The worst experience of your life.

[tonton]

Have you ever been the victim of a violent crime or serious accident? An act of nature? A relentless series of unfortunate coincidences? Lost your nest egg in one fell swoop? Sudden death in the family?

I'm asking this because last week a once best friend was kidnapped at gunpoint and held for three days for a ransom of about US$1.2 million before the Chinese police rescued him in a SWAT-like operation. The story was on the front page in all the Hong Kong papers on Thursday.

He said he's lived through worse (he wouldn't say) and he won't be changing his situation or his behaviour to be more careful. Sounds like a death wish to me, or delusions of immortality.

Another ex-classmate (we weren't close) witnessed his dad shooting his mom in the head in a drunken rage when he was like 10 or something.

I've never had anything like that happen to me. I've never been robbed or raped or assaulted (although I once boldly chased about five teenage housebreakers away with a rubber baseball bat). Been in a few car accidents, but none where anybody died. Worst accident one was my eleventh or twelfth birthday, with five kids in the car and my dad driving. We were stopped at a stop sign and a car going about 40 ran the stop sign and swerved right into us, head on. My dad and three of us had concussions, one friend had serious knee surgery and two were untouched. One of the fathers was a top attorney and milked the driver for all he had.

So what's your story?

[Mount_my_floppy]

I really don`t like to share this but what the hell its my birthday today and not much is going to get me down today.

My best friend killed himself when I was 15.

[Aquafire]

All truly 'Orrible...

I'm not going to make this into a pissing contest..& so i won't go into my past pains..

But as I was looking at your post..I remembered a story about a guy who had to go to hospital to have a badly infected toenail removed from his right foot..

He woke up several hours later to find the doctors had removed his left leg at a point just below the knee.

To make matters worse, they still hadn't done anything about the ingrown toe-nail.

Meanwhile, the guy who was meant to undergo the leg removal ( due to blood poisoning ) actually died of a cardiac arrest brought on as a result of the delay...

Might be true..might not..but like all urban myths its got dem legs....

[Wagnerite]

have graduate degree and unemployeed.
to top it off, even if i find employment, i can't accept, b/c i dont have a work permit.

worst experience so far, and i'm still in it. anyone got a daughter/cousin/female relative that has is US citizen that is willing to marry for cash?

email me for price

[Aquafire]

Originally posted by Wagnerite
have graduate degree and unemployeed.
to top it off, even if i find employment, i can't accept, b/c i dont have a work permit.

worst experience so far, and i'm still in it. anyone got a daughter/cousin/female relative that has is US citizen that is willing to marry for cash?

email me for price

She's the lady in Red..strictly cash only..& no funny business...

[bunge]

I've been near dead a couple of times, but they're fond memories now. That's the beauty. They can all become fond memories if you don't die.

[mlnjr]

I've been unemployed for over ten months now, and because my old employer and I had different stories to tell about why I lost my job, the state employment commission wouldn't approve my request for unemployment benefits. I've only been able to land interviews for three jobs since last October (most recently for a position with Apple) and nobody has hired me yet.

As far as "Can You Top This?" goes, in 1998 my grandmother was killed in a ten-car pileup that her car triggered. The following year, my uncle was stabbed to death outside a convenience store when he wouldn't give up his wallet. The first story was major news here because of the size of the wreck and her age and such. The second story was major news in Philadelphia, because my uncle was an editor and columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News.

[chych]

No lives at stake, but one of my worst moments was when I killed about $30,000 worth of equipment at work in one hour. Strangely enough I still had a job there (and still do).

A few deaths in the family (great grandmother and a grandfather) but I never knew them well so it didn't affect me that much, and natural causes anyway.

Also a girl I knew in high school who used to sit with us during lunch died in a car crash, but I didn't know her too well.

[SeanM]

Probably when my sister threw her self to the ground on the softball field and had a cardiac arrest. She basically had the same event that you often hear of young athletes who die on the field. CPR was given by a mother who was there for the first time. She also just happened to be a cardiac nurse. Her heart wasn't beating for approximately ten minutes..ugh. Worst of all, my mother was there to witness all of this. When she regained consciousness after the ordeal at the ER, she would ask what happened over and over again. She simply couldn't remember what was said to her seconds before as a result of the lack of oxygen to her brain. She now has an AICD in her chest to prevent future occurrences and has, for the most part, recovered from her brain damage, although she still does have some assimilation problems at times.

There was also the period of time when my lungs were collapsing over and over again for no apparent reason. There was no end in sight and eventually both sides collapsed at the same time. That sucked.

Woo for weird events that occur during the junior year of high school. (Mine was May of my junior year, my sister's was April of my junioar year)

[Scott]

No need for the pissing contest. We all have different experiences.

I have two ... maybe three.

