Life is dangerous-What perils did you survive?

[HbJ]

Well 2009 just doesn't cut it.

At the end of May a young mother slammed into the rear of my van at around 70 km/h giving me a bad whiplash injury. Her baby girl didn't get one bruise. At least one good thing...

According to the reviewer of the accident anyone on the rear seats of my car would have been severely hurt or killed as the car is missing over 1 m in length. According to the police and an independent expert the other driver is 100 percent guilty of the crash so I got at least some bucks from her insurance (not enough for a reasonable replacement car).

After living off pain killers for over three months I can now freely move my hands again (thank God) and the headaches are gone as well.

Well, at least I survived

So I'm back on track and will look for the Waters 590 manual I promised

And now post post away your stories of almost deadly misfortune

[Jade.Barker]

I'm glad to hear you are doing better, it sounds like you had a bad time of it.

When I was a child my brother wanted to try the "William Tell" stunt and he needed a target/ assitant. His goal was to use a bow and arrow to shoot an apple off my head.

Needless to say my 10 year old brother did not use the best judgement that day. Thank God he didn't have a real bow... The stick only went about an inch into my cheek, narrowly missing the eye....

I guess thats the was the closest he came to killing me. It's amazing children survived at all considering the judgement!

[Consumer Products Guy]

Another arrow story: Jade - my brother and I were out shooting arrows, maybe 15 and 14 years old. Suddenly he shot an arrow STRAIGHT UP - so we both ran and screamed. Neither got hit; likely the smartest thing would've been to stay in place, but we didn't do that.

Closest other call?? Making a great tackle of our loose dog who had darted out on the highway; dog had broken his leash while I was changing a blow-out, and ran into the higheway. Someone chased him back towards me and I knew I had one chance only to save that dog from being hit, and I got him. I had a few scrapes and bruises, nothing serious. So that's probably the bravest thing I ever did also.

[Ron]

Using carbon tet by the liter to clean things, using benzene like it was no more dangerous than water, chromic acid cleaning baths, it's amazing that any of us who started our chemistry education or career in the 1970s are still around considering the things we did with minimal safety equipment and precautions.

[AICMM]

Rattlesnake bite while leading on a rock climb, 3rd pitch up, with my family, about 4 years ago. Decided to go out the top rather than rappel off, walked out once we topped out. Evening in the ER, day in ICU, 3 more days on the floor. Found out that morphine without fiorinal is not that great an analgesic but with it you sleep really well. Nasty looking finger for a bit; still hurts on a cold day.

Best regards.

[juddc]

Well...I was born at 2 lbs, 14 oz (~1.3kg) during a blizzard then caught pneumonia in 1966. A little brain damage never hurt anyone, really! Beyond that, not much in my life has caused too much worry. A few concussions, some orthopaedic surgery, a couple of trips to the far east to adopt children, 16 years of marriage and it's all good! Cool little fact: Last week I had an appt with the first orthopaedic surgeon ever to operate on me...40 years ago. He's 82 years old and still practicing 3 days a week, but no longer cutting - and he's one very, very cool guy.

[DR]

Rattlesnake bite...

Species of rattlesnake (I'm guessing C. ruber)??

My closest calls were all knocks to the head. at ~2-3 yrs old, tipped a barstool over backwards and rode it into the ground, did a header down a cold air return, through a bend in the ductwork and wound up in the garage below, at 18 I kicked off the bottom in a meter of water to go through the incoming whitewash only to connect heads with an unseen friend who had bodysurfed that same wave in; I couldn't have hit him any harder if I'd wanted to. I got 5 stitches on the very top of my head to his 25 spread over the front/top of his (supposed to be the hardest part of the head, yes, we're both fine). So, I often claim that my head is at least 5x harder than his.

PS - I used to use chromic acid to get protein residue out of Hamilton syringes... I'm a bit young to have ever washed my hands in benzene.

[bisnettrj2]

I was run over by a pickup truck when I was nine while riding my too-big-for-me ten speed. My brother hit his brakes, I hit his back tire, fell right into the path of the oncoming truck. The last thing I remember was seeing his tires screeching towards me, then I blacked out, then seeing his truck slamming into a fence after it passed me. Snapped my left femur like a twig. I was down the street from my parents' house when it happened, and my mom almost fainted when I smiled at her through the blood that was covering half my face. Spent a month in the hospital, three months in a body cast. Have some nasty scars on my elbows and forehead, a scar on either side of my left lower leg where they inserted the 1/8" diameter pin to put my leg in traction (without anaesthetic, mind you - my parents could hear me screaming down the hallway and around the corner). The good thing? I got a Nintendo system when I got out of the hospital, and beat Mario Bros. 1 and 2 by the time I got out of the cast.

[AICMM]

DR,

I am afraid I did not take the time to ask him what species.... I did see the little guy (I had to get around him to continue up) and he was quite small. At least I had the benefit of pain meds ( - bisnettrj2 - wow!)

Best regards.

[HbJ]

Just a small update:
When your doc tells you to "get it on slowly" you better do what he says.

