“Friend Died Aged 32”: 50 Everyday Things Most People Don’t Realize Are Deadly

My wife and I were at a Cracker Barrel and my wife ordered a salad. She asked for no bacon. She explained to the waiter that it was a bad allergy.

Food is delivered and there is bacon on the salad. We send it back and reiterate the health implications. The waiter brings it back, and it was clearly the same salad as before but with the bacon scraped off. Some bacon pieces were still in the bottom of the bowl.

At this point I asked for the manager. I explained what happened, what we told his waiter, and then showed him the bacon on the plate that got returned to us.

He looked furious. Excused himself briefly and returned with a fresh salad. Assured us he made it himself and to not worry. Then be disappeared with the waiter for five minutes. I don't know what he said, but the waiter was visibly down the remainder of the evening.

My wife winds up spending an entire day puking with an agonizing migraine and severe pain under every joint in her body after contact with any pork (gelatin and chemical derivatives included).

Other people aren't so lucky and go into anaphylaxis.

Just don't cross contaminate food or assume someone is just being picky... You might kill them.

Cars. I see so many people driving recklessly and putting other people in danger just to get somewhere a little faster. These things weigh several tons, calm the f**k down!

Former rural ER doctor here. Things that I have seen either nearly kill or actually kill someone:

1. Taking a d**g at a party/rave/concert/etc. Surprise - It's got fentanyl or carfentanil in it. And now you're dead or permanently brain damaged.
2. Sticking your hand/arm/leg/head out a window while the car is driving. This is how you either lose a limb or lose your head if you get in an accident or someone sideswipes you. Keep your body parts in the vehicle.
3. Not vaccinating your kid. Watching kids die or become permanently disabled because of preventable diseases is both the saddest and most infuriating things I've ever dealt with in my career. (If you want to rip on me about how much you hate vaccines, stfu and save it for someone who cares. I'm not interested and I won't entertain your BS)
4. Medications that you should not forget: Your insulin. Your asthma medication. Your EpiPen. Your various heart medications. Your blood thinner. I've seen all these missed d***s end up in very serious consequences in the ER.
5. Not knowing the signs and symptoms of a stroke.
6. Drink/doing d***s & driving (Also - if you are going to get super drunk, I promise you that the absolute worse place to walk home is along a highway)
7. Looking at your phone & driving
8. Dropping tools/any item from high places. I've seen this happen once in a construction site, and he lived, but I've heard of those that have not.
9. Operating power tools. Doesn't necessarily kill someone but it was the number one reason I was sewing people up or sending them to plastic surgeons.
10. Finally - please don't get up on a ladder without properly securing/stabilizing it and having someone in the near vicinity to call 911 if you fall off it, instead of finding you several hours later....

For the love of god, when you're boiling water on the stove, turn the handles of your pots inward.

My grandmother's sister, when she was a toddler, was running around with her arms in the air and smacked the handle of a pot of boiling water. The water poured all over her and she died a few days later from her injuries.

Because of that, all throughout my life it was drilled into me to a) use the back burners first and b) if you need to use the front burners, turn the handles in. It wasn't until I became and adult and moved in with roommates/SO's that I realized so many people don't think to do that.

Bartender here. I yelled at a new bartender for improvising a recipe with grapefruit juice. Told them that’s the one you don’t improvise with unless requested. It messes with people’s medications. Not sure if it’s *kill* worthy but I’m not taking that gamble.

Stress.
FuzzyComedian638:
This should be higher. Even lower level stress over a long period of time can cause heart attacks or cancer. 

Lollipops. When I was in first grade me and my siblings and cousins were messing around in my room, I was jumping up and down my bed with them with a lollipop in my mouth. Seconds after jumping and rough housing the candy suddenly dislodged from the stick.

The lollipop wasn't even halfway melted. I just opened it about 10 seconds prior to it being dislodged from the stick so it was impossible to swallow. I quickly jumped out of bed in panic. They all started laughing because they thought I was making a funny face until one of them realized I was choking. Luckily, my younger sister caught on quickly, went out and ran after my mother who was one shoe away from going out of the house for work.

My mother rushed in and tried to make me gag by fishing the candy out from my mouth, but it was too deep so she performed a heimlich instead which caused the candy to "pop" out. 5 yr old me would've died that day if my 4 yr old sister didn't realize I was choking, and was minutes late into getting my mother.

Cheerleading. I had an accident and almost died because one of my teammate's lost balance while I was on top, and that caused me to fall. That fall broke my neck and I haven't been able to walk or move most of my body ever again.

