Ever thought 'Oh no, this is it, I'm dead' and really thought you were going to die?

Chuck Stone · 21-08-2011 04:17AM #1

Me?

Yep, once.

I woke up at a friends gaf wheezing heavily (I'm asthmatic) I had no money in my pockets so decided to walk home about 2 miles to where my inhaler was.

The wheezing turned into seriously restricted breathing and I was beginning to feel kinda scared. There's a hospital (CUH) on the route home and I thought 'just need to make it to the hospital' but my breathing was becoming more and more difficult.

I was about 300 meters from the hospital (on the Wilton Road) when the restriction in breathing became so great that I stopped on that road with the intention of flagging down the next car to help me make it to the hospital as I really thought I wouldn't make it without my windpipes closing completely - the stress on my heart at this stage must have been pretty bloody severe. Unfortunately it was like 6am and the roads were empty.

So I'm leaning against a wall 300 meters from the hospital thinking 'I won't make it' my breathing now was so laboured that my vision was starting to get blurry around the edges. My chest felt like it was being crushed under a hundered tons of sand.

So there I am struggling to get breath and the world gets all fuzzy and grey because I can't get enough oxygen to my brain... and then I say to myself 'this is it, this is where I die.. 2 mins walk from a fucking hospital' so I kinda collapse against the wall and if feels like I'm trying to breathe through a tiny staw.. the world is now grey and I'm struggling to survive..

Then it happens.. my body gets an immense release of adrennalin trying to fight of it's demise, at this point it's just animal instinct kicking in, my mind is useless.

Somehow the breathing becomes less laboured and the greyness lifts and I can physically feel my lungs relax and allow the cool morning air back in. Could - not - believe - it - there I am breathing in through the pipes which had all but closed just seconds before.

I begin to recover - no.. I'm feeling more alive than ever - I'm drinking in the beautiful cool morning air like a newborn. I feel the oxygen making it's way back into every cell in my body and it feels oh so good... I'M ALIVE!

I pick myself back up and I'm able to breathe without any restriction and I feel just fine and am able to walk home easily.

I never go anywhere now without an inhaler in my pocket and I always leave the last few puffs in an inhaler and leave them lying around my car and home etc.

TL;DR Thought I was dead from an asthma attack but survived.

Anyone else have near death experiences?

Saila · 21-08-2011 04:23AM

there was a thread on this in the last couple of weeks no?

Chuck Stone · 21-08-2011 04:24AM

Saila wrote: »

there was a thread on this in the last couple of weeks no?

Was there?

Saila · 21-08-2011 04:28AM

Chuck Stone wrote: »

Was there?

yeah I remember what I wrote in it so didnt say it again here

seanybiker · 21-08-2011 04:29AM

Just before I cracked off the ground when I crashed me bike. It want as dramatic as yoir story. I had about half a second of " oh shyte" and that was all.

PseudoFamous · 21-08-2011 04:33AM

Hit by car who didn't stop at traffic lights, remember struggling to keep my eyes open, thought I was going to die, blacked out. Woke up in dad's van on the way to the hospital to see my ankle about three times it's usual size. No head injuries, surprisingly, despite my head hitting the kerb pretty hard. Was going to a football match, so had shinguards on, lower leg wasn't torn off due to it.

darkmaster2 · 21-08-2011 04:40AM

Getting thrown off your motorbike and slammed on to the road puts your whole life into perspective very quickly

I honestly thought that it was the end.

Well here I am!

Super-Rush · 21-08-2011 04:49AM

I was in a car accident years ago when the car lost control in the wet and was heading straight towards the end of a bridge. Luckily the driver somehow maganged to swerve to avoid it but the next thing i know we are flying through the air about to land in a heavily flooded river. It took a good three or four seconds of just sitting there with my eyes closed before i realised i was still alive. Thankfully all four of us, inluding my sister and best friend survived with minor injuries. I will never ever forget that night.

Darkginger · 21-08-2011 05:15AM

On the way to Cornwall about 20 years ago, with the ex driving. We were in the fast lane on the motorway when a maroon jag came from the on-ramp and just swerved across all three lanes - causing my ex to have to swerve into the central reservation. I remember curling into a ball on the front seat (as much as I could with the seatbelt on), screaming 'Jesus Christ!' (and I'm not religious), closing my eyes and wondering where the pain was going to come first. I still have no idea how we avoided hitting the central barrier, or another car...

We pulled off at the next exit, and I just sat there shaking - first time I'd ever actually shaken from shock. It took a few years before I was happy being a front seat passenger again. Took about the same amount of time for me to forget the registration number of that maroon jag, too.

Jazzy · 21-08-2011 06:20AM

Chuck Stone wrote: »

Me?

