People Describe The Absolute Scariest Moment They've Ever Experienced In Their Life
Fear is something that is nearly inescapable. It creeps up on us all at some point whether it's in the form of a traumatic event or something slower and more insidious. Sometimes the thing that jump scares you the most is actually also the cutest thing you ever saw... like your kids.
At least that's the case for this writer. A sweet pigtailed three year old tucked away in her bed, I hear a sound so I roll over and turn my phone flashlight on. As I swing it around to scan the room before I get up it illuminates her little face just a few over mine donning a huge crazy smile and wide bulging eyes. As soon as the light hit she let out this giant scream…
Just about fell out of the bed. Why are toddlers so creepy?
Deep-Television9794 asked the Reddit community:
"What's the scariest moment you've encountered in your whole life?"
“about 10+ officers were rushing to my location…”
“I was conducting a cell search and three cartel members ‘trapped’ me inside the cell by blocking the entrance. One of them held an improvised knife (shiv) and the other two proceeded to try to interrogate me on what I was taking.”
“I took off my utility belt as a show that I wasn't going to back down from a fight, an in doing so slyly triggered the panic alarm on my radio while simultaneously making it look like I was shutting the radio off. When the three saw that I was willing to fight to get out, they actually backed down and let me pass... of course by the moment, about 10+ officers were rushing to my location because I wasn't responding to my panic alarm.”
“Far as I know, they believed my reinforcements showed up because the bubble officer (camera watcher) called the emergency after not being able to contact me on my radio and never knew I had secretly summoned a small army to rescue me in the event of being jumped.”
“They even told me they thought it was ‘pretty gutsy’ that I didn't back down while in the cell, and from that day onward I never had any problems with them or their group.” TheRavingRaccoon
Racist, armed, and insane…he definitely wasn’t voting blue…
“Some lunatic put gun in my face while I was camping in an extremely isolated spot in The Olympic National forest. I listened to his xenophobic rant. It was mental chess. He was especially focused on race and orientation and luckily I am white and was able to playcate him. Had I been black or gay I'm convinced he would have buried my me out there. As soon as he was out of sight I packed my sh*t. Before he left he told me that nobody knew who he was or where he was. I bailed." Accomplished-Ad595
Children are terrifying.
“My younger brother sleepwalks. He would just stand by my bed, silently, until I'd snap awake and see his silhouette looming over me. Sometimes, he turns on the lights when he's sleepwalking. I woke up one night, and he was standing there, turning the lights on and off ... on and off ...”
“I get him back to bed, and I went downstairs to sleep for the rest of the night. Around 4:00 a.m. I woke up to see all of the lights downstairs were switched on.” __Dawn__Amber __
At night!?
“Oxygen tank cut off air while on a scuba dive 15m under water at NIGHT. To this day no one knows how the oxygen tank closed. It wasn't malfunctioning cause I realized the problem 20 mins into the dive. For 20 mins there was absolutely no problem.” Laelaps_d_paradox
In flight terror…
“I was on final approach to a local airport and had chosen runway 26 to land because that's what you are supposed to do at this particular airport, unless the wind favors another runway. There was a 3 knot tailwind and I should have landed the opposite direction on runway 8 but I thought 'what the hell, I can basically fly straight in and it's only 3 knots.'”
“I'm running low on fuel and I'm a student pilot flying solo so I don't want to fly around the airport, I just want to get down and fill up. I get down to about 20ft from the runway and all of a sudden I feel a gust of wind pick me up from behind and the nose immediately points down. My lift is gone so I'm basically falling to the ground.”
“I instinctively yank back on the yoke but there's no air flowing over the elevator so I hit nose wheel first (and I thought the propeller hit too but somehow it didn't) and sort of bounce forward into a precarious position where the left side wheel and nose wheel are touching the ground and my right wheel is still 2 feet in the air.”
“It looked like the left wing might drag on the ground if I didn't just front flip onto the runway. Not really sure how that ended up settling, I guess the wind just died down”
“Next thing you know I'm stopped on the runway and the airplane is violently shaking (I'm thinking I bent the prop shaft) and I'm violently shaking (adrenaline) and I rev up the engine a little to get going and get off the runway. The engine ended up running smoothly after a few seconds and the shaking stopped.”