Riding a bike/skateboard/roller skates without a helmet. Your skull is going to crack like an egg when it hits the pavement. Heck, you can die just from falling over standing still. In 20 years of cycling I've seen so many fools seriously hurt themselves. For me, it doesn't matter if I'm riding 100 miles or 10 feet. If I'm on the bike and it's moving, the helmet goes on.

I made garlic infused olive oil once. Left it out because that’s how I always saw it on people counters. Used it a few weeks later. Botulism. Was out for four whole days writhing in pain with nothing left to expel. Turns out, I could have died.

samizdat1:
It's specifically the combination of garlic and oil that is the issue here. The only other time that botulism can be threatening for most people is improperly stored home-canned foods.
Most of the time, you leave food out at unsafe temps for too long and bacteria that can make you sick will grow on it. Clostridium botulinum is a bacteria that is relatively common in the wild, but not very competitive; meaning that when you leave food out, odds are a different bacteria will outcompete it. This is a good thing because given enough time and food, the botulinum bacteria will produce botulinum toxin, one of the deadliest substances on the planet.
But clostridium botulinum thrives in low oxygen environments such as oil, garlic is low acidity meaning it's the perfect place for botulinum bacteria to grow, and room temp is the perfect temperature for them. When you combine these factors, you create one of the few situations where your food might end up with botulinum toxin in your improperly stored foods, instead of a more common bacteria that might give you an upset stomach but probably not kill you.

Going to include very few details because I don’t want to ever deal with him finding this post. I have a friend who is the most loving and gentle father to his kids that he could be. Pure love for his family ever since he became a parent.

All the kids are very young, one of them was maybe 3 and like toddlers do they tend to explore and go wherever they can.

One of those simple activities we all do every day without thinking about it.

One day in the morning ready to go to work, he backs his car out of the garage, stops in the driveway because he forgot something inside. In between those slight hectic moments of being late, going in and out of a door, his 3 year old wanders out into the garage, and just outside.

My friend returned to the car, puts it in reverse ready to hurry to work like any other day, and bumps into his child who just happens to be in a blind spot near the corner of the bumper.

He was only going maybe 3-4 mph but for a child’s head, that’s all it takes to create severe trauma that became a brain bleed situation and he passed a couple hours later in the hospital.

This is a man who has lived life the right way and helped people every chance I’ve ever known, but this world is just an absolutely harsh, random b***h.

Allergies! A guy at work didn't believe a coworker had a deadly peanut allergy and had to try it out. The victim had luck that the medical center in our company has a doctor and medicine.

HiddenA:
I have a friend who has an extreme nut allergy. He ordered a soy latte once… the shop was apparently out of soy and substituted almond milk.
He fortunately noticed it tasted off immediately, and asked the barista who said 'We were out of soy. Almond milk is better for you anyway.' And when he had to go to the bathroom to make himself puke, she responded that he was just 'overreacting.'
He did talk to a manager eventually but after making sure he was healthy/okay/not dying.

Swallowing a button battery, it can cause fatal internal burns.

A dental infection. I went to grief support meetings, and a woman there lost her son to an impacted tooth that spread infection to his brain.

guylinerapologist:
This is why seeing those 'veneer techs' pop up drives me insane. Some of them are putting veneers/crowns over decay not knowing (or not caring) that it will probably create an abscess or infection. It is so dangerous.

Getting drunk going to sleep and choking on your own vomit. Always lay your drunk friends on their side, and lift their chin to open their airway. DO NOT lay them on their backs, friend died aged 32.

Don't use water on an oil fire. (Should be common knowledge)

Fine dust clouds can explode when introduced to flame, especially in confined spaces. Ex: dropping a bag of flour while using a gas stove top in a small kitchen.

Ladders. People think you have to fall far to get hurt or die. 8 feet is plenty.

Pissed off or frightened livestock. Cows alone kill nearly two dozen people a year in the U.S. Hell, just the other day a sheep killed a man and his wife in New Zealand.

Playing in a deep hole at the beach.

Strongpa:
I had a friend who had a holiday job in construction as a student. One day he dug a trench which collapsed on him, and he was dug out by his crew. It was about midday but they all knocked off for the day and went to the pub where they all got drunk, which he thought was great as they were buying. When he asked if it was some sort of tradition they explained that usually, the person caught in the trench didn't survive.

vaexorn:
We had a very scary close call with friends. We dug a hole for hours, it was like three metres deep. All of a sudden one of the sides crumbled, burying one of my friends from the waist down. It was impossible for him to move. Needless to say, we got him out and closed the hole ASAP.

Being shoved.
Seen too many videos of fights/scuffles where someone is shoved or punched, and the trip on concrete and suffer fatal TBIs hitting their head on concrete.

The brain is fragile. Protect it.