Have you ever cheated death?

Goodness, Chestnut, are you sure you’re not a cat??

I can think of two. One, I was off to visit my mother, a 60 mile drive largely on the M3. It was late afternoon with a fairly blinding sun on its way down, plus it had recently been raining hard, so the road was very wet, with a lot of spray.

It was a busy time, already in the rush hour. I was in the middle lane, and was just thinking how the cars in the outer lane were going far too fast and too close for the conditions, when literally as I was passing it, the car on my right not only ploughed into the one in front, but ended up half on top of it.

So I literally missed a pile-up by a whisker.
I just carried on - heart rate up in the stratosphere - didn’t dare look in the mirror to see what carnage had ensued.

Two, many years earlier and pre MOTs, I was in my old Mini, driving home, when my brakes failed completely - just seconds after I’d been driving down Reigate Hill (fairly steep) with a big lorry right in front. I still shudder to think of that.,

The remaining distance - not far at all - was more or less flat and somehow I managed - very slowly - with the handbrake.

Scary stuff, Witzend. I did have a scary driving incident but I'm not sure it counts as 'cheating death'. My lights kept going out at night on a dark A road in North Wales back in the 1980s. Luckily the road was quiet, because it kept going black dark as I was driving along (no street lights). I had to memorise the road in front and slow down every time it happened. Then the lights would come back on and I carried on. Must have been a faulty connection going on and off. It was VERY scary but I don't think I cheated death as the road was quiet.

I had just left work and was slowing down coming up to a major roundabout which has traffic lights as I drew to a halt I was hit by a car rear ending me. I felt my head touch the ceiling despite my seat belt and sat totally stunned. An off duty police woman spoke to me through the window and managed to get the door open I knew better than to try and move while she called ambulance, police and fire brigade. Colleagues from my own ambulance station stayed with me while I was cut out, my poor car had no roof. Broken ribs and seatbelt burns were my only injuries I got off lightly. The police said I’d been hit by a car travelling at 70 miles an hour.

I had an ectopic pregnancy, I went to the doctors and called them out numerous times but they kept saying it was gastroenteritis so I went A & E and told them I wasn't leaving until they gave me a scan, I ended up rushed to theatre straight away and they told me another 24 hours and I would have died, it had ruptured and my abdomen was full of blood.

I was in a train crash 33 years ago. I was in the last carriage of a stopping train on its way to London. The express behind us went through 2 red lights and as we moved to the outside track the express caught us. It derailed the carriage I was in and then hurtled down a steep embankment into back gardens. Dazed and covered in debris from the ceiling and shattered windows I can still remember the disbelief of looking out of the train window and seeing the express, on its side, like a child's discarded toy. 5 people were killed on the express including one poor father of 8 children going to London to see a matinee with his wife for his birthday treat. The driver of the express was jailed and it was disclosed he had ignored a red light on a previous occasion and killed a track maintenance man.

Having lunch out, nearly choked on a marshmallow (couldn't resist the chocolate fountain). DH, thank goodness,.did the Heimlich manoeuvre and marshmallow flew out. Remember thinking what a stupid way to die......

Oh good grief, what terrible stories. Thankfully I haven't been in a car or train crash (she touches wood) but I don't really like travelling any more.

I returned after taking my mother shopping to find she had left her gas cooker on and the house was filled with fumes. I raced to open doors front and back and as I went upstairs to open the windows I experienced a peculiar sensation in my head, and I had to gasp for fresh air out the window. When I returned to the kitchen I couldn't believe it... my mother ,despite me saying don't turn anything on, had the gas lit under a pot of two eggs.
Her dementia was well advanced at that stage and all she could focus on was giving me a boiled egg for lunch. Fortunately for us the weather was particularly windy and in the time I was upstairs enough of the gas had blown through the house.

No, mercifully, but I did once make a stupid mistake that resulted in my 15 month old being 'run over' by our car. Fortunately, as it was just rolling away, it was very slow, and he was between the wheels.
I can still picture him - I had to run to the front, haul on the handbrake, before going to the back to see if he was OK. He was crawling out from under the car, completely untouched, with a look of indignation on his face that I have never seen before or since!

I haven’t but DH has before we met. He was 16 and an apprentice on the railway in a gang of men working on the track. The person who was supposed to be acting as lookout didn’t raise the alarm that a train was coming. They all managed to jump off the track but my DH was frozen with fear, thankfully an older man grabbed him and pulled him out of the way. He completed 46 years on the railway without further incident and his final few years were spent in a job involving track safety.

Goodness, some seriously scary ones!

Dollygloss, yours reminded me of the time I returned to dd’s house with her and Gdcs aged under one and only just 2 at the time - we were scarcely in the door before a very strong smell of gas hit us. Luckily we hadn’t yet turned a light on - it was dark - because apparently that’s all it can take for a major explosion.

Once finally in the kitchen we realised that the elder Gdc must have been fiddling with knobs on the very old gas cooker and we hadn’t thought to check before going out.

