Some people are so incredibly lucky that they have a creepy run-in with the Grim Reaper and end up winning. It’s almost enough to make you think that they have a whole squad of guardian angels working back-to-back shifts to keep them safe from harm.
In a riveting AskReddit thread, people shared the nail-biting moments when they saw someone come close to losing their lives, and just barely escaped to live to tell the tale. Keep scrolling to read their stories, and remember to always, always, always look both ways before crossing the street.
#1
When I was 11 or 12 years old my little brother sucked down a hard candy while we stood in the hallway in our house. He immediately grabbed his throat and his eyes widened in panic. He couldn’t say anything and his tongue kept darting out of his mouth. I got behind him and performed the world’s most poorly formed, but extremely forceful, Heimlich maneuver. The candy shot out of his mouth. He was fine and, true to form, my parents didn’t believe the episode ever happened. I still resent that, but am thankful that the Boy Scouts taught me how.
Image credits: TheColdWind
#2
Running across a busy road. Kid got hit by 2 cars travelling in opposite directions, was in a coma for 9 months and didn't remember any of it. When he came back to school, he said the biggest shock he got on waking was pubic hair, he'd had none when he he got hit.
Image credits: Different-Employ9651
#3
My dad fell asleep when we went to a movie theatre. I noticed his skin was really gray when we got out to the car. I took him to the hospital and his blood sugar was 758. I was very surprised he wasn't in a coma.
Image credits: officialsmolkid
If you’re well-prepared for handling crises, have a quick reaction, and make quick decisions, you can weather a lot of dangerous situations. But it would be naive to think that you can control everything to do with your fate.
Accidents can and do happen to good people. So, a large part of your survival also depends on pure luck, timing, and the right circumstances. That means that you barely get hurt or make a miraculous recovery. Or, there’s someone around who can quickly come to your aid instead of panicking or ignoring your plight.
But it’s a godsend if a stranger decides to help you. That’s not to say that there aren’t good people in the world (there are plenty!), but the bystander effect can end up harming you when you’re in danger.
In short, the bystander effect, aka bystander apathy, is a well-documented phenomenon when people are less likely to help someone in distress the greater the number of people around them.
“If many people nearby are also not reacting, you may be less likely to respond,” Verywell Mind stresses, adding that individuals will likely help someone in trouble if they’re the only witness or part of a smaller group.
#4
A drunk friend dove head first into a public pool during the night. He didn't notice it was a pool for toddlers only 20cm / 7 inches deep. He crushed his skull and barely survived.
Image credits: GrossstadtYuppie
#5
My mom and I were visiting London, and my mother is a self important know-it-all, who stepped in front of a double decker bus before looking both ways. I yanked her back just in time. She was oblivious that she almost died and got mad at me for yanking on her. Can't help stupid.
Image credits: thangle
#6
Grabbed a marzipan candy from a kid with a severe nut allergy as he was about to bite it. The teacher who gave it to him didn't know marzipan is made of almonds. I had nightmares about what would have happened if I'd been a few seconds late for years after that...
ETA: I was an assistant teacher and I had stepped out to grab cleaning supplies and an extra tray of sliced watermelons, since a little girl had dropped the ones we had on the floor.
I went outside the classroom and my thoughts went like this : "Will the kids even want to eat watermelon? It's a birthday party, there's cake and candies... Do kids even like marzipan? Oh s**t, MARZIPAN!"
Then I dashed back like a madwoman and arrived right on time lol.
Image credits: superbondey
It’s very likely that the bystander effect has affected you at some point in time, or you’ve seen others freeze up or ignore people in need.
Essentially, when there’s an emergency, no single person has to take responsibility for an action when they’re part of a large crowd. That sense of responsibility gets diffused among the crowd.
What’s more, people feel pressured to behave in socially acceptable ways. So, by helping someone when nobody else is, you might feel judged or as though you’re behaving inappropriately.
