Redditors, how did you almost die?

1. A loooooong time ago I stepped off a tram and I began crossing in front of it, like I did every day. The light was green for pedestrians, but I was so lost in my head that I didn't pay attention to the blaring, incoming siren. A woman behind me grabbed me by the hood of my coat, and half a second later an ambulance at full speed passes right in front of me. I was so shocked by my own stupidity that I think I didn't even thank her properly.
   — procrastinagging


2. My dad's colleague got fired and my dad replaced him. So the guy was pissed at my dad, got drunk and decided to throw a brick through one of the front windows of our house. What he didn't know was that the brick landed in the crib I was sleeping in, only centimeters apart from my head.
   — glooomy_sundae


3. Fell through ice that was thinner than I thought it should be and got swept down current under the ice. My coat got hung up on a rock about 30 yards down the stream and my cousins were able to pull me out and get me to my grandparents house where they got me in a warm bath right away.
   — CarterLawler






4. When I was 8 or 9 I was prescribed Adderall or some form of. I had no understanding of how the drug worked, just that it would make me a ‘better kid’. I was 1 of 3 boys being raised by a single mom who was a cop. She’d work graveyard shifts and I rarely saw her, so I’d show out at school for attention. One day she picked me up from school and my teacher unloaded on her about how disruptive of a kid I was in class. When we got home she just laid her head on the kitchen table defeated. I remember she was on the verge of crying, and I was able to recognize that this was my doing, that I had made my mom sad. So I ran up stairs and took a months supply of the pills, (just re-filled the day before). I ran back downstairs to tell my mom that she never needed to worry about me being a bad kid anymore, because I took all of my medicine. I was rushed to the emergency room and forced to drink those charcoal smoothies. I can only describe the taste as what choking on quicksand must feel like. I threw up most of the pills and spent the night there. Coincidentally, it ended up being one of the best childhood memories I have, because I remember I had my mom to myself the entire night. But yea, I can imagine my mom not feeling quite the same way about it
   — blackflannel


5. I was in a natural swimming hole and i had my brother on my shoulders. We get to slightly deeper water and out of nowhere he starts FLAILING and panicking, and my head is stuck underwater. After 45 seconds of trying to unsuccessfully calm him, i just end up flinging him. My vision went black, and i clearly remember the feeling of accepting my fate. Trippy shit man
   — BoatTheGoaty


6. One night while me and my older sister were watching tv, 3 year old me managed to swallow a 2 inch nail that was bent into a V shape, miraculously it passed through into my stomach without doing any damage at all before it was surgically removed that night. My parents had it framed on a plaque with the x-ray and still have it hanging in their living room 23 yrs later and every year on the anniversary they buy me a card to remind me of it.
   — Johnson475






7. Out for a walk on an extremely windy (and pleasant) fall day. I heard the sound of wood cracking behind me and my brain went "RUN"! I think I was running before I fully realized it was actually a tree coming down on top of me. About 10 yards ahead of me was a good sized rock and an ancient looking oak tree, so I jumped behind the rock and super thick tree, covered my head...this big ass tree landed exactly where I was standing not two seconds earlier. the tops of the tree branches were leaning on top of the rock I had taken cover on. I won't ever forget the speed at which my brain took over my body and just put me where I needed to be. I was just along for the ride at that point, none of it was actually conscious movement. Also nearly T-boned a car at 65 mph, settled for a swerve and side swipe instead.
   — putnut01


8. One night when I was around 14 years old, I got in an argument with my parents and decided to blow off steam with a bike ride, no helmet. I was from a smaller quiet suburb, so it was normal to see kids biking around. The sun had set already, however, and i was just angerly peddling with my headphones in. As I'm crossing the main boulevard, without looking I might add, I see super bright lights in my right side peripheral vision and the sound of tires screeching and rubber burning. I turn to look and there's the bumper of an SUV two inches from my leg. I look at the woman driving and she is pale as a ghost. I never felt my heart beat that fast. I high tailed into some side streets since I was afraid of getting in trouble. Didn't ride my bike for a long time after that.
   — sweet_chinchilla


9. I almost got on a plane that crashed. I was attending an international Girl Guide camp, and the out trip I was on involved getting in a small, four seater plane and taking a 15 minute flight over the farmers' fields. They were taking kids/adults up in groups of three, and I was the only one from my troop that had selected this trip. I found another lone adventurer and we got in line together. We were one of the last groups in line, along with a group of three leaders. We got up to the front and argued with them (politely, as only two groups of Canadians can do, apparently...) over which of us should go second. In the end, we convinced them that they should go first since they were a group of three and we were just two. We would take the next one. The plane they got on crashed due to water in the gas tank, killing the pilot and all three women. It's one of those crazy things where I look at my life and know that if parallel universes exist, the decision to let someone else take my place irrevocably changed hundreds of lives, creating branches upon branches of alternate futures. I try to live my life to create the best world possible, one small act at a time to make sure that the world I helped create is a good one.
   — SylvanField






10. My friend and I hung a tree swing above his hill from a tree branch with car towing wire. It held a little wooden seat and we could probably put up to 1500 pounds on it since the wire was made for cars. Anyways, my girlfriend at the time was on it so I decided to give her a run and push while still holding on to the bottom of it. What ended up happening was I couldn't hold on while over the hill and fell on the back of my neck from about 15 feet up. At the bottom of the hill was a horseshoe pit. I was 5 feet away from one of those horseshoe poles and have been thankful for my luck ever since.
    — Inshresting


11. Acute Glandular Fever. Every gland in my body went nuts at once, tonsils tried to close over, you could see some of the glands in my belly, salivary glands ached. I was seeing shit and my mum thought I was going to die. I have almost a whole day missing from my memory.
    — HausKino


12. Choked on a cherry when I was about 12 years old. I was alone in the house. I managed to dislodge it by leaning over the back of a chair. 0/10, do not recommend.
    — fedupwithpeople






13. When I was in 5th grade, my throat collapsed due to what we think was allergies. During this time I went from struggling to breathe to being unable to breathe. Luckily, when it started, one of my friends noticed and heard me wheezing, so he brought me to the nurse. The next thing I remember, I woke up in a hospital with a lot of IV's or something like that in my arms and a doctor and couple nurses around me.
    — chickidychow