Otherwise you might get a nasty relapse.
I'm just hoping it'll work out this time

[HW Mueller]

Whew . . .
HbJ, maybe you should have put a age limit on this, us older guys can go on and on . . . . So I mention just a few things:
The latest: In 2007 I went over the front of the bike, going down a hill in the forest on the way from the lab to home. I know only that the bike hit something on the dirt road. I was lucky as I only got several bad bruises and the right eye had a different focus then the left for several months (a very strange experience).
An accounter with a rattler left me with a scare only. During a hike high above Ashcroft near Aspen CO, I heard the rattle quite close, then saw only part of the snakes body (never saw the rattle) scurry away from me, apparently they are quite shy when a little more than a meter away.
Last rock climb in the foothills south west of Denver: I helped a friend who had gotten stuck about 5 m above ground. Got him to reshuffle his feet and hands, but then I stepped on a loose rock, somehow I headed down head first. Just about only two meters above the ground my leg got cought on a tiny tree (the only one anywhere near) such that I was hanging there with my knee, head down. Had a few nasty little skin laceratins, that was all.
In Boulder, CO, as PhD candidates a lot of us did quite a few Diels-Alder reactions in glass pipes. After filling and cooling in a Dry Ice slurry, they were flame sealed, then allowed to come to room temp. before placing them in a heater in a special room. One time while warming to room temp. in a hood next to my working bench my sealed glass pipe blew (fault in it?). I heard a pice of it whistle past my head. Inspection showed that a Vigreux column which was hanging next to the pipe had its center section blown away, looked like someone cut it out smoothly. Most of the parts were cought by the window of the hood.
We also handled lots of benzene, pyridine, hexane, etc. with too little respect. It is possible, though, that some chemicals caused my polycythemia vera.
Cars: Got away with minor injuries, but creamed several cars.

[Bob Albrecht]

Driving from Amity to McMinville OR,
going 60mph,
cars stopped turning left in the other direction,
distracted woman slams on the brakes behind them and skids 50ft in front of me in the oncoming lane.
Quick reflexes and I swerve into the right shoulder, but the back of her fish-tailing car takes out the entire side of my car and shatters the rear window.
I go spinning into the oncoming land at 60mph and stop faced the opposite direction teetering at the edge of a deep ditch.
Upset, I get out of my car to talk to the other driver and she starts to drive away.
The police officer behind me sees the whole thing.

[MassSpecM]

we live in south Africa, and every year since i was born we go to a game farm for a holiday break. this is probably where i had the most near death experiences. the wildlife are pretty tame, as no hunting is allowed, so you can walk anywhere you want to go (obviously ther are no predators or big five on the farm, otherwise we would have been stupid)

when i was two, i was playing with the cooler box, packing everything out and the next moment my mom saw a scorpion in the cooler box. she snatched me away just in time.

when I was three, i was sleeping in one of the rooms while my parents were out for a walk. they came back to find me snuggling up to a huge 70kg bushpig. he came right into the house, up the stairs and lay next to me on the bed.

about six years ago we walked back from the main building after a swim at around 10pm. we were chatting and laughing and suddenly heard something in the bushes. as we shown the flashlight to the spot the noise came from, we saw a whole herd of kudu (type of antelope with massive horns) the big male was standing a meter from us at most, and i swore he was going to freak and attack. luckily for us, they are used to people, so he just stared at us and walked away.

so bottom line my guardian angel has worked very hard all my life!
but i wouldn't change the experience for anything, well maybe the scorpion bit....

[JTM]

a short history, not including everything, though:

2 years old: reached up onto a counter and pulled the coffee pot down onto me, poured hot coffee all over myself... spent 2 weeks in the hospital under a mound of ice as my skin was regrowing, as I burned off pretty much all of my skin from my chin to waist... not scars from it nowadays, though.

3 years old: at a family camping trip to a lake, I got curious and was playing in an ant pile about my own height in size. when my father realized that I was covered head to toe in ants, he rushed me to the lake and threw me in, not knowing how to get the ants off. the ants dispersed, but then I almost drowned. another two weeks in the hospital.

6 years old: was climbing a tree. about 20 feet up, I was hit by an asp (a caterpillar looking insect, each hair on it stings like a wasp), and fell out of the tree, hitting my head. I was out for a good 5 minutes before I came to. no hospitalization... doctor cleared me to go home after checking for concussion, etc.

10 years old (11?): while riding my bike down foot trails at another family outing to the park, I lost control and a broken tree limb impailed my calf. I walked about 2 miles back to our camp with it sticking out of my leg. a quick hospitalization.

16 years old: fell of my bike on Thanksgiving, slamming my face into a concrete curb. knocked a few teeth out and almost ripped off my lip. stitches and a milkshake for thanksgiving dinner.

that was my last major incident and haven't had one since. I have a few very small scars, but they are hardly noticeable. very fun childhood.

my parents were psychiatrists and knew the social workers that were often called in to see if they were bad parents while on our many hospital trips.