“Unsure about what just happened and how the airplane could possibly be okay, I taxied to the fuel pump and shutdown. It took me a few hours after I refueled, calming myself down and then building up the courage to get back in the airplane and fly home.”
“It is a 15 minute flight back to my home airport and I did the whole thing white knuckled and quivering. But I'm glad I did. I ended up having a great landing and had I not gotten back on the horse that day I may have never got my license.”
“Still though, that moment when I lost control and all I could see out of the windshield was runway… scariest moment of my entire life.” migwell28
The Best Questions To Ask During A Job Interview | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
"This was the moment I thought an man died in my hands…”
“I used to live near a large open stormwater drain with no fencing around it. Three drunk guys drove their car straight into it. I went out and found the driver trying to get his friend's foot out of the windshield."
“On the field on other side of the drain, I saw the third passenger who was covered in blood. I asked if they were ok and my neighbor called the ambulance/police. The blood-covered friend passed out and was twitching so I ran to the car, grabbed a towel from the back seat and ran to help him."
“I found a large, deep cut on the back of his neck/head. I rolled him to his back and used the weight of his head to put pressure on the wound. I was talking to him, trying to keep him awake and he went into shock, twitching and unresponsive."
“This was the moment I thought a man died in my hands. I was able to wake him and the ambulance took over from there. That was the most harrowing moment of my life" Dargroth-soul-taker
“This just brought back a memory. My dad, sister, best friend and I drove to San Felipe for a little get away for spring break. We would often go there for family vacations but this time we invited my best friend. Had an amazing week and started the drive home.”
“It was maybe 2 or 3 in the morning, pitch black in the middle of the desert when we got stopped at a random check point by a bunch of men carrying machine guns. They made us get out and stand on the side of the road so they could search our car and were asking us all a bunch of questions.”
“It was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. Didn't help that my sister (probably 16 at the time) turns to look at my friend and I and very seriously says ‘I hope you know that they can easily murder us all right now and no one would ever know.’ Great, thanks a**hole.”
“Pretty sure my dad slipped them as much cash as he could and they let us go on our way. That was the last time we went to San Felipe” pineyruacarajoo
Internet predators…
“So, 14 year old girl living in Northern UK at the time. (I'm now 27 happily married mum of one). MSN messenger was all the rage back then and every day was a race to rush home from school and log onto the family PC.”
“I probably should mention that my parents were teenage parents (mum 16 at my birth and dad 17), so I grew up in a really relaxed environment where sex, drugs and alcohol were regularly talked about openly to ensure I made informed choices in my teenage years. One night after logging into MSN, I got chatting to a really cute 15 year old lad (let's call him Luke) from the town next to me (10 minute bus ride).”
“We spoke daily for weeks and weeks turned into months of messaging, swapping pics and eventually we started talking on the phone. After around 3 month, Luke suggested we meet up, great idea I thought, I couldn't wait for my friends to meet him.”
“But Luke didn't want any of my friends to come and specifically states it should be just me and him on our first meeting (he's really shy). Ok no problem! So we arrange to meet at a local hang out spot for teenagers in my town, but Luke can't get there until 6pm - no issues - my parents were happy so long as I was home by 11pm on a weekend.”
“So the big Friday night comes! I race home from school, texting with ‘Luke’, both super excited. I've spent the whole day planning my outfit with my friends and they know where we are meeting up. 5.30pm turns around so I leave the house - now as I'm leaving the house USUALLY, I would always shout to my parents ‘Bye!’”
“But something in my head made me tell them where I was going and asked if my dad could pick me up at around 8pm - I still to this day do not know why I asked this - very rare that I ever asked my dad or mum to pick me up and never told them where I was.”
“So I arrive at the 'spot' and sit on a bench waiting. The time ticks by and Luke still hasn't turned up. By 6.30 I was getting a little prickly so I try to call him and get voicemail. I get up to leave - obviously heartbroken and a little confused - and start leaving the park to head home."
“As I get to the main gate to leave, a man approaches me. Now let me just say, this man was very clearly in his 40's. He had sleeve tattoos and really long hair which was tied into a pony, with full facial hair. He was dressed smartly in black jeans and a black shirt."
“He called my name and I just felt instant icy fear through my veins. I looked behind me as though to pretend that wasn't my name, but this guys seen multiple pictures of me and my friends, he knows it's me. I put my head down and rushed past him but he grabbed my arm and started to shout 'wait, wait, I need to explain'."
