What's the closest you ever came to death?

https://nypost.com/2019/05/23/driver-dodges-death-after-runaway-truck-wheel-destroys-his-car/

This story in the NY Post reminds me of the closest I ever came to death. Very similar situation. I was in the passenger seat of my friend's Ford Explorer in June of 2001, and we were driving on the Belt Parkway in Queens, on our way to Atlantic City for a guys weekend. We were caravaning with two other friends, who were ahead of us in the same lane in a PT Cruiser.

A car driving in the opposite direction lost a tire, which bounded over the median, bounced over our buddy's PT Cruiser and slammed into our windshield, crushing the roof to within inches of our faces. I had cuts all over my face, arms and legs, glass in my mouth. Luckily my buddy didn't lose control of the car and somehow managed to get us to the curb without getting hit from the side or from behind by other cars.

The tire had impacted right on the cross bar atop the windshield. If it had hit at any other angle, we would almost certainly have been decapitated or really messed up.

So what's the closest you've ever come to checking out?

 

Anaphylactic shock, DEC 1983. 10:20 AM.

 

Bacterial meningitis at age 18. Misdiagnosed as tension headache in ER, given a shot of Demerol and sent home. Returned eight hours later in extreme pain. Priest called in, given last rites. In a haze the next several days, but luckily came out of it.

Many years later I was hit in the right shoulder by a discus at track practice for the HS team I coach. Five inches up and right and I’d be dead.

 

I've been blessed. Most of my near-death experiences didn't result in any physical harm that I can recall.
Had a few close calls with car wrecks, although I've never been in a serious one. One of them was a couple of weeks ago when I hydroplaned going 70 mph in the left lane of the interstate. Got almost the entire car onto the left shoulder and close to the divider but was able to save it. Thankfully, no one was around me in the middle lane so I didn't clip anyone else as I was correcting the skid.

Had a close encounter with a would-be mugger in Chicago a few years ago that still gives me chills.
The wife and I were standing on a street corner across from a nightclub with a crowd in front, and this skeevy woman comes up asking for money so she can buy her kids "some meat." Told her I didn't have any cash (actually the truth) and moved to walk away, but she crossed the street with us. I look up and see this big guy, probably about 6-4 and very mean-looking, coming down the block toward us.
This dude had that, "Human life means very little to me" look in his eye, where he was sizing us up like a lion looking over a zebra. The type you don't fuck around with.
I stopped on the corner and acted like I was getting my bearings instead of walking toward this guy and out of sight of the crowd. Skeevy Woman crosses the street and so does Mean Guy, and they walk up the street together. As soon as they're a couple hundred feet away I start hauling ass to the next street, which is Michigan Avenue -- and there's almost nobody on the street. It's about 10 p.m. and the busiest street in Chicago is deserted except for one group of a half-dozen European tourists.
And, as soon as we start walking down Michigan and start breathing easy, Mean Guy comes around the corner and is walking toward us again. We picked up the pace to catch up to the Euros, who might have thought we were muggers, but I was just trying to blend in with their group for a second. Mean Guy shoots me a death glare and spits on the sidewalk as he walks past.
We went straight back to the hotel after that.
I don't know how that might have played out if we hadn't been near that nightclub, or those tourists had been there. Maybe we just get robbed and that's it. Mean Guy didn't have the look that he'd let that be it, though. I'll always be convinced that if we'd met up with him alone, or a few feet further up the block, it would have ended very badly for us.

 

Aged 18, full cardiac arrest and completely flat-lined for at least 6 minutes until a man named Michael Lewis (no, not that one) discovered my body in the middle of the street and gave me CPR.
I only recently discovered that the survival rate of CPR patients is less than 6 percent. #Luckyman

 

18? Wow. A pre-existing condition? What caused it?

 

I was helping some HAMs out at a marathon and we were tearing down following the weekend. I dimwittedly removed a guide wire holding up a 20-foot antenna pole. I was hunched over doing something when I heard someone shout to watch out. I stood up just as the pole fell in front of my face, knocking the hat off of my head. I don't know what would have happened if someone didn't see that pole coming down and shouted when he did. As it is, I'm ecstatic the worst I got was an intense wave of feeling really stupid.

 

Taking first eight places of track agate from a coach on a crackly pay phone?

rb

 

I was training up to become a pro bicycle racer and got hit by a hit-and-run driver.

 

They ever catch the bastard? Or was his fate just left to karma.

 

Sadly, I'm left to hope he/she DIAF.

 

Was robbed at knifepoint in elementary school.

Was minutes away from getting shot in high school as I had left after a fight and the other kid came back with a gun.