When I was growing up, I used to make fun of my mother for being scared of seemingly everything. I felt invincible as a kid, and I couldn’t understand why playing in the park alone, swimming without adult supervision, driving home after midnight and leaving a candle burning when I left the house was so dangerous. As an adult, however, I’ve become painfully aware of how many dangers are lurking around us at all times.
Redditors have recently been discussing seemingly harmless yet potentially fatal things that most of us don’t worry about at all, so we’ve gathered some of the most frightening replies below. Good luck getting through this list without unlocking some new fears, and be sure to upvote the things you'll be extra careful with in the future!
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My wife and I were at a Cracker Barrel and my wife ordered a salad. She asked for no bacon. She explained to the waiter that it was a bad allergy.
Food is delivered and there is bacon on the salad. We send it back and reiterate the health implications. The waiter brings it back, and it was clearly the same salad as before but with the bacon scraped off. Some bacon pieces were still in the bottom of the bowl.
At this point I asked for the manager. I explained what happened, what we told his waiter, and then showed him the bacon on the plate that got returned to us.
He looked furious. Excused himself briefly and returned with a fresh salad. Assured us he made it himself and to not worry. Then be disappeared with the waiter for five minutes. I don't know what he said, but the waiter was visibly down the remainder of the evening.
My wife winds up spending an entire day puking with an agonizing migraine and severe pain under every joint in her body after contact with any pork (gelatin and chemical derivatives included).
Other people aren't so lucky and go into anaphylaxis.
Just don't cross contaminate food or assume someone is just being picky... You might kill them.
Exactly. Doesn't matter how "rare" the allergy is, if you've heard of it or not. Just respect people. It's really not that hard.
Cars. I see so many people driving recklessly and putting other people in danger just to get somewhere a little faster. These things weigh several tons, calm the f**k down!
Former rural ER doctor here. Things that I have seen either nearly kill or actually kill someone:
1. Taking a d**g at a party/rave/concert/etc. Surprise - It's got fentanyl or carfentanil in it. And now you're dead or permanently brain damaged.
2. Sticking your hand/arm/leg/head out a window while the car is driving. This is how you either lose a limb or lose your head if you get in an accident or someone sideswipes you. Keep your body parts in the vehicle.
3. Not vaccinating your kid. Watching kids die or become permanently disabled because of preventable diseases is both the saddest and most infuriating things I've ever dealt with in my career. (If you want to rip on me about how much you hate vaccines, stfu and save it for someone who cares. I'm not interested and I won't entertain your BS)
4. Medications that you should not forget: Your insulin. Your asthma medication. Your EpiPen. Your various heart medications. Your blood thinner. I've seen all these missed d***s end up in very serious consequences in the ER.
5. Not knowing the signs and symptoms of a stroke.
6. Drink/doing d***s & driving (Also - if you are going to get super drunk, I promise you that the absolute worse place to walk home is along a highway)
7. Looking at your phone & driving
8. Dropping tools/any item from high places. I've seen this happen once in a construction site, and he lived, but I've heard of those that have not.
9. Operating power tools. Doesn't necessarily kill someone but it was the number one reason I was sewing people up or sending them to plastic surgeons.
10. Finally - please don't get up on a ladder without properly securing/stabilizing it and having someone in the near vicinity to call 911 if you fall off it, instead of finding you several hours later....
For the love of god, when you're boiling water on the stove, turn the handles of your pots inward.
My grandmother's sister, when she was a toddler, was running around with her arms in the air and smacked the handle of a pot of boiling water. The water poured all over her and she died a few days later from her injuries.
Because of that, all throughout my life it was drilled into me to a) use the back burners first and b) if you need to use the front burners, turn the handles in. It wasn't until I became and adult and moved in with roommates/SO's that I realized so many people don't think to do that.
Bartender here. I yelled at a new bartender for improvising a recipe with grapefruit juice. Told them that’s the one you don’t improvise with unless requested. It messes with people’s medications. Not sure if it’s *kill* worthy but I’m not taking that gamble.
True. I had a kidney transplant a few years ago and one thing they warn against is grapefruit (and pomegranates). They negate the effects of the anti-rejection d***s.
Stress.
FuzzyComedian638:
This should be higher. Even lower level stress over a long period of time can cause heart attacks or cancer.
Lollipops. When I was in first grade me and my siblings and cousins were messing around in my room, I was jumping up and down my bed with them with a lollipop in my mouth. Seconds after jumping and rough housing the candy suddenly dislodged from the stick.
The lollipop wasn't even halfway melted. I just opened it about 10 seconds prior to it being dislodged from the stick so it was impossible to swallow. I quickly jumped out of bed in panic. They all started laughing because they thought I was making a funny face until one of them realized I was choking. Luckily, my younger sister caught on quickly, went out and ran after my mother who was one shoe away from going out of the house for work.
