near death experience

[Trevor 57]

Who has had one?

I did a couple of years ago, just wondering if anyone else did and how do you feel about the whole experience now?

I was given a drug on the operating table which didn't agree with me at the time, a few hits of adrenalin and intubated to keep Trev going, surgeon said he was seconds away from doing CPR, more to the story too

[zilo]

Great topic.

7 years ago i had a motorcycle accident.

I was unconscious for 7 hours until I was found.

I saw..nothing...no white angel...no long hallway with God waiting.

Just a light switch that went out.

But it changed my outlook on life...

I just don't give a toss about a lot of things i was passionate about previously.

[revcore]

My near death experience was mid 2013 when i had a real bad seizure in Mildura. I collapsed and fell to the ground hitting my head on the concrete. I was flown to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. I had multiple skull fractures, bleeding on the brain in 3 places, Ruptured left ear drum, Retrograde amnesia and also suffered a stroke.

[Freiherr]

I am 55 and in all my life so far there was only 1 near death experience.
This happened in 2008 on my way to work one winter morning. The road was wet from drizzle and I must have gone over an oily patch on a downhill S bend. My car spun 180° and I found myself going backwards downhill on a grassy enbankment with a decent drop down the side.
Everything in my head felt like in slow motion and I was prepared to meet my maker. I was scared to even press the brake. The moment I said "That's it, I'm gone", the side of the car rested on a lone tree with only a couple of metres from a 200 metre drop. I sat there motionless for a couple of minutes, gathered myself and drove off. Later inspection of vehicle showed some decent damage on one wheel arch and lots of long dry grass to the underbody.
I felt nausious for the next 2 weeks every time I drove the same bend and had to drive there real slow. Every time I pass that tree, I smile and think to myself, how lucky I was when my life flashed before my eyes.

[2011G6E]

Unfortunately there's sound scientific reasons for all the things people report in these experiences.
Basically it's the poor old brain trying to make sense of the confusing signals coming in and filling in the blanks as the curtain descends (and hopefully comes back up again...).

After all, your brain is blind, deaf, and dumb where it sits there inside your skull, and can only interpret the signals coming in from your eyes and ears and sense of smell. Stop those signals and it's left to it's own devices and has to make things up to explain to itself what's happening, so it falls back on memories and other sensory elements to make up...something.

[Trevor 57]

Technically I died, I had a major anaphylactic reaction to the muscle relaxant, as they were fighting to save me the surgeon rang me wife to tell her, he used the words "if he survives we are not sure about brain damage" ******* frightened the **** out of my family I can tell you.

I woke 16 hours later in ICU of another hospital with no memory of what happened, but it would seem I was gone for all money, but thanks to quick action of the anaesthetist and his mate from the operating theatre next door they were on to it pretty quick which is what saved my life.

They didn't do the surgery I was booked in for, but I went back a few months later and had it, they used different drugs.

Every now and then I have little moments where I feel a bit weird, I won't watch shows like RPA anymore, they spook me a bit.

But pretty much life is being lived as normal except I now wear a MedicAlert bracelet obviously

[Itsme]

I worked for the railways once in which I was struck by a train, if I stood any closer to the track I would certainly be dead, that was over twenty years ago & I still have nightmares about that incident.

[Spurious]

I had one once....



...then I flushed!!!

[Spurious]

Seriously though, I did have a bad scare when I was 17.

Working in a metal fab/engineering workshop. Got stuck with the job of crane rigger/dogman.
Dropping sheets of steel into vertical rack with plate clamps. Very difficult to walk on a surface that consisted of 2 huge sheets of steel opposed at about a 25 degree angle, & me trying to walk along between them.

I figured it's be easier extracting myself from the centre of the rack if I just held on to the crane hook, at the end of 20 feet of mobile scissor crane boom.

18 feet in the air, being jiggled form side to side as the crane moved, just made it to the edge of the rack & my leather glove clad hands began to slip.

