I Survived (in the Playground)

[PallElendro]

Okay, so about 30 minutes ago, I noticed that my laptop was low on battery, so I had it plugged back in. The problem was that it was not charging whilst plugged. I checked the cable, and tried disconnecting and reconnecting the power brick under my feet. Did not work. I had limited time left, so I looked up a solution to this problem on the Internet.

So I had to first turn off my laptop and remove the battery. Easy enough. Before I did that, however, I unplugged my laptop from the power. I clicked the release, and out came the battery. I then remembered the directions telling me to press and hold the power button for about a minute or two to remove any static power. One minute goes by. Two. Great! I can put the battery back.

Then I worked on the third solution, which was a little dangerous. I won't bother writing a summary, so listen up. I had to reset the cable. I took a staple from a stapler, and touched both my finger and the staple on my front door outside to release static. The instructions also called for me to take a Q-tip and clean the charging end before doing anything else.
After that, I stuck the staple on to the little copper end where the pointy end is, and I carefully touched the other end on the-- I think it was nickel-- ring; realised my mistake in an instant. I forgot to unplug the thing from the AC power, and the next thing I knew, I had 100-240 volts and 2 amps running through my body. Luckily, I wasn't incapacitated. Or even injured, for that matter. It was just a small spark in the charging end. Now there are burn marks on the ring.

But the good news is that the charger is finally working, and I can resume working with it.
---
You got any interesting survival stories?

[Saturosian]

When I was doing my undergrad, I was living in a cheap affordable little apartment with a few guys off of campus. It was liveable, except for an *awful* internet connection. One of my more progressive classes had us take our midterms online, which, as you can imagine, led to some hilarity.

I had just finished the test, and I clicked on 'submit', and I immediately had a DNS error. :smalleek: I almost refreshed, but I had the thought that it might not send my answers if I did that, so I left the browser open and verified with one of my roommates that the router was really down (ie, not just my computer). I fiddled around with the router for about ten minutes, until the internet suddenly started working again. I went back to my computer and tried using the 'back' button and, yay! My test came back, with all the answers just like they were! I hurried and submitted again, while the internet was still working, and got a pretty decent score.

Another time, in another class, I had to use my smartphone to take a quiz because there was absolutely no connection at all for a three-day period. I really don't miss the internet in that apartment.

[Jaycemonde]

Not sure how well this qualifies, but once when I was back in high schoo', one of my friends convinced me to try a game of airsoft with them (the semi-casual kind where everybody shows up in fatigues and vests) and although I was doing pretty well I lost my footing at the top of a small-ish hill (you know, the kind where the very top is kind of a three-inch overhang) and ended up sliding about fifty feet down the rocky berm with my left arm in front of me. I had my sleeve rolled up.

Needless to say, it didn't look very pretty. Nothing broken, no sticks going through any part of my body, but it sure as hell wasn't a light bruise either. The next day I wrapped gauze around it and took my surplus first-aid kit to school on my belt so I could take care of it while I was sitting in the back of class (no, going to the nurse did not occur to me, and yes, I feel stupid even now for not thinking of that) and
yeah. Let's just say that the smell of rubbing alcohol doesn't sit well with morning people. I took good care of the huge-ass scrape for a week or so, but eventually it started to, ahem, "progress" in it's urgency, until I finally went to the doctor and got it looked at.

I didn't even get a gnarly scar from it, just a weird discolored (slightly paler) patch of skin. Although sometimes I still wonder whether my separate knee injury might have happened on the same day, even though it didn't start to hurt and give out until like a month later.

[factotum]

I don't like to diminish your epic story of survival, but if you were touching the charging end (the bit you plug into the laptop) then you weren't subjecting yourself to 100-240V--typically that bit would be running at around 20V DC. That's why you need the charger brick in the first place, to convert the AC mains voltage down to something the laptop can use!

[Crow]

I survived a rocket by taking cover behind a large-ish crypt-thingy. The rocket hit the structure and (very old) human remains got propelled out the backside along with pieces of concrete. When I got the crud out of my eyes, half a human skull was staring back at me. It was surreal.

