It's easy to forget that what we think is impossible, could potentially happen. There are people out there who have lived through their worst nightmares- stuff that seems unimaginable. Here are their stories.
Incognito1101: People who have survived an attempted murder, what is your story?
When pizza delivery goes lethal.
"I delivered a pizza to a house just outside of the city. On the way back, I stopped to help a car that pulled over in front of me with their hazard lights on. I pulled up beside them and thought it was weird that nobody rolled down a window or made any kind of contact with me for around 15 seconds. The passenger then jumped out of his side of the car yelling that they needed help as he made his way toward my car. I thought something was weird about this. As I started to pull away before he could get to my passenger door, he began shooting at me. I ducked my head after the first shot entered through the back window and embedded in my passenger seat headrest. Another shot entered through the rear window, while the other 3 only hit the outside metal parts of my car, he missed all together with another shot.
I remember being sure I was about to die as he fired more shots at me. I was very surprised that it wasn't panicky, it was just like "Oh, I guess this is it."
Turns out it was a plot to rob me, the pizza was ordered and the guys were stationed down the road to intercept me. They knew who I was and they knew that I would be able to recognize them, as I had delivered a few orders to them before. The guy wasn't wearing anything to cover his identity, which leads me to believe that he would have shot and killed me if he would have made it inside my car.
By the next morning they had all been arrested. The shooter was found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison. He later appealed that sentencing because there was a word wrong in the jury instructions, he won the appeal and ended up being sentenced to 10 years, and was released November of 2010 after 5 years. The remaining 5 years were to be served as parole/probation. He was arrested twice for parole/probation violation when he was only a couple months away from total freedom. I laughed."
That's messed up.
Giphy"Had a girl cut my brake lines on my car, didn't know until we checked the camera from the apartment complex.
Luckily she cut straight through them vs slitting them, when I attempted to crank the car the brake pedal went straight to the floor and I immediately knew something was wrong."
Bet that shooter feels really stupid.
"Random dude shot me in the chest because he thought I was my drug dealer neighbor. My neighbor was 6'3 and black. I'm 5'11 and white.
Jokes on him, all he got were a few cigarettes, some pocket change, and 35 years on an attempted 2nd degree homicide conviction."
What a horrible birthday.
"My older sister tried to stab me with a large knife in an attempt to kill me on my 16th birthday, my mother grabbed the knife off her before it got my stomach and slammed her against the fridge and yelled at me to run
Last time I saw my older sister she said "I've gotten over it and you should to, it's pathetic to hang onto it" she then told people it was self defense because I tried to hurt her. I was literally eating my birthday breakfast.
I didn't sleep properly for 2 years while she was in the house because she constantly tried to break into my room at night to slit my throat while I slept. I hate her."
Wrong place at the wrong time.
GiphyMy uncle was attempted murdered by random and pure bad luck.
He was living in a high rise and some crack head pressed every single buzzer. Someone let him in out of laziness/not caring/wanting the buzzer to stop. The crack head proceeded to knock on every single door down the hallways and my uncle is the first to answer the door.
The crack head pulls out a pair of scissors and plunges them into his throat.
The crack head then nonchalantly walks out of the building and says to a passing couple, 'you should probably call the police because I just murdered someone'.
He was picked up very quickly, and my uncle survived.
For a year or two before his epilepsy killed him.
Absolutely terrifying.
"My mom attempted to murder me and my sister when we were younger. She was going through a psychotic episode and pretty suicidal, and I said the wrong thing that set her off. She chased us down to the basement with a knife. We ran into my room and my sister hid in the closet while I tried to fight my mom off at the door. She was trying to push it open while I was trying to push it closed. It was a back and forth struggle until she put her hand in the door (I think she was trying to engage my non-violence because she thought I wouldn't shut the door on her hand) but I slammed the door over and over again.
Meanwhile, my dad who was in the house finally came downstairs to check in what was happening (mind you, this all happened VERY fast and my dad has a habit of zoning out when my mom gets in her episodes.) He ended up pulling her off of the door and my sister and I ran out of the house and jumped in our van. He drove around the corner and turned off the lights and we all ducked down in our seats to hide and stayed there until my dad saw her drive our other car off."
Not related? Seriously?
"When I was a kid, probably around 2nd grade, our house got robbed and my mom and I came home while it was in progress. For whatever reason, she decided to go in and interrupt them. She grabbed her gun (didn't shoot), yelled at them to "get the f out of my house" and then we drove off in a hurry to the corner store to call the cops (this was before cell phones).