My mother rushed in and tried to make me gag by fishing the candy out from my mouth, but it was too deep so she performed a heimlich instead which caused the candy to "pop" out. 5 yr old me would've died that day if my 4 yr old sister didn't realize I was choking, and was minutes late into getting my mother.
Cheerleading. I had an accident and almost died because one of my teammate's lost balance while I was on top, and that caused me to fall. That fall broke my neck and I haven't been able to walk or move most of my body ever again.
Cheerleading has more head and neck injuries than American football.
Riding a bike/skateboard/roller skates without a helmet. Your skull is going to crack like an egg when it hits the pavement. Heck, you can die just from falling over standing still. In 20 years of cycling I've seen so many fools seriously hurt themselves. For me, it doesn't matter if I'm riding 100 miles or 10 feet. If I'm on the bike and it's moving, the helmet goes on.
It still baffles me that some states don't require motorcyclists to wear helmets.
I made garlic infused olive oil once. Left it out because that’s how I always saw it on people counters. Used it a few weeks later. Botulism. Was out for four whole days writhing in pain with nothing left to expel. Turns out, I could have died.
samizdat1:
It's specifically the combination of garlic and oil that is the issue here. The only other time that botulism can be threatening for most people is improperly stored home-canned foods.
Most of the time, you leave food out at unsafe temps for too long and bacteria that can make you sick will grow on it. Clostridium botulinum is a bacteria that is relatively common in the wild, but not very competitive; meaning that when you leave food out, odds are a different bacteria will outcompete it. This is a good thing because given enough time and food, the botulinum bacteria will produce botulinum toxin, one of the deadliest substances on the planet.
But clostridium botulinum thrives in low oxygen environments such as oil, garlic is low acidity meaning it's the perfect place for botulinum bacteria to grow, and room temp is the perfect temperature for them. When you combine these factors, you create one of the few situations where your food might end up with botulinum toxin in your improperly stored foods, instead of a more common bacteria that might give you an upset stomach but probably not kill you.
Well that is a very good thing to know. I've infused oils but never knew this. I'm so glad I didn't die.
Going to include very few details because I don’t want to ever deal with him finding this post. I have a friend who is the most loving and gentle father to his kids that he could be. Pure love for his family ever since he became a parent.
All the kids are very young, one of them was maybe 3 and like toddlers do they tend to explore and go wherever they can.
One of those simple activities we all do every day without thinking about it.
One day in the morning ready to go to work, he backs his car out of the garage, stops in the driveway because he forgot something inside. In between those slight hectic moments of being late, going in and out of a door, his 3 year old wanders out into the garage, and just outside.
My friend returned to the car, puts it in reverse ready to hurry to work like any other day, and bumps into his child who just happens to be in a blind spot near the corner of the bumper.
He was only going maybe 3-4 mph but for a child’s head, that’s all it takes to create severe trauma that became a brain bleed situation and he passed a couple hours later in the hospital.
This is a man who has lived life the right way and helped people every chance I’ve ever known, but this world is just an absolutely harsh, random b***h.
There was a case local to me where a mother set her baby's car seat down while she backed her car out. She ended up running over the car seat and the baby died on impact. Baby was only a few weeks old.
Allergies! A guy at work didn't believe a coworker had a deadly peanut allergy and had to try it out. The victim had luck that the medical center in our company has a doctor and medicine.
HiddenA:
I have a friend who has an extreme nut allergy. He ordered a soy latte once… the shop was apparently out of soy and substituted almond milk.
He fortunately noticed it tasted off immediately, and asked the barista who said 'We were out of soy. Almond milk is better for you anyway.' And when he had to go to the bathroom to make himself puke, she responded that he was just 'overreacting.'
He did talk to a manager eventually but after making sure he was healthy/okay/not dying.
I knew someone who had a deadly peanut allergy and when they received their drink when eating out, someone had put a peanut into the straw. That's attempted murder to me.
Swallowing a button battery, it can cause fatal internal burns.
Agreed! OMG and those little hearing aid batteries are so small and shiny. Some of them used to contain mercury too.
Load More Replies...Duracell recently started putting a coating on their batteries that makes them taste bad in order to discourage this.
I er. I was going through tough times last year and tried this. It was from my calculator and was in my mouth multiple times. I never swallowed it- back then I criticized myself for being a coward and not following through with stuff- I’m grateful for that now. I want to grow up and try doing good things in my life.
Good for you! Choosing life is always the right answer, and you're much braver for staying alive and living life, which is all know is insanely hard, than you would be for checking out. You are strong, brave, and smart, you CAN do this!
