather was bad so everywhere landslides occured and blocked the roads. The roads were packed and even when a pile of earth was cleared, another piled up in front. What should have been a 5hrs journey took nearly 12 hrs.

Than there was this moment when i could have possibly died.Possibly. We were stucked coz there was this huge boulder sitting on the road and in we where waiting when i heard this loud crack and the rustling of leaves. A pile of dirt and mud and rocks came crashing into the road and hit this big truck right in front of us. It was completely covered. Sadly, the driver died of suffocation. If we were to drive a few metres ahead we too could have suffered the same fate. I later heard that was the worse landslide that area has ever witnesed.

Luckily hotels on the peak offered discounts to those stuck in the worse jam ever

[Wes Marrakesh]

I thought of another

 

I was in our car driving in Kirkland (I think it's California/Nevada border). My dad was at the wheel and we had two guests: my friend and his mom. It was a narrow road during the winter.

 

We were driving along just fine, then *BAM!* The car started spinning in a circle. Dad handled the car and slammed it into the snowbank.

 

I think we hit a patch of black ice and could have easily spun off the edge and smacked into about 50, well-grown pines.

[Darth Homer]

I was at Boy Scout camp (yeah, yeah) in '96 or so...had some storms crop up during the middle of the week and it started getting dark at about 1 o'clock or so...it got so dark we had to carry around flash lights, well, there were reports of tornados within 20 miles of us and we're all in canvas tents, etc...and if you've ever been near a tornado, you know the eerie calm that comes a bit before the storm...we had that...the winds started picking up, we heard a confirmed report of a tornado within 10 miles of us...well, we took shelter where we could and waited...winds died down, no tornado came any closer...it was rather anti-climactic, but that's been my closest brush...10 miles

[JediNyt]

I fell into a crevasse when mountaineering in October 2000. 40 feet it was. Fortunately I wasnt hurt cause the snow bridge that collapsed made a soft cussion for me and the other 2 guys that went in. We were in a rope team of 3. One guy twisted his ancle and the other got a chipped elbow and cut eyebrow. But they were very minor injuries. The Force was with us. We got down the mountain just fine after we were rescued by the other rope teams. I kind of feel bad about being the only one not hurt. Though I was buried face down in the snow for a bit when the rear guy fell on me. Ive since then stopped mountaineering. Not cause Im freaked about crevasses but cause its not much fun anymore. The misery factor wayed out the fun. Wasnt as rewarding as I thought it might me. Maybe some day if Im tough enough Ill go for it again. Mountaineering is one of the exteme recreations.