Close calls with death - Page 2

leon · #21 22-10-2007, 06:50 PM

If I may add my near death experience, which happened when i was 13.

My dad asked me to get him some tobacco, now i could have gone to the corner shop which was 100 yards away, but seeing my brothers and me were doing our turn of the evening dishes, i decided to take the bike and go to the furtherest shop, so when i came back the dishes would be done.

Well i didn't come home for 13 months, while riding home a drunk in a car flatten me, tore the leg off below the knee, serious head injuries, plus many cuts and bruises.

The bones in the leg became infected and i spent 13 months in hospital, then two years in plaster and then had to learn how to walk again.

So i you ever meet me and see me limping along you now know why.

I did make a full recovery but now at my age, some of the leg joints don't do as they should, and the strange thing about it i suffer more in summer, the winter cold has no effect on the joints at all

My wife tells me lovingly of coarse, that she always thought me strange, and it is probably that I'm a (Dutch, Clog Wog), ment in the nicest way.

Leon

dugnsuz (Doug) · #22 22-10-2007, 07:10 PM

Geez, I'll have to get you lot to pick my lotto numbers for me...what a lucky bunch of so and so's!! (lucky escapees that is!)

My close call came when rock climbing as a kid on Arthur's Seat (no smart comments please - it's a volcano in the heart of Edinburgh!!)
The rock face below my feet crumbled away as I pushed off. I just managed to cling to grass for a second or two before grabbing on to a more substantial piece of rock and hoping it remained in place!!! Looked down to see a car-sized piece of rock 40 feet below me.

Stay lucky IIS-ers

Doug

KenGee (Kenith Gee) · #23 22-10-2007, 07:10 PM

I bit my lip once so bad I bled

Glenhuon (Bill) · #24 22-10-2007, 07:16 PM

I've only had one that sticks in my mind, and it seems like yesterday but was over 30 years ago. I was riding a 350 Norton from work in the the city to home, speed about 80 MPH as I approached a T junction. A black Rover 90 pulled out from the side road, closely followed by a panel truck. Aluminium body, I can see it now. The car driver saw me coming, panicked and stalled the car. The truck driver didn't and kept coming out. The whole world just slowed down and I had time to consider, brake or accelerate. I chose the latter, as the other way told me "you are going through the side of the truck".
I passed between them with about 2" each side of the handlebars. I can still remember the car drivers eyes, like bloody saucers. I went through a set of bends up the road at around 85mph, pulled up at a roundabout on the other side and tried to light a cigarette, couldn't, I was shaking so badly.
BTW, Doug might know the spot, Melville Castle Hotel entrance on the way to Eskbank.

KenGee (Kenith Gee) · #25 22-10-2007, 07:19 PM

I've had a few, the one that still sends shivers down my spine is one is which I did get hurt in the end. I was working with a overhead crance I had just dropped a load off and the crane driver was lifting the hooks and tackel away. Anyway I was holding the hooks clear of the load so that they didn't catch on anything when I got distracted. I dropped one of the hooks as I went to pick it up but it got caught on the load we just dropped off. I stepped back and went to signal the crane to stop, just as I did the load was lifted by the hook, it slipped off and knocked my hardhat off. The marks on the brim showed it must have missed my head by mm's.

jjjnettie (Jeanette) · #26 22-10-2007, 07:24 PM

Brushes with death.
I've had some scarey ones and some very very scarey ones.

The impersonal ones, such as food poisoning or car incidents/accidents are easy enough to get over and either learn from, if they are your fault, or thank your lucky stars, if it wasn't your fault.
Still not pleasant experiences though.

But I think it's the brushes with death, aimed at you personally, that will effect you for the rest of your life. I'm sure Ken would know what I mean.
It changes you, you now live in "The Real World". Once you're in "The Real World" you find it hard to relate to people who haven't had similar experiences.

But I'd like to think that each of these experiences has made me grow as a person. I won't ever take life for granted and I'll make each day count.

fringe_dweller · #27 22-10-2007, 07:27 PM

i nearly choked on a sweet once - oh and i stubbed my toe real bad another time

ken - you think thats bad, i once had a hairdryer held to my head so there

i was at the hairdressers tho

Glenhuon (Bill) · #28 22-10-2007, 07:38 PM

Yep, your right JJJ. I think that was when I realised (I was about 21) that I was not indistructable.

iceman (Mike) · #29 22-10-2007, 07:49 PM

lol a mix of good humour and incredible stories!

I'm fortunate enough to say I've been pretty lucky so far. Tony is right though - how do we protect our kids from it?

Glenhuon (Bill) · #30 22-10-2007, 07:51 PM

Tell them the stories, you might think it doesn't sink in at the time, but they do remember.

dugnsuz (Doug) · #31 22-10-2007, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glenhuon

...pulled up at a roundabout on the other side and tried to light a cigarette, couldn't, I was shaking so badly.
BTW, Doug might know the spot, Melville Castle Hotel entrance on the way to Eskbank.

That smoking will kill you Glenhuon!!!!

Yes, I know that area well - wife's family stayed in Rosewell and Dalkeith, used to pass that way often. Had to pick her and her mum up from the Justinlees hotel a few times.
Cheers
Doug

Glenhuon (Bill) · #32 22-10-2007, 07:59 PM

Know the Just well, dad and I used to stop there on our way back from a fishing trip to the borders. I was born in Newtongrange and brought up in Gorebridge

My sisters live in Dalkeith.

dugnsuz (Doug) · #33 22-10-2007, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glenhuon

Know the Just well, dad and I used to stop there on our way back from a fishing trip to the borders. I was born in Newtongrange and brought up in Gorebridge

My sisters live in Dalkeith.

This could turn into a "d'ye ken the McMillans, d'ye ken the..." type of affair Glen!!!

Small world

Doug

Glenhuon (Bill) · #34 22-10-2007, 08:11 PM

Aye, it is too
BTW my first girlfriends name was McMillan

dugnsuz (Doug) · #35 22-10-2007, 08:13 PM

wasn't Christine was it?

bloodhound31 · #36 22-10-2007, 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KenGee

I bit my lip once so bad I bled

Lucky you're not a poisonous snake then huh?.........

Baz.

Glenhuon (Bill) · #37 22-10-2007, 08:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugnsuz

wasn't Christine was it?

Nope, Margaret

erick (Eric) · #38 22-10-2007, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glenhuon

Tell them the stories, you might think it doesn't sink in at the time, but they do remember.

And teach them as well as you can. Lesson #1 to my children when teaching them to drive was - "Everyone else on the road is out to kill you!" That seems to have been successful as they keep well aware of what is happening around them. A few months ago eldest reported coming up to stationary traffic on the freeway and glancing in his rear vision as he slowed down, seeing a truck obviously not braking. He was able to plant his foot and take off in the emergency lane avoiding being severely rear-ended. Came home quite shaken but thanking me for hammering home the point during driving lessons.

taminga16 (Greg) · #39 22-10-2007, 08:31 PM

It is interesting to note that many of these experiences have come about in the pursuit of reckless endeavour, it brings to mind a quote credited to Winston Churchill,

"There is nothing quite as exhillarating as being shot at and missed."

Greg.

JohnG (John) · #40 22-10-2007, 08:46 PM

I didn't find it that exhillarating when a heavy calibre round went through the front screen of the Mini Cooper S I was in, passed between me and the driver and went out through the rear screen. Pure luck it went through the space between our heads.

, we both got a face full of glass.

One of the many near misses

Cheers