[TuggyNE]

I survived a rocket by taking cover behind a large-ish crypt-thingy. The rocket hit the structure and (very old) human remains got propelled out the backside along with pieces of concrete. When I got the crud out of my eyes, half a human skull was staring back at me. It was surreal.

I … I think that might win the thread. Yeesh, dude. :smalleek:

[Jaycemonde]

I survived a rocket by taking cover behind a large-ish crypt-thingy. The rocket hit the structure and (very old) human remains got propelled out the backside along with pieces of concrete. When I got the crud out of my eyes, half a human skull was staring back at me. It was surreal.

I'd say that wins the thread, but I do have to ask what the hell the circumstances were for that.

[Grinner]

I survived a rocket by taking cover behind a large-ish crypt-thingy. The rocket hit the structure and (very old) human remains got propelled out the backside along with pieces of concrete. When I got the crud out of my eyes, half a human skull was staring back at me. It was surreal.

I concur. You can't drop something like that and not provide details.

[PallElendro]

you weren't subjecting yourself to 100-240V--typically that bit would be running at around 20V DC.

Ah, good! I was looking at the input instead of the output when I was reading about my charger. But it was amping up the amps to a 4.74, which is a little bit freakier, because amps kill.

[factotum]

The amps that can actually flow through you is dependent on the voltage supplied and the resistance of your body, though, and you would have to pretty much plug 20V directly into your heart to have a chance of killing yourself. Not to mention that the wall socket can supply a heck of a lot more than 4.74A--in the UK, you can get 220V at 13A from them, it's probably even higher in the States due to the lower voltage. (Case in point: to supply a 2kW electric heater from a 110V supply would require a smidgeon over 18A of current).

[Sabeki]

Fireworks story.
So, me and my friends were screwing around with fireworks in the front yard during the 4th of July, when one got to the party with REAL fireworks, not just snapstones or whatever. So he put some of them in a bucket, all in good fun, and we were launching them for a while.
But suddenly,he gets something wrong, the angle a bit off. So instead of soaring through the air, it soars right at someone house. And flew off into their garden. Needless to say, it went off very loud. We all ran into my friends house, and hid upstairs, before one of the people in that house came over.
We all though we were totally screwed. But, they went back to the house, and we didn't fire any fireworks again. Well, at their house, that is.

[Fri]

I survived a train crash without a scratch in highschool. My family's car got hit by an honest to goodness train, and got flipped around and dragged for 50 meters or so. And I still can't believe it now, but I got out of it without a single scratch. My brother got into a pre-coma for a week, and all of my other family members got various part of their body broken, but me, I only bit my tongue a bit. It was unreal.

The really crazy thing? I'm pretty sure this is just a coincidence, but just before we went into the fateful journey, my brother was playing The Sims: Makin Magic. He got a dragon, and ended up having his whole mansion burned, and his avatar got burned to death. Unreal.

[Ravens_cry]

I impaled my forehead on the head of a nail when I was three.
Want the gory details?
Of course you do.
I was down in the basement, bouncing on a bed. Now, strictly speaking, I wasn't supposed to be doing this, as this was a guest bed. There was even some mattresses I and my sisters were allowed to use.
But, being the person I was, I was jumping anyway.
Did I mention that the bed was next to a little basement window?
Did I mention that the window, to stop it from being opened from the outside, had a nail jutting out of the window frame?
Down my forehead came on the nail, and up, and across, I pulled. My, that was a scream. My mum was washing my littlest sister in the tub at the time, so my dad dashed downstairs, saw me, and carried me upstairs to the bathroom, and, shortly after, took me to the hospital. I remember the sodium yellow street lights as we raced to the hospital.
Over a dozen stitches deep and more than that across, it has made a lovely scar in the top centre of my forehead that I affectionately refer to as my 'Harry Potter' scar.

[Creed]

I live a very protected life. The worst I've ever had was in high school, I slipped on a rock while getting out of a canoe in the Little Miami River, and a rock about two inches long slid into my ankle like butter. The scar's only about half an inch long, but it hurt like hell and sure did pump out some blood.