One: My wife was having some bad flu going on for a month off and on. I was getting her up in the morning for a doctors appointment. While trying to get her out of bed in to the shower she started having a seizure. 911 and the whole bit. Bad thing about the seizure is that after it's over you are very very still. I had to check for a pulse to make sure she was okay. Turned out to be only viral meningitis, bacterial is the bad one.


Two: Father's stroke. I knew there was no chance in hell he'd recover. He hung on for another couple of months. Life goes on.

[CubeDude]

My tutor and good friend was in a car accident and recieved a concussion. He also lost his car, a classic convertible Mustang. But, the life means more than the car.

As for me, well, I'm too young to have had any terribly bad expiernces.

[SeanM]

Scott, was the pissing contest reference directed to my 'woo for the junior year of high school experiences' comment? My sister's event and mine both occured in our junior year, hence the comment. (I've edited my post to add clarify that)

I don't see how that was trying to get into a pissing contest. (If your comment was not directed at me, nevermind then.)

I was hit by a car, head-on, while on a cycling training ride when I was about 15. the vehicle failed to yield while making a left hand turn. I was doing about 26-mph, saw the vehicle about to turn, so I stopped pedaling. The car started to go, and then stopped, as if it saw me. I noticed there were no other cars behind me, so I got out of the saddle and started to sprint through the intersection. I was back up to or beyond 26 mph then, when right as I got into the intersection, the car floored it.

According to pedestrians, I flipped over the car, as I was upside down in mid-air the bicycle unclipped from my shoes, and I slid, on my legs, about ten to fifteen feet. The bike landed approximately an additional ten feet away.

I remember getting up, very quickly, locating and grabbing the bike, and running to the side of the road. I was looking at my bike, wondering how the hell I was supposed to ride home now. Then I noticed a couple of the pedestrians staring at me with a weird ass look. I looked down at my legs, collapsed immediately, and wasn't able to stand on my own for the rest of the day.

When I got to the ER, the doctors had to talk to me about the possibility of skin grafting, as it could be necessary. Fortunately it was not. I had to walk with a cane for the next four months, I had to change bandages on my legs almost twice daily, could only wear sweat pants, and had a cast on my wrist for about six weeks. I was out for that entire racing season.

What's worse is the woman driving the car drove away. They never caught her. The police flat out said that had I been seriously injured or killed, that it would have been worth their time to investigate. It also totaled a brand new road bike.

I've since been hit six additional times, only one of those six was another hit and run. None have been as serious, though in October of 2002 I was 'doored' by a driver; I was doing 28 mph when a car door opened, my right biceps impacted it, stopping me almost instantly. It swelled up to the size of a football, and it's still swollen to the size of a softball, along with a nasty scar. This happened almost a year ago, too. Doctors say it just takes a really long time...

*sigh*

[CubeDude]

Man, you think you would have learned your lesson by now!

Is it normal to be hit that many times by a car in that sport?

[Scott]

Originally posted by SeanM
Scott, was the pissing contest reference directed to my ...

No not really. Just in general.

[SeanM]

Whew, thanks for the response. *sigh of relief* I was afraid that my message conveyed or perhaps left an impression of something that I certainly did not intend. Anyway, I apologize for pulling this thread somewhat offtopic. Let us continue with these frightening stories...


-sean

Originally posted by CubeDude
Is it normal to be hit that many times by a car in that sport?

I'm twenty-two years old currently, and I've been riding seriously since I was thirteen. That's less than one incident with a car per year. It's fairly common for road cyclists to have such encounters with cars, especially when you live in a city. It can get even more dangerous in rural areas.

It sucks. Of all of my incidents, I was never once at fault. It always had to do with the carelessness of the driver. You know those look twice, save a life (motorcycles are everywhere) bumper stickers? That needs to be taken to heart, because it applies to cyclists as well.

[Leonis]

.

[der Kopf]

Originally posted by LoCash
I'm twenty-two years old currently, and I've been riding seriously since I was thirteen. That's less than one incident with a car per year. It's fairly common for road cyclists to have such encounters with cars, especially when you live in a city. It can get even more dangerous in rural areas.

And probably if you live in intensely car-dominated parts of the world. In all my years of cycling (though I doubt I'm in to it as much as you are, I have my bouts of daily training) I've not once been hit by a car. That's about 12 years. We do have plenty of nice bicylce paths here, though, along every major road, and many smaller ones. To say more, I heard last year more bicycles than cars were sold in Belgium. And this ain't even Holland yet, or China. Yet, getting doored is what I fear most, since some (not much, but a few) of those bicycling paths run ride beside a row of parked cars.

[Moogs]

Lost a brother suddenly a few years back. Other than that, I have to say I'm probably facing one of the worst times of my life right now, but I'll survive hopefully.

[Giaguara]

Wagnerite you sound like me, except I need to marry a guy for the same purpose. (no more volunteers needed, thanks anyway ..)

