The moment where you realize you could have died.

Occasionally I hear about or read other people tell stories of how they nearly died in some strange incident, but I never think I might find myself in a similar situation. But, tonight that's what I am doing, coming to the personal stories forum with my own brush with a serious reality check.

Here's a little back story. I work at this place where I perform a wide variety of tasks that range from drug testing, paperwork, and conflict resolution to sweeping and pressure washing sidewalks. Well, tonight I was tasked with helping to set up for an upcoming event that's tomorrow night. We needed two portable light towers to light up a field for a fall festival type ordeal.

As we were setting up the first tower everything was going well, it worked great and that was that. When it came time to set up the second one there was s small incident that brought things into a new perspective. We inspected the unit and felt it was good to go and began to raise the lights. The mast was at full extension and the generator was running in this ML-30EX Light tower and I was literally beginning to put pressure on the switches to power up the lights when all of a sudden some movement catches my attention and this black electrical cable comes whipping down the mast hitting me in the side of the head, neck, and shoulder with bare wires that had stripped loose from this light somehow.

Everything just got quiet and I realized at that moment that the only reason I didn't feel the force of the 30kW of available electricity was because I didn't get the switches completely flipped before the cable hit me.

That is a surreal feeling, seeng the strand of bare tipped wires that had just hit me a second before dangling by the switches that would have made them live wires. My only thought was, I feel like I could have died in that moment.

There was no life flashing before my eyes, there was no sense of adrenaline, and there was no rush of energy. It was just a surreal moment filled with the single thought, "What if the switch would have been turned on?"

Call it what you might, I am so thankful I didn't get those switches turned on. It really goes to show how quickly something can go wrong. Pure craziness.

I'm on my ninth and last life I think. My question is "why am I not dead, or am I in a different reality". I am not much of a risk taker but when you have done as much as I have, you still experience situations where you should be dead.

About 2 months ago flying threw air at about 70 kph about 45 mph into oncoming traffic . ETA : is when I thought I was going to die

A dog ran out onto the road and in front of my motorbike if it would of been one second longer in time for that dog run out and wipe out my bike I would of most likely had my head ran over by a car that stopped about 2 feet from my head ..

reply to post by Mapkar

I can't help but think people who experience things like you did are here for a reason. Something to do...some purpose..and it hasn't been done yet.

I don't mean to sound all mystical nor is it religious...just fate and whatever makes this marble of ours turn...where some people die so stupidly by absolutely no fault of their own with nothing to show for it all....and others should, by all rights, have died before even knowing it happened yet a little thing that shouldn't have even happened that way, saves them.

You say you already had the pressure on the switches. By rights, it ought to be a split second thing, right? So why just a millisecond slower this time and not before? What are the odds...bare skin of all things on a fully clothed and (ahem) well grounded person?

I think you got a message few humans ever get close enough to a mistaken death to ever see a correction happen for. I think you may have...in whatever crazy way these things around us actually do work. Good to see you're still here to tell us about it!

There were a couple of times I almost died:

First one was when I was in middle school. I was riding my bike home, but my sister was lagging behind and I went back to see what was taking her, and I didn't see this white SUV come up. Luckily the lady stopped inches away from me, and she yelled at me.

Next one was we were driving home from my grandma's and we hit a deer. Most of the impact was on the front passenger side, where I was sitting. I just came out with a touch of whiplash from that one.

Another time I was lost in the woods when I was 10 or so.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


That's quite a profound perspective.

Yes, I had the pressure on those switches and I can't even describe how close they were to clicking closed. I definitely feel like I got something that most people don't get. It feels like a second chance honestly, knowing that it was only the slightest hesitation that kept things from going bad. That feeling is one that is hard to describe, it's not a joy, or excitement, or sadness, or anything I've ever felt before.

I can't even begin to describe how thankful I am to be here to tell that story for sure though. It really goes to show how quickly things can change.

reply to post by Mapkar


My first brush with near death, was at the ripe old age of 8. My father had gotten a german shepard about 2 years prior to the incident, he was a male, about 6 months old, trained in over 20 commands, he was the besy dog I have ever had the pleasure of comming into contact with.

My father decided he wanted to breed him and sell the puppies, as he had all his AKC paper work, and had come from a very good blood line. so me father got a female from a breeder and put them in the back yard together.

She got pregnant, and the guy ended up owing my dad a few hundred dollars for some work he had done, and just gave him the female and all rights to all the puppies.

So she has 6 good pups, and was about a week away from weening them, when she began to act strangly, first a puppy turned up missing, but we didn't think much at the time as we lived out in the country, 40 miles from any city, in central rural indiana (small town called poland), so we assumed it wandered away from the moms dog house and coons or coyotes got it, these things happen in the country.

