Redditor sintemp wanted to hear about the times we've all averted odd ways of perishing, so they asked:
"In what unusual way have you almost died?"
Life is littered with near-death incidents.
It's a wonder we can enjoy living at all.
Oh wait, maybe that's the point.
Close Call
Pop Tv Please GIF by One Day At A TimeGiphy"Almost booked a ticket on MH17 with my mum and brother, before my dad shut it down and said he’s fed up with flying with Malaysian airlines. So we flew with Emirates instead, wise decision."
KenyanJesus69
"Same, my mum booked our tickets for MH17. Then they were changed to a day earlier, my whole family was sad we left early. Saw the news on MH17 when we landed in New Zealand. Scary crap."
Zoutt
Lungs
"When I was born in 1995 one of my lungs was filled with amniotic fluid. The doctors went in to drain it and inadvertently tore it instead. Then they proceeded to tear the other one in an attempt to fix the first one. My mother remembers two doctors getting into an extremely heated verbal argument over this. Doctor 1 thought he could treat me at the current hospital I was in."
"Doctor 2 knew that I would die if I wasn’t transferred to a better-equipped emergency center. They were in such disagreement that Doctor 2 literally had to sneak me out after Doctor 1’s shift was over. Obviously, it worked. I turned out not just making a full recovery, but I left ALOT of people scratching their heads because my body never developed scar tissue from all of that. My lungs work 100%."
Ohlookitsyouagain
Not Faking
"Got pushed off a dock by a bully and drowned in front of a lifeguard who was yelling at me to stop faking. I was 9 or 10 at the time and I couldn't swim. The town had a population of less than 800, only had 1 lifeguard, and I was at the beach 3-5 days a week because of family, so they knew. Brother ended up pulling me out and resuscitating me himself. Lifeguard pretended she didn't notice."
ModularArchive
Death Secret
"I was digging a hole at 12-14 years old. Because I could, kid stuff. I only remember waking up, and it was dark. I had apparently hit an underground electric line. No one knew. I was there for hours. I got up, went inside, and ate dinner. This was in the early 80s. I peed my pants. And felt weird for a day or two. Never told my parents. Thought they’d be mad."
BadLuckEddie
Chew Slowly
top hat fish GIF by GoldfishGiphy"By inhaling a Goldfish. The cracker, not the animal."
"Got pneumonia, hospitalized, the whole 9 yards."
"I don't eat goldfish anymore."
EchoLynx
I knew those little goldfish were dangerous.
Fish are killers with the right cheese.
Horrors
Over It Rose GIF by HULUGiphy"My stomach veins exploded. It was like something out of a movie the blood pouring out of my mouth. Don’t recommend it. Still traumatized."
pancakesquest1
50 Feet
"I came ~50 feet away from getting struck by lightning in April 2015… in Auschwitz. I was there with my dad and we hopped off the main tracks about 15 seconds before lightning hit them in front of us. We always joke (darkly) that we’d have been the last Jews to die in Auschwitz if we hadn’t moved."
chyko9
A beaten body...
"Fell down a mountain. (It was like a slide area that went at an angle off vertical.) My clothes and skin were torn badly, one of my pack straps was broken, and, while nothing felt broken, I felt like I had been beaten by baseball bats for a week. Took me 2 weeks to get out and to medical care. I was bleeding from every orifice and couldn't eat or drink when I entered the hospital."
"For a CAT they dumped something like 1.5 liters of, what we soon discovered, of a dye that I was severely allergic to. I next woke in the same room with a technician sobbing into my face and a doctor who looked like he just ran a marathon holding those shock paddles."
"I was informed of the allergy, told I had died, and had to swear to the, still very upset, technician that I'd always tell others I had such a severe allergy. So, I dragged my beaten body into a hospital for them to kill me in an attempt to find out what was wrong."
Gurpguru
Combat Problems
"Was assisting at a target practice in the military when a trainee misfired and got saved by my Kevlar helmet, the force of the impact pushed my head backward, and fell into the ground with so much force that I got a concussion."
"Next thing I know, the drill instructors are tearing that trainee a new one while I'm looking at a beautiful blue sky hearing shouting far away. Luckily I got hit by a 9 mm. to the helmet and not a 7.62 mm. from our standard combat rifle."
CommieWhacker14
Safety Issues
excited d&d GIF by Hyper RPGGiphy"I almost got crushed in a pin setter when I was working on the pin table (bowling lane). I was lazy and didn’t LOTO because as the manager I didn’t think anyone would turn it on but me. I was wrong and it was a mistake I only made once."
HappyHubby33
Lord, half of these are the worst of my memories.
We're not even safe in our own homes!
Do you have any stories? Let us know in the comments.
"Doctors of Reddit, what is something that you wish everyone knew about their body?"
Stick To The Dosage!