"By this time i was Absolutely terrified and started to run. Sheer panic and terror just totally put me into flight mode. There was a taxi parked up at the side of the park, I pounded on his window and he unlocked the door. The taxi driver knew something was wrong and started to drive while I was bawling my eyes out."
"Taxi driver takes me home where my mum and dad are waiting at the front door - again something they never ever did. My mum still to this day says that she knew something wasn't right that night and they were about to come looking for me. Visit to the police station that night and handed over my devices, but because this guy, (turns out to be a reputable 43 year old businessman with a wife and 2kids from the next town over), never spoke sexually or indicated any sexual desires, nothing ever came of it."
"My folks obviously ramped up the Internet security from that point and it's something I hammer home to my 4 year old already. So yeah, I don't know what his intentions were but, he posed as a 15 year old boy to get me to meet him, and I'm just thankful every day for that taxi driver who took me home no questions asked and to my own tuition for telling me something isn't right here and leaving." daningham101
Don’t let these harrowing stories keep you up too late at night and stay safe out there friends!
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The Absolute Worst Chain Restaurants
Reddit user Eris3344 asked: 'What is the worst chain restaurant?'
When a restaurant gets popular, the obvious choice is to franchise. The owners pick new locations to open a second or third restaurant, and if those do well, they can open up even more locations.
When I moved from India to America, it was easy to see places like Burger King and Dairy Queen were popular simply because of how many Burger Kings and Dairy Queens existed in just one town.
However, popularity can be subjective. Other times, popularity can be overestimated. Sometimes, opening up more locations isn't what's best for the business. Whatever the case, some chain restaurants are simply just... the worst.
Redditors know this all to well and are eager to share their opinions.
It all started when Redditor Eris3344 asked:
"What is the worst chain restaurant?"
Everyone Knows
"I'm convinced Applebee's isn't a real restaurant. Just a front for repurposed takeout from neighboring restaurants."
– Olclops
"I'm convinced their kitchen is comprised entirely of microwaves"
– ShawshankException
"Years ago, I ordered a burrito that was so bad I sent it back, and the manager said “I don’t blame you one bit.""
"I haven’t been back to Applebees."
– ANJohnson83
Better Sandwiches Everywhere Else
"Subway. Still lost about how they stay in business. The quality keeps dropping, the prices keep rising, the deals are shrinking, and their market share is being cannibalized over the last decade or so by places that offer a superior offering at less or just slightly more. I can walk in and get a Jersey Mikes sub for 10 bucks and it's miles better than anything subway can spit out."
– radiantpenguin991
"The toasted chicken carbonara sandwich from Quiznos handily beat anything Subway could offer at that time."
– yakusokuN8
"Believe it or not, Subway was really crappy back in the early 1990s, and then had a makeover and became good food for awhile. Now they have reverted back to the crap they used to be."
– hatmeworry4
No Chicken
"KFC. How can a chicken place be out of chicken so often? And bring back the corn on the cob as well as the tater wedges you fools."
– TheUnblinkingEye1001
"Bring back the buffet!"
– alwaysmyfault
Such A Rip-Off
"My wife and kids LOVE this place, but I'm just gonna say it: Fazoli's."
"It's literally just microwaved Italian Lean Cuisines (and if it's not I will be VERY surprised). It's not that it's gross, but I don't see the need to go out and pay a premium for it when I can hit up my local grocery store and nuke it at home."
– Guardian-Boy
"Being from the northeast with plenty of Italian and decent fast casual Italian-American food, trying Fazoli's in the mid south destroyed a little bit of my soul."
– EuphoricHighway9817
It Used To Be Awesome
"Burger King - awesome when I was a teenager, sucks now. I dunno, the food quality has gone too downhill for me."
– dayofthedead204
"In my city, all of the BKs were owned by one franchisee. He sold out a few years back."
"The franchise owner ate several meals per week at his restaurants. You didn't know when he was showing up. The restaurants were tight ships. We were spoiled with inexpensive BK that was perfect every time. We had no idea how bad it was outside of town."
"If you wanted good fast food in Lincoln, Nebraska in the 90s, you went to Runza or BK. Everything else was a distant third."
"A few years back, that franchisee sold out to a multi-state conglomerate that owns hundreds of BKs. That conglomerate ran the restaurants into the ground. They've declared bankruptcy."
