Brush With Death?

[snowsprite]

Reading the Life is Good thread is very inspiring. Shindlerpiste's honeymoon story of surviving a terrorist attack really blew me away and it got me thinking...how many of you have had a brush with death?

I've had one that I consider to be a "true brush with death." Oddly, it was during the birth of my son. I had some very serious complications and I almost died. They worked on me for four and a half hours and I received 13 units of blood (pretty much my entire blood supply was replaced b/c I would not stop bleeding). They performed an emergency hysterectomy in an attempt to save me. I stopped breathing after the surgery and they worked hard to stabilize me. At some point, I remember the nurses leaning over me saying "Please wake up, please open your eyes," and I did.

I spent a few days in ICU on morphine and a breathing machine. I was as bloated as an elephant, I could barely recognize my swollen legs when they lifted the sheets. I drifted in & out of consciousness. The pain was unbearable. It was really touch and go!

But I made it through. And I'm sure it was mainly due to that squirmy, red, little crying bundle with a shock of black hair that they kept bringing to my bedside...

And by the way, nurses RULE!

Sprite

[schindlerpiste]

O-M-G! I am glad to hear that things turned out well for you...and I am sorry that this happened to you.

Also, I apologize for disturbing people with my story, and reminding you of times of trouble.

LIFE! Isn't it interesting?

[MassLiberal]

And the world is a better place with you around!

Amazing story sprite! Glad you made it through!

[snowsprite]

No way! Don't apologize, and in fact I hope that I'm not bumming anyone out by posting this topic. But I say and do off-kilter stuff all the time and I'm sure you're all used to it by now.

I honestly find it amazing & inspiring to hear about people surviving and overcoming death. It teaches you something new and gives you a new perspective to hear the stories people will tell about death and near-death experiences.

I often think about death in fact, and not in a depressing way either. More of what it will be like, what I really believe happens next, etc. I think it's important to come to terms with it in any case because it is, in fact, an occupational hazard of life.

Sprite

[Boomer28]

That is a rough story Sprite, reminds me of how lucky us men are in that whole Kid department.....

I've done plenty of stupid things in my life that could have ended with me getting injured to one degree or another however I only had one realy BRUSH with the reaper: I graduated college in June of 2001 and took my first job in NYC in July. I was working at the World Financial Center, building #2. For those of you not familar with it, it's the one with the black dome top right across the street to the west of the World Trade Center cite.

Anyways, I'd been working for almost 2 months and rolled out of the WTC train station at about 8:35am and walked up to the plaza level since it was an incredibly sunny and beautiful day out. My path took me across the way right past the north wall of WTC #1 and then went up the bridge across the west side highway into the World Financial Center. My office was on the 20th floor and by the time the elevator got there I was the only one on it. The doors opened and I stepped out to the left and heard screams and saw people running out of the main area and into the fire staris. I at this point had no freakin' clue what was going on and no one would stop long enough to tell me what was up. My first thougth, sadly enough, was that someone had gone postal and was shooting up the office. However I heard no shots and quickly decided I wan't going to hang around and see. 20 flights of narrow dark stairs later I saw sunlight coming in from the door to the outside and stumbled out onto the grass lawn on the east side of the building.

All I remember seeing was paper coming down like snowflakes everwhere and there being sirens and emergency vehicles everwhere. My gaze drifted up and I saw a big hole in the southside of the north WTC tower spewing black smoke and paper. We ran south to the sidewalk right across from the South Tower and gazed in a mixture of horror and facination. Immediatley we started speculating, bomb, gas explosion, helicopter crash, etc..I was in the elevator when the plane hit and heard nothing and everyone else in the office was at their desk and only heard the explosion. So we stood there in a trance watching it burn. Within a few minutes the jumpers started. I saw the first one after hearing a collective gasp and scream from the crowd. A few turned away in anguish, but I couldn't turn away. One after another they hit the sidewalk with a smack and actually bounced up a few feet. I didn't scream, I didn't cry, I just watched.

In the midst of this I heard a loud roar like that of a plane taking off from the south and turned in unision with the crowd in time to read the words "United Airlines" on the body of a plane, flying way to low. That wast the last sound I rememred hearing strangely enough. The plane disappeared into the tower and a huge orange ball of fire shoot out. Almost everyone with me just stood in awe as the collective mind quickly realized that this was not accident and we were in the middle of a combat zone. All of a sudden pieces of metal and concrete started falling everywhere and exploding on the ground. Something smacked into my head and I snapped out of my daze, turned around and ran. My survival instinct turned on and I just felt the need to get away by any means necessary.

