People Explain How An Accident Completely Changed Their Lives
Reddit user NoFile9376 asked: 'What happened by a total accident but changed your life completely?'
Life can change in a moment, but sometimes, we're not even aware that it's in the process of changing.
Right in front of our eyes, we've taken a job, met a person, or purchased a product that will change our lives in a big way.
Or on the negative side, maybe we're having the unluckiest of days, where we feel the lowest of the low, only for it to lead to something incredible.
The point is, there's no telling what incredible thing is around the corner waiting for us, or what small moment will lead us there.
Redditor NoFile9376 asked:
"What happened totally by accident but changed your life completely?"
Unique Opportunities
"I went for a coffee with a friend before he went out to pitch a TV show in LA. He asked what I was up to, and I mentioned the comic book I was planning to write."
"His pitch went well and the studio asked if he had any sci-fi ideas. He pitched my idea, and a month later I was in LA with a bunch of agents and managers wanting to sign me."
"We got close with that sci-fi concept, and I worked in LA on and off for about a decade working on a lot of cool stuff that never got made, but I got paid very well, so I can’t complain."
"It was basically ‘Oceans 11 in space,’ and it still gets dusted off every now and again. It’s one of those things that everyone loves but never gets made."
"When the pandemic hit, I started writing comics and have been doing that for a few years now. I have a new movie spec script planned for the new year, so I guess we’ll be taking that out and see if anyone bites."
- MikeSizemore
Unappreciative Bosses
"The water main leading into the house burst, requiring the contractors to lay a new pipe from the street into the first floor. I had to clear everything out, and then go get jugged water to last a week for a family of four."
"I asked to take the afternoon off work so I could take care of this, and they said it would be a write-up for an unexcused absence."
"This p**sed me off to no end because I had recouped hundreds of thousands of dollars that my predecessor had lost and generally unf**ked their processes."
"Not really intending to quit, I rage-applied to jobs just to blow off steam and landed a new job with a $30,000 pay boost, WFH (Work From Home), and complete schedule flexibility."
- pinelands1901
The Power of Saying 'Thank You'
"I got into some trouble while very, very drunk."
"When I got sober, I wrote a thank you note to someone who treated me really well and urged me to get help."
"He was friends with the editor of the local newspaper and thought my letter was well-written. He asked if he could show her and I said yes, then kinda forgot about it."
"A few months later, the editor came to find me to offer me a part-time job filling in for someone."
"I've been working in journalism ever since. The pay sucks, but I love it."
- LizardPossum
A Smooth Career Redirection
"Getting my Class A commercial driver's license."
"I basically tried the majority of work that an individual can get into with a GED (General Educational Diploma)."
"I randomly searched the internet for truck driver jobs out of curiosity. The top of the list was a small form to fill out. A recruiter called me within five minutes. They set me up with a bus ticket to their training facility two states over and lodging for the duration."
"All I had to do was bring enough cash and clothes for a week. They paid enough to feed me the rest of the training. I had an over-the-road job lined up for me right out of training. All I had to do was stick it out with that company for at least a year to cover training costs."
"Boom, entry into a skilled labor field at d**n near no upfront cost, and a guaranteed minimum one year of incredibly valuable experience. This was back in 2008."
"And for what it’s worth. I didn’t even own my own vehicle yet back then. And I only tried manual transmission vehicles twice for maybe 10 minutes total prior to learning how to drive a 10-speed."
"Now, I can simply email or walk into a job that interests me with my resume and my experience speaks for itself. I don’t have to sell myself to an employer. They have to sell the job to me."
"I'm currently about to start up with a local company less than a five-minute drive from home, hauling mostly oversized loads up into and out of the mountains. It’s the highest starting wage I’ve ever had, with a guaranteed multiple dollars per hour raise once I demonstrate I can do everything they’ll need me to do."
"The moral of the story is, don’t be afraid to try something new or different. You might just be great at it."
- tumblevv33d
Going Surgery-Free
"When I was younger, I had a neurological condition called hydrocephalus, which required me to have a shunt in my brain to keep me alive, and every few years, it would break or get infected and have to be replaced."
"About 20 years ago, I developed an infection that my neurosurgeon refused to take seriously, so it wasn't properly diagnosed for about two years after I moved away from that hospital and ended up in the ER."
"Long story short, thanks to some faulty medical equipment that by some weird coincidence wasn't doing its job properly, while I waited for surgery, we discovered that I wasn't actually using my shunt and I didn't need it anymore. So surgery was canceled, and once the infection cleared up, I was sent home."
