What's the closest you've been to death?

When I was 11 was barefoot in the villa, and was walking normal speed, so this was nano second stuff, time seemed to slow down for me. As a sidenote, my father was a grade 7 teacher, science teacher, and he had aquariums with local insects, we have a non poisonous scorpion in the south okanagan around osooyos. So I had seen one in his classroom.

As my foot was stepping down, time slowed down, and all I can say is in a nano second I felt energy, and it registered in my mind with a clear picture of a scorpion.

I leapt back just in time.

Then my grandmother and I spent many minutes trying to argue with my science teacher, but completely irrational father, that this was indeed a scorpion, as there is only thing on earth that looks like this. Finally, determined to prove us wrong, he casually scooped it up into the frying pan and took it to the manager of the motel.

He was told this was the most poisonous scorpion in the region, death would occur in 30 minutes, but the nearest treatment for this was a longer distance away.

Something just occured to me about the folks in this thread. And I dont want to hijack but it is related.

Those that have had these experiences?... how did it change you in the face of the aftermath.

Myself, I love adrenaline, absalutely. Of course now I really dont fear death. I fear not living enough. Also, I am liking being cpr certified, hazmat trained, and first responder. Somewhere along the line I felt it important.

a reply to: smirkley

I had EMT training as a coal miner. The company offered it for free as long as you passed the test. Mandatory that per number of men under ground, one had to be an EMT, as we were far away from above ground help. We had fully stocked trauma kits on the unit.
I don't know if the experiences have changed me, as I've always been the type to run toward the fires, explosions and screams for help, rather than away.

Good thread OP SnF'

Mine was a real slow motion one, time literally stood still.
Lifelong biker, coming up out of my local village one afternoon came around a corner (possibly a wee bit too fast) and there was a woman in a toyota doing a three point turn at the exit of the bend (I kid you not) I ploughed straight into the side of the car embedding the bike in her door pillar and was catapulted over the roof of the car with great force.
Had the bike hit the door straight on it would have piled through door and the driver and the roof of the car could have cut me in half.

I will never forget the moments I was in the air and remember it vividly, time literally slowed to a crawl and I actually had time to think to myself very calmly that this was it, I will not survive this.
It was a blissful few seconds that stretched out and I felt a great calmness and acceptance that I was going to die.
(SPOILER ALERT!....... I didn't die! Obviously)

Next thing was big crunch as my bones hit the road - and the road won!

Hit the road very hard and did loads of damage to myself but survived. But it will always stay with me how time slowed to a crawl and a great peace seemed to envelop me for what seemed like a long time but was in reality only a moment being airborne.

I healed eventually (mostly) but have had no fear of death ever since. Bike was a mangled wreck though.
Could have been very nasty though. But time really is relative.

a reply to: smirkley

Well, those very experiences opened my eyes to the thought that there is more to life, and to a slightly more expanded view of things. Though, now I don't really fear death; if it happens, it happens.

I overdosed on OxyContin in high school. Only took two pills. However they were 80mg contin pills. These are almost the strongest ones they make and i did not know the strength until later.
Anyways, i had two pills and a shot of rum. That is all it took for my 125 pound ass back then.

I stopped breathing to the Point where i fell unconcious. My heart even stopped beating for a minute. Luckily i had a buddy doing CPR on me until the paramedics arrived. I was still unconcious when they took me into the ambulance. During the time i experienced a true NDE OBE.

Eventually they shot me up witg nalaxone. It is the same drug they hit a heroin ODer with. It literally makes your pain receptors feel like they are on fire for a few mins. But hey it counters oxy and it woke me up and worked. They had to shoot me with Nalaxone four times until i stayed awake.

Only dabbled with MJ ever since.

Then December 2014. On the way home from work, i fell asleep while driving. (best guess of the police and i.) I was driving home on Interstate 25. Basically I hit a gaurd rail doing 82 mph. I know the speed because the speedometer stuck in place.
Apparently after hitting one rail my car crossed back over and hit the median cement block even. I shattered both my femurs in the wreck. i had a huge gash on my head and face. Gashes on my arms. Etc.
The flight for life saved me that day. Hell yeah Colorado. I was flown about 40 miles from the wreck into a major hospital in Denver. I recieved 2 blood transfusions. Another in the helicopter. Also unfortunately i experienced a siezure in the helicopter.

I have recovered a lot since then. The last injuries i did not mention is the tearing of my C5, C6, C7 spinal nerves on the right side. The doctors Tell me its slowly getring better.
I have no use or function out of my right arm. I was right handed. Im only 21 now. Its the #s.

a reply to: harvestdog

4 years ago I went to the e.r. because I suddenly had trouble standing up and keeping my balance. I also had triple vision and a very strong deep pain in my sternum. This happened out of the blue and, my first thought was to take a prescription pain pill. After 2 hours and no pain relief, I go to the e.r. and had to stop to rest 3 times before getting into the door. The pain was excrutiating.

