Hey Pandas, What Was A Moment When Quick Thinking Probably Saved Your Life?

Sailing with a group of friends on an old sailing boat and someone made a mistake with the ropes. The gaff came down and swept the deck. My husband grabbed me and made my lie down on the lowered aisle and I grabbed a friend to drag her down with me. Saved our lives. One friend was down below making coffee and heard the confusion and poked here head out to see what was going on and I screamed to stay away and get back down before she got decapitated. Unfortunately one of the crew decided to jump overboard and drowned, water was too cold. We were all devastated.

Guy was getting carjacked outside my house. Only noticed when the criminals pointed gun at me. Driver momentarily distracted them by arguing about why he didn't want to hand over the car. I bolted and jumped a 6ft wall. Called the cops. I reckon if I'd stayed there was a good chance they'd have shot me as a witness.

I nearly died in a traffic accident a few years ago.

Was riding my bike to the local supermarket, and since we don't have a bike path / line I had to use the street. Somebody lost controll in a turn, crashed of on a car infront and went straight towards me. If I hadn't jumped of my bike sideways into the ditch right at the time the guy lost control I would have been crushed instead getting away with some scratches and a sprained ankle.

I was away down in Albany, Western Australia for a holiday, so I decided to take coastal photos to paint. I explored sand tracks to get to remoter beaches even though my car was not a 4 wheel drive. One sand track came to an end on a high cliff which overlooked a sea stack. So, a good candidate for a few photos. I had just got out of the car with my camera, believing I was utterly alone, when a young man in camo burst out of the thick bushes with a gun like thing - might have been a paint ball gun. I asked him what he was doing, while trying to seem calm but all my hair was standing up and I had this weird sick feeling. He told me that he and a friend were hunting one another through the coastal heath. I never saw the friend but as soon as this guy dived back into the bushes, I took my photos then pretending to nonchalance I got back in my car, locked all the doors and got myself out of there. Once back to the bitumen I stopped to get over the shakes, thinking that anything at all, anything, could have happened to me there and no one would ever know. I've been near snakes, spiders and once nearly stepped on a blue ringed octopus, but I never felt as creeped out as by that young man.

I was visiting a friend mid-summer in Arizona. The days were so hot that in the afternoon all anyone did was sleep. One day I was walking past the bathroom and saw a candle burning. I was going to continue walking but then I stopped looking at it wondering if I should let it burn. I staggered back and forth until I just decided to blow it out.

I laid down on the air mattress and typically slept 30-45min. I woke up a few hours later to my friend stepping over me complaining of chest pain. I was delirious and irritated she was disturbing my sleep. Turns out we were all slowly dying. They had a luxury car that idled almost inaudibly. Someone accidentally left the car running and the air-conditioning intake was from the garage. If I hadn't blown out the candle we would've ignited. If my friend hadn't woken up in pain we would've suffocated.

Not me, my boss. Driving late at night in a rural area, a car comes up behind him speeding. The car then turns on blue lights in the grille and a siren, trying to get him to pull over. Something didn't sit right with him because in Ireland at the time, pretty much all cop cars including undercover cars were Fords and this wasn't. He was driving a big 4x4 so he wasn't worried about them forcing him off the road. There was plenty of room for overtaking, so he knew they weren't just trying to overtake.

Anyhow, he knew there was a 24hr petrol station in about 10 miles that was always busy with HGV drivers so decided not to pull over until there, reasoning if they were actually cops he could explain himself since he hadn't sped up to get away or anything like that.

So he pulls into the petrol station, and low and behold the car keeps driving.

I (f28) had been living with my partner (m26) for about 4 years. Was a super chilled guy. Woke up one Saturday morning to see him stood over the bed looking down at me screaming and crying incoherently. Looked down at the space in the bed next to me and he had laid out all the kitchen knives (like, sharp; butcher knives). Eventually he managed to stammer out that he couldn’t decide which knife was the right knife to kill us and then he just started screaming and rocking again.
I’ve never moved so fast in my life. Grabbed the knives, ran into the other room, chucked them under the sofa, ran back in to the bedroom, grabbed a bottle of Valium and managed to somehow get two tablets into his mouth and get him to swallow them. (This was mainly because I was concerned he would find another way to hurt himself if I just ran away or locked myself in the bathroom.)
He was incoherent and having some kind of breakdown which somehow meant I was able to get the tablets into his mouth, but I still don’t know how, as I am 5”2’ and tiny and he is 6”3’ and incredibly strong.
Adrenaline is insane and in that situation you don’t think, you just do. Once I knew he was safe and the knives were gone I barricaded him inside the bedroom and myself inside another room and called the police. One of the officers told me that it’s technically illegal to give someone Valium that’s not prescribed to them, if I hadn’t just seen the bottle and got them in his mouth then it’s very likely it would have ended very differently. It wasn’t my partners fault… but still, Valium saved probably both of our lives that day. Yes he’s had treatment since and we also separated so he could continue to get help. Life is nuts sometimes.