Moreover, when you see lots of witnesses not reacting to someone in distress, you might assume that it’s not an emergency, even if it is.
#7
I watched an unsupervised toddler fall into the pool at a party when I was around 9. The mother who jumped in and pulled him out couldn't swim and just jumped in out of maternal Instinct when she saw this unknown toddler slip below the surface.
Luckily, the kid had fallen in the shallow end so both the toddler and the mother were okay but the family whose toddler fell in were kicked out of the party for not supervising their children and not being in the pool area when their kids were. The toddler's parents were too busy drinking and having fun to even care that their youngest almost drowned. I think I was more traumatized than they were because it was scary to watch a toddler pulled out of the pool like a limp dead body and then watch CPR performed and the toddler come to.
Image credits: PensOfSteel
#8
Unsupervised child at a motel pool with no lifeguard. My friend and I had to jump in and pull him out. Wound up calling CPS after the mother arrived and got angry at the kid for "making a scene" for almost f*****g DROWNING.
Image credits: Red_Lily_Shaymin
#9
They got bit by a bat and didn’t think anything of it. Their supervisor heard them yell when they got bit. Their supervisor insisted they go to the hospital for rabies shots. He almost didn’t go. The bat had an autopsy and found to have rabies.
If he hadn’t gone to the hospital, he would’ve died.
Knowing about the bystander is one of the best ways to counter it. When you’re aware of how human psychology works, you can then consciously change your behavior.
That being said, while you can and should intervene when someone is in danger, don’t rush in without assessing the situation.
You have to protect yourself as well.
#10
My newborn daughter had severe reflux. I left her sleeping in her crib while I washed the dishes. I had the baby monitor on but since we lived in a small apartment the monitor would pick up the sounds from the kitchen. I went to check on her and she was choking on her vomit. I am so grateful for that maternal instinct or whatever propelled me to look in on her at that moment.
Image credits: littleredcamaro
#11
Pulling apart a split rim to change a tire without letting out the air first. Luckily the rim went flying across the shop into a wall instead of his face and all the dude had was a sore wrist for injuries. There’s a reason these are called widow makers and most tire shops won’t touch em.
Image credits: congteddymix
#12
Back before baby seats or seatbelts were required My little brother learned to open the car door. My parents didn't have a car with child locks either. My Dad was picking my Mum up from work, did a huge turn into the car park and my little brother developed his door opening skill and immediately started to roll out. I grabbed him by his foot and held on, then I got battered for not watching him closely enough.
Image credits: Mistakes4
Have you ever witnessed someone close to losing their life, only to get away at the last possible second? Has this ever happened to you? How (un)lucky would you say that you are?
Have you ever seen someone in trouble and fallen prey to the paralyzing bystander effect? If you feel like sharing, we’re all ears. You can share your thoughts in the comments section, at the very bottom of this post.
#13
It was me. I was working two jobs (still am now) and I fell asleep while driving. I was close to hitting a tree head on but thankfully didn’t. I didn’t hurt myself or anyone else but it definitely put it in perspective that if you’re tired, PULL OVER. One of the dumbest things I’ve done.
Image credits: mfmchard27
#14
Fist fighting. The sound a head makes when an unconscious person strikes the asphalt is something I'd prefer to never hear again.
Image credits: JustAnotherDumbQuest
#15
When we were young 12 ish, I watched my cousin attempt to cross a very busy street with very poor judgement…..I still can’t to this day believe what I saw as he made it half way across and somehow got spun around, wether by his own survival reflex or maybe he got clipped by a passing car just right….. but he never broke his running stride and ended up next to me where he started, this d*****s looked me dead in the eyes and said “oh cool you made it too, that wasn’t the best idea” and i, jaw dropped had to explain to him what the hell just happened.
