People Who've Had Their Lives Saved By Someone Who Died Saving Them Share Their Story
Saving someone's life is an amazing thing. But when it's at the cost of someone else's, it becomes a completely different story. And while these tragedies come with a silver lining, it's important to always keep that sacrifice in mind. Here are some of the most incredible and heartbreaking stories from the people of Reddit.
u/Loveisforclosersonly asked: Redditors who had their lives saved by someone that gave up theirs, what's the story?
When a comment actually changes someone's perspective.
4 years ago to the day a boy committed suicide and his parents decided to donate his organs. 4 years ago tomorrow I received his heart.
3, almost 4 years ago, my boyfriend committed suicide and his family immediately donated every part of him, eyes, skin, organs, bones... And I was of course grateful that they made the right choice, but bitter that I never got to see his body because he was taken apart so quickly.
For some reason, even though I've heard amazing stories about body part donations, THIS was the comment that I think has given me peace.
This is so tragic.
Not me, but a friend of a friend I had many years back. I'll call the kid Zeke. Zeke and a buddy were by our old intermediate school and hanging out by a drainage pond in the surrounding wetlands, no idea what its for or what it's used for but basically it's a super strong whirl pool that will take you under without a second thought.
Zeke, from what I recall (forgive me, this was 12-13 years ago) was dared to jump in the whirl pool, he did, and he basically got taken under immediately. Zeke bobbing above and under the water started screaming for help. Two men (teachers who were father and son) who frequently walked their dogs around the school premises noticed this and rushed to save this kid's life. They both jumped in and got Zeke back to land, unfortunately both of them that day were taken by this aggressive water and died.
I'm not so sure how Zeke took it, I was never real close to him in school and the relationship we did have was pretty much pass and repass. From what I observed though, it would suggest he took it pretty hard and never totally got over it. Of course anyone would understand why.
Glad he got clean after that.
Not quite sure if this counts but almost 7 years ago I was into some hard shit and my best friend did it with me. Not sure why, he was sick with a couple different long term illnesses, so we both know it wasn't good for him (hell it's not good in general, don't do drugs kids) but I was a stupid kid and we did everything together.
One night my life kinda imploded on itself and we doped up more than we ever had before. I was about to do another round when he tried talking me down. I made some excuse about not wanting my it to go to waste, which was bs I could've saved it for later. So he offered to use it up so that it wouldn't go to waste.
If I had taken that I'd have likely died of an overdose. He actually did, found out when I woke up. I've been sober ever since. He tried so hard to save me for so many years, I hope he knows that he really did.
Very brave of him.
I was in an armed robbery. He pointed the gun at me and my boyfriend tackled him taking three to the chest and one to the head. The kid panicked and fled. He is now doing 30 years and I was the sole witness at his trial.
Wow. I can only hope to be one tenth as brave as your boyfriend.
How traumatic.
Not to me, but a family friend. There were 2 adults (barely, like 18 and 19) and 3 kids in the back ages 2, 6 and 7. They were driving back from the store to a family gathering and a drunk driver hit them, I don't know how but the guy in copilot jump back and protected the kids from the impact.
He passed away but the 3 kids were fine, the driver died too, the drunk guy fled. So when cops came to scene they found the little kids on the dead guys arms.
What a horrible birthday.
I was up at a friend's place and they went to a large funeral of someone I didn't know and this is the story:
Three or four daughters were swimming and got swept out by the tide. One by one the father rescued them. He managed to rescue all of them but drowned saving his last child.
The worst part of the story is that one of them had their birthday that day.
Amazing people.
I have two. They aren't me, if that's alright (seeing a lot of others in this technically-not-me category so I'm going for it), but they both stuck to me pretty hard.
- My uncle died trying to protect a couple who was being robbed in a restaurant. Some gangbangers came in and started to harass the people in the restaurant and guns were pulled. My uncle knew one of the guys since high school and figured he could talk him down from hurting anyone else. No one else got hurt except him. Never got to know him but heard he was an exceptionally cool dude.