Load More Replies...Also: Magnets. If a child swallows two small magnets and they pinch tissue between them, it can get really dangerous.
I think they were talking about small children, you potato brain
Load More Replies... A dental infection. I went to grief support meetings, and a woman there lost her son to an impacted tooth that spread infection to his brain.
guylinerapologist:
This is why seeing those 'veneer techs' pop up drives me insane. Some of them are putting veneers/crowns over decay not knowing (or not caring) that it will probably create an abscess or infection. It is so dangerous.
As an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon's Assistant, I see this way too often. Please get routine dental checkups! These visits are preventative care!
Getting drunk going to sleep and choking on your own vomit. Always lay your drunk friends on their side, and lift their chin to open their airway. DO NOT lay them on their backs, friend died aged 32.
Someone I knew died like this, it was his 18th birthday and was celebrating the fact he could legally buy alcohol .
Don't use water on an oil fire. (Should be common knowledge)
Fine dust clouds can explode when introduced to flame, especially in confined spaces. Ex: dropping a bag of flour while using a gas stove top in a small kitchen.
Get a fire blanket and keep it in your kitchen, it quickly smothers the fire.
Ladders. People think you have to fall far to get hurt or die. 8 feet is plenty.
Pissed off or frightened livestock. Cows alone kill nearly two dozen people a year in the U.S. Hell, just the other day a sheep killed a man and his wife in New Zealand.
Playing in a deep hole at the beach.
Strongpa:
I had a friend who had a holiday job in construction as a student. One day he dug a trench which collapsed on him, and he was dug out by his crew. It was about midday but they all knocked off for the day and went to the pub where they all got drunk, which he thought was great as they were buying. When he asked if it was some sort of tradition they explained that usually, the person caught in the trench didn't survive.
vaexorn:
We had a very scary close call with friends. We dug a hole for hours, it was like three metres deep. All of a sudden one of the sides crumbled, burying one of my friends from the waist down. It was impossible for him to move. Needless to say, we got him out and closed the hole ASAP.
Being shoved.
Seen too many videos of fights/scuffles where someone is shoved or punched, and the trip on concrete and suffer fatal TBIs hitting their head on concrete.
The brain is fragile. Protect it.
Slipping down the stairs.
Yes some people know stairs can be dangerous. But many don’t realize how deadly residential stairs can be.
Withdrawing cold turkey from alcohol when you're a very heavy drinker.
33LinAsuit:
I was convinced I could do it at home on my own, my therapist talked me into going to detox. I’m glad I did, because even with all the meds I still had a seizure. I think I may have died if I did it at home
Yes! I was convinced as well. Seizures, delirium tremens, vomiting...all of it. I then decided to go to rehab. I had the mindset of "I got this" when I got out. I relapsed the day after, went on a 2 week bender, then waived the white flag on May 31, 2016. I've been clean and sober since then. For anyone struggling, please seek help. There is so much beauty after surrendering!
A trampoline. It’s actually the number one most dangerous children’s “toy”.
Would a trampoline with net walls be safer? Because I really want a trampoline.
Vending machines. People usually rock or tilt it in an effort to get something out but it can end up falling and crushing them to death. Apparently they kill more people than sharks per year.
A high pressure puncture wound/ high pressure injections.
Imagine you're wearing all your PPE, got your goggles, your gloves, etc. And you're working with high pressure liquids, I'm not talking cutting steel with water jets, just something with high enough pressure that can pierce or puncture the skin. And bang, you get a little stab from a pressurized fluid source. Not even bleeding that much, if at all, sometimes it’s just a little sting, but you go to medical and get the assistance and after a day, your hand is sore but otherwise fine. If you obtain one of these injuries and don't alert the medical staff, you typically lose the limb. It can be just as bad with water/steam as with chemicals. This was a safety moment at my company due to a mechanic getting a pinprick while changing a line. While he went for medical help, he didnt tell them it was a high pressure wound. As such, he progressively lost three fingers on his hand because the substances were blasted into muscle tissues and cause necrosis, slowly.
bryrod:
Not fluids, but I had a teacher in the union who had a nail in his brain. He was an elevator worker and was shooting very, very thin nails into the shaft to reinforce certain parts. He said one sparked, and he thought nothing of it. When he came up, his buddy noticed a tiny hole and crack in his glasses and told him he needed to get it checked out. The teacher insisted he probably just dropped them earlier, but the coworker made him go to the ER.
Of course, they found a three-inch nail in his brain and couldn’t remove it. It’s a miracle it never affected him or anything. He was the one who got me to buy ballistic safety glasses that can stop a .22 mag. I wear them every day.