Yep, once.

I woke up at a friends gaf wheezing heavily (I'm asthmatic) I had no money in my pockets so decided to walk home about 2 miles to where my inhaler was.

The wheezing turned into seriously restricted breathing and I was beginning to feel kinda scared. There's a hospital (CUH) on the route home and I thought 'just need to make it to the hospital' but my breathing was becoming more and more difficult.

I was about 300 meters from the hospital (on the Wilton Road) when the restriction in breathing became so great that I stopped on that road with the intention of flagging down the next car to help me make it to the hospital as I really thought I wouldn't make it without my windpipes closing completely - the stress on my heart at this stage must have been pretty bloody severe. Unfortunately it was like 6am and the roads were empty.

So I'm leaning against a wall 300 meters from the hospital thinking 'I won't make it' my breathing now was so laboured that my vision was starting to get blurry around the edges. My chest felt like it was being crushed under a hundered tons of sand.

So there I am struggling to get breath and the world gets all fuzzy and grey because I can't get enough oxygen to my brain... and then I say to myself 'this is it, this is where I die.. 2 mins walk from a fucking hospital' so I kinda collapse against the wall and if feels like I'm trying to breathe through a tiny staw.. the world is now grey and I'm struggling to survive..

Then it happens.. my body gets an immense release of adrennalin trying to fight of it's demise, at this point it's just animal instinct kicking in, my mind is useless.

Somehow the breathing becomes less laboured and the greyness lifts and I can physically feel my lungs relax and allow the cool morning air back in. Could - not - believe - it - there I am breathing in through the pipes which had all but closed just seconds before.

I begin to recover - no.. I'm feeling more alive than ever - I'm drinking in the beautiful cool morning air like a newborn. I feel the oxygen making it's way back into every cell in my body and it feels oh so good... I'M ALIVE!

I pick myself back up and I'm able to breathe without any restriction and I feel just fine and am able to walk home easily.

I never go anywhere now without an inhaler in my pocket and I always leave the last few puffs in an inhaler and leave them lying around my car and home etc.

TL;DR Thought I was dead from an asthma attack but survived.

Anyone else have near death experiences?

harden the f**k up

Chuck Stone · 21-08-2011 06:25AM

Jazzy wrote: »

harden the f**k up

Be quiet little boy.

bacon? · 21-08-2011 06:56AM

nearly went off a cliff twice in rickety old trucks, once in south africa and another time in thailand.... close calls.

MagicSean · 21-08-2011 08:59AM

So you're saying asthma is all in the mind?

I had a similar experience once. I was driving along a road when it just disappeared, then I was falling, falling and bang, I woke up. i was sure i was a goner.

Duggy747 · 21-08-2011 09:35AM

Every once in a while when you have that massive shìte you don't think you'll be able to squeeze out...

looksee · 21-08-2011 09:41AM

There have been three occasions when I could have been terminated. One when I rolled a car, well it went into orbit really, turned both end to end, and over sideways. I remember sitting in the car holding the steering wheel (before seatbelts) and watching all the loose crud in the car going in circles round me. Another time someone else was driving and we went off the edge of a road and landed on a ledge before a ravine. Another time a motorbike came round a corner going sideways and went across the front of my bonnet - he had just knocked someone off a bike round the corner.

On all three occasions everything went very slow, and I watched with interest in a detatched sort of way, but I was not aware of being afraid at all.

johngalway · 21-08-2011 10:21AM

Lost concentration driving one day, when I popped back into reality I discovered the car which had been well in front of me was no long well in front of me and had in fact stopped dead in the road ahead of me, with oncoming traffic in the other lane. Would have been doing 45-55mph at the time, managed to stop my car just short of contact, scaring the shíte out of myself and no doubt the people in the car in front. Completely my own fault, won't ever happen again, thought I was ending up in the back of that car for sure.

Black_Knight · 21-08-2011 10:22AM

Loads of times, then I wake up!

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 21-08-2011 10:25AM

my first panic attack, obviously I didn't know it was a panic attack. felt something in my head go *pop*.. started shivering, trouble breathing, pains in my left arm and chest.
for some reason instead of going to a hospital I just said '**** this, i'm going to sleep.. if I wake up, I wake up'

Ickle Magoo · 21-08-2011 10:33AM

Wondering what the bang was and why the car was starting to spin on the M50 just to see the head-lamps of an artic which had clipped our boot close enough to touch through the driver and passenger side windows, kids screaming in my ears as we went hurtling side-on, then backwards across lanes expecting to crash/roll at any second - I still get a thumping heart when lorries get too close.

