Scariest moment in your life?

Haemorrhaging after the birth of my last child. Being surrounded by doctors and nurses trying to save my life with my newborn in the next room. Waking up with IV's wide open in both arms with them trying to replace the blood I lost.
Have your kids in hospital. The easiest birth (and it was an easy labour (for me anyway)) can go wrong very quickly. If it had been a home birth, I would have bled out.

 

It's a tie between two incidents.

Being young and foolish, a friend and I went too far out in a canoe on a vast, cold isolated lake with no life jackets on and no one around. Neither of us could swim.

The wind whipped up suddenly, so we were fighting strong waves as we headed for shore. We made little progress and were getting exhausted. My friend stopped paddling and said, I'm too tired! I knew if we stopped, we would get swept out to sea and probably drown. I shouted to her, "We have to do this NOW! It's now or never. Paddle for all you're worth!" Adrenaline kicked in, and we made it to calmer water close to shore and then to shore.

Lesson? Don't go beyond your limits in the water.

Second Incident I was driving fairly slowly on a very icy highway in a blizzard, when a huge semi truck decided to pass me. I was totally blinded by the snow as he passed, but I tried to steer straight ahead by instinct ... when suddenly I saw the semi lose control and jackknife in front of me. It's not good to brake on ice, so I steered to the shoulder while the semi hurdled into the ditch. He missed me by about 6 inches. I thought it was curtains for me for sure.

Normally, I would stop to help, but I said out loud, "You deserve to sit in the ditch, you idiot!" and drove on home. It was a fairly busy highway so I knew he would get help.

Lesson? I don't know what else I could have done since sometimes weather changes as you drive a long distance.

 

It was late at night, about 9PM. I had just finished my clinicals and I was exhausted. Unfortunately, I had to drive me and my 4 friends back home in my mom's van. I was tired and I was not thinking straight, and I was falling asleep. So... yea. Just keep in mind, my judgment was NOT good, lol.

I kind of daydream-drove, and I realized... shit! My exit was coming up in a couple hundred feet!

I tried to exit and this asshole wasn't letting my pass, so I decided to speed up and just get myself in there and hope for the best. So I signal, said I little prayer, and went for it.

I almost hit the wall that divides the exit ramp and the freeway head-on, and I almost hit the car that I cut in front of.

It didn't help that 4 of my female friends were in the car screaming the entire time.

Friend 1 on passenger seat: "No, no , no , no!" *grasps for my shoulder for dear life and braces for impact*
Friend 2: "Omg omg omg omg omg omg" *closes eyes with hands. Continues to repeat for 5 minutes after we exit the freeway*
Friend 3: "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" *laugh-cries*
Friend 4: *So scared, opens mouth to scream but nothing comes out*

Thankfully nothing happened.

We ended up going to Red Robins at 10PM that night to eat to calm our nerves.

 

I can't really tell if this was the scariest experience of my life, but it's definitely the biggest one I had in a fairly long time.

I'm a historical war reenactor, and I often participate in battles of the Napoleonic Wars with my group. We use muskets and cannons that fire blanks to recreate combat, and wear uniforms of the period.

That said, a couple of months ago we had a battle event outside a museum. We divided ourselves between French and Spanish, and had a little skirmish. Said skirmish involved a cannon for the Spanish.

Well, I was in the French side. We lined up about 50 meters from the Spanish, and shot each other for a while.

Then their cannon fired, and all went to hell for me. Against common sense, the piece was aimed directly at us, and when shot, something flew at me and hit me in the stomach. Hard. The shockwave tipping me off balance didn't help, either, and for a second I thought I was done.

Our officer spotted me and rushed to my aid, and he almost shuts down the event. By then I realized it wasn't serious, so I said we could carry on.

Turns out whatever hit me didn't penetrate, but I guess I'm really lucky either way. Getting shot by a cannon at 50 meters is no joke.

 

I was about sixteen. For several weeks, I'd been starting to act and feel very weird. I'm told I was extremely irritable. Every night I would have bizarre dreams, all of which inexplicably involved cats. Every now and then I would start shaking uncontrollably, and I would feel dizzy and lose focus.

One night I couldn't get to sleep at all. I started shaking, and this time it didn't stop. My dad drove me to the hospital. The doctor asked questions and tried a few things. It turned out that I was having a hypoglycemic attack and needed sugar. I learned, afterward, that if I'd lost consciousness, I could have died or suffered brain damage.

 

That sounds really frightening :eek:

Mine was a few years back. Two actually. I was climbing some rocks for fun so when I was on top I lost my balance for a moment and almost fell. I bet I wouldn't be writing this if I did. It was nearly 10 meters + rocky ground.

Lesson learned: Don't do weird stuff near heights.

 

It was just last month. I was told they found something on my pancreas during a ct scan of my abdomen and to hope for the best that it isn't pancreatic cancer. I waited 12 days for an MRI which was a lifetime. I was wondering if this would be my last Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family. I finally had the MRI and it took another 10 days of worrying to find out it is either soft tissue or a lymph node and there was no cancer.

During the waiting, time seemed to slow down and I took everything around me in. I was finding beauty in small things that I never gave a second glance at before. I started seeing people in a whole new way. I saw each person as someone with a story, not just random strangers I have to make my way through. I wished they could take everything in as I was. I learned to truly live each day to the fullest not knowing how many I may have left.