Was always warned about grease guns because of not being able to get all the grease out of your tissues if you accidentally shoot yourself with it, and the resulting infection that causes.
Dont ration your water if you get lost in the woods. Many hikers die of dehydration with a backpack full of water.
Party buses. My wife's cousin was on one a couple of years ago. They were all dancing on the bus while it was driving on the 101 freeway in LA and she slipped and fell against the door. The door gave way and she fell out of the bus at freeway speeds and was immediately run over by a car. There wasn't much left of her, closed casket for sure. She was celebrating her 30th birthday but instead she died and left behind 5 kids all under 10.
I drive a bus in a major city. I'll note those "party buses" are often open-air, with no windows either. Drunken idiots leaning out and being a complete menace to society. What do you think is going to happen?
A grape.
My wife had a friend/coworker whose young daughter choked to death in front of her and her mother. They tried to dislodge the grape and nothing worked. By the time an ambulance got there, the girl was brain dead. It's about the worst thing I can imagine as a parent.
We were cutting our kids' grapes in half until they were 10 after that happening.
Ice cubes as well, especially in drinks, you have to be careful with. I almost choked to death on an ice cube. I coughed the ice cube shards out along with some chewed up carrot on time, luckily. Likely why I can’t physically chug water, I actually have to “chew” my water before swallowing. It’s a natural reaction, not a rule. My throat closes until I’ve chewed my water.. super weird. I hate drinking water because it tastes bad and also it takes so long due to this.
Crowded balconies or decks. When they're over capacity, they can collapse.
Part of the issue is that people are dynamic and constitute 'live weight', which peaks far above their static weight. And if the balcony is crowded, the party is probably rockin' and jammin'.
Resting your feet on the dashboard while sitting in the passenger seat.
oh my gosh, i saw this video where a guy was doing exactly that! they got into an accident and his knees spun around backwards! traumatized me for sure
Flowing water inches deep can still have the strength to sweep you away if you’re not careful.
Can sweep away not only you, but if the current is fast enough can take away a car as well.
Eating a slug, any slug, is almost certain death. Sometimes people dare people to eat stuff, don't eat a slug.
Confined spaces. If it only has one way in and out, especially if it is below ground, there is a very real possibility that there isn't enough oxygen in there to support life. Even something as simple as rusting metal can remove the oxygen from the air and if there isn't airflow going through the space the oxygen-depleted air won't be replaced. Other processes can remove oxygen or produce actively toxic gases. This sort of thing often kills more than one person as the first person to find the victim goes in to rescue them and becomes the second victim.
Riding a horse with no helmet. Concussions are no joke and will kill you. The amount of times that I see tik tok vids of kids and teens racing around on horses is horrific. Especially among Western riders. A cowboy hat will not protect your brain.
Honestly horses in general will kill you if you aren't careful. A well placed kick to the face while picking out hind hooves is no joke. I've had a few near misses. .
They are doing it wrong. If you are picking out the rear hooves you should have the foot off the ground and have the leg it against your thigh and you will be in front of the rear leg. They might throw you off balance but they won’t kick
People don't realize that a lot of people who die in house fires die in their sleep. The fire is too small to wake them from the heat alone or it's farther away, yet it is releasing carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide along with a ton of other toxic fumes into the air. You are just sleeping breathing in that gas, which makes you even more tired and eventually completely unconscious, then dead.
Edit: hopefully it scared a few people into checking their fire alarms/CO detectors or scared a few people into installing some. If you don't have them, this is a big PSA, fire alarms increase your survivability in a fire by a TON. Literally you have a 50% better chance of survival with one compared to those without, even better if you can get laser fire alarms. Get/check those alarms, and make a plan in case of fires, and get fire extinguishers/learn how and when to use them if you can afford too if not for you but those you care about in your home. Check your batteries! Wish you all the best.
Yup. Smoke inhalation usually kílls you before the actual flames and heat.
Mixing bleach and ammonia when you clean provinces toxic gas that will make you REALLY sick.
Curlyquinn02:
Mixing cleaning products is almost always a bad idea. It can be fatal and doesn't even make them more effective. In some cases, it can even make the outcome about as useful as using water.
I didn't know this about 12 years ago. My mom demanded I clean the litter box with bleach. I think she was trying to kill me. I survived but that was horrible.
Swimming pool covers.
About 20 years ago, my next door neighbor's 14 year old daughter decided to walk across their inground pool's cover.
It came loose, and she sunk, wrapped in a tarp. She drowned about ten feet away from her dad who was eating breakfast at the kitchen table at the time.
Rags covered in linseed oil can spontaneously combust when left in a pile.