"It was a really, really awful couple of years, but it ultimately gave me my life back. I'm now 15 years surgery-free and as much as I hate the way it happened, I wouldn't change a thing because if it had happened any other way I would have just had another brain surgery, and then another, and so on."
- NotAngryAndBitter
A Mysterious Lump
"My mother went to the doctor for a routine exam and her doctor noticed a bump on her arm my mom passed off as a cyst. She removed the bump, which she also believed was a cyst, and sent it for a biopsy to be safe."
"Results came back and they weren’t really sure what to make of it. It wasn’t cancer but it wasn’t nothing either."
"Turns out she had a very rare cancer that appeared benign but behaved malignant."
"The doctors had no idea how to treat it, even reaching out to other doctors all over the world."
"She died two years later once it had spread all over her body."
"The kicker is they believe if the initial bump would’ve been left alone it wouldn’t have spread and killed her."
"It’s been two years, five months, and 17 days since she’s been gone, and I will never stop missing her."
- Khaleesi1998
A Second Chance
"I made a left turn instead of a right turn when I noticed a restaurant I liked had closed. I reopened it, and 35 years later, we are still going strong."
"It's not especially heartwarming, but it changed my life as well as my wife, my kids, and 28 employees' lives."
- bbqtom1400
The Choice to Stay a While
"I was working in a large state park as a guide/docent while finishing up my geology degree. I was only interested in science, talking about rock types and tectonics and whatnot."
"It got cold and windy FAST, and snow started coming down and soaking my clothes. I admittedly was not prepared and ducked into a cabin I came across that I thought would be empty."
"It wasn’t. There was a historical interpreter doing traditional chair seat weaving in the cabin. Fire in the hearth and all."
"He said, 'Take your shoes off and stay a while.' Let’s just say that MULTIPLE years later, I own one of the most respected furniture restoration businesses in the state and specialize in antique Appalachian rockers."
"I visit the old man in the nursing home weekly. I go out to the cabin once a month or so to relax and demonstrate to passersby. I took my shoes off and stayed a while."
"P.S. Geology is still cool."
- Most-Cow-2474
The Other Guy
"I accidentally accepted a friend request of (my now husband), thinking it was another guy I knew with a similar name. I was ignoring the request before."
"And the rest is history. We've been married for 12 years, now with two kids."
"The website was Orkut if any of you are old enough to remember it, lol (laughing out loud)."
- zenzephyr42
A Doubly Good Deed
"I was planning to spend $2.49 on a breakfast sandwich and go home to do some chores. They had a two-for-three dollar breakfast sandwich deal."
"I brought the 51-cent bonus sandwich and gave it to a homeless friend. He had a tiny stray puppy following him around and asked me to bring her to the shelter because he couldn't feed her and himself."
"She became my best friend for 13 1/2 years! I'll love you and miss you forever, baby dog!"
- JensElectricWood
It All Began with a Broken Phone
"I dropped my phone from my bed onto the floor and the screen (with the protector) COMPLETELY shattered, which is weird because I’ve dropped my phone from bigger heights and bad angles and there’s usually just dents in the protector."
"Anyway, I was out a phone and super broke, and I didn't have the money to get it fixed right away. None of my friends had extra phones so I posted on my then-company’s slack channel, asking if anyone had a spare phone I could borrow, just for calls and texts, nothing fancy, and I’d be super grateful."
"I was also going through a terrible heartbreak where I’d been love-bombed and then dropped in a second. It was just an awful time."
"So one person responded to my shot in the dark and offered this extra phone he has. I had no clue who he was or what he even did in the company, even though I have several friends in the company. We’d never met because we both worked remotely and no one ever mentioned him to me."
"Our departments were also very different so there was no interaction ever. I was also a bit confused as to why he’d offer a phone to someone he didn’t even know. I thought he was too trusting, lol (laughing out loud)."
"Anyway, he couriered me the phone, I ended up needing it for longer as I saved up, and we finally met up in person a few months later. Long story short, it’s been a couple of years, and he became my best friend and then my SO (significant other)."
"For the first time in my life, I know what healthy, unconditional love is, he is the embodiment of love that keeps on giving. I grew up seeing an abusive marriage so my idea of love and relationships was completely skewed (still learning in progress). But with him, my heart’s calm. He’s my biggest fan and my rock whenever the going gets tough. There’s no one like him. I don’t know anyone as generous in love as he is."
"I remember that time and being absolutely gutted that not only had I got my heart broken in the most miserable way but my phone freakishly completely broke from the shortest of falls, all in a matter of a week."