Less than 2 weeks later, my mom and I are sitting in the living room on the couch, our backs to the front door. Someone drives by and fires about 6 or 8 shots into the front of our house. Thank God for a steel front door. The cops came and said they didn't think the two incidents were related."
Some people are just truly awful.
Giphy"This happened a couple weeks ago. It was 4:00 AM on a Monday night, playing Rust with some friends and my curtains were slightly open.
All of the sudden I hear a loud pop and my monitor jumps and starts smoking. The screen is completely messed like I had thrown it on the ground, and I was utterly confused as to what happened.
Turns out someone was looking for someone to hurt. When they saw me through the window, they thought they had found their victim.
A .22 pistol bullet was shot through my window at my chest and was stopped by my monitor. Who knows how long I was aimed at, or why they wanted to hurt someone. All I know is I got really lucky, and I should send a thank you card to Asus."
DANG.
"I posted this story already a long while back. But basically, I worked in a jail and a guy from a biker gang tried to pay $10,000 to have me killed because he somehow got the idea that I was the fed who busted him and was merely pretending to be a jailer so I could spy on him (don't do meth kids.)
The guy was bragging about it and one of the other inmates who I had saved from a heart attack with first aid didn't like that so he beat the living snot out of the guy and then told me about it. Phone call recordings confirmed that he had promised the money to two guys if they shot me in the back of the head while escorting him to court and busted him out.
Federal Marshals rolled them up and on his way to court I whispered to him "your friends won't be joining us" when we got to the planned ambush point, instead of a bond hearing he got charged for trying to have me murdered and organizing an escape."
She's lucky to have survived.
"Not my story but grandmother's friend was getting picked up from work by her husband when he shot at her 5 times. He missed 4 times and the 5th bullet hit the underwire of her bra. He then turned the gun around and killed him self. He had just been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.
She's alive, and was completely uninjured. She now jokes about how bad of a shot he was to miss that many times. Crazy story."
That's so messed up.
"When I was 6 years old I saw my bio dad stab my bio mom 20 times in front of my little brother and I. He took my bio mom's blood and rubbed it on my brother's face and said "this is your mothers blood".
She almost died right in front of us. They got her to the hospital in enough time to save her life. But it was scary, and I remember everything. He only went to jail for 8 years. He claimed he heard demons telling him to do it."
How can someone be so evil?
Giphy"I was 3 years old and went to this lady's house for swimming lessons. What my parents didn't know was that the lady hated boys.
One day she threw me in the pool and left me to die. I sank to the bottom. I was under for several minutes.
Some how a teenager saw this, jumped the fence and rescued me. The ambulance came and I was in ICU for a week. My parents never found out who the teenager was.
The lady wasn't arrested. The cops told my parents that it would cost them money to take her to court. A lawyer read an article in the newspaper and decided to go after the lady, pro bono. She had several businesses involving kids. He was able to shut her down. She ended up as a waitress and eventually got cancer and died.
As a lovely parting gift, growing up I sometimes felt like I was drowning when taking a shower or in water. I've over came this and eventually got a scuba license and still enjoy swimming."
Dammit, Cindy.
"I had just bought a full sheet of acid (this was 20 years ago, sorry FBI) and I went over to where my friend was living with a bunch of roommates to share the wealth. I knew most of the people he lived with, but there was one guy staying there who I hadn't met before. I basically handed out however many doses people were tough enough to take at once, including three or four hits to the new guy.
We came to find out pretty quickly that new guy had never taken LSD before. OK, no problem, he's at home, he's surrounded by people he knows (except me), he can just chill and have a good time. We wanted to watch a movie so we landed on the Brady Bunch movie (which is trippy af, btw). Everything's going good, we all start peaking and we're laughing and having a good time...and then, on the movie, the little girl Cindy is getting advice from her dad and says "But I don't want to be a snitch..."
New guy stands up and roars "IS THAT WHAT YOU THINK? YOU THINK I'M A FUCKING SNITCH?" We all try to calm him down, explain to him that it's a line from the movie, we even rewind the movie so he can watch that part again, but nothing is working. He's tripping too hard to reason with, and he's convinced that we're accusing him of being a snitch. Then he starts pacing back and forth, back and forth, muttering "This is the kind of shit that makes motherfuckers kill. This is the kind of shit that makes motherfuckers kill." over and over. Great."