– flibbidygibbit
"I've noticed a wide range of quality for BK depending on location. They just can't enforce consistency like McD's does."
– Inevitable_Professor
The Days Of Perfect Pizza Are Gone
"They all suck, but Pizza Hut has to be the one that fell the farthest."
– SpaceGoonie
"80s Pizza Hut was the best."
– Mackinacsfuriousclaw
"I've always believed there is money to be made on nostalgia. Pizza Hut executives are letting this demographic slip away. You think they'd offer a once-a-year special to satisfy us old-timers."
"Of course, in addition to my 80's pizza, I'd want a few games sitting down at a cocktail arcade machine..."
– lemming_follower
Lacks In All Aspects
"Hate me if you want, but I can't stand Olive Garden. Their menu is just too limited and their food has no inspiration."
– BackInTheRealWorld
"As soon as I read the question I audibly and reflexively said Olive Garden. Their food is f**king awful and they treat their employees like actual prisoners. F**k Darden."
– Korncakes
"Why would anyone hate you for stating straight-up facts? Olive Garden can't even cook pasta correctly."
– DenL4242
"They can't even drain pasta right. It's all watery slop"
– furiousfran
Cost Doesn't Match Quality
"Panera is on the list too."
– TheMillenniaIFalcon
"Panera costs more than a regular sit down. Totally ridiculous"
– Nature_Goulet
"I'll never understand why a small cup of their mac and cheese is like 7 bucks at the store... and my sister still buys that s**t all the time."
– MoscowMitchMcKremIin
From The Top Of The World
"Papa John's went from the top to the absolute bottom in a very short time. We refuse to order it anymore. It was never great but it has become inedible in the last 5 years or so. We actually threw it out last time we ordered it and made something else."
– ArminTanz
To The Bottom Of The Heap
"Chili’s has gone so far downhill that it’s sad. 15-20 years ago it was the top family restaurant in my eyes. Food was excellent, service was good and the atmosphere was fun. Now, the food is bland, it seems every chili’s is woefully understaffed and every time I go, it feels miserable there. It was one of my favorite places to catch a bite to eat and now I don’t even bother anymore."
– brechbillc1
Sell Out
"Tim Hortons"
– TheCanuckler
"I hate their phony, mass-produced nationalist pandering. Especially from a foreign-owned company that does everything in its power to avoid employing Canadians. No one outside Ontario gave a sh*t about TH until they started spamming TV with ads depicting themselves as a cherished Canadian institution. Where did they get the money to do that? By selling themselves to Wendy's."
– DeliciousPangolin
The Days Of Yore
"Sonic. Which sucks because I remember when the food there used to be good."
– lone_wolf1580
"What year? I’m genuinely curious since I grew up in a place far from sonic but they advertised frequently in my area (Canadian border tv). I tried it in 2010 finally and it was so mediocre I was in disbelief."
– KeyStoneLighter
People Matter
"McDonald's, they treat their workers like sh*t, they get paid to be abused by coworkers, customers, owners, and truck drivers. Get injured? too bad! That's a you problem! Get back to work!! You can't even make enough to SURVIVE food is sh*t, overpriced, and I'd rather eat my own sh*t over mcshit. You have a family member dying? Oh well we need you to come in cus our best Boi Mc. Never does anything wrong needs a month off cus he "earned it" aka siting on his @ss doing nothing while you cook, clean, fry, assemble, and so on!"
"Tldr: McDonald's is a hellhole and far worse than any fast food joint."
– phantom56_
"I’m definitely going to get hate for this but Panda Express."
"The food is mediocre at best but I will give them the benefit that you can’t find a larger portion of food for ~$10 anywhere else. However the real reason I say it is the worst is because due to how popular and widespread they are, it’s given a lot of people in less culturally diverse sectors the idea that all Chinese food is a cheap and greasy struggle meal. I am of East Asian descent and I’ve learned to stop suggesting Chinese food as a first date when meeting a non-Asian girl because I usually get hit with something like “What like Panda Express? Can we go somewhere better?”"
– avg_bleach_enjoyer
I fully conquer.
Do you have any fast food joint you avoid completely?
Let us know in the comments below. Save us from going there.
We've all succumbed to the hype surrounding something, be it a phone, show, or even a new-fangled drink.
Product rollout is so over the top these days.
