Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The closest you've ever been to death?

Yeah I’ve had several. Been shot at, had a knife pulled on me in Pioneer Square that went badly for the other guy, a couple of buildings or roofs collapse on me, jumped out of the way of an out of control driver once and thought I was done for in bar/brothel in Athens Greece.

I have no doubt that the Big Guy upstairs was looking out for me. There were 2 times that I specifically recall thinking “so this is how I’m going to die” absolutely convinced that I was not going to make it out when something or someone saved me….completely unexplainable and unbelievable. I know that I met my guardian angel that night in Athens and at that instant in the moment I thanked God for sending her to save me from the situation I’d unknowingly gotten myself into.

One time my ex asked me if the pants made her look fat, and I said "it's not the pants."

And that is all i am going to talk about.

Spring Turkey hunting. Walked in the dark early AM in a fairly open old growth hardwood creek bottom. Found a nice oak tree to set up at. Daylight comes and just as soon as I make yelps on the box call a huge old dead tree comes crashing down and lands about 25 to 30 yards behind me. A falling tree definitely makes a sound in the woods if it falls down,

1975 - hitting a Dodge truck broadside @ about 50 (maybe a bit more) mph on a 1973 Honda XL 250. The bike was actually beat up worse than me!

That’s possibly the closest….there are numerous others that would’ve killed most humans! Luckily, I’m not human! 😉 memtb

Multiple times, including 2 high-speed incursions into the interstate median, to avoid oncoming wrong-way drvers.
Most recent - loading 9 weight steers last fall.
We load out horseback through a 12 foot alley.
I'm up in the stirrups as steers are balking, I'm trying to use the reins as a short whip.
Steers stop, horse stumbles, I go forward.
Horse, catching his balance, throws his head -hitting me under the right cheekbone.
Only time in my life, I've been hit hard enough to go black. (Plenty of "opportunities", though )
Came to with the reins in my right, instead of left, hand - right wrist hooked around saddle horn -left forearm on top fence rail ( 7/8" sucker rod).
And praying - "Please don't let me go down!"
If I'd hit the ground - they'd have needed to pick me up with a "stick and a spoon" - probably literally.

I keep telling myself - I'm too old for this sheit - and replying to myself - NAAAAHHHHH!

July of 2017, about to take what we all thought would be my final chemo treatment. I had a fever of 103, and blood work showed a severe bacterial infection in the blood. Spent 4 day in hospital on if antibiotics. After it was all done the doc said if another day had passed without the antibiotics I would not have made it

Driving I-40 just east of Asheville NC one night in March after a heavy cold front passed thru. Was heavy rain for a day then as the front moved past high winds replaced rain. Had just made note the car ahead of me must have the cruise set at 75mph like me. It was probably 50 to 75 yards ahead. Suddenly in the headlights ( and forevermore a Polaroid in memory) TREES…BAM. A double trunk oak tree blew down between our vehicles. Pretty much hit the road a car length or so in front of me. I recall a 12” trunk high and a 10” or so low with much vegetation between in my headlights. The big trunk hit the junction of the roof and windshield of the Caravan I was driving. It went up across the top after blowing glass everywhere. Had it been situated inches lower it would have come thru the windshield and cut me apart. Other things happened like severe concussion, memory loss, blood in ears, etc. but that tree trunk I hit on cruise control at 75 is what sticks with me.

A few car and motorcycle wrecks. And a few very close calls that I managed to avoid that would have been very bad

1981 spring beaver trapping on the cedar river. Was walking an ice shelf that dumped me under the ice on the other side. Was under it going downstream until it pushed me into a sandbar I could break thru the skim ice

I’ve been shot at while archery hunting by a dope grower with a high powered rifle and survived two brown bear charges one while unarmed. But cutting timber for twenty five years all over the Northwest provided lots of really good chances to end up dead. It’s amazing how fast the human mind can process a situation and how fast you can react to it. I’m sure Digital Dan can relate as well as the fixed wing pilots that were in the [bleep] too. The crazy part is not getting scared until afterwards.

Had outpatient surgery on my rotator cuff. In recovery I stopped breathing. Lungs were filling with fluid instead of air. A tiny young lady anestheologist climbed on top of me and got a tube down my throat with a bag til they got me to ER and then ICU. 4 days on a respirator saved me. I woke up after 2 days. I didnt know where I was or what happened.

I was brought back from drowning twice,No white lights did not remember anything ,just woke up in the hospital.Was told I was legally dead both times but the folks in the emergency room did not quit.

