40 Harrowing Stories Of People Ruining Their Lives Over 1 Mistake

Did a rotation in a trauma/burns ICU: two big ones that stuck with me.

1) 16/17 year old kid got drunk and decided to climb a water tower with his friends. Fell and broke his neck. Paraplegic, couldn’t talk or move. His friends would come and see him, but when they left you could just see the desperation in his eyes. Heartbreaking to see.

2) 15 year old kid was breaking into cars. Well, the last one he broke into, the owner ran out and shot him. Hit him in the head. Had cranial surgery, half his cranium was missing. Kid survived, but needed complete care. Felt terrible for his mom. I never saw her leave his side.

Lots of other patients that completely changed their own/family/strangers lives with one poor decision.

Saw a pilot without instrument rating take off into IMC conditions (instrument-meteorological conditions is a flight category that describes weather conditions that require pilots to fly primarily by instruments rather than use visual cues to maintain controlled flight).

He had his whole family on board. Weather was closing in. He agreed that it was impossible to get home, but wanted to make it to a larger municipal airport so they wouldn't have to stay in a motel. The fuel attendant and a bunch of old veteran pilots hanging around the airport office all said they'd drive him to a nicer place, but he thought he'd have a better chance of getting out the next day from the other airport. Conditions weren't *that* bad when he took off, but we all agreed later that no one without instrument rating would/should have flown that day.

So the last time anyone saw that whole family (pilot, wife, two adult sons) alive was all of us watching him take off and fly just under the cloud base to do a "scud run" in the direction of the nearest muni. They crashed in full overcast ten miles out. No survivors.

All told, it probably took fifteen minutes for this guy to make the worst- and last- decision of his life.

This was over 30 years ago, but it's haunted me ever since- what could/should I have done differently that might have convinced him to not fly? I was a newbie pilot at the time, but even I knew it was a bad idea. There were at least three other pilots there that day. Did he feel ganged up on? Could we have appointed the most grizzled straight-shootin gravel-voiced veteran to take the guy aside and give him a "I'm not your dad, but" talk? Should we have tackled him and taken away his keys? Called the cops? What would we even have told them? I've long since come to terms with it, but there are still the occasional moments where I feel like I failed.

I wound up having to change the number for my first real cell phone, because the previous owner of that number still kept giving it out. Apparently she had just moved, and her old job couldn’t get ahold of her to send her her last check. Her new job couldn’t get ahold of her to get her schedule. Her vet couldn’t get her to pick up her cat. I got calls from her leasing company who needed documentation to secure her apartment. Ever single day was some new way an idiot was f*****g up her finances, her housing, her job, her pets, her social life… all because she couldn’t remember her new phone number. After a month I finally got fed up and had the number changed.

Melissa, if you were supposed to be a massage therapist for the PGA tour in 2013, I hope you eventually got your s**t together.

15-20 years ago, an ex worked at a dream job type of place. If you make it professionally in that field, this employer was/is the absolute peak, there is no better place to go. New guy started there, on ex’s team, right out of university. His first day he went to the company store and got ALL the gear with company’s name on it- tshirt, hat, socks, etc- and proudly put it all on. After work, team took the new guy out to drinks to celebrate his first day at dream job employer. New guy gets way too drunk, goes outside to smoke a cig, and then takes his penis out and presses it up against the bar’s glass window. Penis man’s new colleagues, all the bar’s patrons, and all their staff see his d**k. Ex closed out their tab and got drunk guy home- the bar calls the employer the next morning, complaining about the new guy’s d**k antics, banning him and anyone wearing company gear. New Guy, was fired before lunch, on day 2. A cautionary story EDIT: The bar was in a never gentrified, always wealthy part of SF, CA. Patrons were very wealthy people, entitled. Myself, Having worked in fine dining in college, I can only imagine the absolute HELL those patrons raised about seeing some dips**t’s d**k while slurping down their 3rd martini. Many of you relate to this story, and have shared about not even wearing something as small as a lanyard w/ company info on it. This is all great logic, please keep it up and share that advice. It is especially pertinent, when your employer, like the subject of my story, is known globally for children’s entertainment. Exposing yourself to anyone, let alone a bunch of connected, rich a******s, is definitely not the move when Pixar signs your check.