Image credits: foolishdrunk211
#16
We were all teenagers and lived out in the middle of nowhere in the Midwest. We did what we always did, had a nice bonfire, a few drinks, good music, etc on this nice man's farm (he let us use it). A few of the guys were horsing around, as usual, except one guy tripped. When he tripped, he was reaching out to grab onto anything that he could so he wouldn't land in the fire. As he was falling and grabbing, he accidentally pushed one of the other guys straight into the fire. His whole body was in this massive pit.
We all were freaking out, a couple of us grabbed the only cell phone around (this was before cell phones were popular, we didn't even have the Nokia brick yet) and called for help. A few others dragged him out and got hurt in the process.
I'll never forget the smell or the way he looked. He looked awake but not "here." EMS arrived VERY quick, considering the location we were at, cops came, and there was a lot of chaos and crying. Surprisingly, no one ran. The cops confiscated our drinks after taking our statements, drove us home, and told us that they weren't going to ticket us because we might have saved our friends life. They did however state multiple times that they hope we remember this whenever we drink near a fire. And we did/do.
Our friend survived, but barely. He had expressed multiple times how he wished he died. He looked similar to Niki Lauda. Nobody ever bullied him and f****d with him and he was one of the sweetest guys, before the accident and after. Unfortunately because of the pain he was in during recovery, the depression, and other medical issues from the accident, he became addicted to pain medication. About two years ago, I read that he died from a fentanyl (that's the assumption as the d**g name was never released) out at the local lake.
The friend who accidentally pushed him wasn't doing much better. He lived with the guilt for years. He never drank after that, but he became a bitter, angry, self destructive, depressed man. He stayed friends with our buddy and vowed to make it up to him. If our friend had any mean bone in is body, he could have easily taken advantage of that, but he never did. The other guy took his own life a few years ago (there were other personal issues that compounded on to his mental state). He died violently. Ironically, he set his house on fire (on purpose) when he found his wife dead (she had health issues), called the cops, taunted them when they arrived, and shot himself before anyone could get to him.
#17
I worked at a lumberyard. A 2x4 got jammed between two conveyor belts, and instead of shutting the machine down, a coworker jumped up on the conveyor belt and tried to get it unstuck. When he finally got the board pulled out the belts started running again and he flies down the line and very easily could have slipped between the belts and gotten seriously injured or k****d.
Image credits: YAZhivago
#18
Paddling an Ozark stream in November without a lifejacket or thermal protection, flipped, got pulled into a strainer and held under. Had there not been other experienced paddlers on the river who saw what happened, and who had the skills and equipment to save him, he would have died.
Image credits: OutdoorKittenMe
#19
When I was about 10, my 3 year old sister ran into the middle of a busy road and I ran in and swooped her up before she got hit by a car. Terrifying day.
Image credits: Dry_Meringue_3031
#20
This guy nearly died because he was doing 50-55 in a 75 MPH zone of interstate highway with no streetlights, on a motorcycle with no taillight, at 11 PM on a moonless night. I nearly ran him over because I simply didn’t see him until my car’s collision avoidance system started screaming at me. Had I been in any other vehicle I own, they likely would not be alive and I would be in prison.
Image credits: ratrodder49
#21
Riding their motorcycle with their helmet not fastened. Looked like a 5 point ninja throwing star when his bike came out from under him and his helmet was under no obligation to make the trip with him. The sound his head made when it hit the curb was terrifying. He died on impact. I was able to get his heart started again and keep him breathing until the paramedics made it there. He made a full recovery.
#22
My friend once leaned too far over a balcony trying to take a selfie. I grabbed their shirt just in time.
Image credits: Playful_Vehicle4817
#23
A guy with a peanut allergy decided to eat a Chinese granola bar, despite not knowing Chinese
He almost died, my mom drove him to the hospital after his face and throat swelled up and she saved his life. (This was back when I was in college).
