People Reveal The Closest They’ve Come To Dying, Stories Are Pure Nightmare Fuel

A fascinating Reddit thread shines a light on how close people have come to dying.

As OutKick readers know, I’m a bit of a Reddit fanatic simply because you never know what you’re going to get.

Sometimes, you stumble upon uplifting or hilarious stories on a variety of subjects. Other times, it’s stuff straight out of a horror movie.

That leads us to a wild thread going viral.

Reddit users share stories about almost dying. 

A thread titled “What’s the closest you’ve come to death?” is full of stories that are downright insane and scary.

Check out some of the responses below, and let me know your thoughts at David.Hookstead@outkick.com:

• A sudden anaphylactic reaction to aspirin. My husband drove me to the hospital with his hand down my throat to keep my airway open, and I had to be resuscitated in the emergency room.
• Gas leak while I was sleeping. Fortunately my dog realized something wasn’t right and woke me up. RIP Buddy, you saved my life.
• My fiancé coming home on a drug and alcohol fueled rage.. one of us is here to tell the story and one of us is not.
• My family and I overslept and missed our flight out of Miami. It turned out to be ValuJet 582, which tragically became the worst plane crash in Florida’s history, with no survivors.
• I had to take a bus trip to another city a few years ago and my trip was scheduled at 4pm and in the end I was delayed and I got on the next bus at 6pm. The 4pm bus derailed and fell off a cliff.
• Probably when I went to the emergency room with chest pain. I wasn’t YET having a heart attack. The heart attack started when I was in an exam room with an ER doc! They rushed me to the ‘Stent Lab’ where they opened a blocked artery. The heart attack lasted about 15 minutes, enough to cause some muscle damage but little enough that I’m still here.
• While mountain climbing, I lost my footing and began sliding down an icy slope, heading straight off a cliff. For a moment, I was certain I was going to die—until my foot miraculously jammed into a crevice, stopping my fall just in time. But I was stuck, and it took a good half hour to carefully pull myself back to solid ground, knowing that one wrong move could send me over the edge. I remember thinking my odds were “maybe, and probably, going to die today.” What surprises me most is that I don’t recall feeling fear. Startled at first, sure—but not afraid of dying. Instead, I felt this strange, peaceful calm, knowing I’d lived a decent life. In a way, I even felt lucky, because if that was going to be the end, at least it came with a beautiful view.
• When I was 16 during class, I thought I was having a heart attack. Had all the symptoms. Especially shortness of breath. Got taken by ambulance to find out my left lung had collapsed. They said it was 99% collapsed. They were able to save it, but I was very lucky. They called it a Spontaneous Pnumrothorax. Meaning my chest cavity had filled with air collapsing my lung. Nothing I did caused it. It just happened.
• Got chased by a bear while hiking. Not my best life choice.
• Construction accident in Jamaica almost impaled me. Multiple pieces of rebar slid off a building and impaled the car right next to the sidewalk. They come so close to my face that I felt the wind from them. I now have phobias of construction sites without pedestrian protections.
• I nearly got ran over 3 times. Once with a van, a motorcycle, then a bus.
• Crossed the street without looking while drunk and a car hit the brakes really hard. Passed out in my bathroom while drunk and hit the head on the zink, woke up with a cut on my forehead. While swimming in the ocean, I got really far out and the current was really strong. I’ve never swam so hard to get back to shore. Adrenaline is a crazy thing, I don’t think I would have beaten the current if not for an adrenaline rush.
• I was almost pulled into a brown station wagon by two men when I was 11 years old. If it weren’t for the postman walking around the corner at that moment, I would’ve been gone.
• I fell asleep while driving and nearly went off a bridge before my dad jerked the wheel away and slapped me awake so I could pull over.
• I had a bit too much to drink a while ago and almost choked on my vomit. It was a terrifying experience, and since then, I’ve cut back on my alcohol.
• almost getting hit by a huge ship, we were on a small boat, the propeller was stuck with some garbage
• I was once in the wrong place at the wrong time and got caught in an armed robbery. The gunman pointed the weapon at me before deciding to let me go unharmed, and that moment still haunts me.
• Was working Security and went into a vacant space that was under construction. The lights were off while me and my boss were navigating around to find them to turn on. My foot hit a huge live wire that was coming out of the floor, the entire vacant space lit up with a purple flash. Thank god for those boots I had on.
• Car accident. Ejected through the back window and knocked out as a result. When I “came to,” the car that hit us was resting literally inches from crushing my head (as I lay on the back of the car.) People who stopped to help thought I was dead, (one lady screamed when I moved.) I just thank GOD that just wasn’t my time to go.

Well, I think that might be enough internet for me today. That thread is pure nightmare fuel. It’s truly a lot of stories that sound right out of “Final Destination.”

The most bone-chilling ones are definitely about people who missed flights or bus and then they crashed. That has to be one hell of a haunting situation to find yourself in.

Personally, that has never happened to me, but I have a very good friend who did find himself in a situation like that after missing a plane that ended up going down.

Reddit users are sharing the closest they’ve come to dying, and the stories are pure nightmare fuel. (Credit: Getty Images)

Thankfully, I don’t really think I’ve ever come that close to dying. I’ve been in a few sticky situations over the years, but never once when I really thought we weren’t going to come out on top. Have you come close to dying? Let me know at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.