"He zeroed in on me, I'm sure because he didn't know me, and he's still pacing back and forth and muttering but now he's giving me a death glare while he does it. I'm getting pretty uncomfortable, obviously, and I'm also peaking from like 10 hits of acid so my ability to cope with the situation is pretty low. I stand up because, well, there's a guy I don't know pacing around behind me muttering about killing people, and I don't want my back to this dude. This would be a really intense situation even if I wasn't tripping balls, but the acid certainly doesn't help.
Suddenly he pulls out a huge hunting knife, lunges at me, and tries to stab me. I dodged him, then he made another try but by that time his friends had jumped up and were holding him back. He's struggling to break free and screaming "YOU THINK I'M A FUCKING SNITCH? I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!", and I took the opportunity to bop right on out the door. I was about half a mile from my house but it took me about two hours to find it because I was tripping so hard and I kept getting lost in my own neighborhood.
Addendum: He was, in fact, a snitch, and the whole house got raided a few weeks later. A bunch of the guys who lived there got arrested for drugs, although my friend had moved out by that point so luckily he wasn't one of them."
That guy shouldn't be a doctor.
"I don't think it was really attempted malicious murder, just ignorance murder.
I was in the ER for what I found out months later was a gallbladder attack. At the time I was in so much pain I couldn't think or see straight, I could barely sit up, I was sweating, it was bad. Doctor tells me I'm on drugs. I've never done drugs in my life. I don't even drink. I'd even quit smoking! He ignores me and tells me to stop pretending. He gives me toradol.
I am very, very, very, allergic to toradol. I broke out in a rash from head to toe and my whole body felt like it was on fire. I told the doctor, he told me I'd done it to myself from being so dramatic and he's discharging me. He leaves and I start getting super lightheaded and start shivering uncontrollably. I kept pressing my call light and I was crying and saying 'help' but no one was coming. A nurse walked out of a room next to me and peered in and saw me and fucking RAN 'We need help in room 7!'"
"Within seconds my nurse was there, with a big cart. I'm laying down at this point I remember her yelling at me to answer and stay awake but I couldn't. I remember the blood pressure cuff going off and looking at the numbers and they were low, and pulse was dropping too. I was just really warm and sleepy and didn't care about anything any more. She kept telling me not to go to sleep but it's the only thing I wanted to do in the whole world.
I woke up about 7 hours later still covered in a rash and kind of confused but otherwise ok. Alive, at least. Still hate doctors to this day."
It goes without saying, that when we pay a visit to a hospital, either as a guest or as a patient, we only see a very small portion of all the working parts of a hospital.
While countless doctors, nurses and orderlies will be seen roaming the halls, their hands more than full, there are also lab technicians and administrators who are every bit as busy, just not as visible.
Knowing this does rather make one wonder what goes on in a hospital that we don't see, or don't realize.
Or, for that matter, what we patients are actually entitled to, that they may not realize.
A question possibly best left unanswered.
Even so, Redditor SingLikeTinaTurner was eager to find out, leading them to ask:
"Hospital workers of Reddit, what happens there that's hidden but that we should know about?"
If You Know, You Know...
"Not really hidden and kinda minor but I’ll say it anyways."
"I deliver food to patients and it’s not hard to tell when someone is on their way out."
"Could be simply not being hungry, or could be the inability to eat."
"Had one patient who hadn’t eaten anything off their tray for 3 days straight."
"The last time I delivered to them, they smiled and gave me a wink."
"Next day, they were gone."
"It’s rough seeing these things happen in real-time."
"I’m a grown @ss man who doesn’t cry often, but it always leaves me feeling extra empty picking up the untouched trays and replacing them with another tray that I know will stay untouched as well."- jgss2018
Hidden In Plain Sight
"Sometimes when people die we just put an oxygen mask on them and wheel them through the corridors."
"Less distressing for other patients and visitors to think they are asleep rather than see a body with a sheet over it."- dont-believe-me-·
Know Your Rights
"You, as a patient, have every right to refuse any test or treatment or even leave."
"At any time."
"For any reason."
"Unless a harm to self or others- that's different, at least in the US."
"Added bonus you should know: leaving against medical advice DOES NOT mean insurance will not pay for the care you've received."
"Your insurance will still be billed the same as anyone else who stayed the whole time till discharge."