Image credits: kelcamer
#24
Watched a mate fall out of a tree as he was trying to untie a rope swing, he hit the base of the tree and ended up knocked out, face down, floating in the river. He'd have drowned if he was alone. I jumped in and managed to hold his head above the water until I started sinking in the silt at which point friends just yanked him out by the arms.
He came to, went into shock, but we managed to get across the river and get him into a mate's mum's car (Ford Fiesta) and off to the hospital. He had a neck/back injury where he hit the tree roots and he couldn't get out the car so they were gonna chop the roof off. In the end they folded down the back seats, reclined the front seat, got a board under him with a neck brace and slid him out the hatchback!
Image credits: RustyBasement
#25
**Saved a kid from passing out face first into a fire pit.**
Up at some cabins I use to go to every year with a group of old friends. There was a big nice family in the cabin next to us celebrating some kids 19th birthday. They were Canadian and in Canada the drinking age is 19, so they got him s**t faced.
Everyone eventually went to bed, but the kid stayed up with us as we were a younger crowd than his family and he didn't want to stop hanging out. Eventually my group filtered out one by one, but I felt bad because this kid was TOAST, but he just wanted to stay up by the fire. So I stuck around.
I honestly thought the worst thing that could happen to him was that he would fall asleep outside at night and get hypothermia due to the cold after the fire went out. 😅
Kid is staring at the fire and before I know it his eyes close and he just collapses forward. Literally just passed out, just like that...
Thankfully I was sitting on a wood log pretty close to him. I launched myself so fast, I couldn't tell you what I was thinking. Kid was huge, over 6 ft, and I just blasted into him like a missile.
I still thought we were going to fall in the fire! I'm 5'6, But back then I was absolutely tiny. Size 0 and my doctor and family were on my a*s trying to get me to gain weight. Thankfully we fell to the side of the fire and I still had to try and pull him away from it so we wouldn't get burned.
I ran back into my cabin and got help. We carried the kid back to his cabin and tried to wake somebody up to tell them, but they were all passed out.
I had nightmares for a long time about what would have happened if I wasn't there.
#26
Friend was trying to breathe fire while drunk. F****n idiot burned half of his face.
Image credits: PRIESTOFDEATH420
#27
Myself, went up a metal staircase in a tower while checking out an abandoned cement factory. I was several stories up when the whole staircase dropped a few inches then caught again. All the birds nesting in the tower started screeching, I remember how loud it was. I got TF out of there. Told the people I was with to not go up and what had happened.
Image credits: beesinabox3
#28
Hiking unprepared. I worked in parks for most of my twenties. I myself almost died on the middle teton when I slipped on an ice field and fell into a crevice up against the rock face. Had to shimmy my way up like 15 ft of snow and rock maybe 2 ft wide. If I had broken a bone in that fall it would have been over. I also saved more than 1 person who was ill prepared and insisted on coming with me into the desert for a back packing trip. Had to call a chopper to save one and the other i had to carry back to the car with a friend because she was in heat stroke. Well both of them were deep in heat stroke but one of them we couldn’t find help so we had to carry her ourselves. One was in the Grand Canyon 2015, the other was in big bend 2018.
#29
At my local skatepark there was an absolutely insane BMX rider who went up a quarter pipe at speed, his front tire popped and span the back grind peg into the front of his head. When he landed back down it was still stuck in his head while he spasmed on the floor.
Absolutely brutal, he was in a medically induced coma for a couple of weeks and a ton of operations to reduce intracranial pressure. He never really recovered full function- the park owner said that had the peg come out he likely would have died in the spot.
I was so happy to have been one of the dorky kids who always wore a helmet.
#30
Pushed brother into the deep end of a swimming pool on holiday, thought, 'Gee, I didn't think he was this bad at swimming' so jumped in to rescue. Mother came round the corner at just the right time to watch me pull him out of the pool and called me a hero. Brother has no idea how close he came to carking it.
I never admitted to it.