"I felt so unlucky for the longest time. But looking back now, I’m so glad my phone broke that day (and my then-bf ghosted me). Or there was just no way I’d have ever met the love of my life."
- fluffypoopkins
The Love of a Sibling
"My brother asked out a girl when they were 17."
"My brother started dating this random girl. He needed a job so he started working at the company where her family worked. Next year, I needed a summer job, so they got me a job at the same company. I liked the job and kept working at the company long after my brother and her broke up."
"At 21, I took a job in another state to further that career and moved 700 miles away from home. Now my partner, all my friends, my hobbies, everything that is my adult life is because of that move."
"My brother randomly dating a girl for a year when we were teens changed literally everything about my life."
- ColSurge
The Vital Wake-Up Call
"I almost failed out of college. I tried to up my GPA by doing research WAY too early in my academic career. I met a professor who didn’t even work at my university. I had a brief conversation with him in the lab and he said, 'You’d make a great professor one day.'"
"It changed the course of my life. I scraped by with my Bachelor of Science and was one of the top students in my Master's program. I got a 4.0 for my PhD with several first-author papers."
"Now I work for one of the top professors in my field, I’m talking top three percent."
"That conversation was over 10 years ago. Thank you, Dmitry. I would’ve never met you if I wasn’t failing."
- zagottamove
For the Love of Language
"I randomly decided to take German instead of French when in school as my foreign language the day before class started."
"I'm now a German teacher. It's wild how such a small decision shaped my entire life."
- zapolight
Meant to Be
"I went in on my day off work, thinking I had a shift that day."
"I didn’t but they were short-staffed for the lunch rush, so I stayed for a few hours."
"I ran into my childhood friend who moved away 15 years prior."
"We are now married with kids."
- bree-marie92
These stories are undeniably surprising, and it's incredible how such small moments created such big results in most of these Redditors' cases.
It's important to remember to never take our lives for granted, because there's really no telling what small moment will lead to greatest next phase of our lives.
Not everyone has the luxury of working in a safe environment.
Rather poignantly, most of the essential workers, who continued to report to work as the world shut down during the pandemic, often had to report to very dangerous conditions.
And while we'd like to think that the people who are responsible for ensuring the safety and well-being of these employees will make sure nothing happens to them, that simply isn't always the case.
As many people have witnessed, truly horrific accidents take place at work more frequently than we think.
"What's the worst accident that happened at your workplace?"
As If One Time Wasn't Bad Enough
"Not my story, but my dad told me it."
"A man got his arm stuck in a machine, which degloved his arm."
"After he recovered, he was showing the safety people how it happened, and he accidentally degloved his other arm."- nugget_the_third3
Before You Eat Those Fries...
"Working at McDonalds, a girl slipped walking past a deep fryer and her hand went deep into the fryer."
"The manager wrapped her hand in a cloth, when she pulled it off to put in water all of her skin came off."
"We were still made to work so we walked off, they were even happy to keep using the fryer after it!"- Reasonable_Slice5324
Sometimes It's Their Own Fault
"Working for a specialized trucking company, a fellow driver lost control fully loaded going down a winding mountain road."
'The truck tipped over, slid across 2 lanes of oncoming traffic and landed in a field."
"Truck and trailer were absolutely demolished, cab was flattened, and the driver (a huge MFer) crawled out the back window without a scratch."
"$400k unit wasn’t even recognizable."
"Guy was fired when insurance pulled the ECM out of the rig and found he was going over 100kmh around a 50kmh corner and didn’t even touch the brakes."- Barquebe
"Man fell 75 feet due to standing on the wrong side of the pipe he was cutting."
"You ever see those cartoons where they cut the branch while standing on the branch?"
"He was cutting from inside and everyone thinks he just got disoriented."- R3DLOTU5·
Bizarre After Effects
"Guy fell 15’ and landed on his head."
"He lived."
"It fixed his lazy eye and he’s still with the company."
"He became very irritable, has violent outbursts and is a lil psychotic but otherwise perfectly ok."- Oneinsevenbillion75
Choose Your Smoking Breaks Wisely
"Had a corn starch dust explosion at a previous job."
"And no it's not previous because I caused it lol."
"A truly stupid guy decided he'd sneak a cigarette break in basically the worst place he could."
"He came very close to death for his stupidity and could have taken others with him, but thankfully he was the only one seriously injured when the dust went boom."
"That night I was pretty far from the boom area doing vacuum decay testing on completed bags of sugar substitute."