It was shortly before dd and SiL embarked on a major kitchen extension - and the old gas cooker was ditched for an induction hob and electric oven.
But she always made a point of checking in the meantime that there had been no fiddling.

I feel that I am living in Bonus Time, and I give thanks that I am alive, because I had a terrifying choking incident which I believe would have killed me if I had been alone.

I was eating a baked potato, too quickly because I was due to go out. A piece became stuck in my throat and my panicked attempts at dislodging it by coughing were futile. DS3 was in his room with his music on, he didn't hear a thing till I managed to get upstairs, bumping off the walls as I struggled to breathe. I could not shout or scream, I was making horrible rasping noises like a dying animal.

I banged on his door, poor DS3 yelled 'Mammy!', birled me round and did the Heimlich manoeuvre for the first time in his life. The piece of potato flew across the landing, and breathing never felt so good. We both collapsed in tears, then he spent ages showing me how to perform the manoeuvre by throwing myself on a piece of furniture in case it ever happened again when I was alone.
I try to remember to eat more slowly and to cut my food into tiny pieces.

I have had some sharp intakes of breath reading your experiences, especially Nanna Rose's, we are all very lucky.

For me, my first "near miss" was when I was about 4 years old and I ran out into the road. Almost got hit by a car but thankfully it stopped with inches to spare.
A few years later I did it again on my way to school. ?

When I was about 5 I visited a local museum with my 15 year old cousin. There was building work going on and a false temporary floor was installed in the gallery on the 2nd floor. My cousin was distracted and I was away with the fairies when I suddenly heard people yelling at me.
Somehow, I'd managed to wander onto the temporary floor which was unstable in places. I was told to stand still then the workman talked me through my route off the the boards to safety.
Had the flooring collapsed, I would have fallen 2 floors to my doom.

Latest near miss was about 10 years ago driving up the M1. DH was driving and we were in the middle lane with a lorry to our left and a car with bikes on a rack on the back on our right.
As the car passed us, both bikes came off the rack and bounced towards us. One missed and went under the front wheels of the lorry. The other bike headed straight for us and I braced for the impact. By some miracle, it went between us and the lorry and presumably, under the rear wheels.

A huge glass Velux type window in a garden centre warehouse crashed to the ground just after my five year old daughter and I had walked past the area.

I'm not sure if this counts, but we have two sets of stone steps (14 steps in all) at each side of our house, leading down to the garden. One morning, I was setting off for work - it was still fairly dark at the time, and as I put my foot on the top step to go down, I realised it was sheer ice. Well, I bounced - head over heels - all the way to the bottom and I do remember thinking quite clearly, 'well, this is how I die'. Unbelieveably though, I didn't even break any bones, but I was black and blue from head to foot and it did give me quite a shock at the time. People were horrified when I told them and said I should have gone and got checked over at hospital anyway - quite a few actually said, 'you could easily have died'.

Gosh, what interesting stories! I slipped into a swimming pool when I was 4 when all the adults were busy, very close to drowning apparently. My friend and I got into a car which pulled up, with two lads in it, what were we thinking!!?? Fifteen and invincible despite many warnings, but no harm done, I shudder when I think of it

Yes on a serious note I divorced my ex husband who ended up violent towards me. He also put my children at risk until I stopped access.

Can I recommend a book? It is by Maggie O'Farrell, and is called I am, I am, and is her life in near- death experiences. I enjoyed it, and it makes a thought provoking read. I discussed it with my daughters and learned about some events in their life which I was glad not to have known at the time!

When we were driving home from a disastrous Turkey and Tinsel weekend, it was very bright and sunny, but very, very cold. A huge lorry passed us and as he did so, the sheet of thick ice that had been on his roof top, slid off and hit our windscreen. Luckily the windscreen held, but after an emergency stop, we were quite shaken up.
I can see now why it is law that drivers ensure that their lorry tops are ice free.

Daring back home on the Motorway , after a long, tiring day, I dozed off for a couple of seconds, I guess, and swerved into the middle lane. ?

when i was about 6 or 7 on a saturday afternoon, very quiet, no one around, a large car pulled up beside me.
i was out and about as usual amusing myself, going exploring.
people sometimes asked directions, so i wasn't surprised.
what was a unusual was that the back door opened and a woman who seemed to be at the far side told me to get in.
i knew it must be mistake, as i didn't know anyone posh with a big car. she said, it's a party, there's other children there. well i'd never been to a party so i knew it wasn't for the likes of me.
at the time i thought it would be embarrassing, if i got there and was then told that it wasn't for the likes of me.
but there was something about the way she was trying to persuade me that put me off too.

fortunate that i wasn't posh, so not used to big cars, nor too politely obedient.

Oh my goodness welbeck, it wasn't Brady and Hindley was it? Was it the right time and place for them? That really was a close shave, it would not have ended well. Someone was looking after you.

Horses ran away with me on them, one time among scattered rocks. Not having a good seat I sometimes got bucked off.