[grom the mighty]

Not really my survival story, but someone else's (although it was my fault :smalleek: ).
I was riding home from school on my bike once just after my 14th birthday for which i had been given a speedometer by my dad so I could see how fast I was going. Word of advice kids-your children will takes this as a challenge.
I lived in a valley and the school was at the top of the hill. This hill took almost 15 minutes to walk down, and I decided it was the perfect place to break the sound barrier.
I (somehow) remember that I got to around 50 Km/h by the bottom of the hill, where a woman (she must have been at least 80) walked out onto the path (don't worry I didn't hit her :smallwink: ).
I was boxed in by cars and couldn't get onto the road so I pulled on my back brake to slow down. My brake cable snapped. By this point I was at most 5 yards from the woman so I made the decision to pull on my front brake. At almost 30mph. This caused the front of the bike to stop and the rest of the bike (me included) to keep going. Over the handlebars and into the pavement.

I woke up about 20 minutes later with a broken arm and blood coming out of my head, not to mention my bike in someone else's front garden. The lady was okay though, which was good. Needless to say, I don't use that hill anymore :smalltongue:
I am however, just as stupid ^

[grom the mighty]

Oh I forgot another story of my bike trying to kill me!
When I was 5, literally a two minute walk from where I almost killed the old woman, I tried riding my bike without training wheels. Guess what?
I started rolling down a hill ( i live in a very hilly are :smallwink: ).
At the bottom of the hill is a wooden post about half a foot thick.
I hit the post with my face and (no exagguration whatsoever) smashed my nose (it had to be held together with this strange tape for almost half a year) and now I have a ginormous nose that makes me look like a parrot. And the post is still there (albeit in two pieces).

[Xhosant]

That would be my domain you just stepped into.

When i was 3 years old, i deemed it wise to flip a cauldron of boiling water over myself. I spent the next couple of weeks in full-body cast due for the burns :smallbiggrin:

At 14-ish, during the winter, i got really excited because it snowed, which doesn't happen very often where I live. Before dashing down the stairs for some serious snow-flinging, I remembered how much I hated my gloves getting soaked with melted snow. So I put some thick plastic gloves over my normal ones, to keep the water out. That proved a great idea, since it helped my latch on the stairs when i tripped and avoid tumbling down for 3 floors' worth of stairs. That also left me unable to breathe due to shock, for a good 2-3 minutes.

But the cake goes to when I fell out of the first floor window of my school. I landed on the first floor nonetheless, so the drop was practically from a standing position and height, but I got a broken wrist for my trouble, and an intimidating description of how.

[Ravens_cry]

I have a scar on the back of my head that is visible when my hair is super short. It literally goes all the way up and down the centre of the back of my head.
I have no idea what I did that caused it, and no one in my family does either.

[SarahV]

I (somehow) remember that I got to around 50 Km/h by the bottom of the hill, where a woman (she must have been at least 80) walked out onto the path (don't worry I didn't hit her :smallwink: ).

Gah, I have a similar story except I was probably 8 years old and not going nearly as fast. But I panicked, and froze, and ran into the person, who was pushing a baby stroller :smallfrown: By some miracle no one was hurt, not even the baby (the impact didn't knock the stroller over).

And that story reminds me of when some of my friends and I went snowtubing in a local park. We didn't have enough tubes for everyone so we took turns. My friend, C., was going down, and as she went we all saw this oblivious little toddler go wandering unsupervised across the hill full of sledders :smalleek: And you can't really steer a snowtube that well... we watched in horror as C. slammed into the kid at full speed. The front of the snowtube hit the kid at about knee level, he went flying in the air - think "pedestrian going through the windshield" style - and C. somehow caught the kid and rode down the rest of the hill holding the uninjured toddler in her lap. 20 years later, I have no doubt that child is leading a wonderfully charmed life somewhere.

As for myself, there was an electrocution, a 107F fever, and a couple of head injuries, but I am pretty sure I will meet my end walking around my urban neighborhood where approximately a third of all drivers are using their smartphones while driving at rush hour. I can't even tell you how many times I've nearly been run over by some idiot using their phone. :smallannoyed:

[Silverraptor]

Lets see...