A senior girl from my college pushed another girl she was friends with off a ~30 foot bridge into water as a joke, broke her neck and collarbone and she's permanently in a wheelchair Edit: Holy S**t this blew up while I was asleep I'll answer some questions: 1. Two days in hospital for her 'friend' Two days in jail for the girl who pushed her, She spent the same time in jail as the victim spent in hospital it's f****d up 2. The parents of the victim chose not to press charges. 3. It was not Taylor Smith 4. I've seen similar stories online but succesfully found the actual story it's not the one that went viral [https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/woman-paralysed-after-being-pushed-25291101](https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/woman-paralysed-after-being-pushed-25291101)

The kid in the national guard posting gov't secrets online for internet cred.

I had a friend that had a promising career got upset and went into full road rage for a woman who forgot to turn her blinker on and he slightly bumped her back bumper on the freeway causing her to lose control and flipping over and killing the driver and her two daughters. Oddly..it was all caught on his car dash cam and a trucker with his own dash cam that was behind him. He is now doing 40+ years in prison. *Post update* I wasn't expecting much attention on this story. Additional details that people keep asking me. I can't say we were close friend or good friends. We hung out during high school years. I may have seen him a couple times afterwards. He moved out of state. Most information I got was from his sister. I do know that he is in jail for what he did. Now I'm not sure if his sister is not giving me the full story but I do know he definitely received high jail sentence. I know he went to college for marketing. I believe he was interning for high end sports marketing company.

My older brother was in high school, already secured a full baseball scholarship and one of the best players I've ever seen. His "friends" who were in the neighborhood gang told him that they would let him join if he stole a 12 pack from a gas station.

He did it, of course, and the police found him walking down the road with it. He got a slap of the wrist after a night in juvie, but that scholarship went out the window. Not long after he dropped out, shaved his head, got caught up in the violence of the gang, tattooed his face, got half his teeth replaced, and had a few kids with different girls.

He rode that life for almost 10 years until his new girlfriend set him straight and has spent the past few years trying to be a good dad, got off drugs, got a steady job. We don't talk anymore, but I'm still rooting for him.

One use of M**h. Seen so many people and friends jump right off the deep-end by "Just trying it." and after 20 years have yet to jump out of the self-made dumpster fire that is their life. Nasty s**t, M**h.

My sister started doing m**h and h****n, she went from super smart to completely dumb. By the age of 19 she was already a felon. No one in the family wants to help her anymore cause each time we tried, either sending her to rehab or tried getting her sober she would just go back to it. Was supposed to go to college but now shes 22 and stays at different peoples houses and begs people for money. Completely cut me and everyone else off from her cause she thinks us trying to help her is us being jealous and not wanting her to be happy in life

Bar fight. Heard a loud commotion for about 30 seconds. Some guy thought this guy was hitting on his date. Suckered punched him. The other guy fell down and clipped the bar. The bar had brass foot rest at the base. Snapped the guys neck so loud you could hear it across the room.

My cousin fell for one of those *To Catch a Predator* style police stings. The day of the sting he posted something on his Facebook about going to have a great night. I even responded saying "awesome man have fun." Well that night he tried to meet a 14-year-old girl and found a bunch of cops instead. Was charged with multiple felonies, got kicked out of his Ph.D. program, lost his job, lost his wife, died two months later. He was 28 years old and had *everything* going for him. Great job, crazy book smarts, a bright future with his family.

A few high school classmates. Dan (not his name) just started hanging out with bad peers.