"This one is more about medication."
"Antibiotics only work against bacteria, they are not some kind of wonder potion that cures anything, and they should not always be given."
"Please please stick to your prescription the doctor gives you."
"Even if you already feel better, don't just stop unless the doctor says you can stop."
"A lot of medication needs to be taken according to the prescription in order for it to be effective, because you build up the doses to an effective level."
"Stopping or not sticking to it really decreases effectivity."- jonneyboy112
Be Honest.
"Tell us what drugs and alcohol you’re on."
"We aren’t gonna tell the cops."
"We aren’t gonna lecture you."
"But it might change the anesthesia I give you."
"Some stuff I give you might kill you."
"If you drink a 30 pack a day, tell me."- CopyX
When To Be Alarmed If There's Blood
"Ejaculating blood happens to most people at least once in their lives and in 99% of cases it resolves without taking any action within a week."
"It doesn't even warrant a doctor visit."
"Peeing blood, for both sexes, is a serious medical emergency and you should immediately go to the ER."
"People think it's the other way around."- StardustDoc
A Diet May Not BE Helping You
"How to eat healthy."
"Just because you're skinny doesn't mean you're healthy."
"Especially the teenagers who I take care of."
"Sometimes I will ask them what's a healthy food your doctor wants you to eat?"
"Rarely do I get a right answer."
"I feel like the internet has so many fad diets, and family members rarely cook, so families don't know basic nutrition facts."- Thornloki256
No Two Bodies Are The Same
"That there is a wide range of 'normal'."
"Don't be embarrassed by your body."
"Having said that, if you are concerned about anything, ask your doctor."
"We have generally heard it all before, and trust me, we have, nearly always, seen it all before."
"Maybe you have something that has been bothering you for ages, but you were too scared or embarrassed to ask about it."
"Just ask! It might be 'nothing' and you have been stressing about it for no reason."
"And if not, then you are at least one step closer to getting it fixed."
"No one can help if they don't know."
"There are no stupid questions, so ask away."
"I'm always amazed when I have been asked about something that has been bothering a patient for years and years, but they were too embarrassed / scared to bring it up."
"Most of the time, it is nothing / a completely normal body function / feature."
"Other times, it is something that should have been discussed right away."
"YOU know your body best."
"So speak up! Don't wait for the doctor to 'ask the right question'."- frangipani_c
life tripping GIFGiphyAll In Moderation
"Some people seem to think that if you act healthy for a bit, it'll make up for being a wreck."
"There are so many things wrong with this."
"Just one example, antioxidants are like gas for your car."
"You can store up a certain amount of vitamins, but your tank can only hold so much."
"If you binge and overfill your tank, it doesn't do anything, you excrete it out as waste, and you can't expect to go the next several months without gas just because you tried to overload it before."
"You're going to still need to get gas."
"Same goes for your fruits and veggies."
"Had someone tell me he went vegetarian for a few weeks, which meant he was done for the year."
"He was dead serious."
"Had a patient at risk for heart failure try to insist that if she stayed away from salt entirely for x days/weeks, she should be able to have her fill of McDonald's fries and ramen."
"Had a smoker argue that if he stopped for some time, he should be able to smoke freely for a while."
"With some digging, 'stopping' turned out to mean a couple less cigarettes a day."- bhappyyyy
Angry New Amsterdam GIF by Global TVGiphyIt is very surprising indeed, when patients either ignore or dismiss advice given to them by their doctors.
Particularly as they felt the need to go and see their doctor in the first place.
Redditor common_currency asked the medical community:
"When did you have to tell a patient 'I've seen it all before' to comfort them, but really you had never seen something so bad, or of that nature?"
Just for any future docs reading, I like my bad news in stages.
The Rebuild
"I had to have my leg rebuilt after a car accident and was eventually sent to Duke university for my surgery. My surgeon was supposed to be like the best orthopedic surgeon in the country, I think he used to work for the Baltimore ravens. Anyway all the doctors from my hospital at home were very unsure if I would even have a functioning leg let alone walk normal again."
"The first appointment at Duke that dude told me it was really not a big deal and he would have me fixed almost good as new. I honestly thought he was just trying to be nice and optimistic but he was very serious. 5 months later I was walking and learning how to run again. He said I was one of the most complicated surgeries he has had to do and a group of surgeons flew in to observe him do it."
burtrenolds
Get your teeth cleaned...
"In dental school, I had an emergency patient come in, complaining of sore gums. Upon examination, I found a massive calculus bridge (google it for pictures) behind her lower front teeth. She only had about 3 remaining lower teeth, but they were all connected with a whitish brown mineral deposit that was about the size of a golf ball. She had never had her teeth cleaned and she was probably 55 or so."
