50 Times Ordinary Situations Turned Into Life-And-Death Moments Before People’s Eyes

Riding their motorcycle with their helmet not fastened. Looked like a 5 point ninja throwing star when his bike came out from under him and his helmet was under no obligation to make the trip with him. The sound his head made when it hit the curb was terrifying. He died on impact. I was able to get his heart started again and keep him breathing until the paramedics made it there. He made a full recovery.

My friend once leaned too far over a balcony trying to take a selfie. I grabbed their shirt just in time.

A guy with a peanut allergy decided to eat a Chinese granola bar, despite not knowing Chinese


He almost died, my mom drove him to the hospital after his face and throat swelled up and she saved his life. (This was back when I was in college).

Watched a mate fall out of a tree as he was trying to untie a rope swing, he hit the base of the tree and ended up knocked out, face down, floating in the river. He'd have drowned if he was alone. I jumped in and managed to hold his head above the water until I started sinking in the silt at which point friends just yanked him out by the arms.

He came to, went into shock, but we managed to get across the river and get him into a mate's mum's car (Ford Fiesta) and off to the hospital. He had a neck/back injury where he hit the tree roots and he couldn't get out the car so they were gonna chop the roof off. In the end they folded down the back seats, reclined the front seat, got a board under him with a neck brace and slid him out the hatchback!

**Saved a kid from passing out face first into a fire pit.**

Up at some cabins I use to go to every year with a group of old friends. There was a big nice family in the cabin next to us celebrating some kids 19th birthday. They were Canadian and in Canada the drinking age is 19, so they got him s**t faced.

Everyone eventually went to bed, but the kid stayed up with us as we were a younger crowd than his family and he didn't want to stop hanging out. Eventually my group filtered out one by one, but I felt bad because this kid was TOAST, but he just wanted to stay up by the fire. So I stuck around.

I honestly thought the worst thing that could happen to him was that he would fall asleep outside at night and get hypothermia due to the cold after the fire went out. 😅

Kid is staring at the fire and before I know it his eyes close and he just collapses forward. Literally just passed out, just like that...

Thankfully I was sitting on a wood log pretty close to him. I launched myself so fast, I couldn't tell you what I was thinking. Kid was huge, over 6 ft, and I just blasted into him like a missile.

I still thought we were going to fall in the fire! I'm 5'6, But back then I was absolutely tiny. Size 0 and my doctor and family were on my a*s trying to get me to gain weight. Thankfully we fell to the side of the fire and I still had to try and pull him away from it so we wouldn't get burned.

I ran back into my cabin and got help. We carried the kid back to his cabin and tried to wake somebody up to tell them, but they were all passed out.

I had nightmares for a long time about what would have happened if I wasn't there.

Pushed brother into the deep end of a swimming pool on holiday, thought, 'Gee, I didn't think he was this bad at swimming' so jumped in to rescue. Mother came round the corner at just the right time to watch me pull him out of the pool and called me a hero. Brother has no idea how close he came to carking it.

I never admitted to it.

Friend was trying to breathe fire while drunk. F****n idiot burned half of his face.

Those kids in DC that drive crazy on ATV's and dirtbikes and do stunts and break sideview mirrors.

I saw a dude crash into a fire hydrant.

Myself, went up a metal staircase in a tower while checking out an abandoned cement factory. I was several stories up when the whole staircase dropped a few inches then caught again. All the birds nesting in the tower started screeching, I remember how loud it was. I got TF out of there. Told the people I was with to not go up and what had happened.

Vicodin, coke, booze, and some random unmarked pills. It was a college party and she was just some rando townie that showed up. I mean, she kinda *did* die (heart stopped, no breathing)...but we brought her back.

It took a while, but a couple people got her pulse back with CPR; but they couldn't get her breathing again. Since the only actual "medical professionals" (a combat medic and a nursing student) that had any idea what to do eventually fell victim to **freakin' tf out**, someone else suggested smacking her, because they tried everything else and the ambulance was still too far for us to hear any sirens.