I randomly discovered this fact in a reddit post titled, "The new guy burned down our workshop." A carpenter I know confirmed that this is a real thing.
I've been getting into refinishing old furniture, so I'm glad I learned this now. You'd think it'd be more common knowledge!
Many oil covered rags can do this, not just linseed. Stain, paint thinner, even some vegetable oils.
Sleep apnea.
Famous_Lab8426:
The only reason my husband and I can afford our apartment is because the guy who had it before us died in it of sleep apnoea.
My husband also has horrible sleep apnea. He finally got a CPAP.
I had sleep apnea for seven+ years before my Dr approved me for a CPAP. I didn’t realize I had it until I went in for surgery and the attending told me my apnea was so bad I needed to have it looked at immediately. She also said chronic sleep apnea operates a lot like CFS. It’s a chronic illness and needs to be treated far, far more seriously. My first time sleeping with a CPAP I bawled like a baby bc I had completely forgotten what it felt like to sleep properly.
Hitting your head. r/TBI is full of stories about simple slips and falls that resulted in death (at least temporarily) and lasting effects. I simply fell on ice at work. Bam ! Unconscious, woke up saying “I was okay”. Got talked into getting in an ambulance. Started dying in the ambulance from a severe brain bleed. Coma, expected to die, survived. Lost most of my memory, emotional stability, the ability to easily make new memories, a ton of IQ. Still… in all “I’m not dead !”
My friend fainted at work, hit her head. Spent the next six months in hospital, in a helmet. Ended up offing herself because of the medical debt. F*****g tragic.
Not shutting off the power supply, while working on a wall outlet.
Or unplugging the garbage disposal before reaching your hand inside.
Poison hemlock. It sounds strange, but it grows everywhere, looks very similar to many common garden vegetables, and it's lethal in very small amounts. I encourage you to familiarize yourself with the plant so you never mistake it for a vegetable.
More well known now, but strep can easily kill you if not taken care of. I had a friend in high school who didn’t really have their parents around or anyone looking after them. We had just graduated and they got diagnosed with mono but it seemed to linger. They were in a bad place honestly, and there was talk of d***s but in reality, it was just undiagnosed, untreated strep. They found her past out on the bathroom floor. She had gone over to her dad’s house to talk because she was having a bad night and I don’t think they ever even connected. He found her body. I think about her all the time. She would be 30 soon, but instead she’s forever 18.
Streptococcus is a nasty beast these days. They're seeing more and more antibiotic resistant strains every day. It's one of those bacteria that is evolving faster than we can kill it.
Overdrinking water.
wherestherum757:
There was a radio contest at one point in the US somewhere; the competition was to chug (I forget the amount & time exactly) but something like a liter every x minutes
If you puked youre out. If you pissed, you’re out. Last one left won a Wii.
The lady that won died shortly after
19Thanatos83:
Hijacking your comment: Giving little babys water to drink. Doesnt have to be much, it kills them very easy.
If you see somebody on the ground who has had an accident, don't move them unless you have to. They could have a spinal injury. This is especially true about motorcyclists. Leave their helmet on. That helmet could be the only thing keeping their skull together at that moment. If you remove it they can die.
And for God's sake, if you see someone bleeding profusely and you can't get it to stop, reach for the tourniquet! But also don't take that tourniquet off unless you were a licensed medical practitioner. And write the time.... It's not super critical that you write the time, but allows the doctors to know how long the tourniquet's been on and if they're going to need special practices to filter the blood before they release the tourniquet.
Edit: If you see somebody on the ground who is in imminent danger, moving them is more important than spinal injury risks. Better than be paralyzed than burn to death. With that said, try not to mess with the helmet if you don't have to. If they aren't breathing, and you know how to make them start breathing again, pull the helmet. If they have filled the helmet full of vomit, pull the helmet... But also there's quite a bit of space between my mouth and the chin of my helmet.
Pressure washers are quite lethal.
My husband had a high pressure water hose burst in his hand years ago. The jet of water went through the palm of his hand. He was on antibiotics for two weeks. Those things can be dangerous
A cracked toilet. Even if it isn't leaking or doesnt seem like its a problem - Replace it immediately! Do not sit on it! If it breaks while you're doing your business, that s**t will slice your leg/assmeat open like a razor! Broken porcelain is no joke especially when you put all your weight on it!
Edit to add: Only reason I know was an old post from r/watchpeopledie . Dude didn't die but got seriously deep cuts in the butt/leg area.
Note that what the image shows is *not* what OP is talking about. In the US nowadays, most toilet seats are not porcelain—they’re plastic or wood. So a broken seat is not necessarily this level of risk. Obviously, if the seat is broken like this, it’s dangerous, but if it’s just cracked, it depends on the material.