I dropped to the ground & landed on all fours, but as I did so I spotted a bit of jagged steel sticking out of the rack, it might as well have been a knife blade.
I don't know to this day how I missed it, but my heart was racing so hard I thought a heart attack was imminent.
I told no-one, as I realized it was so incredibly stupid.

If I had landed on that bit of steel jutting out, it would have sliced clean through my rib cage or worse (if it gets worse than that!!!).

A few weeks later whilst unloading 18ft lengths of plate steel from a semi, 4 ton was just too much for the crane. As the driver moved toward me on a slight downhill slope I spotted the drive wheels at the rear of the crane come clear of the ground. I turned & ran....across a pile of 12" diam' steel pipe. Thankfully the 100 year old hippy (the crane drivers nickname) was quick thinking enough to drop the boom & dump the load.

[Spurious]

On another occasion in my late 20's, coastal rock fishing.

With 1 beer under my belt, & another in my hand, plus work boots, track pants, bucket, rod & a backpack, I, for some ridiculous reason, wanted to jump on to an isolated rock.

My foot hit the rock I was aiming for but slipped straight down into what would have been a weed filled hole of some 15ft depth.

Dislocated my left shoulder in the process.

In a panic, I clawed my way up the rock I was aiming for. Once on dry land (soaking wet), I realized I had the task of jumping back across to land to have any hope of getting help. Help that I desperately needed as I was in absolute agony....& at the base of a 60 foot cliff, with no houses within earshot, & not a person in sight.

Ditched the beer, repacked my backpack, threw the bag, rod & bucket across (at least if I went in again the authorities would know where to look) & prayed that I wouldn't slip again. I was pretty certain I would not get out again if I slipped in.

I made it across. Grabbed my bag & stuff, still in agony with my one good arm holding the dislodged one stable, walked back around the cliff, down some rocks to water level (the only way out & impassable at high tide) then climbed the slippery & very steep gravel track to get up off the rocks, used the eyes on my rod to dig into the gravel, walked back the 400 metres to get home....

...then the choice, call an ambulance & sit & wait in agony, or drive to the hospital....I drove myself.

Picture this, I walk into the ER with one arm holding the other, tears running down my face, dripping wet, boots & all. The nurse was amazed that, not only had I driven myself to the ER, but had also smoked a cigarette after I'd gotten out of the water!!!

She was doubly impressed that I'd remembered to lock my car when I got there. LOL

[Spurious]

Then there was the time, in my early 20's, when I almost head on'd a family in a Tarago, whilst doing 90km/h on a Queensland highway.

I'd passed a caution sign just before, "DIP" it said.

By the time I figured out what it meant I was heading downward toward the bottom of a gully with a feeling of absolute weightlessness in the commodore I was driving. Steering was futile.
Passed the family in the van just as I reached the bottom.

The man driving the Tarago wore glasses & had a beard. I'll never forget that face!

I reckon I must have turned white at that moment.

[Bearman]

I nearly drowned when I was about 7 years of age.

I went to a typical rural school which was just a single room building in the middle of a paddock. Occasionally if it was really hot the teacher and a few parents would take us all to the river to swim.

The swimming spot was at a point where a sandbar lay parallel to the bank a third of the way across. The other side of that sandbank was a bit of a poundage of calm water. To get to it you had to cross that first third which had a decent current flowing and acted almost like a funnel. This fed into a series of 2 Rapids.

I was in a line of kids making their way across and I was scared sh1tless. I lost my footing and that was that, I got swept down the funnel. I vividly remember seeing nothing but churning water and smooth pebbles. I tried to get a hold of something solid but there was nothing. After a few minutes of absolute panic the next thing I remember was sitting on the riverbank with a towel around my shoulders.

One of the parents who was standing up on the riverbank saw me go down and went after me. I was told I was fished out unconscious from the bottom of the second rapid which was around 80 to 100 meters from where I lost my footing.

