There are a handful of brief points in life when time seems to stand still, and the decision you make right there and then has the power to fundamentally change your future for better or for worse. In some cases, your quick reaction can save your life. A stroke of luck or listening to your intuition can protect you from the worst.
We’ve collected some internet users’ stories from a powerful online thread where they shared how key actions and listening to their gut helped them avoid disaster. Scroll down to read them and for a reminder that every tiny little thing that you do really does matter.
#1
My son is a lifeguard. One of the girls in the pool got a suddenly intense headache. He sat her down and looked her over. There was fluid coming out of her ear. He put her on a spinal board just to be on the safe side, and called emergency. He found out later that the fluid leaking from her ear was spinal fluid she’d had a rupture of some sort that caused her spinal fluid to leak out her ear. If he hadn’t spotted that, she would have died later that day.
Image credits: nevertoolate2
#2
I’m here today because I woke up late on Sept. 11th and decided not to go into work.
Image credits: butimstillill
#3
I woke up in the middle of the night because of a voice in my head yelling at me, telling me to lock a nearby door. I reluctantly got up, locked the door then fell back asleep immediately. About 30 minutes later somebody tried breaking in.
Image credits: TopSpinner22
#4
Grabbing a middle schooler’s backpack as she was about to cross without looking and staying on the sidewalk instead of crossing the road. (I was in high school at the time)
The reason?
The red car that had almost ran me over a few weeks before was barrelling down the street at high speed.
Car zooms past at the moment the kid and myself would have been in the middle of the road.
Same driver. I recognized the shade of blonde hair.
Image credits: MerryMelody-Symphony
#5
Previously I was a biker. I’m sure you all know the risks. One time it was any other day riding to work. I pull up to the lights and check the car next to me. Girl mid 20s on her phone – revved my engine to get her to look at me. She doesn’t. She proceeds to go straight on into my lane.
I had planned for this. Half the reason I don’t ride now is other people being morons.
Image credits: contradiction_762
#6
Driving 80 miles per hour on a lonely interstate in the middle of the night. Decided to change lanes for no reason, and ended up missing a crumpled car in the middle of the lane I just left. It looked like a professionally crushed car that had fallen off of a truck. No light lenses or reflectors.
Image credits: Upper-Job5130
#7
Deciding to go to A&E over the “gas pains” in my abdomen instead of going to sleep (I was already in bed).
Appendix was about to blow by the time the surgeon got to it that same night.
I remembered something specifically about looking out for pain when you lift your left leg, and since healthcare is free here, decided not to chance it despite the symptoms being relatively mild.
Image credits: proximalfunk
#8
When I was in 9th grade I was walking to church on Sunday morning. My friends stopped and asked if I wanted to go riding with them. I thought about going but something stopped me from getting in the car. Later that afternoon 2 of my friends in the car died in an accident.
Image credits: No-Independence-6842
#9
When I was 9 I loved sleeping in my older brothers water bed upstairs when he decided to live with my dad instead. One cold January night I decided against it for some reason. I ended up sleeping in my own bed downstairs. A massive earthquake hit in the middle of the night and the headboard with tons of shelves on it ended up crashing down onto my brothers water bed. I would have been seriously injured if I had been sleeping in that bed that night!
Image credits: anon
#10
Fell asleep at the wheel, woke up and corrected my steering without panicking.
Drowsy driving is just as dangerous as drunk driving. Never again !
Image credits: Nielas_Aran_76
#11
I was in high school, and driving home from a robotics team party when it felt like instinct took over, and I slammed the brakes from 50 mph. A car plowed through the intersection in front of me, hit a curb, and left with a drunken weave. I realized that if I hadn’t stopped, I likely would have gotten hit. At that point I found the nearest parking lot, and had a panic attack for an hour before driving to my parents.
Image credits: zoeartemis
#12
When I was in my early 20’s I was working with a company laying deep services for new neighborhoods. In the winter, at the end of the day, the laborer crew would spend a few minutes scraping mud off the excavator tracks.
One day I was in between the two tracks scrapping away mud. Suddenly, my colleagues are shouting (almost screaming) my name. Although I didn’t see it, it instantly occurred to me that they would only be that terrified if the excavator was still in motion and I was about to be pinned between the rear counterweight and the track.
I dropped to my knees and rolled away with less than a second to spare. The rear of the excavator swung across where I had just been standing. Had I been any later, I’d have been cut in half.
The operator had thought we were done. We didn’t mention it to anyone… you know how you are at that age.
Once in a while I still think about it. Scary stuff.
Image credits: mikeInCalgary
#13
Riding my bike from Uni in the dark, and as I passed a silouhete of a person on the edge of the path, I stood up on the pedals. They struck me with a bat, landing the blow on my biceps. I was able to keep my balance/grip on the bars and ride through it.
Staying seated on that bike would have been my face meeting that bat. Plus, who knows what to follow on tbe ground.
Image credits: Magumbo_Sweat
#14
Almost went to the midnight showing of The Dark Knight in Aurora, Colorado when and where the shooting happened. Changed our minds enroute because a friend called us and we had to turn back and get them.
Image credits: nouseforachef1
#15
I was in an accident back in 2008. I was going to college on my motorcycle (pretty common where I come from). It had just ended raining. I was about to overtake a vehicle when a tuktuk came out of nowhere from the street. Hit the break real hard but still rear tyres touched I was in air. That when it dawned on me that it is either my right arm or my head. Chose let my right arm get crushed and saved my skull. Properly healed on 50days. Have trouble writing with my right hand ever as I cannot handle pen properly. Learnt to write with my left hand and went on with my life.
Image credits: sindhichhokro
#16
Step on the brakes for no reason other than a bad feeling in the midle off the street, sudently two Cars racing pass on the next corner with no head lights.
Image credits: DrMaao
#17
Maybe not died but been serious injured and facially disfigured.
Rescue dog for some reason freaked out and attacked me. Right before it happened I sat up and gently pushed his face away from mine (he had been whining and trying to lick at my face while I was stretched out on the couch). Some instinct told me to sit up and push his face away and do it now.
Ended up with a huge hole in my arm and he kept coming trying to take me down. If my husband hadn’t been there the dog would have kept going til he got me down and kept me there.
Image credits: NeverEnoughSleep08
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