If potatoes are not stored properly and becomes rotten, it produces a toxic gas and can make a person unconscious if they’ve inhaled enough, and or even death in some cases. There was a news article back in 2013 of an entire family in Russia that was killed by it.
How did that family not smell the rotten potato’s before they died? That smell is NASTY!
Things under tension are dangerous. Like steel cables or something similar. When the tension is released it can cause harm.
This is especially true of tow cables and the like. If pulling a stuck vehicle, a cable that snaps or comes un-hooked can sash through windshields and kill. It's happened. People who do vehicle recovery properly use ropes and straps. Winches should have remote controls so you can stand aside.
Pushing too hard while pooping.
annabananaberry:
This is how one of my friend's dad died. He had existing heart problems and it caused a massive MI if I remember correctly.
If you have a young child (a toddler) and also a coffee table, get rid of the coffee table. The table is the perfect height for a toddler to fall against and slice/crack open their head. I worked in a hospital emergency department and saw the result of this several times.
I bust my lip open falling off a couch onto a coffee table when I was little. My teeth went through my lip. Still have a pretty gnarly scar.
Load More Replies...I'll add one. People generally being careless in a warehouse/distribution center/factory. It's way too easy to be degloved, fall down stairs, get caught in pneumatic lines, or stuck between things. And, for God's sake, be EXTRA careful if you are driving or are near an operating forklift. They are not like car. They, very often times, weigh more than a car. Someone got impaled by a fork inside a loading truck on my shift one night. Those are images I can't get rid of. Just be friggin careful.
Small Neodymium magnets sold in sets as toys. If kids swallow them they can stick to each other through the walls of the intestine, and cause a blockage.
That usually happens when they eat them at different times. When they eat them together, those magnets will (usually) go out together)
Load More Replies...There is an absolutely brilliant book by Laurence Gonzales titled “Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why" (W.W. Norton 2003). Focuses on how quickly in nature people get into life & death situations by overestimating safety and underestimating risk and explains how to apppropriately think about risk. Includes climbing and trekking, but also more apparently safe (and deceptively dangerous) settings - e.g.: Swimming (the typical drowning victim in Hawaii being a middle aged man who overestimates his physical strength, like many of us of a certain age, and thinks he’s safe as he’s just a short distance from beach); or, friends/partners who pull into parking lot at National Park, grab a few things and head down trail, failing to understand how easy it is to become disoriented and how quickly the weather can turn); or hikers in Hawaii who take a trail, not realizing that the thick blanket of undergrowth may hang out over a cliff edge, fall through to their death. Very good read.
Swimming / snorkeling in the ocean: current can be a killer, esp if not wearing a life jacket. We were drift snorkeling a long distance off Grand Cayman (couldn’t see land). This was after a few hours skiing thru mangroves, swimming with stingrays. Anchored our jet skis, left life jackets on skis as were both good swimmers - I grew up at the ocean in So Cal and Hawaii. The young guide went off on his own and some time later found us and told us we needed to head back immediately. Without realizing we had moved with strong current a great distance (couldn’t see the skis at all). Barely made it back, now swimming against the current, having to stop a few times to float and gather strength. First time in the ocean I actually feared for my life (incl diving / snorkeling / swimming with great white sharks, reef sharks, whales, fishies on GBR, in Tahitian islands, So Cal & Baja, HI, Caribbean). Didn’t respect / appreciate fatigue, current, etc. and it nearly bit us in the backsides.
TIL that people with anxiety should not read this post...I should've known that in advance though.
Anyone can have an allergic reaction and go into anaphylaxis. Your reactions can vary. Bee sting one day, no big deal, Bee sting another day, your throat closes up and you can't breathe. A local man died after eating morel mushrooms, many people assumed he had incorrectly eaten a poisonous mushroom - nope, testing confirmed they were morels, he had eaten many over the years, but this year he had an allergic reaction.
A lot of these are about people choking. A very scary and real possibility. Not trying to advertise a specific brand, but there's something called a lifevac. When an adult/child/infant is choking you place it over the nose and mouth and push on the pumper it uses suction to pull the material up out of the esophagus and mouth. There are tons of YouTube videos of people using them on choking infants and saving them, if you want a good cry.
Most of these things were taught to me by my parents or by teachers when I was young. I don't even think about them anymore, I just don't do whatever it is.
Everyone knows this is dangerous, but not how dangerous. My cousin had a shattered jaw, nose, face and foot and very many other fractures. Despite wearing top of the line protective gear, racing harness, and having a properly designed and installed roll cage. Rallying. In summary, do not race cars, the world's best helmet and personal protective equipment won't necessarily save your life.
Wow, doofnuts really had a lot of… interesting things to say on this post.
