Ever had a near death experience?

[trof]

Don't know what made me think of this after all these years.
I was 9 or 10, circa 1950, in summer day camp.
All the campers were swimming in the lake.
I was a good swimmer and really liked it.

At the end of the pier was a high dive. Maybe 15' above lake level.
I got in line for the climb up the ladder to the board.
Right behind me was a really fat kid, Gaylord.
(Years later I thought 'Poor bastard. Not only were you fat and the butt of a lot of jokes and cruel kidding, but your folks named you Gaylord.')

I jumped off the board.
And just as I surfaced, Gaylord hit me square in the back.
He must have weighed 150 pounds.
I'll still give him the benefit of the doubt that he didn't jump on me intentionally.

All the air rushed out of my lungs and I went straight to the murky lake bottom. Don't know how deep it was, but it was well over my head.
And I can just remember thinking "Gee, so this is what it's like..."
And then I just went to sleep...blackout.

When I came back to full consciousness I was sitting on a bench.
One of the lifeguards was standing in front of me.
"You OK? You alright now?"
"I guess so."

Now I know I was still in shock. I have no idea what the lifeguard had done to get me to that point. The artificial respiration we used back then, I guess. This was long before mouth-to-mouth/CPR was done.

The rest of the day is a blank. I know I must have boarded the camp bus back to town and the YMCA that afternoon. Don't know whether I was picked up there by my mom, or rode the city bus back home.
I do remember that when I got home I was still holding my brown bag lunch.

Can't even remember if I ever told my mom about it.
Ever since then I've felt like I'm 'living on borrowed time'.
If your number ain't up, it ain't your time.
:shrug:

Anybody else?

[GCP]

1. It sounds like Gaylord probably did do it on purpose

And I bet it scared the hell out of him when the lifeguard had to dive in and rescue you - he never would have thought of the consequences - kids being kids.
And I bet the camp never told your mother either!

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

2. yes n/t

[old mark]

3. Had 2 heart attacks one Saturday on '05.

BUT --- I had been having bad pain in both arms and my neck, even my feet. Family doctor treated me for carpal tummel syndrome with no effect.
Went to the ER one morning with chest pain, had the full cardio workup, including a stress test. Doctors there told me my heart was OK.
1 1/2 years later, I was working on a Saturday, felt great pain when I drew breath, like glass in my chest. Took a break, took 4 aspirins and sat for a while. returned to finish the work day.
Thet night, the glass in the chest feeling returned, worse, and my wife talked me into going to the ER.

I thought I had pneumonia, turned out I was having a heart attack (#2), and needed a quadruple bypass. This was in October, 2005, and I am fine now. I retired last year, and I have never enjoyed my life as I do now. I want to live as long as I can and I regard every day as an extra free gift, and enjoy all that I can.
All I recall is feeling very sick and light headed, but I must have really looked like hell, because the ER took me right in ahead of a waiting room full of people.

They immediately gave me a cardiogram, and I closed my eyes to rest on the hospital bed. When I opened them, there were maybe 15 people in the room with me, and my first thought was,"Oh, shit!"

FWIW, if I had taken Tylenol instead of aspirin I would probably have died of the first attack at work. I carried aspirin because Tylenol never worked for me.


mark

mark

[trof]

4. I'm 67 and doing what I can to stay bulletproof.

A baby aspirin a day, fish oil capsules, etc.
Good luck.

[Rambis]

5. Almost drown myself

I was being pulled behind a boat on a rubber raft it popped and went over my head. The person driving the boat didn't notice and pulled me along with the rope around my neck. I remember thinking this isn't so bad, drowning, quite peaceful really. I woke up spewing up water in the boat.
Glad to be here!

[DarkTirade]

6. Yep. I was about 5 or so, and my brother and I were at the pool at our apartment complex.

I couldn't really swim yet, so we were just tossing something back and forth. We didn't have a ball, so we were using his Darth Vader helmet. (Yes, my brother is the one who got me into Star Wars in the first place, now I'm a bigger geek than he is. :P) Anyhow, at one point we were on opposite sides of the deep end of the pool and he threw a little short. I leaned over to get it and *sploosh*. Sunk right to the bottom.

I remember just looking around and thinking, "This is interesting. How do I get to the top?"

Thankfully there was a lifeguard on duty and he pulled me out before anything bad happened. I was told that when I surfaced I was spluttering and crying, but when I was down there I know I was serenely calm. I don't really remember the being rescued part or anything afterwards, all I remember is sitting at the bottom and looking around.

Needless to say for the next few years I had both a fear and a fascination with being underwater. And I made sure I learned how to swim properly so that wouldn't happen again. :)


Oh, and there was another one that might count... was a passenger while driving on the highway at regular highway speeds. Suddenly one of those Florida mini-hurricane storms comes by and it starts pouring so hard that you literally can't see the road in front of you. Suddenly three or four people merge onto the highway in front of us at the same time, all going at least 20 miles an hour below the speed limit... and not a single one of them had lights on. My ex, who was driving, tried to brake, skidded, tried to turn, and ended up doing a complete 360 across the highway. From right lane to the median. Thank the gods the SUV in the lane next to us had better brakes than we did and managed to avoid T-boning us when that happened.

Had I the capability to commit murder with my brain, all three of those drivers would be DEAD right now.

[SacredCow]

7. The closest I've got...

One of the local places that I used to go ride my mountain bike is the trails that are between the Mississippi River and the levee out near LSU's campus. To be accurate, they weren't bike trails but instead were cow trails made by the cattle that graze the area. But they made for pretty decent singletrack if you could get over the cow pies that you had to dodge!

At one point, the trail went past this area where the river current had cut into the bank. There was about 3 feet of dry land between a stand of trees and a 30 foot drop into the Mississippi River. I was 2nd in a line of 4 riders making this pass when the first rider snagged his bar end on the tree and crashed in the middle of that path- no way to get around him. I braked hard and was able to stop, but the guy behind me- not so much. He slammed into me and my bike and knocked me over the "cliff" still clipped into my bike. I remember the fall, and thinking how though there was water down there, I really had no idea how deep it was, or if there was soft mud, or concrete or what. I hit back first with the bike on top of me and the water was about waist deep with earth underneath. It knocked the wind out of me a little, but I was OK. But I did note that there WERE big chunks of cement (they would dump broken up driveways and such on the banks to ease the erosion) all around me. It could have been MUCH worse.

I looked up and my riding buddies were trying to decide whether to laugh or go call 911. I flipped them off and told the one who hit me that he had a good head start, and if he were smart he'd take full advantage. Found a way back up the bank, and finished the ride, with the bike full of water. Had to tear the whole thing apart. x(

And I got my revenge at a later date. :evilgrin:

[Karenina]

8. I was 13, battling double pneumonia

in an oxygen tent when suddenly I was hovering up by the ceiling looking down. I felt light, unencumbered and remember thinking, "How ODD! I can FLY! Hey, this is FUN." My mom started FLIPPING OUT, hospital personnel rushed hither and thither, then ZAP! There I was back under the tent feeling like shit warmed over.