So I almost didn't make it home

[dfphetteplace]

So this past weekend, I was working a 72 hour shift at my paramedic job. We got called for a possible suicide attempt (not a rare thing in all depressing honesty). We arrived on scene to be directed by family to a barn. The door was blocked, so we made entry through a side window.

The guy was dead, as he had hung himself. We look around and see a makeshift shotgun device pointed at the main door that we would normally have tried to gain access through. It was rigged to go off when the door opened. We were lucky that we didn't try forcible entry into the main door.

This guy had killed himself and tried to take us with him. One change in out plan for caring for this guy, and I might never have seen my family again.

Have any of you ever had something like this happen where you almost were killed? Discuss.

 

[Legion]

Woah... I wasn't expecting that. I was thinking maybe you were mugged or something. I am glad you decided to check through the window rather than bashing the door down. You have to wonder what the hell was wrong with the person to try and kill people after he was dead. Although perhaps he meant it as a way of stopping anybody who may have tried to intervene.

The only situation I have been in where I have potentially just missed dying was nearly being hit by cars. I was on holiday with my family and the hotel had a convenience store in the car park. I had just left it and a car that was going way too fast slammed on the brakes and stopped right in front of me.

I have had other similar ones with speeding cars, but that was the closest call.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Man, I think I would have freaked out after finding that. I'm also questioning whether or not the guy intended to kill someone or just wanted to make it harder to interfere in his suicide attempt. Still, even in that case, the guy went to some extreme measures.

As for your question:

One time a semi-truck going way over the speed limit almost ran into the van I was in. It was all a blur, but I remember the van jerking one way and the semi-truck choosing the other way (thankfully it didn't choose the way we did). Though I didn't see it, the driver said that the trailer on the truck almost fell on top of the van before rebalancing itself.

There was also a time that a plane almost crashed into our house with its point of entry being the room I was in. Not sure what the pilot was doing, but he managed to recover the plane before it crashed.

When I was very young and had a serious illness that made me really tired, I fell asleep in the bathtub and eventually ended up completely under the water. Thankfully, my mom came in to check on me before I drowned.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I never survived such an elaborate attempt on my life. I was beaten once and kicked literally in a gutter, but they just wanted to rob me, I doubt they were ever trying to kill me. I mean I've had verbal death THREATS, as in getting invisible guns pointed at me, but I always brushed them off. Rule of thumb in Argentina, people with real guns will gladly show them off to you if you're getting robbed. If they don't, they don't have any.

 

[an annoyed writer]

Agreed with Legion: I sure wasn't expecting to read what I just did. Glad you didn't fall into that trap OP, that could've ended quite badly. Most of the times I almost died it wasn't much like that (though I did attempt suicide a couple times, long story). I've been through several car crashes, I've been crushed by a lawn tractor, I've been crushed by a 40" CRT TV as a child, and I've suffered a variety of other life-threatening injuries. Though I've attempted to convince suicidal individuals to do otherwise, with varying degrees of success, they've never threatened to take my life with theirs. That's a harsh situation to be in.

 

[Kuilui]

I was as a kid of less than 10 years old I was almost run over twice by the same person, accidentally. Me and my family were going across the cross walk to get into the public library when a guy was flooring (Going like 60mph in an area where people normally do like 20) just came out of nowhere as we were about halfway across and then he slammed on his breaks pretty close to us. Then when we were leaving he did the same damn thing over again, no idea what his problem was. Either way my step dad was really trying to break the guys window to pull him out so he could beat the living hell out of him. My step dad is a very intimidating navy dude. You should've seen that guys face. All the blood drained out with a look of absolute horror as my step dad tried to get to him. It's funny in retrospect but I seriously could've been killed. I also almost drowned once or twice. I think that's about it as far as I can recall.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

Does your job offer counselling for something like that? Because it wouldn't hurt to look into that if you're shaken up.

Closest I've been to dying would be when I was walking along a main street in London and a rubbish lorry came out of a narrow side street and mounted the curb while turning onto the main road, right in front of me. I had to step back to avoid being crushed.

 

[Rylingo]

Well that guy is a dick. Suicide or not, that's a dick move.

I came pretty close once. A lorry was driving past me really quickly as I was walking at the side of the road. A large spiked plank of wood (looked like a fence post) flew off the back right at me. No time to even react. The post embedded itself in the wall just inches to the left of my head. The guy didn't even stop. Lorry drivers, secure your loads for heavens sake.

 

[Frezzato]

I was once couch surfing in the front room of a house in San Francisco and in the middle of the night I awoke to the sounds of a long, scraping noise, followed by a horrible crash that lasted for about 10 seconds.

Turns out one of the street-level trains had lost power before the crest of a hill and started rolling backwards. It derailed at the bottom and should have hit the house exactly where I was sleeping but it couldn't clear the curb onto the sidewalk. It bounced off the curb and ended up going down the street instead. It was a standard two-car train, I think it's called a Muni [http://www.showbus.com/p2011/San%20Francisco%20MUNI%20Breda%20streetcar%20West%20Portal%203.JPG]. It traveled lengthwise (sideways) and wrecked all the cars parked on both sides of the street for about half a city block.

