All men must die (excuse my "Game of Thrones" quote), but these 15 people stared death in the face and said not today. Seriously, these stories are crazy.
Bunsen burners are not toys…
“As teenagers, a friend and I were curious what would happen if you inhaled the gas used for Bunsen burners at school. I went first and took a couple of large breaths in. My friend asked if I was ok. Yeah, I was feeling good, light headed and smiling. Just as I was about to reply, I heard a ticking sound and everything seemed to change. My friend asked again if I was ok, and then everything changed again. It was like my head twitched back into a position it was in three seconds ago. I tried shouting yes but nothing came out. Then I tried to make a fist and stamp my feet but I was paralyzed. I tried to stand, and he asked me again. I tried saying no but nothing came out and I thought this must be a joke. He asked four more times if I was okay but I couldn’t answer. The next time he asked, it was different — I could look up and say, ‘yes?’ Apparently no time passed between him asking and me replying, and he only asked once. I have no clue what happened, but I’m fine now.”
A terrifying fall
“I fell backwards down my grandpa’s home elevator shaft. For a split second, I thought the elevator wasn’t there and that I was about to fall all the way down and split my head open on the concrete. Wound up falling like three feet and landing on top of the elevator.”
A construction worker who just might be James Bond in disguise
“I was working construction on a second-story roof, using a chainsaw through the roof sheeting. Things got slippery with all the sawdust and I started sliding toward the edge, scrambling for a better foothold with a running chainsaw in hand. As I approached the edge, I thought ‘I can’t land on this chainsaw’ and threw it as far as I could, out into a field. I then looked down at the ground for the split second before I slid over the edge. It was like everything happened in slow motion, with wood, rebar, cinderblocks and construction debris everywhere. I saw a clear spot and made a controlled jump two stories down. I hit the ground exactly in that spot, executed a perfect roll and was back on my feet completely unhurt. The chainsaw was on the ground twenty feet away, still running.”
Never mess with haunted train tunnels
“I went with a friend to explore an old train tunnel that was supposedly haunted. The tunnel was still active but trains don’t come often so we figured why not. After about 15 minutes of hiking, we saw a light at the other end of the tunnel, but a few minutes later we noticed it wasn’t really moving but was getting bigger. My friend asked if I felt a breeze. At that point, we were sure a train was coming straight toward us. So we start running back towards the entrance, but we’re only halfway back when I realize we’re not going to get out in time. We get another 50 feet maybe and my friend yells back at me to get down. Not one to disagree, I dove onto the gravelly ground next to the tunnel wall and hugged the earth as hard as I could. Long freight trains take about 5-10 minutes to pass. They’re extremely loud and the tunnel only makes them louder. I’ve never been more scared in my entire life. Once it passed we managed to walk out but the shaking didn’t stop for probably half an hour. My hearing didn’t come back entirely for close to a day. That was a few years ago and I still don’t like being near train tracks.”
Instant blackout
“I got this water yoyo ball thing when I was small, so I went to the roof terrace and started playing with it. I went all ninja with that sh*t and the next moment, I was lying on the ground with dust in my mouth and my head and neck hurt a lot. Turns out while playing with the yoyo, the rubber string got around my neck and choked me as I fell to the ground. It was an instant blackout. There was no one on the terrace who could help me, but I gained consciousness somehow and quickly untangled my neck. I got a second chance at life that day.”
A chilling experience
“I have plenty of back country experience, but I was in a complete white-out on the peak and got disoriented. We ended up dropping on the backside of the mountain instead of dropping back to the resort. We didn’t get out until 10 p.m. because we had to hike up a mountain to get cell service and call for help. The snow was so deep that we couldn’t ski through it, and I had intense hypothermia; my friends got frostbite pretty bad, too. We actually thought we weren’t going to make it and made a death video that I still have to this day.”
Granny’s got some mad skillz
“My grandma was driving me to the train station on a rainy evening down a winding road with one lane in each direction. Suddenly the trailer of a large truck coming in the opposite direction skids out, swinging around 90 degrees, filling our whole lane and coming at us with a combined speed of 90 mph. I just had time to think, ‘so this is how I’m going die’ before my gran somehow took our little car into the ditch and up on the road again, at full speed, completely bypassing the oncoming wall of death. Mind you this is Norway. The ditch was deep and loose, full of rocks and wet soil, with trees and boulders everywhere. It was like a world-class race car driver had taken over the wheel. I was just sitting wide-eyed and dumbstruck in the passenger seat staring at my 78-year-old granny. When I finally came to my senses I stuttered, ‘how did you do that?!’ She just shrugged and said, ‘had to go around, ya see, or else we’d be squashed’ and never spoke of it again. To this day I have literally no idea how she managed that. And I never use ‘you drive like my grandma’ as an insult.”
