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Having a brush with death causes a profound change in a person. It gives them an entirely new outlook on life, for better or worse. For those who lived to tell the tale, you can guarantee that their stories are nothing short of gripping, which may also make you ponder on your own mortality.
These responses to a Reddit question are excellent examples. Someone posted a short yet loaded query: “How have you cheated death?” Replies came flooding in with personal accounts about early cancer detections, car accidents, and narrowly escaping septic shock.
We’ve collected some of the best stories for you. Make sure you have enough time to kill because you’ll likely be here for a while.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Don’t know if I can say I cheated death as much as had an amazing medical team that knew what they were doing. But when I was 19, I was diagnosed with stage 3 lymphoma. It was on my stomach in ulcers that equaled up to 5 pounds worth of tumors. Was told on Tuesday when they were trying to figure out what specific type I had so they could know how to treat it, that if I didn’t start a treatment plan by Friday it would be too far gone to save me. Cut to Friday morning and they basically flipped a coin and went with Burkett’s Lymphoma. Luckily they were right because it has been nearly 20 years since my last round of chemo and I’m still cancer free. Had they been wrong, I wouldn’t be here typing this.
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#2
We were holidaying in the Lake District, I was only very young. I was on the top of a grassy hill and thought it’d be great to run down it really fast! My dumb a*s didn’t understand momentum and I could not stop I was running and running and running. I saw a little wire fence with old wooden posts and BOOM some guy leaped on me and bear hugged me and we stopped. My parents utterly panicked caught up and came rushing to me. My parents lost their s**t and I was just in like shock, came very very close to tumbling over a high cliff and turning into strawberry jam.
Thank you stranger whoever and wherever the hell you are ❤️.
UKGrandad 8 months ago
That brought back an old memory. 30+ years ago I was walking by a lake at the foot of a grassy hill when I heard a woman shouting from behind me. I looked around and saw a boy aged about ten, with both legs in plaster casts coming down the hill like an out of control robot with his mum racing after him. I ran across and grabbed him just before he would have splashed down. His mum told me that he he'd had an op on his legs a couple of weeks before (something about the tendons), they'd been walking to exercise his legs and he'd lost control of his speed on the way down, dropping his crutches as he went.
#3
My mums cat saved my life. Was sleeping on my mums couch after a break up. The cat got sick and the vet determined it was carbon monoxide poisoning from the frontroom gas fireplace.
#4
When I was still a fetus, my mother suffered a heavy injury to her stomach, causing the death of my twin, but I survived somehow.
The doctors basically told her she must stay bedridden for the rest of the pregnancy or else she would lose me too. So my grandma got her a SNES, and she just played video games all day. I still have that SNES.
Traveling Lady Railfan 9 months ago
Just out of curiosity, what games did she play? I loved sim city
#5
My bio father punched my mom in the stomach 9 weeks before I was due. A few days later she was feeling just “a little” off and called her doctor who told her to go to the hospital. It turns out the placenta had ruptured and the surgeon said we both would’ve died that day had she just decided to sleep it off instead. One very emergency C section later and we both made it, if not a little undercooked.
#6
I was hit by a drunk driver while I was riding my bike at 13. If I hadn't been wearing my helmet, I would've died. The helmet was cracked all the way through on the back. Safety equipment has never been a joke to me since, and all any of my nieces or nephews need to do is call me saying they need a new helmet and they'll have one.
Matthew Currie 9 months ago
I was 64 and the driver was sober, but yes. Broken bones healed. Can still walk and talk. Thanks, helmet!
#7
Remembered to put on my seat belt.
Got into a bad car wreck. Survived with bumps and bruises.
Seat belts save lives.
Bettye McKee 9 months ago
As do airbags. We had a bad wreck, air bags inflated and we walked away. I had a broken sternum and bruises, my husband had bruises from the seat belt.
#8
My high school school resource officers (SRO) stopped a school shooting with literally less than seconds to spare. I was walking past the kid as he was at his locker pulling the gun. I saw the student get tackled. If the SRO had not stopped the student I would likely have been first since we were the only students in that hallway.
#9
I got in an accident with a drunk driver. Everyone that saw the car afterwards said the same thing, "how are you alive?".
The roof where I was sitting was damn near touching the seat. I couldn't have fit back in there if I tried.
I got pretty f****d up, for sure... but thankfully I didn't die.
Paul Brown 8 months ago
Same here. I was in a bad car accident too. I wasn't driving though. Passenger in front seat and another person next to me. They both died. They had to cut me out of the car. I was wedged between the dashboard and the roof of the car. We hit a stopped tractor trailer and bounced back 75 ft. I was out of it for several days. Face tore open, jaw shattered. Surgery to piece together my jaw. Driver walked away
#10
Getting my bloods done regularly and the doctor says come back in 3 months PSA is high. I do as I’m told and it’s gone higher, biopsy shows that I have an aggressive form of cancer and I’m told if it’s not removed I’ll be dead within 5 years. That’s 9 years ago. No symptoms, nothing out of the ordinary. Get your bloods checked on a regular basis.
