" A beat - up white van pull up right next to our car . Next thing I knew , a military personnel ’s branch were wrapped around me and he was attempting to yank me out of the windowpane . "
I recently asked theBuzzFeed Communitytoshare the storiesof how they survived a life-or-death situation, and they did not hold back. Let’s take a look at some of the scariest responses.
1.“A family friend was rescued when his apartment building collapsed in an earthquake. He was able to tap on a metal pipe, so he played the rhythm of every song he could think of. He was rescued about 18 hours later when they heard the tapping and realized it had to be human-made, but he also says that kept him occupied and sane. I’ve always stored that tip in case I ever need it, but I hope I won’t.”
— annak4f45e0f65
2.“One time when I was 16, a burglar broke into my house and put me in a chokehold. I was slowly losing my breath until I looked down and saw my baby sister’s wooden toy. I grabbed it with my feet and put it in the hand behind me, then knocked him in the face and ran out of the house to find help.”
— Anonymous
3.“Not me, but my husband and a group of our friends decided to float down one of the rivers near our hometown. One guy in the group had a large, inflatable raft that they could all fit in. This is a pretty popular summer activity, and usually it’s relatively safe. However, this particular spring had been much wetter than usual, resulting in a river that was higher and faster than what was typical. Now, when you’re floating this river, there are very specific places where you’re supposed to get in the water, float downstream, and then get out of the water. However, there was some confusion, and they got in the water where they were supposed to get out. The part of the river they ended up floating in was very fast and full of half-submerged logs. Things got out of hand quickly, and they ended up hitting a pile of these logs. They ended up thrown into the water and pinned up against a logjam.”
" The water current was so strong that my married man could n’t move to pull himself out . He was mostly submerge and barely able to get a breath . Luckily , one of the guys ended up landing on top of the logjam , and he pulled my husband out . Together , they aid the relaxation . One of them end up stuck under the logjam with the muckle rope baffle around her neck . gratefully , apart from some bad contusion , she was okay . Another guy cease up breaking a dyad of ribs and puncture a lung . Somehow they managed to call 911 before the water wrong killed their headphone , and afford search and rescue an approximate placement for where they were . The guy with the punctured lung was airlift out , but search and rescue facilitate the relief of them out of the water and walk them back to their automobile . So lessons were learned : Just stay out of the river . I ’ve never been so thankful for my Saturday sack at my retail line ! If I had n’t had to work , I would have been with them . "
— S_uffel
4.“I work as a field safari guide. One time, I really had to go to the toilet — like, it was an emergency — and when I crouched down, a male lion weighing approximately 770 pounds stood up right in front of me, face-to-face. Now, the problem wasn’t that I hadn’t scanned the area before moving into the tall grass, but more that the lion was fast asleep, so basically, a flat cat on the ground, and nearly impossible for me to have spotted. Long story short, I’m still alive! Thankfully, lions don’t usually associate people with their regular prey, and I was luckily face-to-face with him, which helped me maintain eye contact.”
5.“I was caught in a riptide. I swam until I couldn’t swim any longer. I was just about to give up and drown when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man running parallel to the shore, beckoning me. I swam in the direction he was running, and when I made it to shore, there was no man there. To this day, I’m convinced it was an angel.”
6.“When I was 5 years old (in 1995), my mom left my sister and me in the car while she ran into the store. Doing so was very common back then. We had the windows rolled down, and a beat-up white van pulled up right next to our car. Next thing I knew, a man’s arms were wrapped around me and he was attempting to yank me out of the window, but my curly shoelaces were stuck under the seat, so he kept tugging, and I was sobbing hysterically.”
" My sister move out of the other car door into the store , and my momma come bolting out like a marathon moon-curser with a very loud battle riot . The man drop me , and the elevator car peeled out of the muckle before anyone could drop a line down the plate . Thankfully , I was not harm , but the thought process still haunt my pappa . He cries when he call up about the other little girls those gentleman probably did get away with harming . "
7.“A few years ago, I was walking home alone. Suddenly, I noticed a guy following me from a distance. I kept walking, but he ran forward and got a knife out. I got this stupid instinct to punch him in the face, and while he was down, I’d run back home. I saw him chasing me until I reached my house, and then he stared at the windows for a few seconds and turned around and left. To this day, I have no idea what was wrong with that guy.”
8.“When I was a child, my dad took my brother and me to see a soccer game. On the drive there, a fox jumped in front of our car. My dad hit the brakes and couldn’t keep the car on the road. We flipped into a field. My brother told me I was flying through the whole car. I don’t remember anything. I just remember that when it stopped, we were upside down. My dad, my brother, and I crawled out of the car, which was a wreck. None of us even had one scratch. The following car saw it and called the police. My dad talked to them, and the driver just brought us home. We were all a bit shaken but otherwise completely fine.”
