People cheat death 5 times in a lifetime.

I was at Lake Michigan laying out and enjoying some adult beverages and I heard a little girl scream "my sister is drowning!" I was a little buzzed up and I couldn't understand why no one was paying attention to this girl screaming. Then it hit me that there was a girl drowning way out there. I swam out there and tried to use my lifeguarding skills (just had taken the class in school) When I swam up I told her to calm down I was going to come up behind her, as soon as I got behind her she swung around and held on to my neck. I pulled her all the way to shore while I was under water. I collapsed as soon as I got to the sand. Needless to say, the ambulance had to come for me. When I was under water, I really thought I was going to die.

The first two I don't remember because I was a baby, but my parents told me.

1) Riding in my mother's lap in the car (incredibly unsafe) and my dad was driving. Dad almost had a wreck while paying attention to me.

2) Had some kind of terminal disease that just vanished after a few weeks, baffling the doctors.

3) Jumped in the deep end of the pool before I knew how to swim. Was pushed to safety by my mother.

4) Numerous near misses while driving.

5) Various military assignments.

Very interesting article! Here's a few of my own experiences. 6 years old, riding on the handlebars of my mothers 10-speed, foot became entangled in front wheel. Bike flips over, I land on my head, my mother landed on me a 1/2 second later. Don't remember much after that cept waking up in a hospital with a knot the size of 2 adult fists on my head. 7 years old, making my father a fathers day gift, using a steak knife to cut through a rope of some sort, unfortunately I was cutting upwards towards me, when I cut through the knife found its way squarely into my eye. Arrrrg, I played "pirates" for awhile lol! 9 years old, snow sledding down a large hill with a 4 lane road at the bottom of hill. The sled and I made it down the hill in record time, unfortunately there was a semi-truck coming. Luckily the driver didn't see me coming and I managed to slide under the trailer between the wheels (truly i saw a pair of angels on either side of the sled that day) 15 years old, my appendix ruptured and then encapsulated it self somehow. Walked around being slowly poisoned for more than a month, near the end extreme dementia set in, nearly killed my brother with a shotgun, had the ungodly notion that for some reason he was poisoning me and that was the reason for me being so sick. then add in the various car crashes, industrial accidents, near hits by cars etc... Geez think my numbers about up!

Well, since the subject is close enough so, how about I tell you of the time I ran over someone in my pickup and he had the gall to walk away from it.

What happened was this. I was driving down a 4 lane divided business boulevard and there was a large grocery store to the right. A drunken Indian who had tried to shoplift a 5th of whiskey and who was being chased by the store security runs out into my lane of traffic and I smacked him hard. At the last second he realized I was there and his turning in my direction may have been what saved him from serious injury. The bumper hit his legs and tossed them into the air. Then his body goes rolling up my hood to the windshield and then because I'm in full panic stop mode at that time he then rolls forward off the hood into the street.

I get out of the pickup fully expecting to find this guy either seriously broken or dead but he was just lying there a bit dazed. The store security gets to him and once we all realize he can walk they get him off the street and then the cops show up and haul him away on the shoplifting charge.

Now that guy is a real dead man walking.

reply to post by nixie_nox


Hi- My first post here. I grew up in NYC, where we used to play on roofs of buildings almost as much as on the ground. When I was 10 we were playing on a garage roof and I slipped. It was a pitched roof so I rolled. I remember thinking quite camly that oh well I guess I am going to die now. The garage owner happened to be doing some concrete construction and he had a high pile of sand on the side of the garage. I rolled off the roof and landed on top of the pile of sand. No hurts no scratches. What did I do? I climbed back on the roof went to the highest point on the pitch layed down and rolled off again! Next thing, all the kids in the neighborhood were doing the same thing!

reply to post by azrael36


Is your nickname "Lucky" ?

reply to post by c3hamby


Im at about 20, truthfully but not everyones life is so problematic when it comes to cheating death.

The last time I was in the UK I cheated death at least 5 times in a 2 day period walking out in front of cars coming from the "wrong" direction.

This is probably true though. Probably even higher, depending on what their definition actually is of cheating death.

Especially in my line of work, I see all kinds of things where people cheat death. It happens a lot.

[edit on 8-5-2010 by webpirate]

double post.

[edit on 8-5-2010 by gandhi]

I'm at number 4.

1. 10 hours from dieing from appendix, emergency procedure had to happen. Age 6.

2. Almost shot face off with gun while loading. Don't ask. Complete stupid accident.

3. Ran across rail road with headphones full blast in my ears, another stopped train was blocking the second track, and as the last of my body went over, which was my foot, the train knocked my shoe off and broke my foot. it was going around 120 miles a hour.

4. Not here yet, cant wait!

And im only 17!

[edit on 8-5-2010 by gandhi]

Car Crash
Got robbed at gun point by three guys

I'm waiting for the others lol

reply to post by karen61057


I donno bout lucky, but I do believe that we all have an appointed time. You gotta learn and experience as much as possible in the time alloted

When I was 20 I had buffalo chicken breasts and I accidently swallowed a whole piece. I could feel the piece of chicken slowly going down my throat and burning it. It was VERY scary not being able to breathe. I even tried drinking water but it just came back up. My mother just sat there looking at me didn't realise I was suffocating on chicken. It finally went down but I ended up vomiting over my dog since he kept barking at me while I was choking.

Another time I can think of was when I was around 10 give or take. I got into a car accident with my dad and the car flew right into the snow bank. I went forward from my seat but luckily I didn't fly out the window. ( I wasn't wearing a seatbelt)

Entertaining thread!