I hobble up to the little window and, next thing I know I am in a wheel chair and rushed to an exam room. They asked my info, lots of question, put me on oxygen, took vitals, and took blood. 20 mins later, the e.r. doc comes in and announces that I have somehow lost 70% of my blood. I was hypovalemic but had no injury, no areas of blood loss, no internal bleeding! Where the hell did my blood go?.
I dropped my jaw in shock.

I was rushed thru admittance, given a private room, and transfused with 4 pints of blood and infused with platelets.
I was given strong pain injections and set up on pain med machine.

Doc comes in next morning and tells me I was damned lucky as I was very close to organ failure and death. but his tests and thorough exam could not explain my blood conversion . I hadn't lost the blood, it had converted into a watery type substance. He also told me i really needed 2 additional pints of blood but his job was to bring me from critical to stable, not fix me whole.

My Hemoglobin was 5.7 when admitted. It was 7.4 when released next afternoon. I stay around 11 now but am told I need to be at 14.

I have been diagnosed as having severe anemia and keep lab draw every 2 months.

Id like to know how my blood changed and why. I am still seeking answers.

This kinda expresses a bit ,...

youtu.be...

But then again I already like the Rush.

Edit to add: yes it isnt the greatest video, but certainly one of my favorite songs.

a reply to: harvestdog
There were a few times. One time, there was a party next door and my car was parked out back. I went to move it because I didn't want it getting messed with. I had the window open and I heard the distinctive click of a gun being cocked. I turned my head and there's a cop pointing a pistol at my head.

Another time, my friends and I were joy riding in this guy's dad's truck. There was a road that had these big hills like a roller coaster. The guy we were with was jumping the truck and my friend and I were in the back. I flew up after one jump and landed on the tail gate. I was teetering back and forth until my friend grabbed me and pulled me back in.

I was on my way to work another time. The roads were slick and this idiot in an SUV slammed on his breaks because the light had turned red. He was going way too fast for the road conditions and came into my lane. I was lucky enough to keep my cool and pump the breaks so I could avoid him.

a reply to: harvestdog

Nearest to death... which time??? When I was 2 I fell in a pool and my dad jumped in wearing full police gear to save me, when i was 12 I got caught in a drive by shooting, when I was 14 I was hit by lightning, when I was 16 hit again, stabbed when I was 15, hit by a car the same year, when I was 22 bridge construction fell and hit my car then rear ended fuel tank detonated on impact ejecting me from the car across 4 lanes of freeway into a ditch, 3 different motorcycle wrecks, shall I keep going????

I turned blue on the doctors table when I was around 2 when they gave me a shot of penicillin and had to be revived.

I'd say that was pretty close....lol

Looks like either you live a crystal life, or you are one of those types that live to a hundred with a hundred near misses.

Those that live clear lives, good job, keep it up.

To those that just keep missing the eternal lottery, keep dodging that bullet.

To those we miss now on this plane, well, you are dearly missed down here.

I have a huge fear of doctors, so I will wait pain out whenever I can. Back in February I had been sick in bed with a stomach ache for a little over two days, when I turned over I felt and heard my appendix burst. Instead of going to the hospital I went back to bed. When night came and I tried to get out of bed I realized I couldn't move my right leg. I had to lift it up with my arms and move it over the bed. I realized then that my need for the hospital supersedes my fear of them.

It was an appendix, so exactly how close to death I came I am not sure. The surgeon was really mad at me for not going in earlier and told me that he didn't need to see the chart to know that I was very sick. Oddly, my dog had been sniffing around my right side for a while before it inflamed and burst, I should have done something, but ...fear and all. Honestly I felt closer to death when waking up from being put under. That is not a natural state for the mind to be in and I really, really hate it.

a reply to: harvestdog

I have two experience I feel are noteworthy.