Image credits: DribblingCumSock
#31
My oldest child has tried to die twice in their 12.5 years of life…
First time I was nursing said kid at maybe an hour old. Decided breathing was overrated and turned blue. Then fought like hell to not have IVs and kept pulling them out and removing the baby CPAP.
Then at 10 a blood vessel burst 10 days post tonsillectomy (removed after having strep for 7 months running - which caused a whole host of other problems too). Nearly bled out at the first ER before we were transferred to a trauma center and emergency surgery happened.
Image credits: Altril2010
#32
Watched a guy try to jump start his car with a vape pen. The look on his face when sparks flew everywhere was priceless - lucky he didn't fry himself!
#33
Vicodin, coke, booze, and some random unmarked pills. It was a college party and she was just some rando townie that showed up. I mean, she kinda *did* die (heart stopped, no breathing)...but we brought her back.
It took a while, but a couple people got her pulse back with CPR; but they couldn't get her breathing again. Since the only actual "medical professionals" (a combat medic and a nursing student) that had any idea what to do eventually fell victim to **freakin' tf out**, someone else suggested smacking her, because they tried everything else and the ambulance was still too far for us to hear any sirens.
So I swung my arm all the way back, put my entire person into it, and *administered a hail mary medical-grade smack* with all the strength I could muster. It was so loud my ears are *still* ringing, lol. But when it connected, she shot straight up in a gasping breath, like a horror movie resurrection.
#34
Me and my dad were eating dinner when I was about 10 and he started choking. I started slapping him on the back, but nothing was working. Suddenly, I remembered our favorite movie dumb and dumber. I gave him the Heimlich and I think it only took one or two squeezes.
I remember him saying something like name anything you want. I'll start shopping for cars for your 16th birthday right now. I remember saying, can you just chew your food a little better?
#35
My mam, several years ago. She'd recently been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and it was the first time I'd seen her have a hypo. We were alone and I had no idea what to do. I gave her insulin. Paramedic said she was lucky to not have immediately collapsed into a coma.
Image credits: Righteous_Hand
#36
Watched someone pick up a handgun, look down the barrel and pull the trigger. It was loaded, but not chambered. The owner ripped it out of his hands and slapped him in the face.
#37
When I was younger (about 10 or 11) my little brother (2 or 3) somehow got into the pool room in our vacation home. My parents were working so no one really noticed except me when I heard the door close. I hurried in just in time to see him fall into the pool. I jumped in with him and carried him out. It might not sound so scary but as a child I found it pretty traumatic and I’m glad I heard the door closing that day.
#38
Those kids in DC that drive crazy on ATV's and dirtbikes and do stunts and break sideview mirrors.
I saw a dude crash into a fire hydrant.
Image credits: PhilosophyBitter7875
#39
Hiking the Mist Trail at Yosemite. There were two teenage girls goofing around shoving and grabbing each other. They both lost their footing on loose gravel on a slab of rock right next to a huge drop off. They slid a couple feet and were dangerously close to the edge. It didn't phase them though. After the briefest of pauses they both ran giggling up the trail.
Image credits: Maverick_Jumboface
#40
I watched a dud on a motorcycle turn right at a green light and plow into a car that was running that red light. He jumped off the bike before it crumpled cartoon-style into the front of the car. Then stood there in shock staring at the ball of metal that had been his bike.
#41
That person was me
I lived near the base of a mountain so everything was downhill
Coming out of a neighborhood is a busy street but I can see as I'm coming if it is green
I was cruising down on my longboard and was going to just keep going as it was my right of way, noticed a car was gonna run the red pretty fast so I hooked my arm around the street light pole to stop myself
My Sector 9 board got f****d, but I lived.
#42
Does listening count?
I'm a 911 operator, so I've got a lot of these. But here's a lighter one: Recently, I took a call for a vehicle crash with no injuries that was on the highway. I told the caller to move the veh out of the road if safe to do so, and he states that he's going to get out and "help block traffic" before police get there, because his car isn't moveable.