Thankfully we just ended up in written-off car facing the wrong way half-way up an embankment and our daughters car seat, which was closest to initial impact was cracked in three places. The lorry driver didn't stop. :mad:

CardBordWindow · 21-08-2011 10:35AM

I was trimming the tops of some trees at the back of my house last summer. The trees themselves aren't that tall, but they are on the edge of a cliff, which is about 40-50 ft tall. Was cutting away when the branch I was standing on snapped.
As I started to fall, I thought 'F*ck! Get the chainsaw away'. Managed to throw it to my right whilst mid-flight, and as a result, caught my arm on a lower branch. Sliced my arm up pretty bad, but at least I didn't go off the cliff!

barbarians · 21-08-2011 12:08PM

My brother and I used to go to work and spend the day with our Dad as he delivered machinery as a truck driver and one day when he was delivering something to a quarry my life was nearly cut short on the Plae Blue Dot.

I was only about 10, my brother 14 and we were messing on a big hill of stones in the quarry when we spotted a hill twice the size of the one we were on a distance away. We being the intrepid explorers took off towards this hill.

Next thing I know I'm stomach deep in some sort of industrial sand-pit- a sort of industrial quick sand. I wasn't paying attention to where I was running and ran/fell straight into this. Started bawling my eyes out and roaring for my brother to help me as he had gone off in some different direction. He came over anyway and pulled me out, probably saving my life.

Must buy him a pint some day to make up for that.

Mr. Manager · 21-08-2011 12:32PM

Very similar story to OP.

Was at a house party in a friends house in Kill, Co. Kildare. Started feeling really sick at the very beginning of the night, whopper throat infection coming on fast. It got so bad that I couldn't drink or eat so I figured, I'll just go asleep and wake up and grab some medicine.

After waking up at the break of dawn with what I thought was the worlds worst case of strep throat I headed out to the bus stop for the long journey back home to the northside of Dublin.

The bus wasn't due for another hour and a bit.

Not handling the pain and discomfort too well I grabbed a taxi to the red cow, got a luas to town and then onto the 130 home.

When I arrived home I was unable to talk, my throat was a deep red colour through and through. Looking around my house at people sleeping everywhere because my brother and sister had a party I finally find my sis. With a pen and paper I write down "I can't talk, have a bad infection".

With that, she calls my aunt who is a nurse in Beaumont and explains the problem, she's not entirely sure what to give me as most cases, people would just be given a dose of penicillin ...but I'm allergic to it. So my aunt then phones my uncle who is a doctor at James' he sends a prescription to my local GP for erythomycin "penicillin's cousin".

So, off my sister goes to the GP across the road, picks up the medicine and hands it to me. I take it in the hopes I'll be grand shortly. No. I'm allergic to that too.

As I'm sitting on the couch waiting for the medicine to kick in I notice my breathing is getting slightly more difficult so I mention this to my sis who thought nothing of it. Moments later I'm in the back of a taxi, not an ambulance because my sister thought they'd take too long, heading to Beaumont with limited breathing. About 2/3 minutes away from the hospital I can't breath. my throat has completely closed over.

Rushed into A&E, onto a gurney and into some emergency room.

In there, lying on my back looking at about 4/5 different nurses/doctors fuss over me when all of a sudden, it's gone. Everything has gone black, I can't hear anything, I feel anything, I can't see anything.

My heart had stopped.

Just as my heart was slowing, seconds before it had stopped, my t-shirt was cut open and a shot of adrenalin was injected into my chest, just above my heart. This is apparently what got it going again.

I will never forget the feeling of my heart beating like that again. It felt like it was trying to jump out of my chest it was kicking that hard.

Cliffs:

Went to party sick
Got taxi home
Took medicine
Was (am) allergic to medicine
Rushed to hospital
Heart stopped
Adrenaline to the chest got me going again.

EDIT: Just a funny bit from that, well, funny afterwards. A nurse pulled my sister aside and said "Is there anybody you want to call at this time?" - just a few minutes before my heart stopped. She meant it as in, your brother might not make it through this but my sister took it as the nurse was suggesting to phone someone to keep her company, to which, her response was - "Nah, it's ok, I've got my iPod with me"

RichieC · 21-08-2011 01:21PM

Yea I've had panic attacks that I thought were the end of me... no matter how often they happen it's difficult to keep your thoughts from running away.

I was in a near miss years ago in an old company car me and the mates bought, the breaks went coming up to lights and there was a truck and a small car ahead, my friend driving had to pull a serious colm mc rea to dodge through the traffic and through the lights. thought I was a gonner!

Unique User Name · 21-08-2011 01:45PM

I was ten years old and holding a broken football, playing with the family dog. I kept pulling the football back, teasing him. He lurched forward and got the ball and at the same time.. well my ball. He bit right into my testicle. I ran into my brother shouting I'm going to die, I'm going to die, my ball is falling out. When he started laughing I realised I probably wasn't going to die though.