- My teacher in kindergarten was diagnosed with cancer at a point it was aggressively treatable, but also found out she was pregnant. She needed to get an abortion before she could start any cancer treatments but she didn't want to have the abortion; the cancer was terminal by the time the baby arrived, and she left behind her husband and three children.
What hit me especially hard with my teacher is that my family remembered her becoming more easily agitated and stressed at the end of the school year, and we found out after her death, from her teacher's aid from that year, that it was around the time she was diagnosed with the cancer and choosing to have the baby over her own life. My mom got into several arguments with her for being too "insensitive" and mean to her students towards the end of the school year; teacher never told her or anyone about her condition.
Wow.
Well, it was back in 1996, I was walking across a railroad track when all of a sudden I was struck from behind by a wheel chair. As I turned around a Via Rail train instantly blew away the 74 year old lady that just saved my life. I was so grateful, I helped retrieve her corpse from the oak tree 60 yards down the track.
Incredible.
Not me, but my grandmother. She was in a concentration camp in WWII with her family, and the day before her and her bunks were to be gassed, a soldier from the Latvian version of the SS allowed the group to escape in the night. When my dad tried to find info about the soldier when doing his genealogy research, he found out that the soldier was shot for that.
Sometime it's hard to put into words the depth of emotion a story like this causes.
That's so sad.
I had two friends till year 5 who were my only friends at the time. We were walking down the street, in India, to get to the shops when two people showed up and tried to grab me. They both pushed me back and they were stabbed.
I don't really remember much, but my parents have recently revealed that I was also stabbed, my brain shut down for a bit and lost quite a bit of my memory from before I was 10, but they both died in hospital.
Woah.
I have an old coach who's wife grew up in Vietnam. She once told me a story about a time she was playing soccer with some friends from her village around the age of 10. The ball got kicked out of bounds into some brush on the edge of the field that they were playing in.
As her and one of her friends raced to the ball, her friend was faster and reached the ball first. As she came to a halt in front of the ball she stepped on an old land mine, completely vanishing out from in front of my coaches wife.
Scary.
My friend was drunk and tried to kill me while we were on a sidewalk. He came stumbling at me with a knife but he misstepped and fell onto the road, where a car ran over him. I still feel guilty.
It's highly believed that it is important to learn history as a means to improve our future.
What is often overlooked is that what is taught in history class is going to be very different depending on where you went to school.
And this isn't just internationally, even different regions of the United states will likely have very different lessons on American history.
This frequently results in our learning fascinating, heartbreaking and horrifying historical facts which our middle or high school history teachers neglected to teach us.
Redditor Acherontia_atropos91 was curious to learn things people either wished they had learned, or believe they should have learned, in their school history class, leading them to ask:
What isn’t taught in history class but should be?
The Irish Troubles
"The troubles."
"Too many people in America do not understand why a wall straight through Ireland would be a BAD idea."
"I’m referring to the Brexit referendum and possible outcomes."
"If people were wondering why we were talking about walls through Ireland in the first place."- CLCVS.
Forgotten elements of World War II
"What the Japanese did to the Chinese during WW2."
"Unit 731."- CaptainMcBoogerJew.
"Japan gets off easy for their war crimes in WW2."
"They killed an estimated 16mil Chinese civilians and another 8mil soldiers"
"Also, Pol Pot."
"Didn't know who he was until I was like 25."
"Worst dictator all time (in terms of percentage of population he decimated)".
The truth about the American Revolution
"That the American Revolution was part of a wider cold war type of conflict with France."
"The American Revolution was basically the UK's equivalent of the US version of Vietnam."- vinsant7.
The Dark side of Swedish history.
"As a Swede, I'd like to know more of all the horrible sh*t my country has done throughout history."
"It's a damn shame we're trying to hide our history."
"For example, Swedes killed a metric sh*t ton of all Polish people when we were at our strongest."
"That's the kinda sh*t we don't get to learn."- mogwandayy.