"But if you leave with an IV in your arm we will call the police to find you and bring you back to remove it, because of drug abuse."- Suitable_Sorbet_8718
Peeking Not Recommended
"The hospital I work at has these big square covers."
"When I first started, I would see transport staff pushing these things around the halls."
"I thought they were food trays, or large boxes of hospital equipment."
"Turns out it’s a structured bed cover, so when they are transporting a deceased patient to the morgue, it doesn’t look like a person under a sheet."- rajortoa9
The Flashing Lights Only Get You So Far
"An ambulance ride is not a one way ticket to the front of the line."
"You still get triaged and could be rolled right to the waiting room if you’re non-emergent."- dozerdude1995
emergency ambulance GIFGiphyWhatever Gets Them In The Zone...
"Surgeon here."
"We listen to music in the OR."
"Most people seem surprised when they hear that."- johnnyscans
Hide And Seek...
"I got a fast bleep (ie. drop everything you’re doing and attend this emergency please) one night to a side room on the ward to find no patient in the bed."
"Was just about to leave the room and go back out to the nurses station, where there had been a bit of a hubbub when I’d dashed past the first time, when something caught my eye."
"Looked up to see a face with wide, slightly wild 'psych eyes' peering down at me from a gap in the ceiling tiles."
"She was a lady waiting for a bed in the psych hospital who’d clearly thought the ceiling was the best place to hide from the people trying to poison her."
"Honestly can’t think of another occasion that I’ve been quite so terrified."
"Worst thing was that I had to walk (well, dash) back out underneath her to get help from the nurses and security to get her down."- Leas-Pe·
Speaking In Code...
"If you register in the ER and tell the triage nurse that your problem is 'personal' we know you’re here because of something genital or anal related."
"A lot of we healthcare workers have seen a lot."
"If you’re not truthful at triage, your care might be less prompt when it’s a true medical emergency."
"It is possible to die of embarrassment."- DocWednesday
Hide Reaction GIF by florGiphyThings You Can Tell Just By Looking At Them
"If you come into the ER drunk there is guaranteed a pool of bets on your blood alcohol level, possibly with odds if there's a pharmacist available to do the math for us."- K-Tanz
Ensuring They're Surrounded By Love
"In the ICU you spend a lot of time keeping corpses alive until their family comes around or their body gives out."
“'Oh Jesus ain’t ready for her yet!'”
"Yes, Jesus is ready for her; we’re just actively delaying it."- gamerdudeNYC
Maybe Not Just At Hosptials... Just A Thought...
"Not hidden, per se, but for the love of all that is holy, if you insist on bringing your kid into the hospital, do NOT let them crawl or play on the floor."
"The amount of literal blood, urine, poop, and vomit that has been on it and hastily (not thoroughly) cleaned up is, well, a lot."
"The hospital, especially the floors, is NOT a clean environment."
"Added to that, think of all the rooms nurses, doctors, housekeeping staff, etc. have walked into."
"Rooms that have COVID or Norovirus or group A Strep."
"We walked into those rooms and those same shoes walked into other rooms."
"Tl;dr hospital floors are disgusting as f*ck."- duckface08
Baby Crawls Face First Across The Floor GIF by ViralHogGiphyNot An Exact Science...
"Hospital lab worker here."
"Not particularly scandalous, but most people don't realiZe their lab tests are just very accurate guesses, and have an error range."
"When we say your 'X' is 10g/L, we might actually mean it's 10g/L ± 10-20%."
"I see too many people get extremely worked up about small fluctuations in blood test values that aren't actually in excess of the reference change value, and so technically aren't genuinely different from a previous value."- Hayred
A Decision No One Wants To Make...
"You are doing your 90 year old grandmother a great disservice by making her a full code, she will not survive CPR and her death will be significantly more traumatic because of it."- singlenutwonder
WASH YOUR FREAKIN' HANDS!!!
"I help patients to the bathroom nonstop all day."
"The amount of patients that just leave the bathroom without washing their hands is disgusting."
"If I didn’t hear the sink or soap dispenser your a** is getting led right to an alcohol hand station."- Madamiamadam
Wash Hands Water GIF by Jared D. WeissGiphyMore goes on in a hospital than we're ever likely to know.
If you check out from a hospital healthier than you were when you checked in, that's probably all you need to know.
Even if it's understandable to ask what song the doctor was listening to when you were open on the operating table.
