How Close Have You Come To Death?

Have you knocked on the door?

I guess most of us have had that moment where a matter of split seconds, or a change of pathway has ruled our fate!
We have lost some great members here over time, so i don't mean to disrespect them, but just the other day it could have been me too!

We live in Oz, we love camping and the bush.
We explore Victoria's golden triangle, so naturally we carry metal detectors looking for the shiny, heavy stuff.....its just a hobby, and it helps reduce the stress of hours in front of a screen.

Just last camp, i was walking through the bush, swinging the coil when i heard a loud, sickening CRACK.....a large gum tree had decided to shed a bloody big branch and it hit the ground with a tremor that i felt 15 foot away.

Now probably 30 seconds earlier, I had walked past that very spot.
It made me feel sick actually!

Cherish the time we have, love life, and be nice to your mum!

 

She is the greatest lady you'll ever know!

 

I got knocked unconscious in a car accident. When I came to, I saw bright flashing lights and I was looking up at woman in white clothes. I thought I was in heaven. And then I saw the men in blue...

 

The short story .......
While driving through the bush I nearly dropped my Range Rover down a very deep mineshaft that opened up as I drove over the top of it.

The long story........
Many years ago, about 1980 in fact, I was heavily into camping and 4WD vehicles and was a member of several 4WD clubs. One of the clubs was organising a three day camping trip through Bendigo Regional Park Reserve National Park and then onto historic Maldon and and the surrounding National Park and me and two other committee members were checking the area out. This area is right in the midst of where the goldrush took place in Victoria and has some nice 4WD tracks and lovely scenery.
My wife and I were in my Range Rover plus two other vehicles were mapping out where we were going to going to run the club event and making sure all the tracks were clear and safe and the camping areas were big enough for maybe 20 vehicles and their tents. In the 1980s the National Parks still allowed 4WD access and because the 4WD club did yearly track clearing for the CFA (Country Fire Authority) so they could get their fire trucks along the tracks during fire season, we were given special access to areas not accessible to the public but often these areas were really rough and could be quite dangerous so great care was needed to be taken. We had mapped the tracks and camping areas near Bendigo and were now out the back of Maldon which is in the same area as Bendigo and could be accessed via offroad trails from Bendigo.
The track we were on had a huge fallen tree that was blocking the track and the trunk was too big for our tiny chainsaws so we noted that we needed to come back with our full size chainsaws (36" bar) to clear the track prior to running the club event.
To continue mapping we decided to drive off the track and chop through the top of the tree where it was much thinner so we could get around the track blockage. Once the tree was cut and cleared the first 4WD, which was a Toyota HiLux, drove past the tree then headed back towards the track. I went next in my Range Rover following his path through the bush and just past the tree top and on the way back onto the track there was a huge crack and the ground opened up and gave way.
We had driven over an old mineshaft that had been boarded up and then covered with dirt. The HiLux was light enough but the Range Rover's extra weight had broken the rotten timber under the ground. The timber and dirt fell down the shaft leaving a huge hole but lucky I had enough momentum that although one back wheel dropped into the hole we still carried forward and stopped on solid ground on the other side.......whew....nearly needed a change of pants
Because it was wet and slippery it didn't seem safe to drive around the hole as maybe there were more shafts nearby and also we would have had to cut down another 4 fairly big trees and clear the path. We only had our baby chainsaws with 12" bars so this wasn't going to happen.
Now there were two vehicles on one side that couldn't go back so we were stuck as the track we were on leads to a dead end.
We got on the CB radio and called the emergency services and they came with some big army trucks and covered the hole with three big steel beams and some heavy steel plates but we were stuck there for an extra day while we waited for the steel so lucky we had plenty of food.
The shaft was at least a hundred and fifty feet deep because a big rock took over 3 seconds to hit the bottom so if a vehicle fell down then the outcome wouldn't be very good. We were surprised that there wasn't any trace of the steel work or foundations for the minehead hoist that was probably there or even a danger sign but one of the dudes that came with the steel said that a lot of the mines in the area used portable equipment and when the gold veins ran out or they hit water they just moved everything to a new location and started again. Some companies didn't do a very good job of sealing up the old mineshaft and making it safe as this didn't make them any money.
We came back 3 weeks later to clear the tree from the track but it had already been done by emergency services and they had covered the steel plates with reinforced concrete and it had a steel trapdoor that was padlocked in case access was required for some reason in the future.

It was a very lucky escape and something that was totally unexpected as the old mine site wasn't marked on our forestry survey maps of the area and there were no signs to tip us off that a mine had even been here as everything looked like pristine bush .......turns out there were two more unsafe shafts nearby and these got covered up also

 

Does a semi truck turing over and sliding on the roadway right toward me count? To close a call for me. It defiantly got my heart pumping!

 

I've had DVT/PE twice, first PE was bilateral, the one last fall was a saddle PE that they said had I waited another 15 minutes to go to the hospital would've killed me. That one was good for 3 days in ICU flat on my back with IVs in both arms and my leg to blast the clots. That's probably the closest I've been.

Situational stuff... I was staying in a motel but was out for the night when a man was killed outside a room a few doors down. I had dinner with an ex-boyfriend less than 24 hours before he kidnapped and raped another ex of his after killing her current boyfriend. Those both kind of creeped me out.

 

Wow! Sgt. Tibbs that is not just "kind of creepy" it is a really crazy scary nightmare.