I always had a heart murmur when I was young. In 1964 it got louder. Went through tests in June '64 and was told next month I was having open heart surgery. Doctors told they hadn't been doing this surgery for long but I should be ok. Well, I had the surgery and now I'm 72. I don't want heart surgery ever again.
On the early morning hours of St. Patrick's Day 1978 my 4 year old son got up about 2:00 AM to use the bathroom. Came into the bedroom and said that the TV was on fire. Smoke was down to 5 feet off the floor. Lowered my wife and kids out the bedroom window and ran to the neighbors. The house was totaled. Last snow of the winter that night and of course the roads weren't cleared.
Couple years later while driving to work on a snowy morning I went off the road and hit a tree head on. Got my back reset on that one.
Few years later, when I was in the Meter Dept., I was at work doing monthly reads of industrial customers in Salem, Ohio. Went to change out the magnetic tape used as a backup reading and got slightly shocked. Went back out to my company car and got my volt meter. Put the meter on it's highest voltage setting, found a good ground and touched the leads between the ground and meter case. Meter pegged out at 600V. Turns out a couple days before a crane had torn down the primary neutral coming in to the plant. Wasn't fixed yet since the plant had power. That resulted in a floating ground. They think I got into 2400V but it wasn't my fault. Safety's ok as long as it doesn't cost money or cut into production.

Who hasn't been shot at? Raise your hand

November 1, 1998. Fell off a Cliff. Got my carcass flown out the next morning after it snowed that night. Didn’t break all that many bones considering the circumstances but wasn’t in any shape to get myself out, also lost my boots from the rolling and bouncing after the initial fall.

wabigoon;
Good evening to you my friend, I hope the weekend was a good one for you all and you're all well.

With apologies to folks who've read my story before, it went something like this for me.

I was 15 and working on a hotrod car that only needed two bolts tightened, so I ran it up in the air with an overhead chain hoist and didn't block it up.

It was -40° or a bit colder that night and I was in an unheated brick shop.

The double hook holding the chain let go and the car fell on me, hitting me on the back of the head then smacking my face pretty hard on my knee or the floor, not sure which. I couldn't breathe under there and I yelled "God get me out of here".

While I didn't see what lifted the car wabigoon, something did because I was able to straighten up enough to see the bumper coming back down slowly. Again I never saw what did that, but have come to believe it was likely what folks refer to as "angels".

I knew I was wrecked badly when my legs wouldn't move, so I crawled to a stone picker that was parked in the shop as well and was moving some scrap metal to get to the telephone when my brother and cousin found me likely 15-20 minutes later.

As we were really rural, they called a neighbor who had a station wagon - a Ford which wasn't plugged in but managed to start - so they ripped a sheet of 3/4" plywood, slid me onto it and loaded me into the back of the wagon.

On the way into the hospital I nearly crossed over as it really and truly hurt to breathe because of the injuries at that point.

They did get me there, the ER staff called the resident expert doc who was in bed and he came in looked me over and suggested that my family call anyone who needed to be called as I wasn't going to make the morning.

The list of injuries were I crushed my 11th and 12th vertebrae, crushed my internal organs, bruised my ribs, tore the muscles in the backs of both legs, my groin and lower back - and smacked my head up too as mentioned. My injuries were such that my body started to attack itself, I recall a couple doctors explaining it to me but can't recall the term at present sorry. It's when the white blood cells attack the red blood cells if I'm stating it correctly.

Anyways they doped my up to smooth the ride across the river as they figured that was my only option. My eldest sister was an RN and she came down from up north. She said later she'd never seen anyone my weight get that much Demerol, but they didn't think I'd live for the first 10 days so that was likely the reason.

Obviously I didn't pack it in and after 7 weeks in the hospital, 5 of them on a Stryker Frame, I got a body cast from my hips to my armpits and was released.

I had a couple other close enough calls with horses and cars after that for sure, but that's the closest I've come personally to crossing over.

All the best to you all this week wabigoon.

Dwayne

[quote=tikkanut]
We’ll be on the Swell Wednesday-Saturday and camped near Swasey’s Cabin

Last I counted,I had 23 pards killed by Rotary Wings and non in combat. Hint.

Then there's boats,motorcycles,cars,trucks and The Woods. Hint.

I've all theT-shirts. Hint..................

I’m the youngest of three.

Back in the day, Rh Factor incompatibility was a big deal. If your mom is Rh negative and you’re not, she can create antibodies that see the next baby as a foreign invader and try to kill it.

#1 son was fine, next kid (daughter) was fine, third kid drew the short straw.

Full blood replacement at birth (waaay premature) three times. Not transfusions, replacement. Pump new blood in while pumping the old blood out. Thrice.

The good news is, I was baptized immediately so as to avoid Limbo (Catholic at the time) then given Last Rites so I wouldn’t spend too much time in Purgatory.

So I got that going for me, which is nice.




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