Realm of the undead

[Azrael]

Twice: Once by drowning and once by electrocution. Also a few where I could / should be but escaped unscathed. A house fire, a couple car wrecks, etc. Also I am living proof that the falling dream and landing equals dying is false, I've done so at least three times. Although admittedly I do awaken very stiff and sore.

[MerchManDan]

In my early teens, I was eating lunch alone at home and some food got stuck in my windpipe. Very nearly choked to death; at least, it felt that way. I was able to cough out the food, though that was probably thanks to some kind of panicky reflex.
I've never told anybody about that; not even my parents.

Then there were the couple of times I touched the prongs of some electrical device while plugging it into the wall. The shock was definitely intense, but I was never sure if it was enough to almost kill me. There weren't any aftereffects or burns, so I'll probably never know.

[Don Alexander]

First off, let me state that I don't believe in being reborn or stuff like that, so don't ask me about my past lives (though maybe I was a patron of yira?? ).

Seeing that the thread has been downgraded a bit to "close calls", I actually have a few to contribute.

Now, I've never had any really serious injuries or anything like that, no deadly diseases, no long stays n the hospital. But I've had these:

- I nearly died unborn. My mom got some kind of amniotic fluid poisoning and they had to cut my out via Caesarian three weeks early. I'm the ghost of a March baby.

- When I was maybe six or so, I reached into our hot water heater where a handle had broken off, to flip a switch. But the whole cover had shifted, and the switch was in the lower right. Instead, I hit a live wire. I was blasted against the bathtub, and the cusp of my middle finger had a hole burned into it. I also recall telling a friend of mine I nearly died, and they lacked for sympathy.

- Multiple cases of almost-accidents at high speed on the road, mostly the Autobahn. Just last week when coming home, I was approaching a construction site. traffic was light, I followed the progressively slower speed limits, braking down... when something distracted me on the right. I looked over, looked back - and suddenly saw the car in front of me slam their brakes!!!! I had to slam mine too to avoid running right into them, and saw in the rear-view mirror that the car behind me came close to hitting me as well! Upon passing the construction site (one lane only), there was no obvious indication of why everything had come to a standstill. One of those "standing wave traffic jams" that I hate.

[Iceman]

Well, maybe I downgraded it a bit, but I thought it in the lines of you'd be in if you could say "How could I NOT have died from this? Is this a video game with many lives, or what?"

[Sideb(.)(.)bPlatypus]

Merchman reminded me ( ) about the time when I was younger, swinging in the backyard and I had one of those Mentos things in my mouth. As I swung back it fell into the back of my throat and I nearly choked on it...luckily I was able to swallow it.

[Tenjen]

i got hung by my umbilical cord when getting born, came out all sorts of colors :3

[GypsyLyric]

Sure, I've had plenty of near death experiences. When I was five, I almost died from spinal meningitis bacterial. I was hospitalized for a week, and in the ICU for a few days. Came out on mothers day though, so it's all good.

I've had a couple of those "just missed it" or "if only" moments. Like, if my mother had changed her mind, and decided to let my aunt drive me back up from our grandparents, then I would have died in a bad car accident. BUT, my aunt would have made it out fine, because the car that hit her was on the rear opposite side (where my car seat would've gone). That sort of thing.

My biological father tried to kill me while I was still in the oven too. He donkey kicked her in the stomach (the guy was a surfer and a drummer so...).

Have I ever really died? Nope, but I'm a strong believer in luck.