#1
To preface, I was 21, weighed all of 95 lbs and looked like I lived to party.
I was at a bbq of a wealthy family member of my friend in San Francisco. I knew nobody except my friend.
The host let his dogs have the rib bones. One of them started gagging in distress. While everyone sat staring at the choking animal I jumped up, grabbed the dog, shoved my arm down its throat and retrieved the bone. I threw it onto the patio and looked at the host with fire. “Do not give your dog bones!” I screamed.
Not a single person responded, not even a thank you, but I saved a dogs life that day. Yeah me.
Image credits: Cookingforaxl
#2
My Gido (grandfather) was a jovial man. He was short, a Ukrainian-Canadian immigrant, a WWII RCAF vet, bald since he was 30 with a combover, and a retired railroad man who grew vegetables and roses. Nothing really bothered him.
But we were getting ice cream when I was 12, and I was an overgrown kid, but some guy in his 30s tried to flirt with me and squeezed my butt. My Gido, who was shorter than me with a grandpa gut, squared up on this tall, muscular man and growled out a threat I don’t remember, because I’d jumped and backed up when the guy touched me, but something about that silent generation cold fury made this dude beat retreat.
He turned back to me, gently took my hand, and we went back to the ice cream window and ordered. I could feel the heat leaving his body. I didn’t even feel that upset - the guy had touched me and scared me a bit, but I never felt unsafe because I had always felt protected because I was with him. He had always been there to catch my falls and pull me back from danger. I told him that.
But he said, “I won’t always be there. You’re going to go to high school and university, and go off with your friends, and sometimes you’ll end up alone. What you have to do is be scarier than them. I learned that in the war.
If we ever came across a Jerry and the boys, we were supposed to act crazy, like rabid dogs, and start shooting. The bullets don’t scare ‘em, but you put the two together and they panic, and you can get ‘em in the back.”
When I was 20 (before cell phones) I was walking home alone, three beers and some magic mushrooms deep. Gido had been dead a year after a massive stroke. But a man following me had just made it on my radar, so I turned right. He followed me. I turned right again. He followed me. And I remembered Gido telling me if I saw Jerry…
So I turned around and started howling like a trapped dog. Just screaming and awooing and thrashing in the air. He stopped. I screamed F**K YOU YOU SON OF A B***H FUUUUU*K. I flailed some more. I acted like a feral werewolf in a movie. I knew it was partly the mushrooms and beer uninhibiting me, and Gido’s rage in my veins.
And the guy turned around and started walking, then jogging, as I screamed and spat. When I was sure he was gone, I ran home in my heels.
If you see Jerry….
Image credits: RadioSupply
#3
“STOP THE CAR, IM GOING TO VOMIT”
I used this twice. Once with a friend who was driving super SUPER high and I had no clue (she actually crashed her car 2 days later) and once with a guy who wasn’t taking no for an answer. He stopped and I booked it.
If you’re freaked and need to get out of a car, and if the person is not listening and stopping, say you’re going to be sick.
Image credits: Ieatcrunchybees
#4
Drowning. I saved my son from drowning in a pool. He had swallowed so much water that he couldn’t breathe. I put him on his back, rolled him to his side and hit him on the back. He ended up throwing up numerous times. His first words to me were, Thanks for saving me Dad. I still get choked up, 15 years later.
Image credits: Courtaid
#5
A bar in the bottom of a sliding glass door track to prevent it from opening.
When I split from my ex, I moved with an infant into a ground floor apartment with a sliding glass door. My dad asked my brother in law to cut a piece of wood to put into the bottom of the interior door track to prevent it from opening. Sure enough when he showed up to k**l me, that piece of wood saved my life. It kept him out and bought me time.
Also, plenty of people heard him taking a crow bar to my front door and no one else called for help. My neighbor saw him and recognized him but didn’t want to get in the business. When someone is trying to k**l me, please get in my business. I am much older and wiser now and I will error on the side of my safety and yours.
Image credits: jendet010
#6
My best friend was held up at gunpoint. The dude pointed and told her to go to a more secluded area. She remembered a police officer once telling her "Never go to a second location." She refused and she's here today and I'm forever thankful.
Image credits: illglitterate
#7
“Everybody in, nobody out!” River safety is no joke.