The biggest thing I took to heart was a saying I saw somewhere that said "Growing old is a privilege, not a right." Now I vow to always take life in and see its beauty. I will also never complain about growing older as its a privilege I almost lost.

 

I guess you could say my most terrifying experience is on-going, as of right now.

Last Friday, I had my first sexual encounter with another person, which was unprotected. Though the chance of me contracting HIV was low, I had begun a whole panic. Never have I been so scared, panicked, worried and nervous in my entire life. It's still going on as I type this.

 

Oh my :eek:

 

I've never really found myself in a situation like that - not recently anyway. The closest would probably be when I was 3 and I was rushed to hospital because I had stopped breathing, and was lying on a bed attached to a drip, but I was too young to understand. Still weird to know that I nearly died.

They never did find out what was wrong with me, but meningitis seems the most likely culprit going by what my mother told me.

 

It's a tie between the time I was internally bleeding. I must have lost a lot of blood, between going to the restroom, having it drawn off by nurses. When someone mentioned "transfusion" I nearly lost it; I literally thought I might die.

Then there was the time I was suicidal, didn't feel I could go on living, and wanted desperately to find my father's gun. It was better in the hospital, and at times, I thought it was the only thing keeping me somewhat together. I literally didn't feel safe outside, but the moments leading up were pretty damn awful, too.

I'm sure there will be others, if I live long enough. Both events happened fairly recently (first, about the time I finished high school, so some seven years ago. The second, only about a year ago).

 

The scariest moment of my life didn't actually happen until 6 years after the event. Basically I had blocked bowel but the silly hospital sent me home saying it was 'nothing' which went on for about 5 days when my mum and dad requested a x-ray. That was at 10, but 6 years later I learn a young child had died from it after having it for a week. I keep wondering what would've happened if my parent's had waited two more days. I don't know.

But I guess the only good thing from this is that they found my appendix in the wrong place so took it out then and there, so never have to worry about that bursting.

 

I was born with a disability called 'Spina Bifida' and it messes with your spine and stuff but anyway it took me till I think I was about 3-4 years old to learn to walk. I walked all my life up until two years ago I had to have a back surgery to fix my spinal cord, the surgery went normal and all but when I woke up I couldn't move my legs. It has always been a risk my entire life but I would always wake up fine I remember screaming and crying because I couldn't move and I think I blacked out I don't remember much after that. I remember being really scared and upset and asked why did this have to happen to me? I am still in a wheelchair and I am trying my best to adjust to it but I am a lot better than I was before!

 

I've had several scary moments in my life but the one I believe was the most horrific was when I was raped and beaten by someone whom I considered to be one of my closest straight friends. I was under medication which was also had a very strong sedative effect. I even mentioned to him prior to taking the medication that he should leave because I have to take the medication what the effects were. He insisted on staying with me because he did not want me to be in the house alone. This was normal to me because he did spend a lot of time with me at my place on a regular basis so I had no reason to suspicious or uncomfortable with him hanging around. However, once the medication kicked in and I was laying across my bed......he came into my bedroom and what I remember to this day was that really devilish look and grin that he had on his face. I also remembered him saying that "He was going to take really good care of me". Somewhere along the way, I totally blacked out but I do remember him climbing on top of me ...prying my mouth open to pour liquor down my throat and hitting me. I woke up the next day in a lot of pain and had to crawl to the bathroom because of the pain and all the blood, I was not able to walk. He even inserted the liquor bottle up my butt and it was still up there. I managed to pull myself up to the sink and that is when I saw all of the blood and black and blue bruises all over my body. Of course, he was nowhere in sight but it just so happened that a friend of mine who was going with me to my scheduled appointment that day had came by to pick me up and he was the one who discovered me. I was rushed to the hospital and taken into emergency surgery ASAP. A few moments later after the doctors were diagnosing and running tests on me, the doctor informed me that I was not going to live during the emergency surgery that they were about to perform. He also informed me that his staff had contacted my family to say their final goodbyes. After the surgery, I fell into a coma which I was told once I came out of it that I was in that state for a little over a month and the only reason why they became hopeful was due to the fact that all of motor skills were intact. Once I came out of the coma, I had a huge hole in the middle of my throat and a tube was inserted in that hole. I was not able to talk or swallow solid foods. I was told that my kidneys and lungs had all collapsed at the same time and they were damaged pretty badly. To conclude, I was told by doctors that I would never talk or eat solid foods again and I would become partially vegetated the rest of my life.

After several surgeries, two years of physical, speech and mental therapy, all that was told to me by the doctors were proven wrong. In fact, I still go to the doctor on a regular basis because I still suffer from the damage to my kidneys and all of the doctors are still amazed at my progress and that I am still alive. Besides the kidney damage, I also suffer from social anxiety disorder. However, its getting better to a degree where I am very comfortable going places on my own now in my neighborhood without anyone accompanying me and in order not to wear my heart on my sleeve, I workout a lot and I always display a clean, neat appearance whenever I'm out so no one could even imagine or second guess that I've dealt with all that I have. This is my scariest moment thus far.