"I was uninjured, but it definitely scared the sh*t out of me."- LaReinaTormenta
They Call It Protective Gear For A Reason
"Teenage girl cut off her finger after refusing to wear the cut proof glove because 'it was ugly'."
"Follow safety protocols folks."- the-cosmic-kraken
So Many People's Worst Nightmares
"When I worked at a grocery store a guy lost his thumb in the meat slicer."
"Worst part is, because of the blade it went flying and they couldn’t find it soon enough to reattach."
'Deli was closed for 24 hours."- Mryan7600
Not Always Causing Physical Harm
"Worked in a grocery store as a teenager."
'My coworker (and still friend) was lowering a huge pallet of 1L apple juice tetra packs and the whole thing tipped from like 20ft up."
"Thousands of liters of apple juice flooded the whole back of the store."
"It was super hot that day and it just smelled like intense hot apple juice."
'We had the worst ant problem forever."
"Thankfully nobody was hurt but what a godawful mess."- permacloud
Wearing Your Hair Up Is As Stylish As It Is Safe
"A girl with long hair leaned down to check something near a fast rotating piece of machinery and got it caught."
"It ripped a good chunk of her scalp out."- EntertainerOk9552
Don't Rely On Workman's Comp
"At Walmart, an assistant manager had a heart attack in the break room."
"When she was taken away and treated she disappeared from work for months, and when she finally came back."
"Walmart management decided to put her outside in the hot California summer heat to be a greeter."
"When she refused they didn’t care and she quit."
"Every single person on my team was saying they probably did it on purpose and wanted her to quit."
"Really f*cked up and it’s probably true."- Filthy_pilgrim
At Least He Was A Good Sport...
"I watched a guy, who pinned his safety guard back on his Skill saw with a nail, lay the still spinning blade right into the meat of his thigh."
"It went right in."
"I almost passed out when he yanked it out. "
"He was in shock and laughing about how the blade was so hot it cauterized the cut, so not much blood."
"He then got into his yellow Bronco with a bad clutch and drove himself to the hospital."- Spodson
Why Updates And Refurbishments Are Necessary
"Hydraulic ferry doors were forced open to let cars out, pins snapped and doors slammed shut on an employee."
"They survived but it wasn’t pretty."- PlantBagWood
Texting While Moving Is Dangerous
"A crew was walking a plane out to the flight line and a guy got his bottom half squished underneath the wheels."
"Texting and not paying attention was suspected to be the cause but that’s not confirmed."- niciswan
"Safety First" should not simply be a warning or guideline for employees to follow.
But rather a basic standard for any workplace putting their employees in dangerous situations to uphold.
There are several inconveniences which come with an illness or injury.
Being bedridden at home, missing work, having to cancel plans which were long in the making.
But the worst thing which often comes hand in hand with illness or injury, is physical pain.
While some pains can be taken care of with an ibuprofen or other medicines, others are so unbearable that almost nothing can ease it.
Redditor Dassag-Kababi-07 was curious to learn of the worst pain members of the Reddit community had to endure, leading them to ask:
"Users for Reddit, What is the most physical pain you have experienced? And how did it happen?"
The memory was almost equally painful.
"I was mauled by a dog while in the Caribbean."
"We went around the island trying to find the one doctor, kept missing him, in the age before cell phones, and finally went to the airport."
"We climbed on the plane barefoot and without any ID, it was the 1980s, a totally different time, and ended up in Miami, and went straight to the hospital."
"There they had mere minutes to save my nose so they strapped me to a surgical table and did surgery without anesthetic."
"I was four."
"It was to this day the most painful experience of my life and I still feel the pain in my whole body as I write this."
"What a horrible memory."
"The nose turned out great though."- LeskoLesko
Not one, but two!
"I've had two hernias, the first one was so bad that my insides essentially were 'spilling into' my sack."
"You could push it back in, but sometimes it would rest on my testicle and I would almost pass out from the pain."- izthistaken
"Didn't poo for a week."
"One massive turd."- Onetrillionpounds
Among the most invasive procedures you can get.
"Bone marrow biopsy."
"Trust me, you don't want to go through that."
"Also after that I found that I had Leukemia, so then there's that."
"But fully recovered, cured."- tombandicoot
"Bone marrow biopsy."
"They cannot numb bone."
"They just jam a needle in and suck out the marrow."
"It was worse than the craniotomy or mucositis."- stolliolli
Unbelievable
"Ruptured my patella tendon, stepped into a manhole in a dark room and all my weight hit the concrete edge , opened my leg up and caused a 'fishtail' rupture on the tendon going under my knee, also the skin split showing my knee and shin bone."