I quickly spotted a New York Waterway ferry loading people onto it by the marina and ran over to the line of shaking, crying scared people. It took a while to get on and was probably loaded at 300% capacity by the time the deckahnds forded the gates closed and pulled back. We got about halfway across the Hudson and a rumble made me look back in time to see the norht tower crumble in a cloud of dust and smoke. The rest of the day is a blur as I walked home (I lived in Jersey City) alone for about an hour. Once there I realized I had a big gash in my head fromwhatever hit me and my hair was caked with blood. There was no pain but it was deep and needed stitches, but I just got in the shower, cleaned it up and laid in bed and cried for about 2 straight hours. It took me a while to realize how close I came to getting taken out that day and realize how damn lucky I was. Goes to show that the simple act of going to work one sunny Tuesday in September was just a roll of the dice with fate.

[iceman]

whoa boomer I can't read that, throw in some paragraph breaks and line feeds please. not trying to be a dick, it's just really hard to read a huge block of text like that.

[Boomer28]

Yea forgot to make it reader friendly, I can't read posts that big either. Just got kinda zoned into to rehashing the story and spaced.

[bklyn]

Please Boomer. Many people on the board were there, let's be respectful. You could be talking about my friends hitting the pavement. Their deaths shouldn't be reduced to shocking cocktail stories.

edit- never mind. I should have known better than to click into a thread with this title.

[Boomer28]

Please Boomer. Many people on the board were there, let's be respectful. You could be talking about my friends hitting the pavement. Their deaths shouldn't be reduced to shocking cocktail stories.

edit- never mind. I should have known better than to click into a thread with this title.

Not my intention at all, sorry you felt the need to insult me for trying to tell a very difficult and painful story.

[bklyn]

Not my intention at all, sorry you felt the need to insult me for trying to tell a very difficult and painful story.

Boomer - I'm not trying to insult you. Where did you get that?
I only want to remind you that there are many people here who lost friends and have painful memories of that day. Personally, phrases like this one...

"Within a few minutes the jumpers started. I saw the first one after hearing a collective gasp and scream from the crowd. A few turned away in anguish, but I couldn't turn away. One after another they hit the sidewalk with a smack and actually bounced up a few feet. I didn't scream, I didn't cry, I just watched."

make my stomach flip, as I know many of these "jumpers". They were my colleagues and coworkers and friends and family to friends. People. Not "jumpers" who's last anguish IMO should not me reduced to a smack and bounce story.

Hey - I'm still wound up about it years later. Although I understand the interest that the general public has in this story, I can't help my visceral reaction to it.

I closed down my personal blog soon after I got the dubious distinction of being #1 on Google for "pictures WTC jumping" so I'm a sensitive to that voyeristic aspect that people have about this part of the story.

Didn't mean to offend.

[Boomer28]

I got ya, I just took offense to the suggestion that I was trying to get attention by telling a graphic and horrible story (the "shocking cocktail" line). Trust me, I have heard people that were there that day treat the subject with a tremendous degree of insensitivity and It really bothers me to be lumped in with the like.

It is for sure a harsh bit of history. I often feel with all the movies, politics, and media saturation of these events that people are widely numbed by the coverage and that is a shame. Every now and then something triggers the memory and it all floods back making me sad, angry and sick. As bad as it is, that is how one should feel.....

[hemas]

My almost appointment with death comes from a few summers back...

I had been climbing the weekend, and especially the sunday had really fine weather (sunshine and temps around 25 deg C). The place was marvelous as well, as most of the lines start up from the lake on this pristine wall of granite.

Anyway, we headed out quite late and finally arrived at my friends place around 10 pm... I swapped on to my car and started driving towards home (roughly 2 more hours).

Well, as is the deal in Finland when camping below the crag, the evenings often turn into mornings when sitting by the bonfire... That happened both on friday/saturday and sat/sun, but since getting to that cliff was a long'ish drive we did get up rather early on both sat and sun to climb. Needles to say, I was feeling a bit tired, plus a had a rough week at work before. As a sugar coating to the scheme, I didn't drink all that much when climbing and sweating in the sunshine, so I was a bit dehydrated.

Most of the drive home went without incidents, except roughly 20 mins before my door... I fell asleep while driving and woke up as I was drifting off the tarmac on the green area between the going an oncoming lanes (it was on a motorway). Actually I was waken pretty rapidly as a snowplowing sign exploded up the hood. Before my brains even cought on, instinct took over and I made the correction of getting back to the right lane.

Sadly the green pasture was long grass, and as it was quite late it had a hefty amount on moisture on it... The car spun about to 90 degrees and I slided across the lanes, and flew over the small stream before landing on the bank. I tried to get back to the tarmac (again), but I was still on moist, long grass... The car slided sideways for ~30m before, it desided that rolling is more fun than sliding...

Looking at the marks on the bank, the car did most likely 3 complite rolls before during the 4th, it went through a big freaking signpost. The singpost then crashed on the car and that was the end of the journey... I walked away from that one (not a single scratch), mostly I thank the designers of the car (Thank you SAAB) and my guardian angel.

What was really scary was that there was a big big rock outcrop some 100 m ahead of where the car stopped. Had a fallen asleep a few parts of a second later, I would have flown to the rockwall (instead of the bank) at quite a speed.