The "next big thing" is usually promised to change EVERYTHING.
Then the release happens, and... the hype fizzles.
It happens to the best of everything.
From video games to weight loss products, nothing is a guaranteed hit.
Redditor Reeceqld wanted to discuss some of life's biggest flops, so they asked:
"What was supposed to be 'The Next Big Thing,' but totally flopped and tanked?"
Farewell
iphone GIF by Product HuntGiphy"Microsoft held a literal funeral procession for the iPhone when they introduced the Windows Phone."
KaityKat117
"As someone who's worked as a software engineer since the mid-1980s, an industry where rapid change is the norm, one thing has remained the same: Apple is doomed. Any minute now."
UlrichZauber
Movie Fail
"Universal Picture's 'Dark Universe.'"
"The Mummy with Tom Cruise was supposed to start a whole line of movies, but when that one died it took the rest with it."
doowgad1
"The real tragedy is that a Dark Universe is not a bad idea. Various Universal monsters exist in the same universe? Sign me up! However, it played more like an action film than horror, because Tom Cruise cannot be in anything other than an action movie. We might have gotten Javier Bardem Frankenstein’s Monster, that is a perfect casting right there."
ChiefsHat
Negative
"Google+ was supposed to topple Facebook."
Regnes
"This was one of the worst product launches of all time. They had like one week where everyone was super excited about it and wanted to try it and they limited it to invite-only. Very few people could get in. By the time they opened it up to everyone, nobody cared anymore."
PMMeUrHopesNDreams
Never taken off...
"3D TV. I remember those being sold somewhere when we had to buy a couch, and accidentally renting the 3D version of a movie, but it never took off."
Stupid-ForYou
"This isn't anything new. The major issue seems to be that it gives a certain amount of people a headache or they find it otherwise uncomfortable. Add to that the need for the glasses even in the current iteration and you can start to see where there's an accessibility issue too."
NativeMasshole
Get Turkey
"About 25 years ago, they thought ostrich meat would be as popular as chicken."
momobeth
Not sure anyone wanted that kind of chicken nuggets!
Scooped Away
ice cream GIFGiphy"Are Dippin' Dots still the ice cream of the future?"
The4StringSamurai
"Well, they're definitely not the ice cream of the present."
teh_maxh
Hot Wheels
"Segway."
No_Firefighter9295
"They completely underestimated how much we design cities for cars (especially in America) and how unwilling anyone is to change this."
"Look at the 15-minute cities concept. All these people are claiming isn't about population control. Can't even get pedestrians, bicycles, and cars to play nice with each other, let alone something like a Segway. Which is a shame, because if we designed cities for bikes, and segways, we might end up with something quite interesting and useful."
cobarbob
Redundant
"Quibi. It’s like they forgot that we already all had YouTube…"
Dubz1781
"I got the 3-month trial, and it was really weak. I like the idea of 10-minute shows with a new episode a day, I often watch movies I've seen before that way. But it's impossible to deny nobody was asking for it. And the dramas didn't feel like serials, it felt like awkwardly short full episodes, complete with characters standing around reminding the audience of what happened last time, which I'd just watched."
"The reality shows felt like 2 minutes stretched painfully to 10. So yeah, weird concept, the shows didn't really meet the concept anyway, and oh yeah all of the ideas were really half-baked. Here's a horror show set in different states, with legends we just kind of made up. Idris Elba competes with a NASCAR driver to do stunts basically invented for NASCAR drivers. Anna Kendrick made friends with her ex-boyfriend's sentient sex doll."
Maninhartsford
Get a Honda
"The Tata Nano. The company set out to build the lowest price new car in the world, and it succeeded. Unfortunately, newly middle-class Indian families didn’t want the stigma of owning the world’s cheapest new car, so sales never came anywhere close to expectations."
JournalofFailure
"Not a complete failure. It failed because the new chairman of the Tata group didn't see its potential and cash revenue. This led to a boardroom coup with an earlier chairman which led to disclosure that the car was not doing that great. This led to people not wanting nano car and subsequently, it stopped manufacturing in a few years."
jeetendraprasad
Big Fail
New York Yankees Reaction GIF by MLBGiphy"Lytro. It was a light-field camera that allowed you to change a picture's point of focus after taking the image. It had a cool design and neat features capturing an Apple-like aesthetic of form and function. Huge failure but I was obsessed with them for a while."