"I got driven to hospital, I lay on my back and watched the consultant lift the skin to look at my kneecap, he then told me that this would be quite painful, and he could only give limited anaesthetic, then pushed the tip of his fingers under my kneecap to raise it to check the tendon."
"I wanted to f*cking die, I had surgery that night and was in physio for months after the cast came off."- ThrobberMcThrob
Um... okay...
"Being on fire really sucked."
"The first time was worse though."- Jam-18
Seatbelts save lives
"Crashed into a mound of dirt at about 60mph and ended up with a burst fracture in my lumbar spine."
"Hands down the most excruciating pain I've ever experienced."
"The worst part was, I was in a rural area so I couldn't get to a hospital for several hours and had no pain relief until the ambulance got to a safe place for the helicopter to land for me to be airlifted to a city."- ihatemyselfalot-lol
Let's hope this was a one time occurrence
"My period."
"I went to the doctor for a physical and when I got there my cramps were so bad that I physically passed out."
"When I woke up I was in an ambulance."
"Apparently the pain made my blood pressure sky rocket and when the pain stopped it made my blood pressure drop so fast I past out."
"I’m also a diabetic so they assumed it was a low blood sugar and were shoving an apple juice down my throat when I came to."- blubberwinx
Don't forget to floss
"Nothing beats the highest level of tooth pain for me."
"If you break a tooth or lose a filling, don't wait to get it taken care of. Dental insurance on its own is fairly inexpensive and one of the better investments you can do for yourself. And if you really can't afford that, there are usually low income clinics that will help you in times of emergency. Don't suffer!
Take good care of your teeth folks.
Whether inevitable or completely avoidable, unbearable, long lasting pain is something no one deserves to endure.
Getting older is inevitable.
Like everything else on the planet, over time the human body suffers the effects of wear and tear.
Joints, muscles, ligaments, tendons, teeth, etc... are put through the ringer and eventually it begins to show.
Things we used to do with ease suddenly aren't so simple.
Redditor iamalsopizza asked:
"What did your body tell you that you had to absolutely stop doing?"
That 24/7 Life
"Pulling all nighters for any reason. My body will not tolerate it anymore."
- Eccentric_Mermaid
"I used to do it every weekend as a teenager, with help from Monster, my PC, and some of the fine programming on Adult Swim."
"Last time I tried as an early 20s adult, I passed out sitting straight up. I'm pretty sure now Monster just puts me to sleep."
"Last successful all-nighter I survived until 6 AM. I still woke up at 8:00 on the dot, on my day off. Thanks work."
- EvilDarkCow
"Oh my sweet, honey-glazed christ...I turned 40 last year and I swear it was like someone flipped a light switch."
"I used to pull all-nighters and get 4 hours sleep and be ready to go like a wild hog the next morning."
"Now I get 8 hours of sleep and I could frankly use a nap. Aging sucks."
- Cats-Steal-Things
GiphyNo More
"Got seizures from drinking more or less a liter of vodka a day."
"Took a few years, but I'm now standing at 648 days alcohol free."
- FroggiJoy87
"Currently in the hospital. Came off a hangover caused by 14 shots of Altos and my body was like 'you know what? We're gonna figure all this shit out'."
"I had diarrhea so bad, I was almost in starvation mode when I got to the ER. Turns out, there's a tiny hole in my something and it was leaking waste into my body which gave me an infection."
"Been here 5 days, now. I have a straw in my belly which is draining the infection so the antibiotics can work better."
"Every time I look at it, I'm grossed out and wanna slap myself. I'm never touching a drink again in my life. F'k that."
"I just liked to have a good time and binge drink."
"Well, I'm gonna have to get some new hobbies or something because this sh*t here, ain't it."
- IreallEwannasay
"I use to take pills all the time to get high when I was going through some sh*t in my early 20's that I didn't really know how to handle at the time."
"Well one day while doing the pills, my body just said 'no more' and I projectile vomited everywhere in my room and bathroom. It got on the walls and floor. I was living with my parents at the time and blamed it on food poisoning or something like that."
"I tried again every day for like a week and each time I just threw them back up."
"And that's how I got clean off these pills. Drug free to this day!"
- Necrodotexe
Your Pancreas Says "No!"
"I just checked my blood sugar today and it is outrageous, so it looks like my food shenanigans are over."
"I made homemade bread last night and my blood sugar was 195 this morning. F'k my life."
- KayBeaux
"Yeah. When eating a piece of French bread becomes food shenanigans you know you're effed. Stuff most folks consider fine is now off limits."
