Have you ever saved your own life?

csi vegas

csi vegas wrote: »

You remind me of myself OP although I'm cautious to the point of OCD checking everything before I sleep or go out.
You write with such humour - very funny tale. Just be careful out there!

realies wrote: »

Lot a flirting going on here.
Well done OP you seem a great gal.

^^^^^^^^^^
Posted right after my post. Do you refer to me?

johnr1

Once while diving in about 15 metres of water, I managed to get lost and ended up in about 50 metres instead. I noticed it getting darker, which prompted me to surface to see why and I couldn't believe how far it was. Clearly I should have made a safety stop or two to allow the nitrogen in my blood to disperse, but as I wasn't aware of how deep I was, - I didn't.
This is one of the easiest ways to fcuk yourself up properly while diving, but there are plenty of others.
When I surfaced, it was blowing a gale, in the opposite direction to where the boat was, and my BCD (flotation/submersion device) was leaking air quickly. It's filled from the same tank you breathe from, so I was running out of air and facing a long surface swim back to the boat. I was very tired, and the gear was sinking me without the BCD working correctly, and I started to panic.
I remember thinking: "you can ditch the gear if you have to, - you've trained for this, but if you panic now you're definitely dead." So I forced myself to calm, used my snorkel to breathe, flipped over on my back (the water takes the gear weight) and slowly paddled back to the boat, ready to ditch the gear if I couldn't go on at any point.

I got the mildest ever case of 'the bends' from the lack of a stop on the way up, just pain in all my joints really, and I have a far healthier respect for the sport since then. Never again will I dive without a depth gauge, - as stupid as it sounds, it's very common, - and never again will I dive with the useless fcuker of a buddy I had with me that day.
The biggest thing I took from it though was that in a potentially bad situation, that panic will kill you quicker than anything.

Rasheed

johnr1 wrote: »

Once while diving in about 15 metres of water, I managed to get lost and ended up in about 50 metres instead. I noticed it getting darker, which prompted me to surface to see why and I couldn't believe how far it was. Clearly I should have made a safety stop or two to allow the nitrogen in my blood to disperse, but as I wasn't aware of how deep I was, - I didn't.
This is one of the easiest ways to fcuk yourself up properly while diving, but there are plenty of others.
When I surfaced, it was blowing a gale, in the opposite direction to where the boat was, and my BCD (flotation/submersion device) was leaking air quickly. It's filled from the same tank you breathe from, so I was running out of air and facing a long surface swim back to the boat. I was very tired, and the gear was sinking me without the BCD working correctly, and I started to panic.
I remember thinking: "you can ditch the gear if you have to, - you've trained for this, but if you panic now you're definitely dead." So I forced myself to calm, used my snorkel to breathe, flipped over on my back (the water takes the gear weight) and slowly paddled back to the boat, ready to ditch the gear if I couldn't go on at any point.

I got the mildest ever case of 'the bends' from the lack of a stop on the way up, just pain in all my joints really, and I have a far healthier respect for the sport since then. Never again will I dive without a depth gauge, - as stupid as it sounds, it's very common, - and never again will I dive with the useless fcuker of a buddy I had with me that day.
The biggest thing I took from it though was that in a potentially bad situation, that panic will kill you quicker than anything.

Cool story!

efb

Doctors saved my life.

Odysseus

Pulling out of a parachute malfunction with less than 1,000 feet to go. Some buzz that day.

MarthaMyDear

Fizzlesque wrote: »

I had another 'could have died' experience, but I'll save that for another post

What's the other experience?

argosy2006

I saw a kid crossing street, he was between two parked vans, He could not see this on coming truck, so he started to step out quicky almost running,
Now i could see this, what was about to happen, I may have been parked few meters down street but i pressed on my horn, at which point kid stopped in his tracks and truck zoomed by his toes,
SO i guess i saved his life,
Not that he'll ever know lol

Fizzlesque

grindle wrote: »

Seems like one of the snarky, unfunny comments, but I genuinely think I'd have died by suicide if I'd never tried ecstasy.
Reminded me what 'happy' felt like, and pulled me out of a (figurative) swamp of shít.

Actually, yours is one of the few not snarky, unfunny comments, grindle, and one I can completely relate to. I had a similar reminder of what happy feels like.

syndeyfife wrote: »

Ive saved someone elses life before....feel pretty good about that one!

One of my finest moments....

Now this is the kind of thing I was looking for. Care to elaborate, Syndey, I'd love to hear more.

Fizzlesque

johnr1 wrote: »

The biggest thing I took from it though was that in a potentially bad situation, that panic will kill you quicker than anything.

Great story, John, thanks for posting it. I can relate to the need not to panic, it's great to discover how calm you're capable of being when the need to be calm is of utmost importance.

Fizzlesque

csi vegas wrote: »

You remind me of myself OP although I'm cautious to the point of OCD checking everything before I sleep or go out.
You write with such humour - very funny tale. Just be careful out there!

Thanks, csi....looks like the generous of spirit posters arrived when I'd logged off and gone out for the evening yesterday. Don't worry, I'm actually quite careful really, this happened 12 years ago, and I learned my lesson. I may make mistakes, but I do learn from them

MarthaMyDear wrote: »

What's the other experience?

Martha, my dear, thank you for asking, but to be honest, the pedantry ("you didn't save your own life") and tiresome boring old dad jokes ("I save my life every day by breathing") and the unnecessarily nasty 'got nothing better to say' bitchy responses ("you're an idiot"/ those who thank the poster who said "you're an idiot") replies have temporarily put me off sharing such tales on this board.

It's a shame the warm hearted posters such as yourself only arrived after I'd logged off and headed out for the evening, the balance is better now on this thread, I was a bit swamped by the conversation-killers yesterday.

One thing though, the other 'nearly died' story wasn't one the pedants could have shredded with their "you didn't save your own life" nit-picking, but they'd probably find some other way to turn a potential conversation with others into a sour dead end.

ejmaztec

argosy2006 wrote: »

I saw a kid crossing street, he was between two parked vans, He could not see this on coming truck, so he started to step out quicky almost running,
Now i could see this, what was about to happen, I may have been parked few meters down street but i pressed on my horn, at which point kid stopped in his tracks and truck zoomed by his toes,
SO i guess i saved his life,
Not that he'll ever know lol

I would have succeeded doing that once, had I not spent too much time in the phone-box adjusting my spandex costume and combing my hair so that I would look good for the newspapers.

Still, you can't win em all.:(

Reoil

That's enough for a Darwin Award nomination right there.