When I was 2 years old, I was supposable rocking my high chair back and forth, causing it to tip over and having me land head first on the kitchen tile. I don't remember it, but I do have a scar on the back-right side of my head. I was, of course, taken to the hospital.

I was 8 years old and my family was going hiking on thanksgiving up a well known and popular mountain route. My dad pointed to a sign and explained to me quite thoroughly to stay on the trail. I managed to get ahead of everyone and saw a bunch of teenagers starting to walk off the trail and I told them the rules to stay on the trail, like what my dad told me. They gave me, an 8 year old kid, a dirty look and said the whole "You do what your dad tells you" talk and they walk off. Their words bouncing around my head a while, I started going off the trail to save time around curves, and of course, got completely lost in the wilderness. Using memory and familiar landmarks of the area, and reasoning that if I went around the diameter of the mountain that I would eventually reach a trail. So I did just that, spending about 40 minutes to an hour, climbing across steep, sharp rocks around the mountain until I started hearing faint voices. I cried out for help as loud as I could and I heard several people calling out back to me. The person who first showed up was my dad, who, after calming rescuing and bringing me back to the trail, then proceeded to gut me like a fish for not listening to him at the bottom on not leaving the trail.

On my 12th Birthday, I was doing a canoeing merit badge class at a summer camp. The requirement that day was to swamp and flip the canoe so we can practice what to do if that every happened in real life. Well, when me and my cousin did that, my leg banged the side of the canoe really hard. When we tried to right it and tried to make our way back, we accidently flipped it again and the part of my leg that hit it before hit it really hard again. At this point, my cousin (who was older) ditched me and swam over to a motorboat that was crossing and they let him in, leaving me to, by myself, swim the canoe to shore, as I was being yelled at by the instructor to hurry up. I walked on shore, went about 20 feet, before collapsing onto a bench with increasing amount of tears in my eyes as the spot on my leg began to change color and grow dramatically by the second before everyone's eyes and swell up immensely. It was surmised that the water was so cold, it prevented the swelling from occurring until I left it. They splint my leg and called the ATV gator to pick me up. They tried for 20 minutes with me there crying from the pain, playing radio tag while in the distance, they could see the guy driving back and forth across camp in the gator. They finally managed to get him over and they loaded me in the back and my dad in the passenger seat and took off. It wasn't until the next day that we learned that every staff in camp doesn't park next to this guy or he'd hit them both in parking and unparking, and he has me in the back of the gator. The relevance is we had to cross a perfectly flat field... with only 1 large rock in this entire space. Of course, he had to drive over this only rock and cause me to fly and nearly fall off the back of the vehicle, causing my dad to yell at the guy to stop, check me out, and then yell at him some more for being so stupid. Then there was a bridge we had to cross, and he drives over one of the concrete support beams, causing me to fall out for real this time, causing the same part of my leg to hit, hard, on the sharpest part of the concrete support, which really enraged my dad at this guy and at this point the whole camp. They get me to the health lodge, where they apply antiseptic to the ugly looking bruise, talk about it amongst themselves before deciding they need to send me to the hospital for x-rays. They offer to send their driver, but when the guy in the gator showed up, my dad told them "Hell No!" and drove me himself down the mountain to town. After visiting 3 hospitals due to various reasons (1 said I was invalid. The second had my dad start filling out a long non-member form, causing him to wish Kaiser was there, and then they gave him directions to one a few blocks away, which was the 3rd hospital) They finally x-rayed my leg, which was more than 10 hours after I hit it the first time, and was suspected broken. It turns out, I was lucky enough to only get a bone bruise and it was attributed to the large amount of milk I drink that it wasn't broken. And all this happened on my 12th birthday. The funny part about this was, since I was the first class that day, none of the instructors could get the scouts into the water because of rumors that "Someone broke his leg while swimming in the lake!"