"It's not like pork rinds or similar junk food, either. Potatoes, French fries, chips, etc... are absolutely not happening. OJ, cider, milk....all gone."
- jpr_jpr
GiphyEnergy With A Side Of Palpitations
"Drinking Bang energy drinks, last one I had turned me into a panicking rage monster, whole time I thought I was going to die my heart was beating so fast and irregular."
- CaptnRiggen
"I used to work a day job till 6p M-F then work security at bars Thur-Sat from 10p-3am."
"One night I drank two of those 4-Hour Energy drinks. The second one was more of a 'Wonder what would happen?' more than I needed it."
"Holy f'k was that a bad idea. My heart was going so fast."
"I never touched that stuff again. That was before I really looked closely at the nutrition labels. Now I always look at them."
‐ lipp79
"I had this with Redbull—my first time drinking it and I never touched it again."
"Coca Cola also gives me heart palpitations so I rarely drink it but not to the 'omg, I'm going to die' level of Red Bull."
- QuendaQuoll
"I used to work overnights at a store that sold 4-Hour Energy at the counter. My coworkers and I would guzzle them to get through the night shift."
"I always felt that same sensation of irregular heartbeat for hours and the crash afterward was unbelievable."
- jellyrat24
Calm Down
"Being stressed."
"I'm at the age now where I realize that controlling my stress level is an actual physical health issue."
"I started getting bald patches on my facial hair, and terrible neck pain, and elevated heart rate. I'm definitely more mindful.
"I used to think stress was just about what I was feeling emotionally in a given moment, but no it's very physical."
- mjzim9022
Giphy"Yep this one right here! During the summer of 2020 I realize that if I didn’t start working on calming down, I was gonna drop dead of a heart attack or something."
"About six months later I noticed that I had six months growth worth of pure white hairs on the top of my head. I didn’t even have gray hairs before Covid."
"I’m pretty sure that if I hadn’t have started calming myself down, I really would’ve had a heart attack."
- Drealjas
Sleeping Wrong Is A Thing
"Camping without an air mattress. The last time I did it using only a pallet of blankets I PAID for it the next morning."
"My entire body hurt. Getting old sucks."
- 2gecko1983
"Went to visit my grandmother 3 years ago and the air mattress had a hole in it, so I just said 'Ah its fine I'll sleep ona pallet on the floor'."
"I woke up the next morning with my left shoulder sore and stiff. It hurt all day, and every day after that."
"I finally broke down and went to the Dr about it this year. He said, 'You take anything for that?' I said, no. He said 'You probably should'."
"I was hoping maybe he was gonna fix me. Refer me to a joint specialist. Possibly see about surgery."
"Apparently after a certain age they dont really do that anymore and I now see why Aleve commercials are mostly targeted toward older people. Cause some disinterested Dr said 'You should probably start taking something for that'."
- IGotNoStringsOnMe
GiphyWhat activities has your body put a stop to?
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Healthcare shouldn't be this complicated.
You feel sick? Go to the hospital. Have someone take care of you. Add on the complexities of insurance, the lack of good-faith instilled in doctors on hour 40 of their shift, and suddenly you have a stay that turns into a nightmare you can't escape from.
They only get worse from here.
Reddit user, emeraldthemnstr, wanted to hear your healing horror stories when they asked:
What's the worst hospital experience you've ever had?
A visit to the ER shouldn't be like rolling the dice to decide how you're going to be, but sometimes it's like placing your health in the hands of fate.
Except fate is a jerk.
You Never Know How Your Body Is Going To React
"The day after I graduated from college I began having intense stomach pains that kept me awake for almost three days straight. Went to my doctor and they sent me over the ER to get a CT scan immediately. Found out I had a pretty significant intestinal blockage."
"Anyway my first night in the hospital I was finally able to get kind of comfortable but the nurses were insistent that I take Ambien to sleep. I told them that I hadn't slept in 3 days and that I was going to pass out any minute. Well they kept pushing, and like an idiot, I took the pill. Fast forward to the next morning where I wake up with dried blood all over my arm and I generally hurt all over. It turns out I got really messed up on the Ambien. I stripped naked, ripped out all my IVs, and ran down to the nurse station while babbling nonsense."
"To this day I've never seen my mom as mad as she was when she found out what happened."
Tcraw487
One Diagnosis Is Not Like The Other
"I fell over on a night out, not drunk, and hit my head. Only 6 months before I'd had brain surgery for a tumour."