Future swimming excursions there saw star pickets driven into the river bed, netting strung across and one of the fathers stationed in the water to catch anyone who got swept down.

I never really took to swimming after that.

[kazawaki]

Ok jumped over a fence and slipped and a steel star dropper just grazed my side I was so close to being impaled.No 2 motorcycle hit one car then slid across the road and slammed head on into another car. No 3 motorcycle slamed into the side of a car at 120ks flew over the top landed on my head and smashed my left leg.No 4 went to step out onto the road and a bus went wizzing by just as I was about to take my first stem.

[TheSneakiness]

Nearly drowned at Maroochydore beach trying to save my brother who got caught in a rip.

Needless to say after spending 12 years in a coastal environment there's a reason why I'm blinding white and fat.

[hawkgirl]

its a long story but i was attacked by someones elses horse, got a full strength kick to the right torso - broke 3 ribs, smashed all the muscles on that side, split liver & pulped kidney. I knew right away I was in very big trouble. Nearest major hospital - 20mins by car but this was peak hour, friday night. I didnt think I would make it that far.

Remebered there was a smaller local hospital, got my sister (lucky she was there) to drive me there. She's panicking, i'm not. I walk into Emergency - empty. The triage nurse wanted me to fill forms out. I tell her what happened & that I'm going to pass out. She tuts at me and points to the waiting room chair. So I sit & start to slump. my sister comes in & I tell her to go & call my mum (pre mobile days). I go to the triange nurse and say, I really really need to see someone. She rolls her eyes and sits me in a wheelchair. But i realised i was going to die in this waiting room. But it was not my time - the doctor happened to walk out right at that point. She starts screaming for resus, grabs the wheelchair & i'm flying through Casualty as a code red.

Much blood transfusions later, the paramedics organising my air transfer to a teaching hospital told me I would never have made to the bigger hospital alive, that I had lost enough blood that I should have been dead when I walked in, that nobody knew how i didnt die.

Recovery was slow & it changed me.

I have a deep distrust of triage nursesvnow, but I did have the satisfaction of hearing that wonderful doctor tearing that nurse a new one, at the top of her lungs, while I was waiting for the transport.

[Polyal]

Originally Posted by Rapid_Axe

Nearly drowned at Maroochydore beach trying to save my brother who got caught in a rip.

Needless to say after spending 12 years in a coastal environment there's a reason why I'm blinding white and fat.

Similar story, minus the BMI rating and skin colour..LOL

My now sister in law and I were swimming, I was about 18 she must of been about 12 and she and I got caught.

Im a terrible swimmer and its something I really need to address, I think I can survive but I just dont like it....not even in pools really.

Problem is a love the beach and just mucking around with the kids, we go nearly every weekend so it something that plays on my mind. The kids are good swimmers but the surf is just different.

Same happened when I was at schoolies..got to a depth that was a bit much and had to get a mate to get me back in (I dont think he ever realized that I was packing myself at the time).

[Vincenzo]

Too many to count - possibly have an angel on my side - all the time.

1983 - riding a M/cycle from Darwin to Canberra - outback Qld had road works and a goat track bypass for 18km beside a wide and very smooth super wide unsurfaced new highway. Cross country the road bike up on to the gravel and away I go 160kph - fly past work camp with guys running out waving their arms = 3km down the road I hit a7cm berm of dirt and literally fly across the road and a non existant culvert - landed on the other side, stopped and sat for the next hour smoking and calming down.

1986 - 20km north of Alice Springs - open up the new VF 1000f11 after running it in - 9,980rpm, 251kph indicated and I sat up - airflow nearly blows me off the back of the bike - spent the next 8km desperately trying to reach the kill switch before I eventually got it.

1995 - Palmerston McDonalds - being shot at while retrieving a wounded Police Officer (I was an Ambo) who was shot a few minutes earlier - wasn't until later I learnt how close I had come - shooter was 20m away shooting our way. I watched them take him down - pussy!