StrangeOne 9 months ago
You basically need a reason here in Manitoba. I tried calling clinics for a hantavirus test. I was told unless I'm already sick I can't get a hantavirus test.
#11
Congenital heart heart defect (WPW) completely unknown until 35 years old. I was playing board games with a small group- vision narrowed until I came to looking up at EMT's. They had taken turns doing CPR for 14 minutes until medical arrived and shocked me 3x to bring me back. One surgery and defib install later and everything is pretty much normal with a cheap med. Had I been driving or at home alone that would have been it. Those 4 guys dont pay for beers ever when we go out. edit - ~~Grammer~~* Grammar, and now spelling.
#12
I was in a brutal car accident, my son was 5 at the time in the back seat.
Our vehicle was hit 3 times like a ping pong ball during rush hour, pushed over 3 lanes into oncoming traffic. When we finally stopped, we had narrowly evaded being sandwiched between two transport trucks.
My right arm was crushed and is now all titanium, but otherwise we made it out alive; my son without a scratch thanks to a properly installed car seat.
Hours later I went into another portal hopped up on a cocktail of ketamine, morphine, etc. I am convinced I entered the edge of life/death as it was a surreal experience.
#13
I had a screening for something else and my Doctor found very early stage cancer at age 34. It was removed painlessly and completely in an afternoon. It’s a cancer that usually affects people over 60 and doesn’t have symptoms until it’s too late. If I didn’t have this other screening, I likely would have died a painful death from it in 10ish years. When the doctor first called to give me the results he said it was divine intervention, and never gave me the results of the test I came in for.
#14
In 2019, I had an ex boyfriend hire a hitman to kill me. He emptied his entire clip out on me and I was shot once behind my back & it punctured my lung. I was rushed to the ER, I was set on a table while the nurses and doctors tried to revive me. I remember at one point everything stopped hurting and I was just feeling really at peace & slowly drifting off. They kept putting warm blankets on me because my body was getting cold, but I wasn’t cold, my body was simply shutting down! When they realized that one of the doctors stabbed me with a giant needle and that s**t hurt so much. I started feeling all the pain from the shooting again. A couple more minutes and I would have been completely gone.
#15
Congenital heart failure -- I was a competitive swimmer growing up and misdiagnosed by many doctors for many years. I was 2 months away from my mitral valve completely closing and suffering from complete heart failure by age 9. Luckily, a cardiologist found it after a 'last ditch' effort to try to figure out what was going on and passing out in my last pool. Scheduled for a rush surgery, had mitral valve replaced, am alive. Thankful for cardiologists, get your heart checked!
#16
Had a friend who hit a puddle going 80 and lost control. He rolled his car 4 times. He crawled out of the car and called 911. Fire rescue arrived and pulled out the jaws of life. They didn't believe that he had survived and escaped. He only had one visible bruise of his arm from it, so he declined treatment.
A few months later he started exhibiting signs of schizophrenia. Within a year he was completely dissociated from reality. About 7 years later they did an MRI and found very old brain trauma. They suspect that the car accident caused a TBI, which triggered/created his schizophrenia.
#17
Went in for bloody stool in my mid-20s. Turns out, it was just blood in the bowl from popping a hemorrhoid during pooping. Doc suggested a colonoscopy just to play it safe. Found a pre-cancerous polyp that would have 100% turned into cancer within the next few years. No way I would have gotten a colonoscopy in ever the next 10 years had that hemorrhoid not popped. I get a colonoscopy every three years now and will continue to do so for life. Saved my life. Could save yours. Get your colonoscopies, people.
#18
I was riding a motorbike at 60mph (national speed limit road). An oncoming car overtook a car on a blind bend and forced me off the road. The moment my bike hit the grass, I decided to jump off it as I was heading for a stone wall and knew that I would never be able to get control of the bike once it was off a tarmac road. The bike pummeled into the wall, and I hit the floor with force. My leathers and helmet saved me from a much worse fate but I think if I'd have hit the oncoming car or the wall, I'd have been dead instantly. I was on my way to stay with friends and my aerosol deodorant exploded in my rucksack, and my visor completely detached from my helmet.
Yayheterogeneity 8 months ago
That's why I will never ride a motorcycle. I know it's dead fun, yeah. But the dead does it for me.
#19
Was supposed to be the passenger in my mom’s little car when it was t-boned &that side flattened.
Ran directly off a cliff in the night in a snowstorm, flipped in the air while falling and land 25 ft below in deep soft snow, face up, head point downslope, not knowing what happened.