My friend’s dog jumped into a river and started to get swept away due to the increased current from flooding. My friend jumped into the river to rescue her dog. I started to jump in after her, heard this safety phrase in the back of my head, grabbed a branch and swung myself back onto land (there was a decent drop into the river). I ended up having to run down the shoreline a bit to catch up to them, and then hoisted both my friend and her dog out of the water. None of us would have been able to make it out had I have also jumped in.
Image credits: dancedanceunderpants
#8
Woke up around 1am and went to use the bathroom. Started sweating profusely from what felt like every pore in my body. Then started feeling like I had to throw up. Individually, they were concerning. Together, they were not good.
Woke my wife up and said “I need to go to the ER…like right now”. Got there, told them what was going on and sent straight into a room. Wife was let in a few minutes later and we were told I was in the midst of a heart attack.
Asked my cardiologist a few days later what would’ve happened if I had just tried to sleep it off and see how I felt in the morning. He said “you wouldn’t have woke up”.
Don’t ignore the signs, folks. .
Image credits: ATHYRIO
#9
I rehabbed aggressive dogs and learned how to act in a dog attack situation.
If its one dog, stay still. Don't run, don't fight. Put your hands up so it doesn't grab your arms or nip your fingers, and don't give it any stimulus.
If you run, its a game. If you fight, it's a fight. Either way you're going to lose.
Be prepared to fight if you have to, because running you'll die tired. Hit it hard, hit it fast, and get ready to have a really bad day.
Then the day came, I was getting out of my car and my neighbor's untrained pitbull that he was walking without a leash decided to charge me.
I did all the things, and as he got up to me he was confused because nothing was happening. It stopped and tried to goad me into doing something, leading to him trying to nip my leg.
So I took the bag of Arizona Ice Tea cans I had just bought and swung like that s**t downwards like a medieval flail. C*****d it right between the eyes and on top of the nose and backed it off. I'm not sure it even knew what just happened.
And THEN the owner showed up, so who knows what would have happened?
Image credits: Select_Entrance9311
#10
Not my life, but DON’T MOVE ANYONE WITH A POTENTIAL SPINAL INJURY. I recently drove up to a very fresh, very bad motorcycle accident (bike vs. pickup truck). The injured guy’s friends were about to try to TAKE HIS HELMET OFF. I ran up like a crazy person and yelled to not touch him, then kept his head and neck immobilized until the EMTs showed up. He was conscious but not oriented and kept asking his friends to move him, which was quite obviously not in his best interest. .
Image credits: suffergette
#11
“Always let someone know where you’re going.”
Many hikers, travelers, or solo drivers were rescued because someone knew their route and raised the alarm when they didn’t return.
Image credits: ColdAntique291
#12
Self-heimlich. I choked on food while driving in a busy street, didn't breathe for over a minute because it was standstill traffic and I was in the middle lane. Ended up cutting people off at the slightest sight of room, put my car in the ditch and 8th grade home ec came to mind as I heimliched myself on the spoiler of my car. C*****d a rip, spit the food out and cried for 10 mins because my vision started to go black. .
Image credits: Gaberino_
#13
Not quite life saving, but it sure felt like it at the time:
I didn’t realize I had heat exhaustion and got on a roller coaster. When my vision started going gray at the edges I remembered the Mythbusters Blue Angels episode where they talk about the full-body-muscle-clench thing they have pilots do to counteract the G forces pulling blood away from your brain. I did those clenches for the rest of the ride and managed to avoid passing out, got off the ride and toddled off to a sheltered area to drink some water and cool off.
Lessons about my heat tolerance were learned that day, but the pre-existing lesson about Hook Maneuvers meant I got to learn them while conscious and in private instead of from an impatient EMT after they revived me.
Image credits: Reasonable_Cranberry
#14
When traveling, leave all your real jewelry at home. Get cheap costume fake jewelry to wear. Fake Rolex, fake rings, etc. When you get mugged, they think they made a good score, and run off. They’ll find out later that instead of $5000 worth of diamonds, they got $5 worth of garbage. This paid off when we were robbed in Jamaica. .
Image credits: TwinFrogs
#15
Someone else’s life: I’m glad those Heimlich maneuver posters are everywhere. I was having lunch on a Monday in a neighborhood that’s mostly residential, so it was just me and one other person at another table. He choked on a piece of carrot and I successfully did the Heimlich on him. I have zero other emergency preparedness skills but I’m glad I had that one that day!
Image credits: that_was_way_harsh
#16
"Truck water and food"
Always carry sealed drinking water in the vehicle.