2013 - talking to a surgeon during heart surgery because someone forgot to give me the drugs to knock me out - I eventually gave in to the pain and that was it - a couple of days in ICU

Cheers Vincenzo

[FGX335]

I was 10 and floating down a river on a lilo with my Dad. We had just gone through some rapids and around the bend, and saw a downed tree. We didn't realise that there was a massive undercurrent around the tree, and I got sucked down into it. Dad grabbed my arm to stop me from getting sucked in, and held on for 30 seconds. All I could see was the bright light from the sky above the water, and I thought I was going to die.

Dad made the hard decision to let go, and I came out the other side without a scratch. Looking at the trunk, I shouldn't have made it out, and the water pressure really should have pinned me deep against the tree, but somehow I came out the other side and lived to tell the tale.

[Bearman]

God damn Vincenzo, being shot at??

That would seriously mess with my head.

[Vincenzo]

Originally Posted by Bearman

God damn Vincenzo, being shot at??

That would seriously mess with my head.

If I was in the Armed Services it would be expected, not as a Local Ambulance Officer. Lasted another two years in the job then said Stuff it, I want to be around to see the kids grow up - so - after 15 years in the job and absolutely loving it I resigned.

Cheers Vincenzo

[Bushbasher]

Was in a mates front yard when I was about 8 and this dirty great german shepard came into the yard and started ripping into the little hairy mongral that lived there. Stupid me makes a quick move towards it, waving my arms and shouting to try and make it stop and get out... it didn't. Instead it turned on me and latched onto my throat, then proceeded to drag me around the yard shaking me violently like I was a rag doll. It lasted less than 10 seconds before it let go but the damage was done.

The lady of the house was first to arrive followed by mum from across the road and I was straight in the car with a towel wrapped round my neck to staunch the flow of blood. I was still conscious when we got to casualty but that's the last thing I remember till I woke up. My little 8 yr old body had managed to soak the towel till it was dripping blood and the doc said the puncture to my throat was less than 5mm from my jugular and on the other side I was lucky not to lose my ear. He said there's no way I would have made it if the dog had been that 5mm to the left or we'd been a few minutes slower getting there.

I learned to pay very close attention to all dogs' body language and demeanor after that and to always make eye contact so I could figure out what they were going to do before I went near them.

[Cable]

I had a head on while riding a motorbike with a car as the car took a right turn at an intersection, didn't see me obviously. Wrote both car and bike off.

Broke both arms and both legs and almost died. Can remember opening my eyes and couldn't feel anything, thought I was paralysed.

7 weeks in hospital, many operations and plates/pins, bone grafts, skin grafts followed by 6 months of physio.

Also it happened on Friday the 13th (Oct 2006) which was a bit spooky.

Never ridden since as I just lost the love for it, oh and my wife and 3 kids.

Cheers Jay

[superyob]

Originally Posted by zilo

Great topic.

7 years ago i had a motorcycle accident.

I was unconscious for 7 hours until I was found.

I saw..nothing...no white angel...no long hallway with God waiting.

Just a light switch that went out.

But it changed my outlook on life...

I just don't give a toss about a lot of things i was passionate about previously.

I can relate to that. In 1986 I had a motorcycle accident that left me in a coma for 3 days. All I can remember is surfacing out of a dark confused sleep...

[pottery beige]

have smashed a little astral projection in my time - was cool

[cheap]

I had a HUGE prang on my Harley when a Pantech hit me, wearing an open face helmet which looked like someone took an angle grinder to it. I was thrown off the bike, sliding and rolling along the middle of a freeway with a dozen cars luckily avoiding running me over.

I can not say that death ever entered my mind, I got up with a few scratches.

[iCat]

Wow, my God, these stories.....