I saved a friend (my bf at the time) from being shot under my home. He got REALLY pissed off when I wanted to denounce what happened (we getting to my home, two guys around 20 saying something meaningful (to this person, I have never repeated their words) in dialect, and taking him behind the corner. I acted not as supposed: saw a group of people walkin in the main street about 300 feet from us, I walked on a way I could see him and them, and had still 1-2 seconds to react = about 60 feet away). He was trying to tell me everything was a "coincidence". After that letterally EVERYTHING has changed. I have no connection to him anymore, I told everything I knew (to get out of there) and I don't want to talk about the story any more. I hate the background checks for 10 years partly because of the same reason with Wagnerite, partly because I was never actually born anyomore ...

I saved another friend from death. And I again blur off all details. (all of them).

My first memory is from when I was about 2 days old. A close-to-death experience. It wasn't bad, but I really don't want to verify anything that was happening there or how all the details were in that room, it scares me. Two other near death experiences after: once the lungs stopped working (??) and I remember everything they were saying in the ambulance and in the hospital when they though I was gone untill I woke up, once I just was gone. And once had a mild heart attack at the age of 25 ... that scared me out. I was beaten unconscious and robbed last year during the Apple Expo in Paris and that left me for a long time being scared of everything and everybody. But I think having been thrown boiling water to myself by my dad (my mum and sister have told this, I have no memory about it) when I was about 4 was probably worse (and left a deep desire to be alone, and not-married?).

So, nothing really bad.

(edit: I completely forgot a motorcycle accident, but I broke only my leg..)

[jeffyboy]

First off, I want to say I feel I've been pretty lucky compared to most of you guys. No major deaths of people close to me or anything (and I'm 28.)

The worst thing I remember is breaking off an engagement with a girl. She drove us out to our local state park, ran up a 50 foot observation tower and threatened to jump. I talked her down, but she made a fairly legit suicide attempt a couple years later and was diagnosed as manic-depressive.

She's on meds and gets therapy now and from what I hear seems to be okay, though.

Jeff

[Rick1138]

Bad experiences are being stuck in a job you hate, a gnawing feeling of boredom that doesn't leave you for months. Near death experiences are at least exciting, I can remember a few:

- almost drowning in winter storm surf
- riding a bike along a highway and having a tractor trailer jacknife so close that the back end brushed my coat as it spun around
- having someone in NYC pull a gun on me ( I began to realize that it might not be a good situation when I noticed the gun had a silencer )
- getting into a fistfight with a mobster and having him threaten to kill me afterwards ( obviously he didn't )
- almost sleeping with the most disease-ridden woman in the county I live in

[tonton]

My nearest death experience was falling asleep at the wheel driving up PCH, and swerving all the way into the opposing lane. Had I kept going the same direction for two more seconds and not shaken my self up, I would have driven myself and my girlfriend right off the cliff. I pull over now when I get too sleepy.

[Scott]

I hate to come off as a prick but GOOD MOVE jeffyboy. I swore off crazy chicks back in high school. Then I married one But she's crazy about me

Anyway this reminds me! The time I almost drowned. We were at this beach in Hawaii that had little pools all over the beach that you could swim in if you were a kid. I was a little kid and it was deep enough to drowned in. Long story short I'm in the middle and going down, hit bottom and push back up down up down up hanging on. This will make my mom sound like the worst mother ever but she thought I was okay. My sister got jealous of the attention I was getting and came in the with raft. As you can imagine that's what saved me. I still remember what it looked like from the bottom looking up to the surface. It was kind of classic movie footage look.

[Hassan i Sabbah]

dp

[Hassan i Sabbah]

Department of Genito-Urinary Medicine at St Anne's Hospital, Praed Street, W1.

Next.

[InactionMan]

I feel off a thirty-five foot cliff and landed head first onto railroad tracks. Actually not entirely head first, my left shoulder and the side of my head took the brunt of the impact.
I ended up with a concussion, broken collar bone and some kick-ass cuts on my back from partially sliding down the top of the cliff.

All in all it was not that bad. The doctors were surprised I wasn't in worse shape but I'm pretty good at falling at not hurting myself too badly.

Actually, if that's the worst that has happened to me I've been pretty lucky.

[jeffyboy]

Originally posted by Scott
I hate to come off as a prick but GOOD MOVE jeffyboy. I swore off crazy chicks back in high school. Then I married one But she's crazy about me

It sucks because that experience makes me want to be really selective about who I get close to, but for some reason I tend to attract the wild, chaotic type of girl.

They've also provided some of the best experiences of my life!
8)

Jeff

[burningwheel]

Originally posted by bunge
I've been near dead a couple of times, but they're fond memories now. That's the beauty. They can all become fond memories if you don't die.

i've been near death twice. i can't they were nice experiences.

also i've been in 7 potentially deadly auto accidents, no injuiries for anyone thankfully

[bunge]

Originally posted by burningwheel
i've been near death twice. i can't they were nice experiences.

Well for me I'm just happy to have survived and learned from what I did or didn't do correctly or incorrectly. Such is life.