Cliff tumbling
“I fell off a 70-foot cliff. As I was tumbling down a voice inside my head said ‘you are going to die’ and I accepted that. Time seemed to slow down and it was very peaceful. Then I hit the bottom and everything hurt and I had a broken back and wrist. I’m okay now, though.”
Walking your dog in the middle of a gun fight
“I was walking my pup when out of nowhere, a pick-up truck chasing two dudes on a motorcycle came around the corner. The guy in the truck pulled out a gun and started shooting in the middle of the residential area. My dog froze and wouldn’t move, so I fell to the ground and pushed him down with me. A bullet shattered a window right behind us; It was so close to hitting my head! Turned out the men on the motorcycle had tried to mug a dude in the supermarket parking lot but found he was the wrong guy to mess with. One guy got a bullet in his ass and fell off the bike The neighborhood cornered him and the police came. My dog still gets scared when he hears loud sounds on the street.”
Parasailing pranks
“I was parasailing with a group, and the guy driving the speedboat slowly came to a stop, yelling, ‘we ran out of gas!’ My first thought was that once I hit the water, this parachute was going to drag me down. I started unbuckling my harnesses. The guy kept yelling ‘we ran out of gas!,’ and I’m thinking, ‘yeah, I get it, I’m working on not drowning.’ I got through about 2 buckles when he started the boat back up. Later I found out it was a prank, and they all thought I was daft for not responding when all I was really concerned with was survival.”
Swerving for dear life
“I was riding my motorcycle down the freeway and, suddenly, I saw the truck in front of me swerve, but not far enough; it ran over the queen-size mattress that had fallen into the road from the truck in front of it. The mattress lifted up in the air and flipped. That was the last thing I remember seeing before my vision alternated between the ground, sky, ground, sky, ground, sky. The whole time I could only think two things: ‘keep your arms tucked, stupid’ and ‘please don’t let the car behind me run me over.’ As soon as I stopped rolling, I jumped up to see if I was about to be run over, and luckily the car was about 15 feet behind me, already stopped. I hobbled over to the median and collapsed. My helmet, jacket, gloves and the driver behind me saved my life.”
A killer headache
“I was scuba diving in roughly 60-70 feet of water when I got an insane migraine — never had one before and haven’t had one since. I couldn’t see straight, my head wanted to explode and I knew that I was about to throw up, but that wasn’t an option because I was underwater. My buddy sensed that something was wrong when I was unresponsive and floating upside down, so he grabbed me and slowly ascended. We had to stop to decompress so we didn’t get the bends, and as we were sitting at roughly 15 feet I started throwing up. So I puked through my regulator and after what felt like an hour, we finally hit the surface. That’s why you always dive with a buddy.”
Bouldering Buffoon
“I was bouldering and was about 20 feet up, almost to the top but there weren’t any holds left. I felt around for a good hold but couldn’t find anything, and then my leg started to shake uncontrollably and I panicked. One of my friends going up a different route saw what was going on, so he scrambled up to the top and reached over the edge to pull me up. Just as he grabbed my hand, my foot slipped off and he was able to hang on for just enough time for me to get my footing back and make it to the top. The fall probably wouldn’t have killed me unless I landed really badly, but I would have definitely broken both legs and probably some other bones.”
When strawberries become deadly
“I was eating strawberries at a ridiculous speed when I suddenly sucked one into my windpipe. I have absolutely no idea how long it was stuck. Logic tells me it can’t have been more than 30-40 seconds but it’s true what they say—everything slows down. After much neck grabbing, air clawing and unsuccessful coughing, I just ran at my kitchen counter and, amazingly, it worked just like the Heimlich maneuver. I’ve never had any medical training; I have no clue how the hell I managed to save my own life that day. Pure luck, I suppose! I ended up with the nastiest bruise across my upper abdomen and my throat ached for about two weeks.”
Mom saves the day
“My family was visiting the ocean so I jumped in to show off. I swam out no more than 50 yards but was getting farther and farther from shore. Then I was 75 yards out, still going backwards and starting to panic. There were no boats for miles. At this point I was terrified. I began thinking about conserving my energy for the rescue party. That’s when I heard my mom hollering, ‘PUT YOUR HEAD DOWN AND F*CKING SWIM!’ So I swam like I was at a meet. I didn’t look up to see where I was going, counted my strokes before taking my next breath, kicked with all my might, invested everything in out-swimming the current. I was getting weak fast and was exhausted, but I made it the last 20 yards to shore as Mom helped me swim back. No one besides my mother even noticed anything was wrong.”