Keep some no-heat-ready-to-eat food stuff in your vehicle.
I got stranded in cornfield Iowa during a snowstorm and had to wait it out for four days until I get get dug out.
Lost myself in Idaho and got my rig STUCK really good way out in the back country for a week.
Beef Jerky and a five gallon jug of potable water got me through.
Image credits: MoutainGem
#17
Electrical fire smells like fish. Caught it before a fire even started.
Image credits: A_Goddamn_Princess
#18
"Rettungsgasse"
In case of a traffic jam on the German Autobahn the cars in the left lane go as far to the left as possible. The cars in all the lanes to the right of the very left lane go as far to the right as possible. (It doesn't matter if it's 2 or 6 lanes). That creates a passageway for Police, Firetrucks and Ambulances so they can get to potential accidents. My mum and I got into an accident that flipped and squashed the car. First responders were able to get my mum out, but I was stuck and bleeding heavily becausemy broken femur broke throughthe skin.. Only because of everyone creating a proper emergency lane, the firefighters and the ambulance were with me fast enough to get me out and stop the bleeding. If thst hadn't been the case, I might have lost the leg or died.
#19
I once saw a post on Reddit about someone who had a weird red line going up their arm. Everyone told them to go to the ER, that it was an infection leading up to their heart. A couple of years later, my husband cut his elbow. Two days later, he started with a fever and when I looked at his arm, I saw the line and made him go right away (we were on vacation and he wanted to wait until we got home). 3 days in the hospital and a surgery later he was ok, but the nurse told us he could've lost his arm or died if he brushed it off like he tried to. So thank you to that reddit poster!
#20
If you're under water, struggling and disoriented, blow bubbles to know which way to swim.
I inhaled water coming out of a big water slide that dropped me from height into water. The water from the slide pouring down directly on me was creating a current, I was stuck and don't know which way was up. I'm a fairly strong swimmer but panicked. I blew some bubbles and was able to work out which way to swim, just about dragged myself out of the pool on time, and coughed my guts up whilst the lifeguard carried on staring into space in the other direction 😮💨
Edit: I think the original advice I was thinking of was to spit when buried in an avalanche to know which way is down.
Image credits: Physical-Cheesecake
#21
Used to work in the fire service. Maybe not a glamorous tip, but a lot of people were saved by bystanders knowing basic first aid and CPR. In a rural place, we're were arriving to a scene 30+ minutes after the stopped breathing. 30 minutes without new oxygen or circulation makes massive difference in survival odds. And for traumatic injuries, making an attempt to manage blood loss is always better than nothing.
Image credits: Possible_Ad_4094
#22
Wear seatbelts.
I did and the t-bone accident was on my side.
My brother didn’t, and he died that day.
#23
Knew nothing about it so took a scuba diving certification class during grad school, I was paired with a strangely nervous guy, the rest were couples. He had to retake the pool test a few times. On the first open water dive day, we swam out in pairs as a group with wetsuits, flippers, maybe bc and weight belt. Half way out, and in mild surf, my designated dive buddy had a full panic nutty after swallowing some water and tried to climb on top of me.
Had long ago been a Boy Scout and took the lifeguard merit badge where they described this exact scenario and what to do. I gulped air, dove down so he’d let go of me and swam up behind his panicked a*s, put him in a light headlock as I recalled taking for that ancient merit badge test and swam us both in to shore like that. The dive master was apoplectic screaming at us swimming away from the rest of his group and turned everyone around and brought the entire group back to shore. He was pissed until he understood what had happened. They expelled him, and the dive master was my diving buddy for the rest of the sessions and final dive with full gear.
#24
If you think something isnt normal in your body. Listen to it. Your body WILL tell you if something isnt right.
Literally saved my life from a major brain stroke. Started having the worst headache of my life except it wasnt like the rest. So i got up somehow and managed to get my dad in time. Snd today now i can continue to live judy because i listened to my body when it told me something.
Image credits: Commercial_Search249
#25
When a child/person is having a seizure, get them on thr floor and on their side and do nothing until paramedics arrive.
My wife saved a seizing 4 year old from her mother who was flinging her around like a ragdoll screaming for help.
Image credits: ironwheatiez
#26
It wasn’t quite life or death but I had a fire start on the stove top most likely from spilled oil or other food stuffs and I remembered some insurance commercial that said to use baking soda to put out small grease fires and was able to get it out before it became too big.