"Scooped up by an ambulance, dumped in A&E, treated like a drunk student. My friends kept telling them that I wasn't drunk, I'd had surgery etc. but they left me in a corridor and ignored me."
"After 3 or 4 hours on a bed in a corridor with no attention, I decided I was fine and checked myself out. It was ridiculous. I felt a bit woozy but recovered fully the next day."
"They should have taken me a bit more seriously, not treated me like a drunk, just because it happened on a Saturday night."
shinyhappycat
There's nothing worse than telling a doctor what you know for sure in your heart is wrong and they don't listen to you.
Makes You Wonder Who's A Professional And Who Isn't
"I was 16 and I had horrible stomach pains for about a week and just chalked it up to the flu going around school but it didnt go away it continued for another week and I lost about 12 pounds and started throwing up after almost every meal my dad was sufficiently freaked and took me to the ER and the doctor was convinced I was pregnant."
"She kept badgering me about even though I repeatedly said there was absolutely no way I could be pregnant unless I was the second coming of the virgin mary, I was on the verge of tears when she went so far as to tell my dad to leave the room so I could "admit the truth" she finally made me pee in a cup and SURPRISE! no baby."
"Then after just pushing really hard on my stomach and asking me if it hurt she said it must be my kidneys and wanted to start me on meds but warned that if it wasnt actually my kidneys that the medication could cause serious damage."
"It was at this point my usually very calm and reasonable dad completely lost his mind and asked the woman if she had actually gone to med school and pulled me out of there."
"We went to another hospital where I found out I needed an appendectomy immediately. Screw that dumb doctor not every teen girl with stomach pains is pregnant."
Cactusjacks22
It Is What We Thought It Was
"I got a call from my mother that my sister had been taken out of her apartment in an ambulance because she was in so much pain she couldn't walk- I lived about 40 minutes away but I was the closest so I went running."
"She's in crazy pain but they're basically ignoring her. Not appendicitis based on the initial exam, but in that general area. They're giving her the good drugs and asking her constantly if she's on her period or pregnant but do nothing else to actually check on her. Eventually (hours later) we're taken into an exam room (that fully isn't cleaned, they put a puppy pad over some blood on the step up to the chair) and they do an internal sonogram on her and say "Honey you need to pee, there's something in the way" she does and they still say "well something is in the way but it's so big that we know it couldn't be torsion which is what we're worried about- take some drugs and go home it's probably just cramps or a cyst that burst. Nothing to do."
"She goes to her gyno in the morning and is then rushed into surgery at a different (better) hospital. She had a grapefruit sized dermoid on her ovary, that did in fact cause ovarian torsion, and she lost her ovary as a result."
curlsandcollege
Strap Yourselves In, People
"I was in a car accident, and T-boned by someone going 65 MPH. My hand was caught in-between the collapsing car and the steering wheel."
"When I popped my hand out, I felt the bone break and it hurt like hell."
"Amazingly enough, I had no other injuries. But the EMT's were taking no chances, and thinking I was in shock, they strapped me onto a backboard and hauled me off to the ER. While in the ER, I was asked several times if I was injured anywhere, and I repeatedly said "My hand is broken, it hurts real bad. BTW - this backboard is hurting the hell out of the back of my head, can I get off of it, please? Also, can you please call my mother?" (FYI - I was 19)"
"2 hours later, I was still on the backboard, and I had lost count of how many people had asked me where my injuries were and me repeating "my left hand is broken...." but that was when I was finally taken down to the X-ray dept. There, they X-ray'd every bone in my body..... but my left hand."
"I am wheeled back to the ER, still on that goddamn backboard. By this time, I have a horrendous headache from where my head is resting on that 2x4, and I sit for another couple of hours. During that time I was able to talk a nurse into bringing me a bedpan so I could relieve myself, and that is when the cop came in, opened the curtains so everyone could see me, and give me a ticket."
"Finally, after having been in the ER for 6 hours, I've FINALLY talked someone into calling my mother to come pick me up, the doctor had FINALLY said I could get off of the backboard and when my mom got there (I'm not sure how many traffic laws she broke to get there as fast as she did), he let me know I had no injuries."
"Yes, I do. My hand is broken."
"Young lady, I'm the doctor, I tell you when your hand is broken."
"That was when I grabbed my ring finger on my left hand and pulled it out, and the break became visible through the skin."
"My hand is f-cking broken."
"Mom, being an attorney, just looked at the doctor and said "Does the word 'malpractice' mean anything to you?""
"Back down to the X-ray dept I went, and lo & behold, my damn hand was broken, but the Doctor was all how it was well hidden and that's why they missed it the first time (no, you missed it the first time because NO ONE X-RAY'D IT)."