When I was 14 and I was with my Boy Scout troop on a skiing trip, they convinced me to go on the slope 1 more than the bunny slope, despite the fact I was still very inexperienced in turning and slowing. So, in the last leg, where I was *suppose* to do the sharp turns back and forth which no one told me to do, another person around my age stopped at the bottom to undo his skis'. Well, it was explained multiple times that you need to go past the "End of Slope" sign before undoing your stuff. He was still 50 feet within it. And of course, I was travelling full speed, no real way to stop straight at him. I yelled a couple times for him to get out of the way, because I didn't know how to move or stop with this being my first try off the bunny slope, but he didn't hear me. With about 10 seconds to impact, I had several full scenarios play through my head, including different positions I could take to try and lessen the pain in certain areas of my body if we were to crash. But when every scenario I could think of presented a high likelihood I would break 1 or both my legs due to the heavy skis' I made the decision to thrust myself as hard as I can to my left. I missed him by a fraction of an inch and face planted hard into the snow. Both my legs ached, but weren't broken, my dad and several other senior scouts came over to make sure I was unhurt. The Idiot walked off not knowing that he put both me and him in incredible danger.

And finally, while I wasn't the one in immediate danger, it should somewhat qualify. I was 19, working at a different Boy scout summer camp and it was hike day. I was the "Beak" (which means I was the designated front person and no one could pass me on the trail) and I was entertaining 4 12-13 year olds stories as we made our way back to camp. As I was talking, I heard a faint hiss to my right. I turned my head and in a fraction of a second, out of my peripheral vision, I somehow managed to make out a coiled up rattlesnake that blended perfectly into the environment and the scout furthest on my right was just about to step on in. Less than 2 seconds later, I had managed to wrap me arms around all 4 scouts (which managed to be around their necks, due to how short they were compared to me) and pulled all of them 15 feet back away from the rattlesnake. I could feel the adrenaline in my bloodstream as I spent the next few seconds figuring out the whole situation. The rattlesnake stayed there for a minute before it slithered up the hill. At this location, due to natural selection from an invasive species of boars that killed rattlesnakes, only the rattlesnakes that don't rattle were left in the area which is why this rattlesnake didn't warn us ahead of time.

So, those are my dangerous scenario stories I can think of at the top of my head. Will these suffice?

[Eldan]

My brother, when he was some five to eight years old, once climbed over a staircase's railing on the first floor and fell almost two meters. On a stone floor. Landing on his head.

He immediately sat up and apparently had no injuries. Other than screaming his head off. We rushed him to a hospital of course, but the doctor there wasn't even sure if our story was true or not. No wound, no concussion, nothing.

[super dark33]

I once stubbed my toe.

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/511/991/3a5.jpg

[ShadowFireLance]

...Wow. I guess i'm the only guy that has just two. Two, Horrible ones, but still, just two. (And a friend's experience, that I witnessed.)

1: So, My friend, Has this (99.9% Likely illegally modified, At least, It should be.)
Paintball gun, that can shoot RIDICULOUSLY far, and can severely injure at close range. So, me, him, and his friend, are hanging out in his basement. Cue friend digging up gun. Cue conversation:
Me: "Dude, Please tell me that isn't THE Gun."
Him: "Yuppers."
Friend: "Duuude, we should shoot something with it."
Him: "Yeah, Wish I could, but it's out, see?"
*Squeezes trigger, aiming at nothing in particular.*
*Shoots blue paintball.* You know how those things are supposed to explode upon impact? Well, It didn't. It ricochet off of not one. Not two. But three metal poles, And hit my friend in the face.
We knew something was wrong when it started bleeding. Turns out it cut his eye. Yeah. Don't know exactly how, but geeze, it was scary when red started running down the blue.

The other two come later.

[Dienekes]

When I was living in the city a guy tried to rob me with a knife. Now being a miserly idiot I did not want to give my wallet to the guy so I pretended to go for my wallet and as he got close I lunged for the knife, missed, and football training taking over I ended up just tackling the guy to the ground. There were blows that I don't really remember very well but in the end I knocked the knife away and just started kicking the guy while he was on the ground until he stopped moving. I picked up the knife feeling like a total badass and went home to call the cops. I thought I had gotten through the thing unscathed but as I got to my apartment I felt wet and noticed that there was blood all down my shirt, and as soon as I noticed that my neck started to hurt. Somehow in the fight I had been stabbed, about an inch away from my carotid artery. I had almost been killed to save my wallet, which only had $18 in it.