"I basically performed an emergency cleaning. She could speak so much better afterwords. Of course I had to play it off like it was normal, but in my years of practice I still haven’t seen a case that bad again. Get your teeth cleaned people. Even if you can’t afford every 6 months, once a year, or every other year is a hell of a lot better than never."
Odors
"I'm a nurse and I work in a pediatric ER. A young woman brought her baby in to be seen for vomiting. I ask her to put the baby on the scale. While on the scale I notice a strong odor of bug spray so I asked about it.
"Mom: 'A roach crawled into her mouth so I sprayed a little Raid in there.' She said it matter of factually like it was no big deal."
"Que up calls to the police, CPS and a 1:1 sitter for the child and the mom. When all was said and done the baby was fine and turned over to her grandmother so no worries there. I have no idea what happened to the mother. I don't believe she was intending to hurt the child. I think she was just butt-a** ignorant."
TomTheNurse
15F
"I worked as a mental health tech to get through undergrad."
"15F in the adolescent ward claims to have swallowed a staple. Eh, but whatever, as I’m taking her down to x-ray I tell her about the dime I swallowed when I was a kid. It happens."
"Well, turns out she underestimated the number of staples by around a hundred. Every printout given by the therapists had been a swallowed staple."
"She had gotten staples from the other kids. The x-ray of her abdomen looked as if it were a weird staple-y snow globe."
"And yet, somehow, she was back to trying to steal psych ward staples a week later. Never did figure out how they removed them all."
UnfairCanary
Oh Auntie...
"My aunt started her nursing career in a county hospital, which means you get all the homeless folks. A guy came in with the whole of the back of his leg and butt utterly and very deeply infested with maggots. He just 'hadn't gotten around to' coming in earlier, he said."
"The depressing thing is that while it was a first for my aunt, it was by no means the last. Apparently it's more common than you'd think."
rowrza
I've fainted three times already.
Like the Exorcist
"A little late to the party—"
"Not the worst, but I had a patient once with a stomach bleed and a small bowel obstruction. We had to put in an NG tube (tube that goes in your nose and down to your stomach) to drain/decompress his stomach, which was pretty distended and hard."
"I’m inserting the tube and has soon as it hits this guy’s gag reflex he projectile vomits and SPRAYS very dark, half digested blood all over himself, the bed, the wall, and the floor. It’s basically a scene from the exorcist. I had to dive out of the way and somehow was unscathed. He couldn’t stop for almost ten minutes as we’re trying to get this thing down to where it needs to go."
"Finally finish placement and it immediately suctions out ~3 liters of this black sludge that is old, digested blood. Pt was mortified and we had to play it off like 'oh no no it’s fine, it’s really common to vomit during the procedure. We’ll just go get some towels and clean you up!' My coworker and I left the room and just stared at each other in silent shock."
oh_haay
the left side is gone...
"Not medical professionals, but we were the patients. My daughter, who was 3 at the time, had to have a cavity filled. As we were leaving, the dentist told me just to watch my daughter because sometimes kids chew their gums because it's numb and feels weird."
"So the drive home took 30 minutes and I had been talking to my daughter the entire time to keep her busy. I park my car in my drive way, opened the passenger seat to get my daughter out, and her entire lower lip on the left side is gone. She had chewed it off down to her chin."
"She ended up in emergency surgery, but the surgeon kept telling us it would be fine and he sees this stuff all the time. She ended up having multiple surgeries, and when she was finally healed, the surgeon told us that it was the worst injury like that he had ever seen. He wasn't sure how she would heal, but you can hardly tell it happened now."
imcloudnine
A gentle push...
"Not a medical professional, but a story about my father."
"After years of a blood disease, his spleen had to be removed as it had swollen to a size that made breathing difficult. Apparently the surgeon had a photo taken, post extraction, where he is cradling my dad's ~22.0 lb spleen."
"To top it off, one day into recovery, when doing on of those 'gentle push on the abdomen' type exams on him, my dad's sutures catastrophically failed and he let loose a spray that coated the doctor, his nurse, and a good portion of the ceiling. Luckily for dad, the hospital staff was on point that day and kept him alive despite his body's best effort."
"I heard all of this from the doctor while he was removing the line of staples (that went from crotch to sternum) some weeks later."
"Dad didn't like to share, apparently."
CallousJack
Exposed
Elaine Benes Fainting GIF by HULUGiphy"A patient with rectal cancer with an exposed colon and rectum. I could see her tailbone and and the head of the femur. And whenever she would poop, it could collect inside this open cavity and had to be flushed out."
Festigoer
Too Late
"I’m a pediatric nurse, and triaged a young girl with a rash, mom had been to several doctors and they didn’t know what it was. I recognized it right away called Stevens-Johnson syndrome, I remained calm, patient was flown to a burn center, but died. I had only seen it once before and it was fatal for that patient too."
AdmiralMeeko
I don't know medical personnel do it. Bless...