Just a few nights later at a party I expressed surprise that there weren't any emergency brakes that would activate in the loss of power, such as when an earthquake hit, etc. Nobody cared. And that's why I never moved to San Francisco. Not because of earthquakes but because of the stupidity of its residents.

 

[Frezzato]

Well that guy is a dick. Suicide or not, that's a dick move...

You're absolutely right about that.

 

[krazykidd]

Agreed with Legion: I sure wasn't expecting to read what I just did. Glad you didn't fall into that trap OP, that could've ended quite badly. Most of the times I almost died it wasn't much like that (though I did attempt suicide a couple times, long story). I've been through several car crashes, I've been crushed by a lawn tractor, I've been crushed by a 40" CRT TV as a child, and I've suffered a variety of other life-threatening injuries. Though I've attempted to convince suicidal individuals to do otherwise, with varying degrees of success, they've never threatened to take my life with theirs. That's a harsh situation to be in.

How ...how are you still alive? Man you must have the devil's luck . Someone definately wants you alive .

OT : Wow , i would have definately have gotten caught in that trap . I would have never thought about going through the window .

As for the question . Nothing impressive , almost drowned a couple of times ( you can no longer get me in a pool or a river/ocean/lake ), and almost hit by a car a couple of times , but that's about it . I almost fell on the subway rail tracks once, but i was high .

 

[Wraith]

Swallowed a bunch of my aunt's heart pills when I was about 7, thinking they were candy. Hand to get my stomach pumped before they took affect. That entire night I never knew how much danger I was in at that age. Hearing about it now, makes me face-palm at my own naivete.

 

[an annoyed writer]

How ...how are you still alive? Man you must have the devil's luck . Someone definately wants you alive .

It doesn't make any sense to me either. Maybe there is something guarding me, maybe there isn't, but either way I try not to let things like that happen again. If I do have good luck I'd much rather not try it, as it always runs out sooner or later.

 

[ComandaKool]

I was hit by an SUV while on my bike back home from school about 4 years ago. The lady driving was probably going 80km in a 50km zone so I got knocked around quite badly; I had fairly bad cuts and grazes on my hands and my face which were bleeding as well. I got knocked maybe 5 meters down the road and just lay there for 10 seconds still being in shock and all. The lady did give me a lift to my friend's place nearby. All I know is that if I hadn't been wearing my helmet I wouldn't have walked (limped) away from that one. Still the lady was going way too fast; and according to her I didn't look before crossing the street which added insult to injury, also why she was driving an SUV with no passengers and nothing being transported in the back is beyond me.

Also I almost drowned at the local pool once; luckily the lifeguard grabbed me when they did.

 

[Foolery]

Yeah, I've almost died on several occasions. Almost drowned in a lake when I was 4, and my dad pulled me out. My mum said I didn't say anything or try to swim, just let myself sink into the water. When I was 5, my brother convinced me to put a pair of scissors into the electrical outlet at my grandparents. Luckily the wiring in the house was old, and the breaker blew, before I even had a chance to be shocked. The carport my uncle built also collapsed with me inside when I was 12. I got hit pretty hard with a wooden support beam, but was ok. I've had a shotgun pointed at me by a crazy farmer, when I was lost on a roadtrip, apparently I was trespassing, but there were no signs.

 

[Evil Smurf]

When I was younger I once finished a bottle of baileys and American Honey by Wild Turkey and walked home. Some maths later I was lucky not to get alcohol poisoning. Thank god for my iron stomach.

 

[Little Woodsman]

Glad you're all right OP. Lots of people don't understand how dangerous being a paramedic can be.

Gonna throw in with the people who've nearly been mowed down by vehicles. In my case I was on a really wide sidewalk that runs next to a large parking lot. A lady who was so blind drunk that with the light snow that had been falling couldn't tell the difference between the sidewalk and the road drove on to the sidewalk behind me and then actually *drove* *along* the *sidewalk* and actually brushed against me as she zoomed past. The only thing that stopped her was that she crashed in to the bus shelter I had been heading to. She was going fast enough that she completely wrecked the heavy-gauge steel frame of the shelter (tore the steel in some places) and totaled her minivan.
When police arrived on the scene and asked her why she chose to drive home rather than call a cab or a friend to pick her up, she said it was because it would have been too much of a bother.

 

[Ryotknife]

hmm, my vehicle nearly got squashed by a semi-truck.

a few other close calls with high speed vehicles

Oh! I was in a plane crash....well "crash." The plane was more or less intact when it landed, the bottom was scraped a little. Landing gear refused to go down and the plane eventually was forced to make a landing when it was running out of fuel. Luckily by that point the landing gear was about halfway down through a manual override.

 

[Safaia]

I got into a car accident several years ago. It was fairly hide speed but I wasn't hurt. I bounced off either side of a bridge and narrowly missed going off said bridge and into oncoming traffic. If that wasn't horrifying enough we found out that the casserole dish I had in my hatchback from moving had flown forward and embedded itself in my headrest.. A few inches up and it would have decapitated me. When the guys who looked at my car to service the damage found that they freaked the hell out since they had known me and my family for years.

So fun fact; any items you have in your car turn into high speed weapons in car wrecks.