"A couple of days later when I went to an ortho doctor to get my hand rebroken and the bone set (OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW) I pulled out the X-ray to take a look to see the break and how "hidden" it really was."
"Goddamn if you couldn't see that break right there in the middle of the bone plain as day."
"It's 20+ years later, the bone never did set correctly, and I'm starting to get arthritis in it. I can tell you when the weather is going to change based on how badly my hand is hurting."
bored-now
Both of my stories are with the same doctors, at the same hospital, having two different c sections. Fool me once and all that right?
For my first son, I was enduced and in labor for over 24 hours. My epidural had worn off. All of a sudden 4 doctors and 2 nurses rush into the room. 3 of the doctors just stick their hands in me at the same time and are frantic. One nurse is by the monitor. Finally she tells me that I'm having a 6 minute contraction and my son isn't breathing.
She gives me a shot to stop the contraction and my son starts breathing again. I am having a panic attack, and she tells me to calm down, and it's a side effect of the shot. Never mind that I'm freaking out because I'm worried about my son.
Good Lord...
"They say I need an emergency c section, though they don't take me back for another hour. My doctor was eating dinner. So even though it was an emergency, we had to wait."
"Also, the nurse never told my doctor that my son had swallowed his poop, so he was never properly cleaned out when he was born. He ended up having to stay a week because he got a lung infection from it."
"For my second son, I had a scheduled c section."
"The anesthesiologist had an intern with him, and said she will be putting in the epidural (I believe that's still what it is when you have a c section)."
"Those of you who don't know, they have to put this needle in your spine, and God help you if you move too much or they make a mistake."
"This girl put the needle in, and was moving it around. She couldn't find the right spot. It was beyond painful, and so hard to keep still. I could still feel my upper abdomen, which I don't think is normal, but since they were cutting my lower abdomen, I didn't say much."
"The doctor had 2 nurses lay their full body weight on both of my ribs to try to push the baby down. I told my anesthesiologist that they are hurting me and to make them stop. After a few minutes they did and my son was out."
"As soon as he was out, I felt EVERYTHING. I was breathing heavily, trying not to scream. The anesthesiologist gave me about 5 more doses over about 7 minutes before he told me he couldn't do any more. It didn't work. I could feel things ripping inside of me."
"It sounded and felt kind of like when you are ripping the guts out of a pumpkin with your bear hands."
"The doctor asked why I was breathing so heavily. The anesthesiologist told her I was in pain and could feel what she was doing. Her exact words: "well tell her to stop, I need to get her uterus back in."
"She didn't care how much pain I was in, and she acted like I couldn't hear her."
"Afterwards, the anesthesiologist was very apologetic. He said they have to go by certain guidelines. I was more understanding because the medicine finally kicked in, I was holding my son, and just happy it was over."
"I ended up opening my scar during my stay because the next 2 days, I felt absolutely no pain. My son was choking on throw up and the nurse left him at the foot of my bed, so I jumped across my bed to help him."
"I'm glad I no longer go to that doctor.'
jennyv753
Maybe just sleep it off the next time you're feeling under the weather?
Serious Bad Luck
"I went in to a minor surgery to remove a lip cyst and woke up 8 days later with my right leg amputated above the knee. Bad reaction to anesthesia caused heart failure. I was 23 at the time and 24 now. I’m one of those people with chronic bad luck."
F-ckmerit
It's Just A Spinal Tap
"More the doctor's office that screwed up than the hospital, but the resulting hospital visit wasn't fun."
"Went to college health center with classic mono symptoms (didn't find out it was mono until 8 months of symptoms later). They had me take a nap, then woke me up suddenly, in a dark room, half an hour after they closed, to inform me that I was being quarantined for meningitis and had to go to the hospital. I didn't want to take a $1000 ambulance ride, but they refused to let me drive myself or have a friend drive, so my options were "either take an ambulance or stay here all night."
"After three hours in the ER, the doc showed up and got all ready with his gloves, mask, etc. since I was "contagious." Then he took one look, ripped the mask off, and said "you look way too healthy to have meningitis, but since they brought it up I have to do a spinal tap anyway." Then he proceeded to stick a needle in my spinal cord while muttering angrily about how foolish of a diagnosis it was."
"tldr - paid a lot of money and got a needle in my spine because college docs insisted i had meningitis instead of mono"
jmacey72
Never forget, if you don't feel safe, just leave. No law saying you have to stay and receive treatment from people who you feel don't have your own interests at heart.