SchnifTheseFingers
I can't remember half of these things.
So that should tell you everything.
Do you have any to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.
While there is still a lot that we don't know, like how to cure cancer and other illnesses, it's undeniable that modern medicine has come a long way.
So much so, there are many illnesses people get today that likely would have killed them without modern medical attention, antibiotics, and perhaps even surgery.
Redditor Inhalegoods**t asked:
"If it wasn't for modern medicine, what [would have] killed you?"
Chest Colds
"Pneumonia and Bronchitis."
- Coveinant
"Me too at five years old. I was hospitalized for days."
- Misspuddintane
Premature Birth
"I was born eight weeks early in 1973. I weighed three pounds. I'm lucky to be here."
- doggofurever
Anaphylaxis with Milk
"Milk…"
"I was born with something nobody really knows about because it’s really rare. It’s called Galactosemia, and it’s basically like being lactose intolerant, but it’s worse."
"If I had milk, I could die. When I was born, they didn’t know I had it, so my mom gave me milk just like a normal baby, and I threw up and started to become unconscious."
"My mom did CPR on me three times, and I spent weeks in the hospital as a newborn just to recover from a single sip of milk."
- bubbling_b***h
Guillian Barre Syndrome
"Guillian Barre Syndrome."
"My immune system turned against my nervous system. Think of your nerves as wires; mine got stripped of the myelin, which is like the insulation."
"Six weeks in the hospital and four years later, walking is difficult with zero feeling in my feet."
"My doctors and people I’ve talked to say they are mostly better after a couple of weeks. I spent that much time just having a nurse clean my bedpan."
- axendo
Early-Onset Diabetes
"Diabetic coma at the age of seven."
- 011_0108_180
"That’s how my son would’ve gone at the age of three… but don’t worry, we’ve been 10 years from a cure for almost 50 years…"
- UnicornGlitterZombie
Wisdom Tooth Troubles
"My wisdom tooth came in, got infected, and the infection was spreading towards my brain."
- ParsnipRude8503
"It's actually really amazing that your teeth and gums can affect both your brain and heart. I'm 23 and only recently learned this."
- Kingpinfanatic
HIV
"HIV."
- Ginshed
"Ufffff, this."
- Kaste90
"I've told my son that when I was his age, getting AIDS literally meant that you were going to die soon."
"It seems as far back to him as Polio wards seemed to me."
- Ginshed
Bee Sting
"I was driving down the freeway and a bee flew in through the window, directly into my neck, immediately driving its stinger into my neck. I’m extremely allergic to all bees, wasps, and hornets."
"I was in between towns. I was 20 to 30 mins from the town and last hospital where I came from and at least 30 minutes from the next town and hospital. I immediately started to swell where it hit me, and within seconds I was barely able to breathe."
"I managed to pull over on a turnout and suddenly recalled I luckily had my friend's extra Epi-pen in the glove box he had left behind. I jammed it into my knee and injected it. I passed out and woke up minutes later, heart racing like crazy, but breathing again."
- Different_Ad9336
Childbirth Complications
"I wouldn't have ever even been born because my mother would've died in childbirth with my brother."
- maplestriker
"Same for me, my mom had to have both my sister and myself removed as she couldn't give birth the traditional way."
- uitSCHOT
Hit By a Car
"Getting run over, three times, in the same year."
- Vast_Cartographer830
"I'm usually not one for victim blaming, but three times within a year? You gotta be more careful of the traffic, man."
- bodopi
"Getting run over three times over your entire lifetime is way too many times."
"Twice would be too many."
- KypDurronn
Basic Eyesight Needs
"Honestly, probably just the fact that I can't see more than a foot in front of my face."
- quirkytorch
"Shut. Up. My glasses broke two days ago. My repair kit should be here from Amazon tomorrow."
"Update: I CAN SEE I CAN SEE. ALL FIXED PRAISE GOD HALLELUJAH I CAN SEE. Praise Amazon too, I guess."
- sabboom
"If you can afford it, I would highly recommend a second pair of dirt cheap glasses. I used to wear glasses years ago and oh man, did that second pair save me so many times."
- nagesagi
Bacterial Infections
"A bacterial infection, for sure."