For the record, I had set the cruisecontrol to 135 km/h (speedlimit is 120) and only stepped on the brakes when the car was sliding over the lanes...

Lesson learned, don't drive when you're tired and sure as hell don't use the cruisecontrol when tired.

[The AD]

I'm surprised there haven't been any oral history projects devoted to 9/11 (or maybe there have and I missed it). There have to be some incredible stories out there.

I see trayc's point, but I also think Boomer28's description of the jumpers is very effective. It's just such a surreal image and I'm glad he posted his recollections.

[Boomer28]

I'm surprised there haven't been any oral history projects devoted to 9/11 (or maybe there have and I missed it). There have to be some incredible stories out there.

I see trayc's point, but I also think Boomer28's description of the jumpers is very effective. It's just such a surreal image and I'm glad he posted his recollections.

Thanks, man, I appreciate it.

[Baconzoo]

Gnarly Sprite, so glad you made it....

Boomer28 almost went boom!



My close call was rag dolling back wards over a crevasse on Meteor. I had gotten Chugashed from my own sluff! (rookie move)
I thought I was dead for sure, but then my board ripped off and I could spin around into self arrest mode. Once I came to a stop and did not see blood I was so stoked....but then came the next wave of sluffs as others skied down. I had no board and no where to go as I was above the bigger of the two crevasses/berkshrun.

[Theodore]

I came about 10 feet from a lightning strike at about 13,700 ft. on Ellingwood Arete on Crestone Needle a few year ago. Thats about as close as I've been. Done plenty of "risky" things, but that was the closest to actual danger.

[altagirl]

I fell asleep driving on the autobahn at about 3am going probably at least 120mph. Woke up a split second before I slammed into the back of a semi, fishtailed as I swerved into the other lane, made contact with the concrete median barrier and did about 5 360s before I came to a stop on the side of the road. Damage=a broken taillight and a dent where I smacked the concrete median. Scares the hell out of me thinking about it.

[Dromond]

Brush with death? I just made a post about it in the gimp forum, actually. http://tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53428

(Split Pancreas would be the short version)

[snowsprite]

Wow Drommond...I didn't know that. I like how you took the rock home and decorated it. Way to own your attacker!

Sprite

[Beaver]

They performed an emergency hysterectomy in an attempt to save me.

Sprite

An attempt? It didn't work?

[snowsprite]

Okay, so I'm not the best writer smart-azz Beaver...

Acutally, at times I wonder if they somehow got part of my brain too...but I know I was always this loopy!

Sprite

[Dromond]

Wow Drommond...I didn't know that. I like how you took the rock home and decorated it. Way to own your attacker!

Sprite

haha, cheers.

You definitely win for blood loss, though. I lost I think 4 units and sort of felt like I was going to die. I think that's one reason I was so useless for 6 weeks or so. I can't imagine how ragged you would be after getting it all replaced!

[PassTheDutchie]

Have ridden my bike a good amount over the years in Chicago, and have had only one accident of note:

Cruising down a fairly busy street (Clark) at a good clip (as fast as I can ride), sans helmet; 70ish year old woman pulls out right in front of me. I hit the front wheel well/tire of her car and do a complete superman summersault, clearing her hood by a good two or three yards, landing in the back seat on my ass, my moment forcing me through a couple of forward rolls. Thankfully, my rolls were not into traffic and I didn't land on my head…

Other than a little blood and some bruises, I was completely unscathed (other than the fact that I was completely dazed, like a squirrel that just fell out of a tree, smack, on the grass). My front rim had a nice 90 degree bend, and I did some (well deserved) damage to her Caddy...

[Tippster]

Boomer and Tracy: most of the video of the jumpers that made it around the globe was shot by my counterpart in our NY office. He's still in therapy from it. My (unrelated) story:

About 8 years ago I was out riding my motorcycle one sunny day in the sticks of Northern Maryland. Went around a sweeping left turn at about 80mph, drifted to the outside a bit and hit a patch of sand, lowsided, tires caught, got highsided and kicked my bike away. I ended up flying through the air about 5 feet above the ground and went right between two trees. The gap was narrow enough to stop my bike but I sailed right through, rolled and tumbled for a bit on someone's field, and came to a stop about 100 feet from the road. The bike was literally bent in a U shape around one of the trees. Had I hit either one I'd be dead regardless that I was wearing pads and a helmet, but as it was I didn't even have roadrash. I was kinda bruised from ragdolling, but didn't feel it until the next day.

[Boomer28]

Boomer and Tracy: most of the video of the jumpers that made it around the globe was shot by my counterpart in our NY office. He's still in therapy from it.

I can understand. I didn't sleep through a night for over 6 monhs. To this day if I see a plane in the sky around NYC (and there are thousands a day that are VERY low on approach to one of the 3 major airports) I find myself unable to stop watching it till it is out of my view. Only in the past few years have I been able to really deal with the experience ina meaningful way after finally realizing that I needt to speak to some one who specialized in such an area.