[CQB-241]

Driving past paddocks in a '63 Consul Capri hardtop in semi-rural WA aged 18yo. Seems like a very long time ago (mid 80s). Dark straight road doing about 40mph. Intoxicated idiots had decided to check on their new horse by driving into its paddock with lights on about a quarter mile ahead. Spooked the horse which bolted out onto road and then ran up gutter, veering out from left as I passed hitting my car hard from the left and leveling the roof to the back seats bar the drivers A pillar and vent window. Front seat passenger's cry of "****, horse" concurrent with him ducking forward and me drop to right as I had nowhere else to go due to steering wheel. Car pivoted around the horse missing a powerpole by inches and ending up facing the opposite way stalled, left lights pointing crazily into air and this huge puddle of blood in front of car and over the pole we had just missed. Silence and dust settling framed the scene. Both of us simultaneously asked "you OK?". I had a small glass cut on front of thigh and my 17yo cousin had a piece of safety glass in the skin on his temple. Otherwise unmarked. I managed to open door to get out and he crawled across under roof and followed.

Got whole story from owners of horse and they requested my uncle (cousin's father) put horse down (was under half a mile from their front gate). Car driven (sitting forward through old windscreen hole) to his property and body ultimately restored (had a spare turret) but purchased from me before assembly. Was only 3rd party insured and while horse owners admitted liability at scene denied it and court found husband culpable but wife was owner who was sued....out value of car a second time. Joke.

Lessons:
1. Duck if someone says "****, horse"....saved my life.
2. Have comprehensive insurance.
3. The law is an ***.

[poppa smurf]

I got caught eating my wife's last bar of chocolate during her funny, grumpy time.......that is a close as I ever want to come.......my life flashed past my eyes many times, (as well as upper cuts and a couple of left crosses.)

[BENT_8]

Had knee surgery in 2003, upon release from hospital the nurses forgot to issue me with compression stockings and warfarin to prevent blood clotting.
12 days latter I was watching the Brisbane Lions destroy Collingwood in the AFL GF for the second year straight when I started to feel pain under my right side rib cage, felt like I had trapped wind.
Finished watching the game and went to get up and that's when I noticed I was short of breath.
Being a bloke I just brushed it aside as nothing to worry about.
Went to bed that night and couldn't lay down as it made breathing even harder, at about 5am my wife convinced me to go to hospital.
Thankfully we were visiting the in laws at the time and they lived in a country town with a very good hospital and resident doctor.
Doctor was called in, took one look at my bandaged knee and my breathing difficulties and told the nurse to get the helicopter on its way.
Turns out I had developed a clot which broke free, travelled to my right lung and ledged itself in there.
The rescue helicopter was already transporting a patient at the time so I ended up in a fixed wing plane on my way to Adelaide airport and on to the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
By the time I arrived I could barely breath, couldn't move and was in excruciating pain.
My blood pressure was ridiculously high and my heart rate was up around 200bpm.
They gave me shot after shot of Morphine but it did nothing and at one point the DR suggested I spend some time with my wife and kids, I knew then that things weren't good.
If that wasn't bad enough they had to take me away to have a scan done, as they were wheeling me down there my oxygen bottle ran out and there was a frantic commotion as they hooked me back up to the nearest hard line.

In the end I passed out due to the pain and awoke hours later when they crashed my bed into the elevator door on my way up to a ward.

Breathing is something we just take for granted until you cant, then it gets real scary.

6 months on rat poison, weekly INR tests. All because someone overlooked the basics.
I should have sued them, but at the time I was just glad to be alive.
Actually, I wonder if I still can as at the time my lawyer (original knee surgery was a work cover incident) said the surgeon who did my knee was very nervous when he heard of what had happened.
Is there a statute of limitations with that stuff?

I asked my GP how deadly blood clots can be, he said I had a 50/50 chance as they either get trapped in the lung as was my case or go straight to the brain and cause a stroke/death.

[Itsme]

You were lucky Bent 8, I had a blood clot in my left leg when I was young, I was on a drip to dissolve it, I was told at the time the biggest danger was if it moved it could block one of your heart arteries resulting in heart attack.
Fourteen days on the drip was nerve-wracking as you can imagine & yes blood clots can be painful.