Lets see,

1. Zapped while trying to plug in a radio w/ wet hands when I was about 5.
2. Fell down a tree, scrapping up my stomach pretty bad w/ very sharp limbs on the tree trunk. Still have scars on my stomach. Didn't realize untill today how close I came to being gutted!! I was about 7 or 8 then
3. Almost hit by lightning (eh, 15' away anyways), when I was about 8
4. The vehicle in front of mine in a convoy got blown up by an IED.

5. Oh, just remembered! When I was 2 or 3 my dad (being in the airforce), was stopped at a base gate, and he had gotten out of the car. Somehow, my brother got out of his car seat, crawled to the driver side, and laid down on the accelerator. We shot right into the side of a guard shack. While the event itself wasn't life threatining-it was a short trip to the side of the shack- what if it had been somewhere else...like at a park in front of a cliff !

Not to mention being a solo SCUBA diver and a student pilot... I better start being more careful!!!

[edit on 8-5-2010 by JJRichey]

Just the one for me.

Nearly drowned on a holiday to the Canary Islands when I was about 6/7. Was looking for the kids pool and stood on tiptoe at the edge of the adult. Next thing I remember is struggling to get to the surface as I didn't know how to swim at that point. Still not a fan of the sea/swimming pools to this day

- Phoenix

seems like a lot of us have had similar experiences

when I was a toddler I fell into the backyard pool

when I was about 4-5 years old my house was broken into whilst my mom and I slept.

when I was 6 and being watched by a babysitter, my best friend was spending the night and she said she saw a guy with a knife at the front door looking in

I almost got into a collision on the freeway

and I did have a car accident where dude pulled out in front of me and I was t-boned and my car was totaled.... I came out relatively unscathed (bruised collarbone etc) but the guy at the Hospital made a point of telling me "before seat belts theyd be putting me in a body bag"


I just wonder what my daughter will go through and wish I could put her in a bubble

reply to post by nixie_nox


Very interesting thread. Let me think about this for a sec. '76 Maverick hit a patch of water and spun out in major traffic. Drove home with white knuckles and a new sense of life that day. Brakes went while slowing down at an intersection, jumped a curb and hit a few rose bushes; almost pee'd my pants. Came down with a fever of 106+ which doc's couldn't explain. Woke up to the doc and my gf telling me they thought they lost me. Drug overdose....no comment. Well that makes four. Guess I better prepare for #5. YIKES!!!

I have some bad wrecks, nothing i would consider fatal. Probably the closest I've ever came is pushing myself out of the way of my crashing four-wheeler that smashed my ankle. That's about it.. Thought I died a few time but I was fine a few hours later.

[edit on 8-5-2010 by SeeingBlue]

Originally posted by nixie_nox

So are you aware of any situations that you may have "cheated" death?

Hmmm...20+ year U.S. Naval career ended last June, 8 years with JSOC, Desert Storm '91, Operation Restore Hope: Somalia '93, Operation Enduring Freedom (which many people do not know was ORIGINALLY called Operation Infinite Justice for the first week or so of the war, but due to protests from Muslims worldwide about the use of the word "Infinite" as I think only their prophet Mohammed (may peace be with him...sorry habit as you never know lol) can be associated with that word...I dunno either), but Kandahar, Afghanistan '01 where I actually was injured on the evening of October 29th just outside Bagram AB. Percussion of a mortar round (as our FB was shelled randomly like every freaking day) which took all of the air out of my chest and blew me what must have been 50 feet. Was medivac'd out to Bahrain which ultimately resulted in back surgery for 2 herniated discs at the L4/L5 and L5/S1 level. Man you wanna know PAIN lol

Anyways luckily for the gov to continue to run me into the mud (only to then end up with 10% VA disability in the end lol), I was recovered enough JUST IN TIME to make Iraq in 2003! I made it out of that one okay, but in the end was too much for my back, as by the time I retired last year, I had underwent another back surgery, been in pain management for 5 years, JUST to retire in the WORST flippin economic recession in HISTORY!

That is completely a whole other story, but back on topic....yea I think I have cheated death once or 7 times ;-)

Edit: Oh just in case anyone wondered, yes that is my back piece in my avatar, and yes it is my documentation of what I just described above, but put into art form so that I never forget the evil's that mankind is indeed capable of :-/

[edit on 9-5-2010 by Newbomb Turk]

Where do I begin...

at 2 fell outta a L300 van and landed on my head pretty well (explains a lot)
Around 7 recieved 5 or 6 wasp stings in an attack that narrowly missed my neck arteries that supply my brain with blood.
Around 10 escaped a few small land slides while playing on and around cliffs for many years.
Various tree house building collapses and tree fall management scenarios
Various 'could have been much worse' bicycle crashes (some without brakes.. smart eh hahah)

18 years onwards over 13 motorbike crashes, most simple lowsides from pushing it, one of the worst was a highside at around 50kmh where I landed on my helmet after flying a good 10 meters, the other a 'tank slapper'
where the bike violently attempts to turn you into road pizza at around 110kmh entering a corner. I was not wearing my racing gear and was on the road the afternoon after a particularly hard night in town, with not much food or sleep. Last thing I saw entering a corner was a ditch full of boulders below the front wheel of my world superbike ready pride and joy. I woke up on the road after being flung clear by the suspension bouncing me off as it hit the embankment. Guardian angels for me as I only had jeans and armoured jacket on (was expecting a 50k town cruise not a open road situation). Ambulance and the works, couldn't get outta bed unassisted for almost a week, heavy scarring and lessons learned.

Managed to chop a finger tendon good recently, although if i'f have bled to death from not torniquetting then I'd deserve a darwin award...
Various other near electrocution type situations, ladders plus laser/lighting rigs and heavy falling objects plus a few mountaineering fun times all there too.. guess I have at least two cats inside me at this rate LOL

[edit on 9/5/10 by GhostR1der]