A compressed air hose can kill or leave you severely injured enough to change your life forever if pressed towards near or in any cavity on your body!
If you blast one in-between someone's toes it can give them a heart attack because air bubbles will get into their bloodstream
Load More Replies..."It ain't what you don't know- that gets you killed. It's what you DO know- for SURE - that just ain't so." My father attributed that to a WW II general- he couldn't remember which. Now attributed 'possibly' to Mark Twain- no proof. I find it a little linguistically inaccessible these days; so, to reformulate: "Your waiter is a college graduate total moron. They already know everything, you see; having learned it from watching Seinfeld as a toddler. So whatever you tell them is in one ear (if you're lucky) and out the other (immediately). Don't think for a second- they heard anything you said. Trusting them to be sensible- can kill you. Don't. Or: "The Universe will bite you on the a*s. No matter what. Don't turn your back on it."
Sudden weight loss. All that fat is storing tons of toxic chemicals. If you lose weight fast, all that toxicity is going straight to your bloodstream. Getting tired of being happy because some comic lost a bunch of weight and THEN suprise, he's dead. Also had a friend wasn't aware of how weight loss lowers your resistance to alcohol. Didn't almost die, but created a vomit scene at a board meeting worse than a Family Guy episode.
Rolling chairs. My grandma had rolling kitchen chairs when I was like 1 or 2. I fell and my forehead hit the metal corner of one of the legs and cut my head open. I'm told it looked like a murder scene, there was so much blood. I have a scar from my hairline to the bottom of my forehead. My grandma got rid of those chairs.
They forgot about medications that inhibit the immune system. It increases your risk of infection significantly and you may not realize it until it is too late. My husband died from internal infections (peritonitis and organ failure) after taking prednisone (a steroid) for sciatic pain for about a month. He may have taken a higher dose than prescribed, but assumed it would be safe because it is a prescription medication. When he started having stomach pain/cramps it was too late; his organs had already started failing. And no, he had not had symptoms the day before. Apart from some sciatic pain mainly in the morning he felt fine and was active and ate as normal and nothing out of the ordinary.
I'll add another. Rusty metal in enclosed spaces. Like if you have a family member that is simi hoarder and has a basement that has a lot of metal that is actively rusting. The iron is oxidizing so it's absorbing oxygen to the point you can pass out if the area has been closed to long. It probably takes a lot of metal and time though.
When I was at school, there was one particular girl who 'pranked' others by pulling out their chair as they went to sit down. She did it to me - more than once - and basically fractured my spine in a couple of places leaving me with severe spine issues for the rest of my life. I now have a type of arthritis in my spine and other problems meaning I have pain 24/7 but I'm lucky in that I can still walk. I've known others who weren't so lucky.
If you have a young child (a toddler) and also a coffee table, get rid of the coffee table. The table is the perfect height for a toddler to fall against and slice/crack open their head. I worked in a hospital emergency department and saw the result of this several times.
I bust my lip open falling off a couch onto a coffee table when I was little. My teeth went through my lip. Still have a pretty gnarly scar.
Load More Replies...I'll add one. People generally being careless in a warehouse/distribution center/factory. It's way too easy to be degloved, fall down stairs, get caught in pneumatic lines, or stuck between things. And, for God's sake, be EXTRA careful if you are driving or are near an operating forklift. They are not like car. They, very often times, weigh more than a car. Someone got impaled by a fork inside a loading truck on my shift one night. Those are images I can't get rid of. Just be friggin careful.
Small Neodymium magnets sold in sets as toys. If kids swallow them they can stick to each other through the walls of the intestine, and cause a blockage.
That usually happens when they eat them at different times. When they eat them together, those magnets will (usually) go out together)
Load More Replies...There is an absolutely brilliant book by Laurence Gonzales titled “Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why" (W.W. Norton 2003). Focuses on how quickly in nature people get into life & death situations by overestimating safety and underestimating risk and explains how to apppropriately think about risk. Includes climbing and trekking, but also more apparently safe (and deceptively dangerous) settings - e.g.: Swimming (the typical drowning victim in Hawaii being a middle aged man who overestimates his physical strength, like many of us of a certain age, and thinks he’s safe as he’s just a short distance from beach); or, friends/partners who pull into parking lot at National Park, grab a few things and head down trail, failing to understand how easy it is to become disoriented and how quickly the weather can turn); or hikers in Hawaii who take a trail, not realizing that the thick blanket of undergrowth may hang out over a cliff edge, fall through to their death. Very good read.