One weekend, the guys decided to hang out at Dan's house. They ordered pizza and told Dan to get change for $100. They left Dan's house to get drinks. Pizza arrives and while exchanging the order with Dan, the other guys run out from the bushes. They start beating up the delivery driver. Dan didn't know they were going to do that and tried to stop them. Yet, none of them knew the driver was legally carrying. Dan got shot and died otw to the hospital. The other guys got arrested and spent 3+ years in jail. They were supposed to graduate in 2 months.

Watched a buddy spend his entire life savings betting on the Paulo Costa Vs Adesanya. I begged him not to do it and he lost his and his wife’s entire 60k nest egg. She left him immediately with the kids and now he lives at his moms house.

EDIT: wow this blew up. So a little more back story. He had been betting on prize fighting for a short while and winning. Nothing outrageous and heck I even bet with him on a time or two because it was smaller bets 1-200. He had been winning probably made a few grand not sure how much but he was always saying he won and showing off his bets. So I can confirm he had been winning and his luck was pretty impressive.

As far as I know he doesn’t gamble anymore and is just trying to rebuild his life. He lost his wife but does spend a lot time with the kids.

Guy I knew in high school slept with a girl at a party. He was 18 and she said she was 18, too. Turns out she was 16 and when her dad found out about it, had the guy arrested and charged with SA of a minor. Got sentenced to 13 years and has to register. Sad part is, the girl testified that she lied about her age to sleep with him. He was a star athlete and had a D1 scholarship. Lost everything. This was 20 years ago and last I heard he's back in prison on another charge.

Dude I know won a 3 million dollar settlement from being hit by a car. Spent it all on h****n and was dead within 3 years. Under 30 years old. Edit: Wow, this really blew up. To answer some of the questions I see in the thread - I don’t think he got hooked on opioids due to the accident. This guy did a lot of weed and shrooms and occasionally c**e even before the settlement; the money just allowed him to “graduate” to h****n How’d he spend all that money? Sadly, he had a bunch of addict friends who he enabled. He’d “treat” them to free h****n at these lavish parties.

A friend of mine drove his bike without helmet (had the helmet didn’t bother to wear it), it was late at night, we were having a party at my home and he was coming to join us, it had rained earlier so the roads were wet, his motorbike unfortunately slipped and he fell hitting his head on the curb. Some passerby called the ambulance. We got to know about it early in the morning from his parents. His head trauma caused him to go into a coma. He never came back from it, he was in a coma for a few months and then sadly passed away. He was a chill dude, if only he wore the helmet while driving. Rest easy D!

Edit: He was an avid biker, drove his bike across the country all the way to the Himalayas. He used to wear Helmet all the time except for that fateful night. I was having a party at my home, you know bbq/ beer/ whiskey and all that, he was gonna join us after work. He had the helmet on him even that day, I will never know why he decided to not wear it that day.

I work for the Canada Revenue Agency. When you're hired, they tell you never to plug your phone or other storage device into your work computer, or you will be immediately flagged and s**tcanned. This one girl was like 1 month into the job, and I watched her pull out her phone and plug the charger into her computer. 10 minutes later, our head of security was looming over her, watching her clean out her desk. She will likely never be allowed to work for the government ever again. At least once a year, I see an email reminding existing staff of our rules because somebody went and plugged their phone in.

2 of my high school friends went to a strip club during the pandemic, refused to wear a face mask, so eventually they got kicked out, they were drunk
got mad and shot at the strip club with an AK47.
18 and 19 years old.
Nobody died, but some people got hurt
Edit: the 18 year old just had a baby at the time of the shooting, his gf couldn’t even grasp the idea of him at a strip club while she was taking care of the new born

She decided to keep the baby. She wasn't ready in any way, not financially, emotionally, or even physically. It was a very hard pregnancy, and then she got hooked on opioids after the pain of birth and recovery. I did everything I could to stop the skid, but some things can't be fixed, even with all the will and all the love in the world.