 

I've had a tree crack in half while I was walking beside a creek thru probably 10 acres. It sounded like a rifle shot. When it started falling it made the hair on back my neck tingle. Sure you know the feeling. Like goosebumps!

Had kidney failure once. Went on for probably 2 weeks before my company made it mandatory for me to go get diagnostics done to find out what was going on. I remember having real weird dreams. Evil vs good and they were all after me. Daylight made my eyes see everything with this god awful bright yellow tint. I was walking in a cloud for 2 weeks. I remember praying if I could just live until my wife could take care of herself.

Well, I made it to diagnostics where they found the problem. And I guess maybe my wife still needs me because here I Am!
When you know something's wrong, it probably is, but good senses is the first to go!

 

Ditto....

@DocDave, Look after yourself mate, update your firmware
(thought i would get one in as its usually GP's tellin me)

 

That's something I intend to try some day. I've watched videos on youtube of people skydiving with a camera attached to themselves.

 

Actual death? I was on my motorcycle, heart stopped and I passed out. But as I thumped down the road and hit the divider it acted as CPR so I was alive when the police showed up. Heart stopped again in the ambulance heading to the hospital, a third time in the ER and again a day later. They put in a pacemaker and all good ever since. But I do get a twinge when I go around that corner now.

 

Short Story-
I was born 3-4 months pre-mature (29 weeks) 2lbs. 8oz. no pulse and no blood pressure reading was having all sorts of meds and experimental testing done (with my parents written consent). I wasn't supposed to make it much past that....fast forward 26 years I'm here and kicking only issue I have is mild spastic cerebral palsy ( that's the reference in my signature down below) due to a grade 4 bleed and bruising on the motor coordination section of my brain. But, comparing the limited use of my right hand and fingers, to not being here.... I think I made out alright in the end.

 

Walking to elementary school (age 6-7) on a cold, icy morning in Dallas, Tx, with my twin brother and another buddy, we crossed an intersection at a red light. There was a huge city bus waiting to go when the light turned green. I slipped on some ice and fell/slid under the front wheel of the bus as light changed. My brother and friend each quickly grabbed an outstretched arm and yanked me out from under the rolling wheel just in the nick of time. Close call. It would have squashed me like a bug. My first of 3 close brushes with death so far in my 77+ years.

 

The closest I came would probably be when I was a teenager. I was with friends swimming in a popular gravel pit . . . may have been some beer involved. The pit was about 30 feet deep, surrounded by 20 to 25 foot sheer walls on three sides. It was common practice to dive in from the sides and go as deep as possible . . . if you came up with some mud from the bottom you won some bragging rights (I guess this would be the 1970's version of the current idiot "challenge" craze).

One day I dove off the edge and tried to go to the bottom. I got hit with a horrific cramp and doubled up. The water was always murky, and it was also overcast that day, so there wasn't much light to go by. I was totally disoriented and was not sure which way was up. I had decided to pick a direction when it occured to me to blow out some bubbles and determine which way they went. The bubbles left my mouth and traveled along my cheek and over my ear . . . had I not done that and swam the way I thought was up I'd been been swimming in a sideways, slightly downward direction. I think I was on the verge of blacking out as I broke the surface.

 

Hmmm......no need to buy any lottery tickets for a while MA, that was close.....you may have used up your share of luck
It is amazing how a close call can change your perspective on life
I didn't really have a close call but I gave up my motor bikes and racing cars when I remarried in 1990 as it was better for saving to buy a house. Also when I am on a motorbike I have a mental problem that causes my right hand to be very heavy and holding the throttle wide open.......hehehe I just like to go really fast and when my girlfriend (now wife) found out five of my close friends had all died on motorbikes she wasn't too happy so my bike had to go......it has saved me a fortune in speeding fines lol

 

Your stories are proof that in a matter of seconds your life as you know it can change.

 

well, crikey, it seems like we have all had close calls.

i will have to cherry pick from my life, i did mention one from my last birthday thread
https://forums.majorgeeks.com/threads/happy-birthday-harmless.317308/

another auto related incident:
early 1980's, i was driving home around 3am in the morning after celebrating someone else's birthday. yes, alcohol was involved, but i was driving so i drank lightly. it was me, my girlfriend, and the 2 B-day people in the car. i was approaching a curved freeway bridge, as i got to the crest of the bridge, my headlights illuminated a stopped car at the crest, and it was in my lane. the headlights also illuminated a pair of feet in front of the stopped car. i was probably going 60mph or so. i think i tapped the brakes, tugged the steering wheel to the left, we slid into the next lane, and shot past the stopped car. if you would have blinked your eyes, you would have missed it. i remember thinking... who stands in front of their stopped car on a freeway. i suppose i could have thought 100 other different things, but that was what popped into my mind.

this one, i have no memory of, since i was six weeks old at the time. i was born 3 weeks early, and with a double hernia. the doctors waited 6 weeks before they decided i was strong enough to have hernia surgery. i was told it went well, but while they were sewing me up, my heart stopped. back in november of 1958, they did not have jumper cables to shock my heart, so the surgeon opened up my chest to give me open heart massage. no one had a stop watch, but best guess was in the 4 to 5 minute range where i was technically dead. the only fallout from this was that my fine motor coordination took a hit.... but that's a whole n'other story. my parents actually kept the hospital receipt from this, total cost was $237.95
[ though it looks like it should add up higher ], i would not want to know what that would cost now a days. they are attached. it's all coded so it is clear as mud.

toodles,
harmless
who thinks of death as a good friend, just misunderstood.