Swimming / snorkeling in the ocean: current can be a killer, esp if not wearing a life jacket. We were drift snorkeling a long distance off Grand Cayman (couldn’t see land). This was after a few hours skiing thru mangroves, swimming with stingrays. Anchored our jet skis, left life jackets on skis as were both good swimmers - I grew up at the ocean in So Cal and Hawaii. The young guide went off on his own and some time later found us and told us we needed to head back immediately. Without realizing we had moved with strong current a great distance (couldn’t see the skis at all). Barely made it back, now swimming against the current, having to stop a few times to float and gather strength. First time in the ocean I actually feared for my life (incl diving / snorkeling / swimming with great white sharks, reef sharks, whales, fishies on GBR, in Tahitian islands, So Cal & Baja, HI, Caribbean). Didn’t respect / appreciate fatigue, current, etc. and it nearly bit us in the backsides.
TIL that people with anxiety should not read this post...I should've known that in advance though.
Anyone can have an allergic reaction and go into anaphylaxis. Your reactions can vary. Bee sting one day, no big deal, Bee sting another day, your throat closes up and you can't breathe. A local man died after eating morel mushrooms, many people assumed he had incorrectly eaten a poisonous mushroom - nope, testing confirmed they were morels, he had eaten many over the years, but this year he had an allergic reaction.
A lot of these are about people choking. A very scary and real possibility. Not trying to advertise a specific brand, but there's something called a lifevac. When an adult/child/infant is choking you place it over the nose and mouth and push on the pumper it uses suction to pull the material up out of the esophagus and mouth. There are tons of YouTube videos of people using them on choking infants and saving them, if you want a good cry.
Most of these things were taught to me by my parents or by teachers when I was young. I don't even think about them anymore, I just don't do whatever it is.
Everyone knows this is dangerous, but not how dangerous. My cousin had a shattered jaw, nose, face and foot and very many other fractures. Despite wearing top of the line protective gear, racing harness, and having a properly designed and installed roll cage. Rallying. In summary, do not race cars, the world's best helmet and personal protective equipment won't necessarily save your life.
Wow, doofnuts really had a lot of… interesting things to say on this post.
A compressed air hose can kill or leave you severely injured enough to change your life forever if pressed towards near or in any cavity on your body!
If you blast one in-between someone's toes it can give them a heart attack because air bubbles will get into their bloodstream
Load More Replies..."It ain't what you don't know- that gets you killed. It's what you DO know- for SURE - that just ain't so." My father attributed that to a WW II general- he couldn't remember which. Now attributed 'possibly' to Mark Twain- no proof. I find it a little linguistically inaccessible these days; so, to reformulate: "Your waiter is a college graduate total moron. They already know everything, you see; having learned it from watching Seinfeld as a toddler. So whatever you tell them is in one ear (if you're lucky) and out the other (immediately). Don't think for a second- they heard anything you said. Trusting them to be sensible- can kill you. Don't. Or: "The Universe will bite you on the a*s. No matter what. Don't turn your back on it."
Sudden weight loss. All that fat is storing tons of toxic chemicals. If you lose weight fast, all that toxicity is going straight to your bloodstream. Getting tired of being happy because some comic lost a bunch of weight and THEN suprise, he's dead. Also had a friend wasn't aware of how weight loss lowers your resistance to alcohol. Didn't almost die, but created a vomit scene at a board meeting worse than a Family Guy episode.
Rolling chairs. My grandma had rolling kitchen chairs when I was like 1 or 2. I fell and my forehead hit the metal corner of one of the legs and cut my head open. I'm told it looked like a murder scene, there was so much blood. I have a scar from my hairline to the bottom of my forehead. My grandma got rid of those chairs.
They forgot about medications that inhibit the immune system. It increases your risk of infection significantly and you may not realize it until it is too late. My husband died from internal infections (peritonitis and organ failure) after taking prednisone (a steroid) for sciatic pain for about a month. He may have taken a higher dose than prescribed, but assumed it would be safe because it is a prescription medication. When he started having stomach pain/cramps it was too late; his organs had already started failing. And no, he had not had symptoms the day before. Apart from some sciatic pain mainly in the morning he felt fine and was active and ate as normal and nothing out of the ordinary.
I'll add another. Rusty metal in enclosed spaces. Like if you have a family member that is simi hoarder and has a basement that has a lot of metal that is actively rusting. The iron is oxidizing so it's absorbing oxygen to the point you can pass out if the area has been closed to long. It probably takes a lot of metal and time though.
When I was at school, there was one particular girl who 'pranked' others by pulling out their chair as they went to sit down. She did it to me - more than once - and basically fractured my spine in a couple of places leaving me with severe spine issues for the rest of my life. I now have a type of arthritis in my spine and other problems meaning I have pain 24/7 but I'm lucky in that I can still walk. I've known others who weren't so lucky.