Driving home from the store one morning, I realized that I was having a heart attack and drove myself to the hospital instead. Driving myself was faster than calling 911. Those saved minutes saved my life! (No I do not recommend doing this)

On my 3rd sport parachute jump, when I was 18, I got caught on the Airplane! The part of the parachute container caught the latch of the gull wing door. Several months earlier a similar event caused the plane to crash killing the pilot, instructor and student. So my instructor and I were a bit concerned. After a bit I shrugged my shoulders hard and broke loose of the plane. The chute deployed normally and I had a good jump with a great view of some new fallen snow covering the fields of Northern Ohio. However, dragging along with the plane for 20-30 seconds made my landing 1/2 mile from the drop zone. I landed in a 4 foot deep snow drift. Was a long cold walk to the drop zone.

The time that comes to mind for me is when a friend of mine in the Marines wanted to show off a gun he had during some party, and, knowing gun safety myself I insisted he open the bolt before he could even take it out of his trunk at my house. He insisted he had the safety on and the clip was out, and I stood my ground. Turns out there was a round in the chamber. The safety (which was not locked) may not have been the only thing between it and killing someone, but that was still too close for comfort.

Uhh, it was more like adrenaline. I work at a library. I have to pull those carts that workers use to reshelve books. When I was hired, I had to sign worker’s comp contracts because if the carts fall on you, you end up permanently disabled. Once, a cart started to fall in my direction, and out of sheer determination and panic, I pushed it back into a upright position. Probably wouldn’t have died, but I can still walk so… still a win.

I have also not died from sheer luck. I play a brass instrument. Once, I wasn’t looking and I grabbed my valve oil(which is fatal if ingested for the non-brass players of the world) instead of my Pepsi and tried to take a drink of it. Fortunately the lid was on, but I didn’t realize I grabbed the wrong bottle until I had to ask myself why the bottle was so hard to open. I love whoever invented child safety locks. I guess someone else’s thinking saved me too.

I was driving on a highway right lane behind a truck it came to a traffic jam the truck in front of me slowed down and was going to a standstill. I decided to change lane in that moment since a truck was coming behind on the right lane. The truck behind didn't stop. Smashed right In the truck which used te be in front of me seconds ago. Deciding to not stand in a traffic jam between trucks safed my life. My standard car would have been just smashed completely. The truck driver that didn't pay attention to the road paid the ultimate price. I stoped a few meters ahead on the shoulder and needed to get rid of that adrenaline. Took a picture, called my (now ex) wife, she didn't care at all.

Was seven months pregnant. I felt very good in spite of an umbilical cord anomaly. My baby was monitored every 3 weeks and everything went well.
The week-end before, we had built kitchen cabinets with my husband. I was in great shape.

On that morning, I wanted to climb on a stool to get something too high for me. I couldn't lift myself up, as if my body was made of jelly. I first thought " dang, the third trimester is no joke, this is so sudden ".

During pregnancy I had to do lab tests every month and this day I decided to do them 2 weeks earlier than scheduled. Just to see. Just to be sure.
The tests came back by email very late in the evening and the protein count was far, far over the norm. This is usually a very bad thing because it screams preeclampsy, a lethal condition caused by the placenta that is only addressed by stopping the pregnancy. At 32 weeks my baby weighted 1,4kg which was reassuring.

I went to ER and was immediately hospitalized. They gave me a cortison shot, which was supposed to help the baby to finish his maturation, provided the doctors waited at least one week before delivering.

They monitored me night and day. My kidneys had failed, then began my liver, I was close to a heart attack because my potassium rose to a dangerous level, and so on. High blood pressure. Not enough sodium. A massive edema. I was on a drip to pass all the products needed.
Believe me or not, except edema, I wouldn't have noticed that my body suffered that much. This was a very silent condition. Looked like kidneys stones.

The risk when eclampsy begins (after the preeclampsy) is a full body failure for the mother, leading quickly to death, and a massive bleeding, killing the baby. So basically the doctors permanently assess the risks, look for any change that would give the signal to immediately stop the pregnancy and save the mother first, and hopefully the baby (signs such as headache, blurred vision, clear/dark flies, shaking...).

And then, on this afternoon, I felt a very subtile headache, and a kind of blurred vision. I immediately informed the medical staff. 15 minutes later, there were 6 doctors in my room asking nervously if my husband was coming soon because the time had come. The severe preeclampsy was turning into eclampsy. My nervous system began to fail and my blood pressure was over 17/10.