- idea_maxx_7777
"I got a skin infection in a small cut, cellulitis. I thought the swelling and itching was just a bug bite because I’m moderately allergic. Without IV antibiotics in the ER, I would have gone septic and died within a few hours after realizing something was actually wrong."
- 3aCurlyGirl
Ear Infections
"Childhood ear infections."
- hungrydruid
"This is a good one. I used to get them almost monthly, then mysteriously stopped after seven or eight years of being constantly ill."
- scalyreptilething
Asthma
"Probably asthma. If not, then breast cancer would've for sure."
- emotional_lemon8
"I wouldn't have made it to my fifth birthday due to asthma without modern medicine. Even still, the priest at the Catholic hospital I was in wanted to perform last rights on me due to the severity of one of my attacks. My mom refused them and I pulled through."
"By the time I hit puberty, I had outgrown it, and it's all just a hazy memory."
"As to breast cancer, my grandmother beat it twice and lived to 91 and died of completely unrelated natural causes thanks to modern medicine. I wish the same for you!"
- CBus66OR
Solved by Gatorade
"Dysentery."
"Most people back in the day died from diarrhea alone because it would f**k up the inside of their intestines and ruin their water retention, i.e. you dehydrate faster and easier and can't drink enough to fix it, which gives lighter diseases like the flu a chance to go for the kill."
"The funniest thing about the disease is the fact that it ravaged human populations for eons, and the solution is fundamentally Gatorade. It was comprised of readily-available resources we always had access to, but it wasn't until relatively recently that we had a strong enough understanding of nutrition, the human body, and medicine to realize we could literally just slap some flavored saltwater and electrolytes together and help somebody."
- SleeplessS**tposter
Modern medicine clearly has come a long way and millions of people over time, but it will be interesting to see how much more we can say has been saved in the next ten years.
Food poisoning can hit you at any time and no one's immune.
All it takes is one horrific experience for you to swear off certain types of dishes, cuisine, or restaurants for good–even if you craved them before.
Even the foods you prepare in your own kitchen and consume can give you a night spent on the bathroom floor due to casual negligence like failing to inspect the expiration date on packaged foods or undercooking meat.
Strangers shared their microbe-attack experiences after Redditor Plastickfantastick asked:
"What’s that food that gave you food poisoning?"
Warning: these examples are extremely graphic. Do not read before eating if you have a weak stomach.
These Redditors never thought twice about what they were eating before realizing they were about to have a bad food encounter.
Bad Diner Chicken
"Fried chicken from a Kmart diner back in ‘97. Got it before a shift at my job, an hour later, explosive vomiting and diarrhea at my job . Those poor bastards."
– Graehaus
History Of Digestive Violence
"Improperly cooked and/or poorly sourced shrimp, in a Thai dish I usually love from our go-to takeout place. Last week. Minor case. Seattle."
"E. coli lettuce. 2005. Not as minor. San Mateo."
"Orange Julius. 1988. Required a trip to the ER. One night in the hospital. Prior to, I had no idea the human body could emit liquids with such sustained force and in such quantities. Great Falls, Montana."
– ifollowthisstuff
Microbial Passengers
"Egg salad sandwich from a truck stop. Ended up getting worms who transformed my body into a stronger person. But then my friends shrunk themselves down and got rid of them…"
– throwing_this_sh*t_
Red flags were missed here.
Hardly Boiled Egg
"I ate a questionable hard boiled egg and barfed so hard I slipped a disc in my back and couldn't walk for over a month. Eventually I had been away from my sh**ty retail job for so long, I had a full on meltdown at the thought of going back. I quit and got a way better job with more freedom, less stress, and decent pay for how little I work. It's awesome. That stupid egg changed my whole damn life."
– edie_the_egg_lady
Barely Frozen Pizza
"Frozen pizza that hadn't stayed frozen the entire time. My grocery store, that I no longer patronize, is very cheap and runs their freezers a bit too warm and has no problem tossing thawed or expired things back on the shelf."
"This pizza had odd ice crystals inside the plastic pouch that I had never seen before, that should have been the tip-off, but I baked the thing and it seemed fine before and after, like no discoloration or smell."
"But that thing came out both ends at around 2AM I barely made it to the bathroom."
– Kinetic_Kill_Vehicle
The Sadist
"Coconut shrimp from a Chinese place by my old place. Every time I went to that place, I got sick. Started going there to take a sick day. Still kept eating those tasty shrimps and getting sick."