The forgotten timer set on my phone, for a COVID test, went off in my pocket as I was about to make a turn….the sound so startled me that I slammed on the brakes, just as a large truck ran the light and cut thru my lane where it would have hit me head on.
#20
In 1977 while I was rushing to catch a bus a man stopped me for change of a dollar to use a pay phone. I gave him change, missed my bus and minutes later it was in a horrible highway accident.
Ok_Giraffe_6396: Similar thing happened to me. I was babysat by my grandma a lot when I was a young kid and she was going to pick up McDonald’s with me, but as we were leaving, my dad pulled up and I wanted to stay with him instead of going to McDs. A few minutes later, she was hit by an 18-wheeler who ran a red light and smashed into her passenger side. My grandma survived, but it broke her back and both legs. I was 4 or 5 at the time; who’s to say I wouldn’t have been strapped in the back passenger side?
rorschach-penguin 8 months ago (edited)
The thing is... Grandma probably wouldn't have actually been in the accident had OP gone with her, because she would have had to take another minute or two to strap the kid in, and thus wouldn't have been at that intersection at that EXACT time. And being even a couple seconds earlier or later would have prevented her from being in the exact path of that truck. The point is, you can't look back at life as "if I'd done this this would have happened, or this wouldn't have happened."
What do you think ?
UKGrandad 8 months ago
I once foolishly told my wife to calm down when she was mad at me and lived to tell the tale. Does that count as cheating death? 😂
Littlemiss 9 months ago (edited)
Almost drowned at 4. I can remember getting my foot stuck in drainage pipe in the creek. Everything went still and calm. Family friend pulled me out and did cpr. Had a large roll of lino fall on me at 8, it toppled out of nowhere at the flooring store as I sat in front of it and landed on my back, took two men to lift it off me. Discovered I'm allergic to morphine after a wisdom tooth surgery, I had seizures. Finally, I went to the hospital with 4 weeks to go in my pregnancy as I was in excruciating pain. Thinking I may have gone into premature labor I decided to go to the ER. Turned out I had eclampsia that was missed, my liver and kidneys were failing and I was fractions away from a stroke. I went into labor on an ambulance ride to the nearest large hospital and began losing conciousness shortly after arriving. My son was born blue, thankfully we both survived.
similarly 8 months ago
I've been close to death, but there's one I'll never understand. When I was about 13, I was sitting on the floor with a gun pointed at my head, thinking about things, as I sometimes did. And I was just about ready to do what I always did: clear the weapon, put it away, live another day. But I guess I zigged when I should have zagged and instead of safetying the weapon, I pulled the trigger instead, and I swear, I felt time slow WAY down. I felt my eyes go wide, and I remember thinking "Oh, s**t! I really went and did it!" and I actually felt relieved it was over. And the hammer hit home ... and nothing. I was like Marvin the Martian: "Where's the kaboom? Where is the Earth-shattering kaboom?" I looked at the weapon, cleared it ... out popped the round. It was chambered. No mistake. I looked at it: not a mark on it. No sign it had been fired. I sometimes sincerely wonder if it actually DID fire, and maybe this is hell.
UKGrandad 8 months ago
I once foolishly told my wife to calm down when she was mad at me and lived to tell the tale. Does that count as cheating death? 😂
Littlemiss 9 months ago (edited)
Almost drowned at 4. I can remember getting my foot stuck in drainage pipe in the creek. Everything went still and calm. Family friend pulled me out and did cpr. Had a large roll of lino fall on me at 8, it toppled out of nowhere at the flooring store as I sat in front of it and landed on my back, took two men to lift it off me. Discovered I'm allergic to morphine after a wisdom tooth surgery, I had seizures. Finally, I went to the hospital with 4 weeks to go in my pregnancy as I was in excruciating pain. Thinking I may have gone into premature labor I decided to go to the ER. Turned out I had eclampsia that was missed, my liver and kidneys were failing and I was fractions away from a stroke. I went into labor on an ambulance ride to the nearest large hospital and began losing conciousness shortly after arriving. My son was born blue, thankfully we both survived.
similarly 8 months ago
I've been close to death, but there's one I'll never understand. When I was about 13, I was sitting on the floor with a gun pointed at my head, thinking about things, as I sometimes did. And I was just about ready to do what I always did: clear the weapon, put it away, live another day. But I guess I zigged when I should have zagged and instead of safetying the weapon, I pulled the trigger instead, and I swear, I felt time slow WAY down. I felt my eyes go wide, and I remember thinking "Oh, s**t! I really went and did it!" and I actually felt relieved it was over. And the hammer hit home ... and nothing. I was like Marvin the Martian: "Where's the kaboom? Where is the Earth-shattering kaboom?" I looked at the weapon, cleared it ... out popped the round. It was chambered. No mistake. I looked at it: not a mark on it. No sign it had been fired. I sometimes sincerely wonder if it actually DID fire, and maybe this is hell.
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