9.“I was in the wave pool of a pretty big water park. When the water was still, it was below my chest, which is usually a comfortable level for me. However, once the first wave started to surf, it quickly escalated to rise above my head, lifting my feet off the ground. I was not in a floating tube, like most people, so I got dragged underneath the water. I will never forget the moment when, looking up from underwater, I saw that the pool was jam-packed with floating tubes and there was no space to poke my head out for air. I knew the wave period would last approximately 10 minutes and that it would be difficult for the lifeguards to notice me underneath all those yellow tubes. Shortly after, I found a space and immediately reached for it and poked my head out for air while holding on to whichever tubes I could grab around me. I immediately got out and left, and I’ve never been able to go back to any wave pool since.”
10.“My family and I were celebrating a big birthday party at a 12-story club building that was bombed in a terrorist attack (see the Club el Nogal 2003 bombing in Bogotá, Colombia). I was 11 years old at the time. When the blast hit, I instinctively knew it was a bomb. The last thing I saw before the lights went out was my grandma and other relatives sitting by a glass window that shattered and pieces literally falling over them like a shower. Almost instantly, fire and smoke started to fill the floors below, so we knew we had to escape. Some of the bravest tried to escape through the main staircase, but they quickly came back, as it was destroyed. Then a staff member, whom I will always remember for his professionalism, directed us to get out through the emergency staircase in the kitchens, but it was completely filled with smoke. We were told that we needed to evacuate immediately because there were gas stoves that could explode at any time.”
" Our first two attempts at getting though the kitchens were impossible — we just could not emit . After some desperate 30 moment examine to lull everybody down , my grandad asked us to intoxicate handkerchiefs or napkins with whisky or any other potable we could find in the dark , put them on , and get the hell out of there . We did . While going down the stairs , we saw dead nothing due to the auction pitch - dim sens swarm . It was a leap of religion . I will always remember the heat of the fire and how everybody was entirely quiet , minding their steps , and listen to the frightful sound of the fire . Finally , we get out to the street , and then I could see the order of magnitude of the bombing — around 35 people killed , hundreds wounded , and the window dressing wholly put down . Aside from minor injuries ( my grandma only cause scratches from the glass shower ) , no one from my fellowship was hurt . "
11.“When I was a kid, we used to do big family vacations with all of my dads' siblings and my cousins. One year, we went to the Outer Banks in North Carolina, which are known for their riptides. We were all told to be careful, and of course adults were nearby, but at some point I got knocked over by a wave and found myself being pulled out to sea. I was flailing around, trying but failing to lift my head above water. Finally, I latched onto something and was able to bring myself up. It was my aunt, who had been sitting about 10 feet down the beach from me. Apparently, I scared her so much that my parents made me apologize to her, but if she hadn’t been there, I don’t know that I would have made it out, and who knows how long it would’ve taken for someone to notice!”
— kmoonaug
12.“I was hit head-on at 70 mph by a wrong-way driver. I’m pretty sure the only reason I survived is that I’m short and slender. I was crushed inside the car, with the steering wheel just inches from my chest. Had it been any closer, my rib cage might have been crushed into my organs, and I wouldn’t have made it. I suffered a head injury, broke multiple bones, and almost lost my foot because of the level of damage to it. I had so many open wounds, I almost bled out while being tended to by emergency workers.”
" After six months of difficult retrieval and relearn to take the air , with multiple alloy implants , I was eventually capable to facilitate back into working out again at about eight months . It would be 18 calendar month and a second surgery before I ’d really start to feel like myself again . "
13.“I had decompression surgery due to aChiari malformation, and after being home a week, I was in the ER with severe pain. I could barely move, couldn’t stand any type of light, and felt the worst I’ve ever felt. Thank god the EMT from the ambulance advocated for me not to go to triage. She demanded that I be seen right away. And the ER doctor agreed to do a spinal tap instead of sending me to a different department. I ended up having bacterial meningitis. My surgeon called in a retired infectious disease specialist because the bacteria was so rare. The specialist said he could not find any case in the world like it. It ended up being from my cat.”
" I was in the hospital for a week and was completely out of it . The doctors said if we had n’t called the ambulance when we did , my boyfriend could have ignite up to me dead . They used the give-and-take ' disastrous ' a few times throughout the week , judge to get up my family for the worst . I palpate very fortunate I am still here . It has really changed my linear perspective on life . "
14.“My uncle has almost died several times (I’m genuinely surprised he is still alive). Once, he was doing maintenance in a forest in the middle of winter, and a big tree fell on him. He lay under that tree until someone went looking for him. He spent like six hours lying there in temperatures of –4 degrees Fahrenheit. He ended up breaking a leg and was cut by the chainsaw.”
— sperkeles
Note : Some response have been cut for distance and/or clarity .