[Crow]

I concur. You can't drop something like that and not provide details.

Basically, I'm an old fart. I fought in the Second Congo War.

[Maryring]

I was once skating on a pond as fast as I could. Now, there's a small river going under a bridge that leans into this pond, and I wanna know what it's like to skate under a bridge. I was six years old, and nobody had told me that skating under bridges is generally a *bad idea*. However I'm still clever enough to realize that "brown ice = danger", and I notice this brown ice as I'm speeding at extreme speeds towards the bridge. Desperate to avoid sliding underneath the bridge I lean myself far, far to the side and somehow manage to make a u-turn that leaves me barely touching the brown ice and take me away from danger. Moments later, the ice there cracked omniously.

I also once had a fireworks rocket fly between me and my dad and into a rock-wall near us when some kids were playing with them. It was less than a half inch from blinding me.

[Starwulf]

I have two survival stories. One I've told before, one I haven't. The one I haven't occurred when I was about 13. I was walking through the woods that surrounds my parents house(and grandmas place, which is now mine), just doing my usual exploration and nature hiking, when I tripped over an old hidden rusty wire that was apparently part of an old fence. I fell, and thankfully had the reflexes to put my hands out to catch myself. When I looked down, about an inch away from my chest was an old metal spike sticking straight up out of the ground. I'd have easily impaled myself right through the heart if I hadn't caught myself.

The one I have told is entirely my fault, though no less horrific(and much more debilitating). A week before my wedding, 1 month before my oldest was born, I had a "mini" bachelors party. It was just me and 3 other buddies at one of their places. We had gotten to drinking, and decided "Hey, let's go out and walk around in the woods while we're totally drunk!" So, we did! We walked for about half an hour, pretty much all downhill, until we got into a field that had a stream running next to it. After that we decided to turn around, and I got ahead of them with the flashlight. One moment I was fine, the next I was free-falling 40 feet through the air, to land on top of a small rock(basketball size) laying on top of a huge rock(car size). I was knocked out near instantly(I had a moment to wonder if I was dying), the next thing I know I wake up to hearing my buddies yelling my name. Then had to walk a mile uphill, called my soon to be wife, went to the hospital where I found out I crushed 3 vertebrae entirely in such a way that they can never be repaired. Also ruptured several discs, and have a cluster of pinched nerves. Every doctor I've seen since that fall has expressed surprise that I'm even alive, let alone still able to walk(though it's only a matter of time before I can't, sadly).

So, those are my two "I survived" stories.

[Tyndmyr]

That would be my domain you just stepped into.

Oh, please. Near death experiences? I got this.

I've had hypothermia three times, all before the age of sixteen, and all many miles from civilization. My favorite one is the time I blew through ice on a lake deep in the boundary waters, and the damned hundred pound sled behind me had the momentum to nail me in the back as I went down. Also, that was tied to me, and the bottom was all muck. Ultimately, the shallow depth is likely what saved me.

Been the ER an assortment of times, including three times for significant burns. After that, I had enough Silvadene to not bother. One such event was the time I decided to build a lightsaber out of rocket engines. I'd observed that D12's put out a long enough flame to look the part, and things underneath them when launched DID tend to be cut by the burn...so I dumped the contents of my rockets, explosives and fireworks bin in a heap on the deck and got to it. The detonators strewn among the mix(those of you who understand safety are already shuddering) were old, so I decided to test them a bit. Sitting there with a 9v battery, testing over and over with no success, I had decided to call it a day, and with my right hand, slammed the detonator and battery into the pile. Suddenly, it worked. After the initial blast that destroyed that portion of the deck, caused second and third degree burns to my hand/forearm and flash burns/shirt removal all the way to my face, I somehow managed to get inside the house in a heartbeat. Fortunately, amputation ended up not being required, and I healed almost perfectly.