Image credits: Local-toads
#27
If you are sick, injured, or just gone through a medical event. If you get that feeling of impending doom or something just doesn't feel right, do NOT ignore it!
I had this happen to me after I just had my second baby. I was brushed off by the nurses but the doom feeling didn't go away and I could feel myself bleeding too much. I physically felt weaker and cold, I looked at my husband and told him I was going to die.
I ended up coding shortly after because I had severe postpartum hemorrhaging that they missed. They brought me back but I had to undergo several blood transfusions, be put on medicine for the bleeding, and have the bleeding/clots passed closely monitored.
Image credits: Awkward_Apricot312
#28
Always a pack a map and compass.
Yes, you have GPS. Yes, you can download a map. Yes, you even have a charger to make sure your equipment stays charged throughout the hike. None of that is a guarantee.
Always pack a map and compass.
Image credits: SunnyOnTheFarm
#29
If you're tired, pull over.
I've almost died a couple times on highways for various reasons (inclement weather, accidents caused by other drivers, wildlife, getting into a vehicle with someone who shouldn't have been driving) but only once for nearly falling asleep.
You feel drowsy, get off the road. It's as simple as that.
Image credits: SubstituteHamster
#30
Hypothermia. Heat the person up with body heat NOT hot water. Also warm socks and a hat. I also improvised some warm heating pads with towels in trash bags soaked in warm water. Spent an entire night saving someone's life, guy doesn't remember it because hypothermia can affect your memory.
Image credits: Amonette2012
#31
If the fire alarm goes off. Grab your pet and get out of the building. Saved me and my wife’s lives this past Monday.
Image credits: devowrer1
#32
I don’t know if this actually saved my life, but somebody hit me on the highway while I was driving with cruise control on 75 mph on a 70 mph highway (hit on my left passenger side) and my car spun out across two lanes of traffic and spun in full two circles (I believe). The entire time it was happening I stared right at my steering wheel with my dads voice in my head saying, “ease into the turn, do not over correct or try to go the other way”. So with my death grip on the steering wheel I slowly went with the motion of the car and we didn’t flip over or anything. It was TERRIFYING. I remember at some point seeing my dog in midair in the backseat (she had a seatbelt leash, THANK GOD). Totaled my vehicle yet the man who hit me somehow was able to somehow stay on the road and got away with it.
Image credits: AStoryIsASeed
#33
Pay attention to your gut and other animals if you are out and about
If you are walking in the woods or swimming and suddenly it is very quiet and there is no signs of any animals when there was before something very bad is about to happen either there to you or to the area that you are immediately in
When the world goes silent all of a sudden you need to listen and find out why
Along those lines if something feels off and your stomach is doing knots and your body is telling you that you are about to put yourself in serious harm or danger you need to listen
It is much better to just say no, and to be thought of as a coward than to die for doing something stupid when every muscle in your body already told you not to do it.
#34
If your body reacts to someone believe it. Trust your gut.
#35
Not really a survival tip but "Do NOT swerve for deer in the road".
I was coming home from college late one Friday (like 1AM) on a road bordering a state park. As I'm tooling along a deer jumps out in front of me, I hit the brakes but still hit the deer which goes tumbling off into the dark. I limp up to the next point I could pull off and look, no real damage just a dent in the hood and some blood. Come Sunday, I'm heading back to school along the same route in daylight and get to the spot I hit the deer and realize that the road is running along a ridgeline with slopes going down about 75 feet on each side. So if I had swerved for the deer and gone off the road there's a non-zero chance I'd have been down that bank and invisible from the road if I was incapacitated. Moral of the story, don't swerve for deer/animals that weigh less than your car.
Image credits: greenmachine11235
#36
Buddy of mine was put into a coma when he was in the ‘chicken’ lane trying to turn left. Had his wheels already turned in anticipation for his window when a car slammed into his rear end lunging his car forward and turned into oncoming traffic resulting in a head-on collision with a car going 45mph.
I took his trial as a cautionary tail and always kept my wheels straight when waiting for my turn in a chicken lane. Couple of years ago I got rear ended in the exact same manner as he did but I was able to come to a safe stop in the same lane just a few yards forward and didn’t have a collision. His near-death experience saved my life and I still think about him everytime I’m waiting to turn.