Once I realize what he means, I'm trying to tell him please DON'T get out of your car and go stand in the middle of the road, because w*f? He insists it's fine. He doesn't want anyone to hit his car. Then there's a NYOOOOM, the painful screech of brakes, and a "HOLY S**T!!!" from this guy who almost got hit by a semi truck.
He got away from the road after that.
Edit: preemptively, please don't roast the poor guy *too* much. Getting into a car crash will dump a huge load of adrenaline on you, and you never know how you'll react. I think he was just trying to take control of the situation in whatever way he could, no matter how illogical.
#43
Refusing blood products to save their life because they’re Jehovah’s Witness. .
Image credits: National_Possible728
#44
So this was me.
My cousin and I were rough housing in the pool. He was on top of me and it forced me down. As a result I started to drown. I inhaled a bunch of water panic then calm. I happened to see a ladder close by before I lost conciousness. I grabbed at it used that to get my head above water and got him off. I coughed up water for a bit but was good after that.
There was also the time I nearly choked on calamari. Parents and sisters were across from me. Did not notice I was dying quitely. Luckily I drained my drink and disloged it.
Image credits: Lukostrelec17
#45
9-year-old child running blindly across a major 4 lane road (against a red light at a crosswalk) without looking to see if it's clear.
I was the one who almost k****d her. I think about her sometimes, wondering if she made it to adulthood.
#46
I've seen a few people die but one was so close he was saved by a sneeze. A drunk equipment operator running a CAT330 swung his bucket around as he was turning at head-height and nearly took this guy's head off. He suddenly started sneezing and bent over just in time for the bucket to touch his hair as it went over his head. We all had a lil nervous giggle but definitely reported the event. Nothing was done about it anyway.
#47
I was white water rafting with friends and as we were going through a class IV rapid we noticed a person in the water. We were frantically looking for him trying to get him into the boat but he disappeared under the water I don't even know how long. All the sudden he popped up right next me me and I stick my paddle out. He grabbed it and it took most of us to pull him in. I cant believe we didnt flip our boat trying to pull him in! Dropped him off with his friends after the rapid and he refused to get back in the boat. They didn't seem to think it was a big deal at all but he was shook, hyperventilating, repeating"I almost just died!".
#48
I’m an ICU doctor, take your pick.
Actions include smoking, drinking, not seeking medical care when it was obviously needed, not getting vaccinated during the delta wave of COVID (although only 1-2 people actually survived that one once they were sick enough that they made it to my ICU), using dirty needles to inject d***s, driving recklessly, driving drunk, f*****g around with ATVs, etc etc etc
Forgot about “eating foraged mushrooms you didn’t correctly identify”!
#49
Rubbernecking on i80 in the Midwest where people are normally doing 80+mph. Two cop cars had someone pulled over. Guy in sedan veered into center lane from the left, two cars ahead of me. He hit a van, van immediately lifted onto two wheels, shot across the lane to the right before flipping a few times and landing on top of one of the cop cars (cop inside), launching the cop car maybe 30 feet into the ditch. I somehow managed to drive through the chaos completely unscathed. Sedan man was covered in blood, van man covered in blood, cop covered in blood, back half of the cop car was nowhere to be seen. Checked that everyone was alive at least, left as helicopters were approaching to take people to the hospital.
#50
Was on holiday in Tallinn, Estonia and hired one of the electric scooters to explore the area quicker. Was coming up to a crossing way too fast and hadn't tested how the brakes on the scooters worked before. Tried to brake, but it barely did anything until I pulled hard and the abrupt stop threw me into the road in front of an SUV. Thank f**k the guy was paying attention because the view of the crossing was blocked by a bush until just before the road. I got up with a couple of scrapes and bruises and apologised to the guy and thanked him for not k*****g me. Then, I walked back to the hotel while trying not to have a full on panic attack.