I had an emergency c-section and had a non-life-threatening hemorrhage. My baby was delivered in less than 5 minutes and breathed without help. We stayed 5 weeks at hospital and I fully recovered 4 months after.

By doing immediately the lab tests I could give him only one week. Just enough for the cortison to have positive effects, help my baby grow faster and be able to breathe without help. If I hadn't done the lab tests, I probably wouldn't have worried until a few hours before eclampsy.

.........
In short, I felt something was bad during my pregnancy and it saved my life and my baby's.

I had a loft bed, and I was about to go down, when my foot slipped. I panicked and grabbed onto a wrung and oh my God, I could have spilt my head open on the desk below if I hadn't grabbed it. Might be alive, but still would have caused problems.

I was driving a bobtail truck (24') with a load of magazines. It was almost full, one pallet was alone in the middle of the tail end.

I took my exit and made a left turn up a slight grade a little fast, and that lone pallet slid over to the right side of my truck with a thud. I pulled right over and took a look, decided I could make it to my next stop if I drove slow.

Drove down the hill, made a right onto a 2-lane road, and partway through the turn I heard a crash. Then the whole truck started to raise up and lean to the left like it was going to go over.

I knew instantly if I completed the turn I'd be over on my side so I straightened my wheels, but that headed me towards the center island. If I'd of hit that I'd have gone over too, so I held it straight until the last second and turned my wheels to the right just enough to squeek by the island. The truck leveled out and settled down, so I kept on.

When I got to my delivery stop I opened the door and saw that one lone pallet had fallen into the space next to it like a tree. The magazines were all made of slippery, glossy paper, so the whole stack(as tall as I am, so 6') just disintegrated. All that weight just about wrecked me. If I hadn't straightened my wheels and held on, it would have.

I was at a mall that was subject to a shooting while shopping at a shoe store for a family member. Just about to check out: suddenly I heard waves of people running away from the food court, before long I see them. I quickly realized it was a shooting and ran backward like really fast. If I hadn’t reacted in time I might not have been here today.

Was out in a field camping with my unit (I was at a summer camp). My tentmate said that she felt like she was going to have a heart attack, and asked me to go get the counselors. The counselors told her to drink some water and to go back to sleep.

Around an hour later, she felt a bit worse, so we grabbed a flashlight and hiked through the woods (in pajamas, at midnight) to go find the infirmary. Ten minutes later, the nurse had given her her medication, and our counselors had come to pick us up, and gave us a long lecture on why we should be sorry on the way back to the tents.

A week later my tentmate texted me (we exchanged numbers) and told me that her parents had taken her to the doctor after she told them about that night, (the camp did not tell her parents, or mine) and that if she hadn't gotten her medicine, she might have died.

Still in touch with her a few years later, and neither of us are going back to any camps run by that organization.

Not me, but an unconscious reaction may have saved an elder lady's life. We had gone to the fireworks on the Mall in DC, by metro. It was myself, my ex, a friend, 10 yr old daughter and 7 year old son. Somehow, on the way home, we got separated, with my daughter and I together and I was carrying EVERYTHING. It was a real crush, literally squashed together face to back. As we approached the train, finally, I was near the open spot between to cars. Suddenly, my daughter screamed "Mama" and point behind me. I turned and barely got my overloaded arm across the gap to the other car and caught the lady just as she started to fall between the cars after being shoved. It was 30 years ago, my shoulder is still often very painful. I'd do it again.

this was in the 90s. i got off work and decided to stop at the local mall. i ended up parking in the back of the store i went in as the front was full. i was walking to my car and became aware that there was a vehicle following me. at first i thought they were just looking for a place to park but i realized it was pacing me. i moved closer to the back of the vehicles so it could pass and as i looked over my shoulder i saw that it was a van. i also saw that the side panel was opening and a man was crouching inside. i moved between the vehicles very fast and headed back into the store. i called the police and reported what happened. they told me to stay in the store until an officer made contact with me. after about half an hour the officer came in to take my statement. he then told me that they had found the van cruising the parking lot and stopped it. they discovered that the back of the van had a mattress, rope, and duck tape as well as the two men in the van had records for assault as well as warrants out for them. i remember just getting an awful feeling when i was walking to my car and i credit that feeling for making me look over my shoulder.

Walking in my neighborhood as a kid about 10 yo heading to my friend’s house. Some guy pulls over and asks me where a certain road was and calls me ma’am. ALL the stranger danger warning bells were going off in my brain and I TOOK OFF RUNNING to my friend’s house. Later that week it was reported that a girl my age had gone missing nearby. I couldn’t give a description of the guy or the car because my vision literally went red when he spoke to me…I didn’t take time to look at him. Taught me to ALWAYS follow my instincts and there have been a couple other similar incidents throughout my life. Even as an adult now, I will not hesitate to run when I get that feeling.