Last, but not least, due to various conflicts and being threatened with a firearm, I ended up driving my parents van with no glasses. I should probably mention that I'm legally blind. Additionally, this was in Minnesota, in winter, it was icy, and unbeknownst to me, the brakes were shot. Angrily speeding along very rapidly, I discovered both of these factors at the same time as I came to a T in the road. Due to the abrupt departure and emotional state, I had neglected my usual use of a seatbelt. I hit the frozen earth wall going about 70, then the airbag failed. The seat I was in slammed forward so fast it got the seat stuck in the chair frame, and the entire frame of the car twisted up pretty good. I bent the top of the steering wheel flat with my face. Then, I got out and walked away, with no further injury than a red mark at the bridge of my nose where the wheel hit.

Kids, I'm a professional idiot. Do not try this at home.

[Remmirath]

Nothing so surprising that I've survived. Those stories in my family belong to my oma or a few to my mom, not me. However, there have been things that I've come out of better than expected. Nothing as interesting or dangerous as some other stories here, though -- and I'm not really complaining about that!

When I was very young, young enough that I barely remember it -- I must've been under two -- I fell headfirst down a whole flight of stairs, but was apparently uninjured. I had a subconscious horror of stairs many years after that, including dreams about staircases suddenly giving out from under me.

When I was four years old, I tried to get my then two-year-old brother to have a mock fight with me while tasked with sweeping something up, but he didn't really get the "mock" part at that age and wacked me full-force in the head with a rather sturdy dustpan. Thankfully, full-force for him wasn't all that at that age, but being a forehead wound it bled quite a lot and I sustained a very noticeable scar that to this day can still be seen if one peers intently at my forehead. If I hadn't dodged a bit it might've hit my eye, so I consider this a bit of a lucky one.

When I was six years old I had the wonderful idea to build a seesaw in my back yard, on the patio, in the rain. I then confidently started balancing on it, and not surprisingly considering how slippery it was, fell off and went facedown on the stones. I scraped up most of the right side of my face and dislodged my front two teeth, but happily my opa and oma were visiting at the time, and he reset the teeth well enough that they lasted fine until they were supposed to come out, and they patched up my face and gave me some anti-scar stuff, so there's at this point no evidence of this mishap left.

When I was ten or so I had a near-miss of a problem, which is to say that I was inline skating quite a bit too fast down my street and slipped. I was wearing kneepads, armpads, wrist braces and a helmet, so the only thing that happened to me was some bruising -- but considering the fifteen-foot purple streak the kneepads left on the street, if I hadn't been wearing them, that would've been seriously nasty.

And then I was perfectly fine and had no problems until I was twenty-two, at which point I was sleep-deprived from college and riding my bike around the neighbourhood at more than a good clip. I've always had a phobia of dogs, and I saw some coming down the sidewalk towards me. I made the foolish decision of speeding up and taking the turn before they could get there instead of stopping and turning around or anything, and hit the corner (and the gravel patch) at about 25 MPH. The bike spun out and knocked me over. At first I thought I had cut my left leg badly, but when I stood up it completely failed to support me because it was in fact broken in seven different places through both bones and the ankle was shattered. The rather sudden sit-down I had after that also caused some gravel to work its way into my right palm and my left elbow. However, I ended up making a completely full recovery from that injury, and now have no problems at all doing anything I'd done before (apparently, although nobody saw fit to tell me at the time, this was not expected). This is the only one I count as a near-death experience, because considering the damage done to my leg it could easily have been fatal if I'd landed differently -- especially since, in a thoroughly boneheaded move, I had never bothered to replace my helmet that had got slightly cracked from being ill-packed in a crate once. This was one of the first things I did when I could walk again. (Yeah, I still ride my bike, just more cautiously and less frequently.)

I am hoping that I will not be having any other mishaps from now on. It's been a year and a half since the last one, and I think it was bad enough to get me a good decade completley injury-free. If things worked that way, that is.

(Edit: The mention of D12s reminded me that I also once dodged right into a model rocket, but since it was coming down nice and smooth with a parachute it really wasn't a problem. Makes me a bit concerned about my chances of dodging other things, though.)