Well a day later another turned up missing, at a couple hundred bucks each back in 86 was a lot of money, so my parents decided to keep them and the mother inside to keep them safe. The next morning it happened.

I was in the living room playing with her and the puppies, when she just freaked out and attacked me, she just growled once, and lunged at my face! (My dad had taught me since I was young, that if a big dog ever attacked me, not to try to run as it was way faster and would take me from behind very quickly, instead, to stand my ground and wait for it to open its mouth, and stick my forearm all the way in the back of its mouth where it has no teeth, then grab the back of its head and force it to the ground on its back with me on its chest.)

So when it lunged! Time froze like it does in situations like this, and all I remeber thinking for the next few minutes was my fathers words, as I did as he told me and stood my ground, asn force my little forearm as far into the back of the dogs mouth as I could, and grabbed the back of its head, and forced ikt to the ground on its back, with me on its chest!

As I lay close to the dogs chest as instructed so it couldn't scrath me, I remeber hearing my fathers words as I leaned with my entire body weight( not much at 8 but sufficient for this task) on my other forearm on the dogs neck. I just lay there for what seems forever, crying at the pain inmy right forearm( the one in its mouth), the sheer horror of the situation I was in, and terrified beyond any sense. Yelling for my mom, and scream, praying to God for help. Utterly helpless to stop my horror and terror.

When my mother, comes out of nowhere and grabbed both the dogs jaws and pried them open, and yelling for me to pull my arm away and run.

So I did, I ran, as hard as I was capable. I made it about 6 feet, when I felt somthing huge, and powerful hit me from behind, and a terrible pain on both sides of my head.

The next thing I know I was on the ground face first, and being shaken by this 80LBS shepards by my head.

My mother came up so fast I don't even know how she moved so fast, she broke the broom over the dogs back, and kikced it a good 2 feet in the air..

The second I was free, I ran for my life into my parents room and slammed the door. Safe finally from the attack, and shaken from the experience that had just happened.

My mom had opened the back door and the dog just ran outside, so she closed and rushed to attend to my wounds. It was nothing major actually, I needed 4 butterfly stitched on my head, and had some bruising and sorenedd in the forearm, along with a few scratches and carpet burn, ( all pretty much standard care for a country kid at the time, just all at once instead of spread out over months). I was ok after a couple of weeks with only small scars on both sides of my head from her attempt to crush my skull.

My father rushed home from work in Indianapolis, about an hour and ahlaf away. He got home and took the dog to his work van, came inside and said to me "son do you want to kill the dog? If you do I understand and don't blame you, if you don't just say no and you will never see or hear about it again". I had killed many animals by this time, as I had been coon hunting, rabbit and squirrel hunting, and even shot a couple of coyotes already. But I couldn't do it, so I said no.

My father walked in his bedroom to the gun safe, and grabbed his 357 pistol out and walked out the door. He came home about 2 hours later, and never heard of the dog again all these years, except if I bring it up.

I have to stop. I don't know if the tears in my eyes are from the memory, or maybe a couple to many drinks of this whiskey, but I can't go any further, also I am out room.

Star and flag OP.

Electricity scares me.. I've had more than one run in with it. As a little kid, for some reason I thought it'd be a great idea to test my old mans pliers on the power cable to the evaporative air con. Oh the flashy blue lights and the hypnotic zzzzzzaap I experienced when I did it. And it scared the poop outta me. Luckily they were insulated pliers.

Who would be a 6 year old eh..

And only last year, the latest example of my insatiable attraction to electricity.. One of those cheap power adapters you get when you purchase cheap electronics from those chinese retailers... I have read since, that they are actually illegal as they don't meet certain requirements.

Anyway, standing up too quick my chair fell backwards, and landed on the adapter. I didn't realise this, in the dark.. but my device told me it had no power, and so I feel around to make sure it's plugged in...

I felt a very small tingle.. weird.. I turn the lights on and to my shock the entire case had come off the adapter and I was feeling around the two live prongs inside the stupid thing... I lay on my bed wondering if I had actually just died and this was an alternate reality that I'd just popped into at the point of death and if this is how death is, we just jup into an alternate reality and never really know we're dead... or if I'd died and this is was death is, where it's no different to life, but we are stuck here.

Or if somehow I'd managed to physically touch the plugs, but was not physically in contact with the earth so I was not a conduit for the electricity to leave.. .insulated somehow.

Scared the poop out of me.

I don't like electricity. it's invisible, everywhere, and falls from the sky pretty often. I hate that guy...

Funnily enough I was going to post a similar thread to this yesterday. Now I can share my little story here.