Colonization
"Basically what Belgium did to the Congo."
"A lot of people are telling me that they are taught about this actually."
"I'm glad to hear it because I wasn't taught about this in the USA during my public school days (1995-2008)."- EconArch.
The truth about "heroes".
"While teaching about historical Heroes they should also tell students about the unspeakable things some of them did."
"Many famous figures throughout history who are pillars of morality actually did many terrible things." - User Deleted
Intolerance for Mental Illness
"The dark history of mental illness treatments."
"I think it's worth learning about."- 7dayexcerpt.
Slavic Mythology
"Slavic mythology in Slavic countries."
"Don't get me wrong, I love both Greek & Roman mythology and as a person from the Balkans both of those cultures are part of my country's history and had great influence over not only my region but the entirety of the continent & the western world but I wouldn't mind knowing more about Slavic mythology as well."- ShorsShezzarine.
The truth about the CIA
"How the CIA was made and all the shady things they did over the years."- ALargeChip.
There is a lot about the history of our world, not to mention our own country which shouldn't be ignored.
And it's from learning from our mistakes that we really improve our future.
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So apparently we are in the endemic phase of this nonsense.
We have light at the end of the tunnel.
So what now?
Where do we go from here?
Normal seems like an outdated word.
How do we get back to normal though?
Is it even possible?
What are reaching back to?
Life pre-Covid.
Those were the days.
If only we could bring them back.
Redditor hetravelingsong wanted to discuss our new normal in this hopeful "endemic" phase. So they asked:
"What’s something random you miss about pre-COVID times?"
I miss people being sane. Though that maybe election cycle issues not COVID. We'll never know.
I thought I was Alone...
"Being able to grocery shop after 11 pm."
Reading_Rainboner
"Hell yes. I miss the days where the Walmart across the street was open 24 hours."
Small_Tax_9432
let's just go...
"I miss spontaneity... everything now seems to have a barrier of difficulty."
iidosee
"I live very close to Disneyland so I have an annual pass. My friends and I would just go there after work and hang out and grab a bite to eat."
"Now, we have to reserve a day to go. And most of the time, the days are at 'full' capacity so we couldn't even reserve. I don't want to schedule to hang out at Disneyland for a couple hours for July. So yeah, I definitely miss the 'lets go eat at Disneyland tonight?' texts."
mymymissmai
Not til 24-25
"Functioning global supply chains. Ah, the product you want has got microchips in it? 9 month wait."
richard-king
"Minimum, I'd been saying for a while now that I wouldn't expect a true return to normalcy in terms of electronics prices till 2024-2025. Although Crypto crashing through the floor really took some of the pressure off graphics cards which I really appreciate."
statiiic
WTF?!?!
"How affordable everything was!"
Disastrous_Hour_6776
"Yep. Today I was bagging up my things at the grocery store and I heard the cashier say to the lady behind me 'thats $78.12.' She had -- 2 boxes of Kellogg's corn flakes, a carton of 12 eggs, milk, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, a small cheese cake, English muffins, coffee, and a small whole frozen chicken that could maybe feed 3 people if the meat portioning was small."
SnowyInuk
Sushi
"My favorite sushi place. It was good quality, close by, kid-friendly, and not too expensive."
InannasPocket
All of this... it was a simpler time.
NASTY
"As a retail worker, just how f**king NASTY some people have gotten."
DmitriPetrov*itch
"They applauded you for being an essential worker but won’t vote for policies that’ll raise minimum wage while insisting a wage cap for heavily paid employees."
sketchysketchist
CHANGES your DNA...
"Some of the people closest to me became very bitter and petty over the last 2 years. So many people have the 'crazy eyes' now."
__--__7
"So true and holidays with the family is like who has the biggest tinfoil hat building contest. How many jumps does your brain have to go through to think that the Covid vaccine CHANGES your DNA into the patented DNA so that the government now controls your body."