#37
Stay calm. One time, I stupidly decided to go for a hike later in the day and ended up breaking my phone, no flashlight. It got pitch black in the forest really fast, and I got completely lost off the trail. I felt myself starting to panic, so I sat down for a few minutes, collected myself, and finally ended back on the main trail and back to my car.
If I had panicked, I'd probably would have spent all my energy hiking in the wrong direction and broken an ankle in my madness. The main thing in any emergency is to do everything you can to keep yourself calm.
Image credits: blazingmonk
#38
My stepdad thought he was having a heart attack and chewed an aspirin. Turns out he was right and the doctors said it likely was the reason he lived.
#39
Always wear wool (and never cotton) next to skin then hiking somewhere cold and/or wet. Wool has saved me from hypothermia on many occations.
Image credits: run_kn
#40
Give up everything without hesitation, was the lesson, when I was robbed at gun point...as the robber turned he fired the pistol out of panic - could've been at me.
Image credits: canoisle
#41
Saw a news article about What 3 Words and thought it sounded really useful so told my kids to make sure they had the app on their phones in case they ever needed me to pick them up and they didn't know where they were. Fell over and broke my ankle and had to use it to help the ambulance located me. Rang my daughter to let her know what was going on and the first thing she said was "What's your 3 Words?" - not exactly saved my life but certainly saved time when I was sat in the snow waiting for help.
#42
The most dangerous thing I usually do is drive. These tips are about 63% of my driving knowledge and I do pretty good:
-Don’t pass if it’s a double yellow, but especially don’t pass another car going over a hill or around a curve.
-Look before you change lanes.
-If your car engine is over-heating, turn the heat on full blast (maybe just older cars 🤷♂️ saved my a*s in a traffic jam outside Nashville coming back from spring break in ‘01).
-Assume every container in the road is filled with nails (as in try not to run it over).
-Brake. Don’t swerve. Unless you *need* to swerve, then do what you gotta do.
Image credits: I_think_were_out_of_
#43
Always wear shoes you can run in.
Image credits: ninja_chief
#44
Get your skin checked (especially if you're in Australia). Just had a rapidly growing melanoma cut out that thankfully hadn't invaded deeper.
Image credits: TerribleGoat7899
#45
Spend it while you have it. Yes, cutting down firewood, building a shelter, constructing a fish trap, etc. will take energy, which you're instinctively trying to preserve. But worst case scenario, in a few days you're not going to have energy anyways, and you're way better off with some previously made investments.
#46
Got caught in a snowstorm while hiking. I remembered a tip: “Don’t wander stay put and stay warm.”
I made a small shelter and waited. Hours later, rescue found me. If I’d kept walking, I probably wouldn’t be here. That tip legit saved my life.
#47
I was told if you had a cramp in your leg accompanied by redness its a life threatening blood clot and to get emergency help immediately.
My friend had been complaining for two days about a cramp in his leg so I made him pull up the leg of his jeans and his skin was bright red. I tried not to panic as I told him he needed immediate help. I was visiting and set to catch a train in 30 minutes so he promised he'd go in.
He did not go in but he called NHS and they were like "do not move. Do not panic. Keep your heart rate calm. We're sending someone right away." And it was then he realized I wasn't kidding. He made it in and apparently it was REALLY bad and if he'd waited any longer, it would've dislodged and he wouldve died. The doctor told him I'd saved his life. He reminds me of that from time to time too. I'm so glad I knew what the signs of a clot were.
#48
If you are swimming in the sea and you are in danger or drowning or a current is taking you away, DON'T PANIC.
Look for the best way to swim in to safety. Don't waste your energy. Adrenaline will help, but you need to dose your strength and keep swimming, even if you think it's a lost cause.
It saved my life in the Atlantic sea.
Image credits: corgi_crazy
#49
Wearing a life vest in any open body of water. I am a good swimmer, but I am so glad that I wore a life vest when white water rafting. The water is so cold, when you are thrown in, you go into shock. I couldn't even breathe for a few seconds, let alone swim to the surface on my own.
#50
Drive as if your own child could run out from behind of every obstacle alongside the road. Because one day, someone will.
And when braking, hit it hard right away, full brake. Braking gently, slowly, or gradually costs you meters you don’t have. Try this somewhere safe to develop the reflex.
Modern cars are built to be mostly controllable under full braking, so you won’t improve controllability by braking too slowly.
Sources: own experience, racing instructor.