About a month ago I was walking home from work with my headphones on and needed to cross the road. I looked both ways and there was a car coming but it was about 200 or so yards away doing 30mph so I had plenty of time to cross.

Anyway I'm about half way across the road and start to do the little jog one does when crossing,then out of no where a motorbike speeds past me(in front of me) missing me by about 1 foot! I absolutely crapped my pants and I suspect the biker probably did too. Even though it was a large sports bike I didn't hear it coming because of the music I was listening to.

If I had started jogging just a little bit faster I would now be a statistic. Even thinking about it now makes me feel shakey and sends a shiver down my spine. I am seriously lucky to be alive.

Needless to say, I now remove my headphones while crossing roads!

reply to post by Mapkar


The moment I could have died but didn't are to numerous to list. The majority were sudden violent events that I have survived. For that I am grateful as they have given me things to ponder.

But this thread strikes a cord in me.

Today, a coworker asked me how my biopsy went as I was lightening up a smoke. I replied, "I don't know yet. They want to do another first and compare results."

"But here you are, lighting up a smoke, aren't you afraid of dying? Chemo ain't nice on the body? It's a slow painful death."

My reply was that I don't plan on doing Chemo nor surgery if I'm diagnosed positive.

To which he replied, "So, you plan on going out with a bang?"

"Nope not suicide...just living life, it's kinda fun."

He looked at me as if I was stoned...or had turned into a woman before his eyes.

"We are all born to die, it's the journey in between that matters."

He didn't talk to me the rest of the evening.

reply to post by Mapkar


I know exactly what you described with the short moment before the cable hits. the picture burns into your head. Your title brought up a memory of such a picture.
I was driving over a connection road between two small towns, not difficult to drive but at a point the street goes like ~~~ if you would look from the side, to the next supermarket. There were some idiots with their highbeams on coming towards me and it was rainy in the dawn. Not really good light conditions so I slowed down to about 80 km/h.

Normally I would cross this road at double the speed. So I went over the first hill and there were those quadratic, fairly lit up boxes. It looked like two bycicly lights, like the old ones and when I thought that they were moving into the street from the right. So I flashed my highbeams and saw a tractor moving into the street, turning into my direction, while hitting the breaks, I saw that the tractor had an agricultural plow attached like in the picture below. I knew for sure I would hit that thing so took my feet off the break, pulled the steering and went into the ditch halfway to avoid collision.

At this moment I looked from the left side of the front window to the left driver side window and saw an array of metal blades flying by my sidemirror. It was so close, I´m sure it was in the range of 5-10cms. It was a strange moment, it was almost slow motion. My luck was that the tractor turned into my direction so that the blades moved away like opening a door that swings to the left.

Somehow I managed to exit the ditch but over steered, and went sharp left, car flipped longside over the front right, rolled one and a half more times and came to stop at a tree, laying on the left driver side. A few bruises and I never will be able to wear heels again. However I did not saw my life flashing before my eyes, just pure reality adrenaline and severe vomiting fun afterwards. This is not to sound rude but you will come over it. At least this is what happened to me.

if you knew when you would die would you want to know

just say no

I actually have died..( in childbirth on the table during an emergency c-section).. the doctor revived me after 2:58.. so for almost 3 minutes I was technically dead ( the baby survived as well although he was 2 months premature) but honestly.. I don't remember a thing about it ... The doctor told me afterwards and of course my friends who were there ( one in the room the others outside waiting and talked to the nurses) in fact the nurses told them it was a miracle I came back. So honestly I can say.. i've been dead and really it's not all it's cracked up to be.. lol no lights, no songs, no golden gates..

reply to post by Mapkar

I have had multiple Life Ending Scenarios happen to me but the one that really scared me...is when I was 15 at a Scout Camp in the Middle of a Large Lake in a small Sail Boat. This Lake was up in the Mountains and Storms come out of Nowhere in the Summer.

A very Dark Sky came over the Lake in Minutes and Lightning was striking everywhere. We were taught to head to the closest shore with Mast Down as this is like a Big Lightning Rod in the Middle of a Lake...and that's what we did.

As we had just gotten to the shore and stepped out of the boat...and we were pulling it onto land...our feet still in a foot of water in the lake...a Huge Lightning Bolt struck the Lake and My Friend and I were given one HELL OF A SHOCK!

Now I had been shocked before as my Parents had a Dishwasher that had a Metal Handle to open it at Belt Level. Back then we all used to wear Heavy Steel or other Metal Belt Buckles like ones that said...YOU CAN HAVE MY GUN WHEN YOU PRY MY COLD DEAD FINGERS FROM AROUND IT! LOL! Now if you were pressed up against this Dishwashers metal Handle with your Metal Belt Buckle and happened to push down the ALSO Metal Toaster Spring Push Handle....ZZAAPP! I was shocked so hard that before the breaker tripped my Belt Buckle had partly Melted to the Dishwasher Handle! HURT LIKE HELL!