"So like vaccinated people now have a singular DNA set. I feel like I still have a chunk of my brain just broken off due to that comment alone. I was also told by same family member that I could never donate blood again due to the vaccine. I guess it is so my patented DNA doesn't affect people?? FYI my vaccinated butt just donated today fine and multiple other times after the vaccine."
tyreka13
Homeward Bound
"House prices."
adrianinked
"I'm resigned to never thinking I have a chance on owning property where I live. I'm 30 and just can't imagine it anymore. And I don't want to live anywhere else so, whatever."
Osdab2daf
"That didn’t happen because of the pandemic. That was already happening regardless."
CH11DW
Oh Mickey
"All Day Breakfast at McDonalds."
hutch2522
"It was honestly hell to do, and not very popular. ITs margins aren't anywhere dinner and lunch specials. ON top of that, the temperatures are such that They require its own grill, meaning that if you have 2 grills in shop, you are down 50% of lunch capacity."
Freyas_Follower
Way back when...
"Hanging out with friends. And I mean waaaaaay before Covid. Like 2006 back when I had some friends."
LoocsinatasYT
I miss the old days. Maybe we'll get back there.
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What do you believe?
Is there a GOD in the sky?
Is he guiding us and helping us?
Life is really hard. Why is that is a big entity is up there loving us?
Atheists have taken a lot of heat for what feels like shunning GOD.
What if they've been right all along?
Maybe let's take a listen and see what they really think.
Redditor __Jacob______ wanted to hear from the people who don't really believe all that "God" stuff. They asked:
"Atheists, what do you believe in?"
I'm waffling between G-O-D and nothing. So please give me some education.
911
"We need to look out for each other because help isn't coming."
cknipe
Peace Out
"More than 2 decades ago, a priest was giving a sermon in my church and he said 'our faith requires you to believe without question. Why call it faith if you have to ask questions?' I haven't returned to church. Not until my wedding day but you know what I mean."
asiangontear
Delusion
"When I was young I used to think that after death you would have access to a PC that you could see absolutely anything about your life. Stats, any question you had no matter how obscure, replays of moments, perspectives of others in relation to you. No matter what you wanted to know, if it was relatable to you, you could see it. I know it's silly, but as time goes on I just want it to be real, and I don't think I'd have any issue allowing myself to fall into that delusion."
eggwardpenisglands
I think nothing happens...
"Realistically, I think nothing happens. We literally experience nothing after death. Same thing that we experience before birth. We don't exist, so it's nothing. I think the tenant that we should follow while living is to try to be happy and healthy while minimizing the damage we do to each other."
"What I would LIKE to happen after death is whatever you believe in, exists. I think Christians should get to go to heaven if they truly believe in it, Hindus and Buddhists get reincarnated, and everyone else also gets to experience what they believe they will experience."
"'I would still experience Nothing. Maybe it's one of those things where at the moment of death their brain makes them experience what feels like an infinitely long moment in time where they experience their afterlife. I just think it would be neat for everybody."
Better_Meat_
Shrug
"Best advice I received from a dear senior on their way out. 'You win some, you lose some' shrug. Nothing divine, life is that simple and wonderful, accept it and move on."
Tune_Kindly
It all sounds pretty simple. Why are people so up in arms about Atheists?
Whatever
"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do."
imCIK
Cool with Empty
"Nothing. [Serious]."
rumblingtummy29
"I feel this way about death. When I was 5, my grandfather died and my cousin simple said, he is dead, that means you are gone forever. Everything ends up dying, even plants and animals. I'm now in my 40's and still have this simplistic view of life and death. People think I'm ambivalent to life and death but it's just what it is."
thepigfish82
puppet-masters...
"I think a lot of religious people struggle with the fact that we are all just swirling units of chaos. There is no grand plan or great orchestrator. I think that’s why people who are prone to religion are also susceptible to things like Q anon and the Cabal and all that. They REALLY want to believe that there is some almighty puppet-master who determines all of humanity’s fate."
Lngtmelrker
“we’re living in a society!”