[Creed]

Basically, I'm an old fart. I fought in the Second Congo War.

Oh sh*t.

Crow is a Bad*ss.:smalleek:

For real. All the props.

[Grinner]

I have a scar on the back of my head that is visible when my hair is super short. It literally goes all the way up and down the centre of the back of my head.
I have no idea what I did that caused it, and no one in my family does either.

Does it look surgical? If so, I think "alien abduction" is the most reasonable explanation here.


Basically, I'm an old fart. I fought in the Second Congo War.

I figured it was a war story, but I had not been expecting that.

[Drakeburn]

For me, one of my near death experience happened when I was just a kid, right when I was having surgery.

So there I was, the one of the medical beds, surrounded by surgeons preparing me for the operation (I don't remember what the surgery was for, since it was a really long time ago). Anyways, it was going fine until one of the surgeons had his fingers on my neck as I was given sleeping gas. However, right before I fell unconscious, I suddenly threw up, and the vomit went down my throat. Luckily, the surgeons managed to save me from that.

[scurv]

Ummmm wow this could be a long list.

I have had CPR done on me twice, Once from drowning (age 5-6) and once from electrocution (16- 17)

I survived cancer

I survived a car accident that put my engine out the passenger back door....I had some significant injuries but airbags, seatbelts and being a very solid 250lbs at the time helped.

I survived one of my co-workers stabbing me with a prob in the chest when he thought I was rude. He got mostly bone but that infection was wicked! You would not believe the mail order antibiotics I had to suck down to deal with it.

I survived a narcissistic supervisor who thought I was the anti-Christ. But thankfully I am out of that section now!

I survived most of my own stupidity...But one of the above CPR cases was in debate between my friends and I. (As a side note, If you are electrocuted and your heart stops working correctly. That does not mean your brain has stopped recording)

[Hiro Protagonest]

I once sleep-rolled over the rail of my bunk bed and fell to the floor. Hit my chin against the corner of my desk.

[PallElendro]

-snip-

Your avatar says it all.

But really? Your co-worker stabbed you with a "prob?"

[thubby]

i got run over by an ATV. the one i was riding, actually. :smalltongue:
i was able to walk away but it left a couple of scars.

[Togath]

I've.. never actually had any really bad experiences now that I think about it..
The closest I've come were a time when I was 8, I was doing.. something(can't remember that day very well) when I injured my forehead.. I only remember a day or so after, it was bad enough to require stitches(I do remember the injury bleeding heavily), whatever it was(though, ironically, I didn't end up with any, since the hospital was trying out some sort of glue-esc alternative).
The only other thing that comes to mind was more alarming than dangerous, a few years back(2010 I think?) I was on a computer when y bookshelf started to fall over on top of me, I was holding my largest cat, at the time(about the size of a scotty dog).. while my cat didn't get hurt, I got hit by the bookself, as well as got a set of four raking claw marks across my chest.. Looking back, I probably should've gone to a hospital, given their depth(about two millimeters. so pretty deep, as well as going from about two inches below my neck to just under my ribcage, so they were pretty long looking back)..
They healed up in a few weeks, but I still have the scars.

[Draconi Redfir]

one day i was riding my bike to the store that isn't too far away from my place, and it was dark-ish outside, i can't really quite remember, but i was coming up to a set of streetlights that controlled traffic on an upcoming intersection, one of the roads being a busy main street that guided traffic through the entire city, so it was full of cars. and somehow, I’m not sure exactly how, i thought "red light means it's safe to cross" as i came up to the intersection and just barrelled right across the road, one car whizzed right by infront of me, another jumped to a stop just inches away from me, and while i made it across to the other side unharmed, only then did i realize what i did and i was thoroughly shaken, got chewed out by a driver who stopped at the light when it changed to red for him (being on the busy road that i just crossed) and since then I’ve slowly stopped riding bikes altogether.

still haven't told my parents about it, didn't want them to worry. i did cross the intersection one or two more times on my bike without trouble, but i think that incident is a large factor in why i don't ride bikes anymore, i don't trust myself with them.