Well...that was NOTHING compared to being a half Mile away from a Lightning Strike of a Lake while you are still partly in the water! I almost passed out and my friend fell face first onto a Root from a Tree at the waters edge Breaking His Nose! It was BEYOND PAINFUL! Some people think that if you get ELECTROCUTED that you will just pass out and DIE! NOPE! Maybe if the Electrical Flow was directed to your brain but getting shocked HURTS MORE THAN GETTING SHOT!

How do I know? Because both have happened to me! Split Infinity

I've had 4 guns pointed at my head 4 different times lived through two major hurricanes, one of those almost killed me due to a thug looking for loot - had to go to Texas for a hospital and 10,000 worth of surgery, was in a bad car wreck where the car sank into a canal, was put in the hospital after someone tried to kill me by drowning me in a bathtub after I passed out drunk. That's 7 times I almost bit the farm and you know what - after the shock wears off nothing life shattering changed for me. Life goes on, you just try harder not to be on those situations.

I think most people have had near death experiences...I have had a few come to mind now...

1.was helping my friend cut down a tree...we were taking turns with a chain saw.. cutting the logs into sections on the ground,
I stupidly tapped my friend on the back, because the noise of the saw didn't allow him to hear me, because I wanted to warn him to be careful and he almost spun round fully with the saw coming about a quarter inch from my leg.

2. I went for a hike at night and almost got blown by a sudden gust of wind off the edge of a cliff...no doubt that would have looked like suicide...

3. Came very close to getting bitten by a rattle snake, I didn't know was within a few inches of where I was sat..until it started rattling real loud under a bunch of leaves

4. almost had my throat slit during a street robbery..the knife luckily didn't make full contact, as I pulled my head back out of the way just in time, the knife only penetrated enough to leave a scar across my throat but not deep enough to hit the jugular. Lesson, don't fight back against muggers with knives.

If I spent time thinking< id probably recall a bunch more times...and as most people die at home, by falling downstairs etc...then im sure ive had plenty of more mundane near misses too.

when these events happen, you do reevaluate your life...for a day or two...and ask why...why am i still alive...am i here for a reason...etc...but then the monotony of life takes over again...and there seems to be little reason any of these things happen...just random chance events mostly. Or maybe not...let me know if you figure it all out haha.

reply to post by Mapkar


Weird huh? Yeah just yesterday I was driving down the street and there was this bicyclist riding on the side of the road, but he was actually on the road. The problem is that I live in the suburbs and there isnt really a bicycle lane so this guy shouldnt be on the road. But back to my story, I was driving behind him and we were going up a hill and i was going to pass him so i had to swerve around him into the other lane and it was a two way road and as i was driving around him, I almost collided with another car head on coming from the opposite direction. I managed to swerve back in my lane real quick, but i easily could have died that day. The weird thing for me though was that i never panicked or even felt like "OMG Im about to crash" i was just calm. It was a little unsettling for me because afterward i just thought wow, I could have almost died and i wasnt even worried. Like why wasnt I worried? why didnt I panic when I was about to hit the other car? That was the strangest thing to me.

reply to post by Mapkar

Yep.

First time it happened was in HS. I was driving home and day dreaming about basketball practice and swerved to stop from careening into a bank and then swerved again on the other side and again and did a 180 to face in the opposite direction in the opposite lane. There was a deep gully on that side.

Second time was only maybe a year or two later. I was visiting with my brother. I went out on a bike ride and was crossing the freeway(!). I underestimated the car coming at some 60mph. Whether it was God or my own intuition that made me look I don't know but I looked and spun the bike and did a wheelie and could feel the car pass by me as I was rotating in midair before crashing to the ground and limping away with my youthful sense of security scarred forever.

Those're the two times. But I've had other moments where my own mortality is made clear to me. And of course the older we're the more people and friends we see die around us.

"If i die, what will I leave behind? How will people remember me?" That's what comes to my mind. It seems I forget it too easily. The threat of death puts humility and urgency in you.

Right after I shook my parachute to get it to "Un-cigarette roll",and then I hit the ground hard,but didn't get hurt.

Right after a guy stopped dragging me by my feet over the ground to get me away from where a sniper was walking bullets right toward my head where I was sleeping.

Two months after I had a severe stroke,I couldn't think for the longest time....

There's lots more,I think I'm supposed to be dead....

Feel like it lately.