Mickeroo · 21-08-2011 01:57PM

Was driving, chatting with the girl that was with me in the passenger seat. Wasn't speeding, just driving as normal, but was completely distracted by the conversation, then I noticed a tractor ahead, should have been aware of it before then, was too close to it to slow down enough to not hit it, me and my friend are more than likely only alive by virtue of there was no oncoming traffic and I could overtake safely.

Another time I was hiking on my own, thought a section of rock looked like a nice scramble, the scramble quickly turned into a rather nerve wracking rock climb without a rope, was too unsafe to try going down again so I just had to keep going up, one slip and I was in deep trouble. Purely bad judgement on my part.

byhookorbycrook · 21-08-2011 02:09PM

I take a medication once a month that has a 1,000 to one chance of giving me the often fatal PML.Can't afford to think about dying.

Mr_Emmet · 21-08-2011 02:27PM

It was a pretty bizarre incident for me when I thought "Well this is the end of it, it's been great". It was the day after Halloween and I was about to leave a friend's apartment block to meet the auld lad for a lift home. To get out of the block you have to cross an outdoor courtyard and then go back inside into a stairwell down to street level. Needless to say it was raining to my shoes were wet getting into the stairs. Dad rang and said he was outside so I put a bit of a rush on myself and managed to slip on the edge of my coat. I fell down three steps onto one of those platform steps and began hurtling towards the edge. All I could see was the edge getting closer and closer. I remember thinking about the poor guy who was gonna have to push the door at the bottom in crushing my dead body against the steps in order to get into the block.

Then suddenly I stopped moving. It was a bit anti climatic I must say, I had already prepared myself to die and now here I was with nothing more than a few bruises. The auld lad rang again then and was like "The only excuse I'll accept for you keeping me waiting like a fool out here is if you're dead!"

I know it was a really huge over reaction but I was 100% certain I was gonna be found dead that day!

Sam Vimes · 21-08-2011 02:28PM

I was driving on a very familiar winding country road about 12 at night in the rain. I came around a slight bend to see a very unexpected line of traffic about 5 feet past the bend. I slammed on the brakes but in the rain they had little effect. My first thought was that it was going to cost a lot of money to get my parent's car fixed and my second was that there was no way I was going to stop in time.

So I released the brakes, got onto the other side of the road which was empty and pressed the brakes again. That side of the road was empty, that was, until just after I got onto it at which point a car came around another bend towards me. We managed to stop about two feet away from a head on collision and the guy gave me a little beep just in case I hadn't realised I'd done something wrong.

So I reversed back the ten feet or so that I'd overshot the traffic, got back on my side of the road and made sure my trousers were still clean

Ditch · 21-08-2011 02:32PM

During an armed robbery. When it appeared I'd been singled out as 'The Example' and was staring down the twin barrels of a sawn off 12 bore. Enough of that though .....

One night, riding my push bike around the edge of an inner city lakeside. No lights on and the track was dark. Then I was flying through the air, in total blackness!

I remembered wondering if I'd get the rusty metal stake through the chest or the guts. Mind numbing fear and trepidation!

Then my left knee exploded into a world of pain ~ as it hit the rock ~ and I realised I'd survived. Couldn't breath for the pain. But, at least there'd been no scrap metal waiting for me.

Monty Burnz · 21-08-2011 02:34PM

Ickle Magoo wrote: »

Thankfully we just ended up in written-off car facing the wrong way half-way up an embankment and our daughters car seat, which was closest to initial impact was cracked in three places. The lorry driver didn't stop. :mad:

Never brought to account?

Aishae · 21-08-2011 02:44PM

When i was 18 I went on a huge water slide in Spain - not the first time I've been on a slide! - when I landed in the deep pool of water at the bottom I was swimming around trying to find the top. I can't open my eyes in the water and ive no balance ( which affects your perception under water)

So I started to thrash about and I ended up swimming in one direction - it was the bottom - totally freaked out n gasping in water. But after I hit the bottom i knew which way was up so I darted in the other direction - to find a life guard about to jump in. I was gasping like a fish and needed to be carried to the grass as my legs were like jelly.

Scared the ****e out of me. So before I go on a slide now I check the pool at the bottom isn't deep or if I'm with a friend who can help if that happened again.

The other day as I stepped off the path at the roundabout I lost the power in my legs and fell into the road. As I try to get up I see a car hurdling towards me - oh f@ck! Thinks I - thankfully she somehow saw me.

I know that stuff makes me sound like a bit of a flower! But they were almost a decade apart

Ever thought 'Oh no, this is it, I'm dead' and really thought you were going to die?

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