So I swung my arm all the way back, put my entire person into it, and *administered a hail mary medical-grade smack* with all the strength I could muster. It was so loud my ears are *still* ringing, lol. But when it connected, she shot straight up in a gasping breath, like a horror movie resurrection.

Me and my dad were eating dinner when I was about 10 and he started choking. I started slapping him on the back, but nothing was working. Suddenly, I remembered our favorite movie dumb and dumber. I gave him the Heimlich and I think it only took one or two squeezes.

I remember him saying something like name anything you want. I'll start shopping for cars for your 16th birthday right now. I remember saying, can you just chew your food a little better?

At my local skatepark there was an absolutely insane BMX rider who went up a quarter pipe at speed, his front tire popped and span the back grind peg into the front of his head. When he landed back down it was still stuck in his head while he spasmed on the floor.

Absolutely brutal, he was in a medically induced coma for a couple of weeks and a ton of operations to reduce intracranial pressure. He never really recovered full function- the park owner said that had the peg come out he likely would have died in the spot.

I was so happy to have been one of the dorky kids who always wore a helmet.

My mam, several years ago. She'd recently been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and it was the first time I'd seen her have a hypo. We were alone and I had no idea what to do. I gave her insulin. Paramedic said she was lucky to not have immediately collapsed into a coma.

My oldest child has tried to die twice in their 12.5 years of life…

First time I was nursing said kid at maybe an hour old. Decided breathing was overrated and turned blue. Then fought like hell to not have IVs and kept pulling them out and removing the baby CPAP.

Then at 10 a blood vessel burst 10 days post tonsillectomy (removed after having strep for 7 months running - which caused a whole host of other problems too). Nearly bled out at the first ER before we were transferred to a trauma center and emergency surgery happened.

Hiking unprepared. I worked in parks for most of my twenties. I myself almost died on the middle teton when I slipped on an ice field and fell into a crevice up against the rock face. Had to shimmy my way up like 15 ft of snow and rock maybe 2 ft wide. If I had broken a bone in that fall it would have been over. I also saved more than 1 person who was ill prepared and insisted on coming with me into the desert for a back packing trip. Had to call a chopper to save one and the other i had to carry back to the car with a friend because she was in heat stroke. Well both of them were deep in heat stroke but one of them we couldn’t find help so we had to carry her ourselves. One was in the Grand Canyon 2015, the other was in big bend 2018.

Watched a guy try to jump start his car with a vape pen. The look on his face when sparks flew everywhere was priceless - lucky he didn't fry himself!

Does listening count?

I'm a 911 operator, so I've got a lot of these. But here's a lighter one: Recently, I took a call for a vehicle crash with no injuries that was on the highway. I told the caller to move the veh out of the road if safe to do so, and he states that he's going to get out and "help block traffic" before police get there, because his car isn't moveable.

Once I realize what he means, I'm trying to tell him please DON'T get out of your car and go stand in the middle of the road, because w*f? He insists it's fine. He doesn't want anyone to hit his car. Then there's a NYOOOOM, the painful screech of brakes, and a "HOLY S**T!!!" from this guy who almost got hit by a semi truck.

He got away from the road after that.

Edit: preemptively, please don't roast the poor guy *too* much. Getting into a car crash will dump a huge load of adrenaline on you, and you never know how you'll react. I think he was just trying to take control of the situation in whatever way he could, no matter how illogical.

When I was younger (about 10 or 11) my little brother (2 or 3) somehow got into the pool room in our vacation home. My parents were working so no one really noticed except me when I heard the door close. I hurried in just in time to see him fall into the pool. I jumped in with him and carried him out. It might not sound so scary but as a child I found it pretty traumatic and I’m glad I heard the door closing that day.

Refusing blood products to save their life because they’re Jehovah’s Witness. .

I’m an ICU doctor, take your pick.

Actions include smoking, drinking, not seeking medical care when it was obviously needed, not getting vaccinated during the delta wave of COVID (although only 1-2 people actually survived that one once they were sick enough that they made it to my ICU), using dirty needles to inject d***s, driving recklessly, driving drunk, f*****g around with ATVs, etc etc etc

Forgot about “eating foraged mushrooms you didn’t correctly identify”!