24 Heart-Stopping Moments When People Nearly Met Their Maker

1. Put a ramp up on the side of a shallow pond. Raced my BMX bike up and hit the ramp. Flipped over and landed on my back in the water. Was immediately sucked into the sludge on the bottom about two feet down — just far enough to not be able to reach the air and still have the bike on top of me. My cousin was able to get to me in time and pull me out of that glue. F*cking horrific. -u/JonSmith12345

2. Almost drowned in the ocean. Got pulled out and couldn't get back in. Waves kept crashing over my head and pushing me down until I couldn't figure down from up. I was so exhausted from fighting to get to shore and getting my head above water. I would just pop out and another wave would push me under. I just gave up at one point and I so clearly remember thinking, so this is how I die. And it didn't seem a bad way to go at that moment. Then suddenly I felt a hand around my arm and a jet skier pulled me up out of the water and gave me a lift back. -u/Different_Bedroom_88

3. Having an anaphylactic reaction for the first and only time in the middle of nowhere in Greece on a field trip. If one of the other kids would not have been highly allergic with emergency meds I would have probably died. Traumatized me deeply. -u/Za_Paranoia

4. I was driving home in a bad thunderstorm when suddenly the wind became insane. I pulled my car off the highway onto an exit when suddenly a limb off a tree sailed through the air and cracked my windshield, so I hit the brakes. A second later, the car began to lift slightly off the ground. I thought for sure I was going to die. Moments later, the storm had cleared. Windows in shops all around were blown out. I got home and turned on the local news. Apparently, a tornado passed directly through where I was, in my car. -u/ToBePacific

5. Fourth grade. Slipped on the side of a crowded slide and was hanging by the side. Somehow my jacket got stuck and was choking me as I hung from the thing. 10 y/o me thought "this is it", until a friend came to help. -u/the_immovable

6. Me and my friend went out on a Saturday night and on the way home the car in front of us didn’t move when the light turned green because he was having a conversation with people on the street. When the light turned green he still didn’t move so my friend goes around him. All of a sudden he rear-ends us and drives around us, pulls out a gun, and starts shooting. Luckily no one was hurt. We call the cops and they took a report but didn’t do anything after. -u/misterk2020

7. Was moving a rattlesnake in a screen top terrarium and it struck the screen spraying my face with venom. Washed my face and had a friend babysit me for the rest of the night in case symptoms of envenomation started (it was a neurotoxic species). Fight Club was right…that bowl of Cheerios the next day was one of my best meals. -u/deinagkistrodon

8. When I was about seven, I got shoved into a non-functioning (thankfully) chest freezer that was out in our barn. The lid came slamming down and locked. The kid who shoved me couldn’t get it open so he went to find my dad as I freaked out. My dad came and told me that my uncle was the only person who had a key to the old freezer and that I would just have to wait till he got home to get me out. Two hours later my uncle finally arrived home and was able to get me out, but I thought I was going to die in there for sure. -u/Sketchamusprime

9. Getting Chickenpox at 27 almost did me in. Sh*t was wild. -u/SystemOnset

10. Septic shock from a ruptured appendix. Laying there on the hospital bed and the infectious disease specialist walked in, looked at my chart and noticed my white cell count, and asked “have you had any gay sex”. Never go septic in rural Maine. -u/Ekunstler

11. First time with volunteer firefighters trying to knock down a small swamp wildfire off a rural road. The wind suddenly picked up and a wall of flame came racing toward us. Clung to the back of the fire truck and fled just as a giant wave of fire crossed the road literally a few feet behind us. Damn, that was scary. -u/QuackedUp99

12. My ex pointed a gun at me and said, “I could kill you right now and no one would know it.” -u/ayyoowhatevr

13. I was withdrawing from alcohol, hard. I was shaking, sweating, paranoid, hearing things that weren't there, and every time I tried to sleep I would wake up to a hypnic jerk. It scared the ever-living sh*t out of me, and I was convinced I'd have a seizure and die. Luckily, I didn't, but I should have gone to the hospital; alcohol and benzo withdrawals are dangerous. Luckily, have over four years sober now. -u/angelsgirl2002

14. I nearly died in a car crash in the final year of school. My friend was driving and took a corner way too quickly. We slid towards a brick wall with a protruding mailbox. The car came to a stop somehow, and the mailbox was poking through the open window and was about an inch from the tip of my nose. Thank god I had the window down, and that I wasn’t leaning forward lol -u/Muchnowless

15. I started choking on a starburst last year and the sensation of all oxygen being cut off is f*cking horrifying. You know your first thought should be to save yourself but it wasn’t mine, I was just full of absolute panic. Somehow I managed to dislodge it but yeah, it has absolutely f*cked up how I eat. -u/hikinganew

16. Wrecked a motorcycle and got helicoptered out to the next county over -u/AlaskanThunder245

17. That time I was followed by a mid-twenties man (I was 15) for over 6 blocks. He kept pace behind me- no more than three steps behind. Only went away when I ducked inside a bodega and broke down in tears to this very nice older woman. She hugged me and sent her son outside with a bat. -u/itsleebee

18. My horse lost his sh*t and started bucking. I was trying to get him under control but he started bucking faster and finally launched me. I hit the ground and opened my eyes, I was staring at a 4x4 fence post right in front of my nose. A few more inches and I would have broken my neck and smashed my face in. Turns out my horse was protesting a new saddle that didn't fit quite right. I had him for 5 years til he passed away. -u/scaly_friends_4me

19. When I flew off a corner on my little 90 cc four-wheeler when I was younger into a huge "bushy" tree and I luckily had the sense to let go of the handlebars or else I'm pretty sure I'd have broken my neck. I try not to think about it. -u/RobertWargames

20. Ate a ton of peanut butter-stuffed pretzels. Later I was nauseous and needed to throw up. Well, the peanut butter pretzels had formed into a giant sticky clump and basically got stuck in my throat, blocking air from getting in. So here I am suffocating for minutes thinking about how someone is going to find me dead with a giant poop-looking log halfway out my mouth. Luckily I managed to dislodge it eventually but haven’t touched peanut butter pretzels since. -u/WholeKaleidoscope556

21. Autoimmune response to eating industrial pen and ink products -u/MENTALLY-INEPT

22. I got diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer in the emergency room this past summer and had to spend three weeks in palliative care, I lost 50 pounds and couldn't move. I bounced back, responded well to the chemo and gained almost all of my weight back. I'm so insanely grateful for the extra time. -u/TripGore

23. I think I was 12 at the time? Was in the car with my mom, went to work with her. It was snowing and on the way there a plow sped out in front of us. When we finally came to a stop the side edge of the plow was lined up with my face and only inches from the car -u/EastonArborDudeSteve

24. I got mono really bad in college. I woke up one morning with my throat so swollen I could barely breathe, I got up and before I made it to my bedroom door I was sweating so bad I soaked the shirt I was wearing, my roommate brought me to the college clinic and I passed out when they drew my blood. I thought the worst. It took me a month and a half to fully recover. -u/Gingerbeer86