"9/10, would eat those tasty little bastards again."
– Abadatha
Some were able to make it to the bathroom amidst their bowel distress.
Others, unfortunately, didn't.
Have It Your Way
"Burger King"
"me, my wife and 3 kids all fighting for one toilet."
– TrailerParkPrepper
"it's always burger king man 😭"
"one time I had a horrible ear infection and after I ate burger king i somehow ended up with a stomach infection as well."
"like what the F'K burger king. the smell of a womper gives me anxiety now lmao."
– beecycle
Emergency Stop
"It wasn’t food poisoning, but it was a bad time. We had gone about an hour away to a nice restaurant, and I knew the salad dressing wasn’t right- I even asked about it. They said it was fine, but not 20 minutes out, I had a problem. I have never before in my life felt like I was going to have no choice in the matter as to what was about to pass through my lowest sphincter. I pointed at a lone Walgreens that I knew was going to be my only choice at all between the points, and my husband stopped. I believe I uttered, 'Bathroom.'"
"It was almost closing, and I said nothing more as I left the car. I beelined to the bathroom and proceeded to experience my bowels expelling so much product with so much fluid I’m pretty sure I passed things I only thought about eating or drinking. I passed things my husband ate. I passed things I ate in other lives, in other realms, in other existences. For a brief moment, I defied physics and created matter from nothing. Every video I ever saw of oil being drained from cars, pipes being cleared of muck, and farmers towing old tires through backed up culverts flashed before my eyes. I had to flush out of fear of the pile getting too big. I was literally laughing at myself, which I am certain the kind workers vacuuming the hallway could hear- along with my underwater bassoon solo- as they patiently waited for me to leave, so they could close."
"It was probably 10:20 when I left that bathroom with as much pride as I could muster, patting the sweat off my brow as that smell followed me to the front of the store. Everyone avoided me, but watched from a distance with what I like to think was some sort of awe. I walked out, hearing the lock thrown behind me with speed and agility never before seen from a chain pharmacy employee, and briefly wondered if they thought that through- the door was the best way to remove the smell. I suppose having had twenty minutes to discuss it, they considered it more valuable to remove the creator of the smell than the smell itself. But I digress."
"I walked over to the car, my husband in the drivers seat, no real clue what was going on other than a 30 minute bathroom break. I opened the door, gracefully (but maybe slightly gingerly) got into the car, looked him in his concerned eyes, took his hands, and calmly said, 'Well, we can never go back there again.'"
– danceswithsockson
Rumbly In My Tumbly
"Not necessarily food poisoning, but I ate a pressed Cuban sandwich one time that ended up making me leave my underwear and shorts on a dirt road somewhere in Florida."
"Felt a rumbly in my tumbly while driving from Tampa to Destin and next thing you know I just sh*t all over myself. Thank god I happened to have a change of clothes."
– Emergency_Flounder58
Unpleasant Drive Home
"French Dip from Perkins in Blytheville, Arkansas around 2002."
"Was in town from 3 hours away for a job. Did job, grabbed lunch at Perkins."
"Started driving home. Mind you, there’s nothing but farms between Blytheville and home. Hour into the drive I’m sweating and not feeling great. Chalk it up to Arkansas heat and my sh**ty car’s sh**tier air conditioning."
"Feel a fart coming. Feels like a doozy, so being a man in my mid-20’s i give it some back pressure for bigger sound for a laugh."
"….annnnd i force-fed my pants a liter of liquid feces and had to sit in it for the remaining hot, humid 2 hours home."
"(Bonus: car was stick shift, so got to slosh my shame around every time i used the clutch)"
– Moist_When_It_Counts
After prom, I suggested my group of friends to go to a fancy Beverly Hills restaurant for some prime rib, and they were all in.
I was the only one who chose creamed spinach as a side while everyone else had mashed potatoes. I should've gone with the majority.
Something about my creamed spinach didn't taste right, but I figured a fancy restaurant could never serve up poor quality dishes.
I could've had a stomach flu, perhaps. When I got home after dinner, I immediately bee-lined over to the bathroom and projectile-vomited my fancy meal.
The worst part was when my older brother woke up from the sounds coming from the bathroom late at night and scolded me for underage-drinking when I had not been doing that.
Geez, kick a man while he's down.
Anyway, it was a great prom. The dinner, not-so-much.