First, when I was 23 I punched someone through a window. The window came down and sliced two of the main arteries in my arm. My brother lived right across the street and that's the only reason I didn't die. He ran red lights and ignored emergency room staff when I was told I had to go through the waiting room area. And I was later told that if I hadn't gotten there when I did I would be dead.
The other experience happened in a dream, so take it how you want to. It is the most vivid, lucid and memorable dream I've ever had in my life and I have a very rich dream-life, but this dream stands out amongst the many dreams I've had in my life.
I was in jail and I was sleeping about 10 feet from a 19 year old girl, who with her girlfriend, beat another girl to death with a shovel. No question of guilt. It was my first night in jail and one could argue that my subconscious played a major role in creating this dream, but that is not my belief.
I remember every bit of the dream, but for the sake of getting to the point I'll spare you the details. In the dream I was running here and there trying to escape these couple people who were after me. And finally they caught up with me. It was then that i realized they weren't out to get me. They showed me how I was murdered. I was standing there, but I was also watching myself be murdered like as if I was watching a 3dimensional movie. I saw myself being beaten to death with a big rock and thrown out of the truck and left for dead by the people who'd been chasing me. They were also watching this scene with me even though they were in it.
I realized that I had been dead, reliving the experience over and over until I was shown my death.
So I asked them are you dead too? How are you here? And I was told that on that side there is no such thing as time, that that only exists in the physical realm, so even though people are here experiencing life, we are all still on the other side aswell, and that they were still alive. What had happened was meant to have happened and there was no right or wrong about it. Just then I start to think of the hipocracy of religion and I start to think of all the things in my life that I've done, that I percieve as "wrong" and I feel myself start to melt away into a dark place that I know is what hell really is... A state of confusion, fear, and negativity. So I start to say the Lord's prayer. As I'm saying it I feel myself solidifying again and I know its because Jesus has saved me. And at that point I was awoken by another inmate telling me it was time for breakfast.
It's my belief that God or my guides or whoever/whatever taught me these things so that I would never judge anyone, not even a murderer. Really I learned many truths (as I believe them to be) through this dream.
#1- we are multidimensional beings who exist in multiple places at once, because this is the only realm where time exists.
#2- that right and wrong do not exist on the other side. We forget while we're here, but there are no accidents. That on the other side its understood that everything happens for a reason.
#3-you can be in heaven or hell depending on what you choose to believe. I put my faith in Christ's forgiveness and so I was saved from going to hell.
There are other things, but those are the most profound things that I learned.
So I don't know if anyone's had similar visions of the truth, but I'm guessing others have been shown these things.
Opinions are very much welcome!
Thank-you
Sara

Plane crash short of the runway trying to return to Ubon airfield in Thailand. We were in a Caribou on one engine and wing damage, we hit about 300m short and the fuselage broke apart at the wing-root. Myself and three others in the rear of the plane survived with injuries. The only survivors.

Due to the nature of the crash the ensuing carnage and the belief I was in decent shape, relatively speaking, a Corpsmen gave me a once-over and Field Dressings. Unknown yet, I had an internal bleed. After he patched me up and moved on, I had passed out on the tarmac. Since I had already been looked at it was assumed I was resting. That same Corpsmen had come by to check on the guy next to me, and saved my ass. The kicker is he wasn't attached to Ubon, he was hitching a ride on the same plane as I.

In the hospital I developed a chest infection that sent me in and out of consciousness and was I hallucinating like a mofo, apparently screaming my head off like a loon. I got a stubborn fever that kept hovering around 104. I kept tearing the shunt inserted to drain the infection out of my side as well as being a general crazy-ass-nuisance as the story goes.

If we didnt make it as close as we did to the tarmac, I doubt any of us would have survived.

I dont remember much. But I do remember the nurses who would come and change my sheets at night, sometimes two or three times a night as I had serious night sweats and would soak the bed.

Docs fix you, nurses heal you.

One common theme I am seeing is that amount of people with multiple NDEs. That's kind of shocking to me. Congratulations to you all for pulling through. I'm glad I haven't experienced half of the stories I've read.

a reply to: smirkley

i don't think my outlook on life and death has changed since my NDEs. I don't believe I have lived my life differently either. I just try to avoid similar situations like the plague.

a reply to: harvestdog

I know what you mean. I used to feel like that. But now I feel that I know the situations find you, not you them. As such, I just accept that, well, crap happens. And one day the crap will win. So I dont worry about it anymore.

But I am certainly not gonna stop finding adventure. Or doing things. Or going places. I am gonna enjoy the hell out of life while I am here.

Just last month I drug the wife onto a 1929 biplane with seatbelts that looked like they came from an old car on a plywood seat and we flew up and down the Oregon coast. It was one of those deals where I saw a hand spraypainted sign saying airplane rides today, located at the dinkiest one man airport just outside of Depoe Bay. I wheeled the car around and the rest is history. Gotta enjoy life. Sometimes crazy stuff like that. Got some selfies of the wife and I wearing our flight cap and goggles at 5000 feet.

a reply to: harvestdog
hit and run by a drunk driver when i was 14..compound fractured broken femur...fingers and skull damage..etc..threw me over a 8 foot wall...my leg ended up wrapped behind my neck....6 weeks of traction followed by 7 weeks of spica plaster..and 6 months of getting my muscles to work properly ..via physiopherapy...he got caught and could never look me in the eye.

a reply to: smirkley

That's great. I love living life too. Now I know not to use wasp spray on a beehive. EVER. That and hard alcohol and me just don't mix. There's a park about half an hour from that has some big bears. Last year the wife and I were walking a trail with our three dogs and came up on some fresh bear scat. The wife was afraid but I continued walking and she followed. Then right around a bend we got face to face with a coyote. He darted off the path and disappeared into brush in an instant. We continued the loop talking loud, thinking we know there's a bear somewhere close. When we got back to the picnic tables, the bear came out from the start of the path. It was awesome. If I was a scaredy like my wife, we probably wouldn't have gotten to see that.