"Just be a kind and empathetic person not because you’re worried about some cosmic justice, but because it’s the right thing to do. If there is some being that created us there’s no way they actually care about believing in it or adhering to some rules from over 2000 years ago."
"Also a big thing for me is that I find the idea that you need religion or the Bible in order to have morals and ethics pretty dumb. It’s pretty f**king clear that most evangelicals have neither. But my main thing is being a good person simply because, as George Costanza once said we’re living in a society!' If you’re only a good person in order to make it to heaven you probably aren’t actually a good and moral person."
conservative_genius
That's All
"You're born. You live. You die. That's it. After you die you cease to exist, the same as before you were born."
serefina
Believe what you want. We're all here together. So let's focus there.
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The list of what irritates me is endless.
I mean... breathing too loud or dust can set me off.
I'm a bit unstable, yes.
But I'm not alone.
So let's discuss.
Redditor Aburntbagel6 wanted to hear about all the times many of us just couldn't control our disdain. They asked:
"What never fails to piss you off?"
I feel like this article can go on forever. Let's get some highlights.
Wasted Time
"Meetings that could and should have been an email."
Sirena609
Lotto People
"Getting stuck behind people playing the lottery at a corner store."
thenuggetlover
"I also used to work in a gas station and you’re SO right. I f**king hated the lottery people. Especially since my store had a small staff and there was usually only one of us working at a time, which meant that I couldn’t get any of my other work done as long as they were there."
"And you’re right, it’s also pretty sad to watch. I had one lady who used to come in every day and spent hundreds and HUNDREDS of dollars on scratch tickets. One day, she won $200 after spending probably around $600 and she was so excited and saying she can 'finally pay her bills.'"
i-am-your-god-now
Aware...
"No situational awareness. Job, home, shopping, driving. Think for one minute and go about. OBSERVE!!"
Dizzy-Foundation8122
"My mom is one of those people who leave the shopping cart in the middle of the damn aisle and proceed to walk twenty feet away. After correcting her a million times to no effect I just walk away now so people don’t know I’m with her."
OutrageousEvent
Shut Up!
"Endless barking in the middle of the night, I love animals but that sh*t I can't stand."
Acceptable-Lemon2924
"Endless barking in general drives me up a wall. One of my friends dogs was barking almost an entire gaming session the other day. I wanted to reach through the computer and smack him for letting it go on."
bangersnmash13
Kindness
"People being mean to service workers, especially if the workers are very young."'
scaryboilednoodles
All of these things. I hate them all.
Admit It
"People who never accept fault when they mess something up. Like, why blame a million people when it was clearly you who did it???"
Quirky-Area-8978
From Above
"My upstairs neighbors."
lutzow89
"I had terrible neighbors at my previous apartment. It was a one person studio for students, but her boyfriend was clearly living with her illegally and he was loud."
"One night we knocked n the door at 3 AM because of the loud music and an unknown girl opened the door. I just thought they were having a little party. But the next door I saw the girl living there come home with a suitcase after having been away for the weekend... Her BF was cheating on her in her own apartment."
Th3_Accountant
Move Away
"People who sit directly next to me at the airport, movie theater, any other place where you can choose a seat when there is PLENTY of other seating."
BacardiPardy33
"I can’t YES this enough and the ones who can’t park for crap so they park so close you can’t open doors on one side of the car or the ones who park directly behind when you pulled through so the door won’t open to load groceries."
BacardiPardy33
It's Over
"People who try to restart old drama. Like I'm done with you, just leave me alone."
Tired_Potatos
"Yep, half the reason I've basically quit playing one of my favorite online video games. People keep bringing old crap up or sh*tting on on someone who used to be our friend. I got tired of it so I just ejected the game out of me."
CaucasianHumus
AHHHHH!!!
"People walking too slow in front of me with no way to get around them. It’s even worse if it’s a couple or group taking up the whole sidewalk. HAVE SOME SPATIAL AWARENESS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!"
_-v0x-_
Life in general pisses me off. I'm easy.
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