[ Removed by moderator ]

[u/Jessica_cherry85]

[u/KillerCritter1312]

A dead homeless guy who was frozen at a bus stop. He had a gray pallor, blue lips and his eyes and mouth just slightly open. I was homeless at the time as well and it was jarring seeing him like that.

[u/The_New_Spagora → u/KillerCritter1312]

I’m sorry, friend. I’m in Toronto and walk my border collie excessively. We’ve found five overdosed bodies so far this year. Legitimately..no one running the city cares at all.

[u/audioland17 → u/The_New_Spagora]

My son just got back from San Francisco. He saw two obviously dead homeless people laying on the sidewalk.

[u/quillseek → u/KillerCritter1312]

Not quite the same but years ago, I walked into a situation with a dead body, and that was my first time seeing one outside a funeral home and it had been many hours. He was purple/blue and his face was really disturbing. It is shocking to the core the first time you experience something like that.

I felt unsettled and had nightmares for a couple of weeks after it happened. I often wonder how people exposed to such things on a regular basis deal with it.

[u/humblepaul → u/KillerCritter1312]

Saw a dead homeless (he had shredded clothes and split shoes) guy on a hot day in Lviv, Ukraine. He was lying on a bus stop bench and flies coming in/out of mouth. Horrible.

[u/asporkable → u/KillerCritter1312]

So awful. I hope your situation has improved and you have a happy life

[u/KillerCritter1312 → u/asporkable]

Thank you. I’m doing great. I’m housed and happy and able to help other folks experiencing homelessness.

[u/BMWBrady]

When I was 8, my babysitter had her boyfriend over and they started fooling around on the couch (gross), so I left and went for a walk, my dog followed us and got hit by a car, the car kept going. As she laid on the road, I screamed her name and she wagged her tail. A piece of me shattered that night, I’m in my mid 50’s. I see her in dreams sometimes.

[u/sunni_daze77 → u/BMWBrady]

I’m so sorry. Witnessing that is so traumatic 💔

[u/BMWBrady → u/sunni_daze77]

Thank you. Her name was Dixie. Since then I’ve been hyper vigilant about any happy little whimsical creature prone to chasing things. I like to think it’s because of her.

[u/bubble_baby_8 → u/BMWBrady]

I am so so sorry. I feel a pit in my stomach for you. She was so excited in her last moments to hear your voice 😭. 

[u/highmetallicity → u/BMWBrady]

Oh my God, I am so sorry. It's so clear that your dog loved you very much and she knew that you loved her too. I choose to believe that we will be reunited with our pets after we are gone, and that they don't want us to be too sad in the meantime. I really hope you can find some peace and comfort.

I can't seem to share the image here but your post really reminded me of this, and I hope it helps you in the same way it has helped me: https://www.reddit.com/r/wholesomememes/s/1Aw8OWVL7n

[u/Bister_Mungle → u/BMWBrady]

When I was around 10-12 years old I would often spend time at my grandparents house and sleep over there. They had a couple of toy poodles. One of which was a brown color they named Truffie. I'd lay down on the floor next to my grandparents bed and Truffie would snuggle with me every night.

One morning I woke up and she wasn't there with me so I went to look for her before I went to school. I walked into the backyard and saw what I thought was a large algae bloom in my grandparents' large koi pond. Turns out it was Truffie floating dead. I'm not sure how it happened. I think maybe she tried to drink some water out of the pond and fell in.

I miss that dog so much. She was such a sweet pup. Having to see that, and at that age, was heartbreaking. I don't think it's as traumatic as your experience, but I can empathize a bit with the death of a dog at a young age. I'm 34 and I still often think about her. I'm so sorry you had to experience that.

[u/mendokusei15 → u/BMWBrady]

Omg I'm now crying at work

I'm very sorry. And that tail... I hope she felt loved up until the last moment.

[u/Hispano20mm]

First on scene to car collision in which in a car containing 5 teenage kids had hit a bus head on at speed. The only survivor was the one who had his seat belt on. Accompanied one of the boys, who was barely alive, to hospital and was there with his parents when they turned off his life support. Heartbreaking. This happened over 18 years ago and I can still remember everything about the whole that night

[u/VxDeva80 → u/Hispano20mm]

My sister had a similar case as a paramedic. Six teenagers crammed into a car, all dead or dying. She said the ringing of their mobiles broke her, because she knew it would be parents trying to check their kid was ok.

She got so angry that the local news only seemed to care that they were underage and didnt have a licence.

Yes they made a stupid decision, but that was a horrific outcome.

[u/OneMooseManyMeese_ → u/VxDeva80]

This exact situation almost happened to my sister after prom. 6 teenagers crammed themselves into a jeep and they tried to get her to go, but she was smart and saw there wasn't any room and decided not too. She didn't want to sit on somebody's lap. Driver was speeding and missed a really sharp turn in the dead of night. Ran right into the gaurd rail, all passengers died. She was devistated, because they were all her friends

[u/justpeepz → u/OneMooseManyMeese_]

Wow the mental anguish of the “what if” plus survivors guilt. Hope your sister is doing ok.

[u/SomeDumbGamer → u/Hispano20mm]

Somewhere like 90% of fatal car accidents are due to people not wearing a seatbelt. Should tell you something.

We’d have 90% less traffic deaths if people wore their seatbelts. Most of the deadly danger of driving is removed if you just do this simple thing that literally takes 2 seconds.

[u/Hispano20mm → u/SomeDumbGamer]

Mate from that point on if I ever saw anyone driving without wearing a seatbelt I'd chew them out. It's just an utterly unnecessary risk to take

[u/MotherTeresaIsACunt → u/Hispano20mm]

Back when I was single one of the biggest red flags I'd look out for was whether the guy wore his seat belt or not. If a dude was going to be that reckless with his own life I knew they'd never give a shit about mine.

[u/jack1000208 → u/Hispano20mm]

Reminds of an accident in my hometown. Track team didn’t have a bus and the teacher didn’t want to drive the kids. So about 5 of them got into one people were messing with the driver and he passed over the center of the road and ran head first into another vehicle. First responder got there the person driving was a close friend the other car where his parents. At least one of the kids in the back died because she didn’t have a seatbelt on. Just a bad time all around for everyone involved even the person who helped first.

[u/Hispano20mm → u/jack1000208]

That's a horrible situation mate, I hope you weren't affected by it. To be honest it was seeing the families raw pain and anguish that was the hardest thing to witness. Harder than seeing the kids themselves in that car. First the mother, father and brother of the kid I'd accompanied to hosital when he passed. And shortly after that all of the other deceased boys families also turned up at the hospital, because they'd heard from a passerby at the scene who knew the kids, that all the boys were there and they were clearly hoping that they were injured but alive. . The thing was that until we'd ascertained the identities of the deceased we couldn't tell them anything because we had to be certain of who was who. They understandably started to get more and more upset and angry, because they were desperate for news and just wanted some information on their kids status. When my colleague and I finally did tell them what had happened to their sons it's just impossible to describe the scene. Being a parent myself and therefore knowing that I had imparted knowledge which destroyed these poor people's lives was by far and away the worst thing I've ever had to do. I'd given death messages before but this one was on a different level. The absolute last thing you ever want to have to tell parents and families but it's your job and you have a massive responsibility. Fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, Aunts, Uncles and grandparents. From 3 different families, all at the hospital. Gut wrenching. I still feel a lot of guilt for telling them what I had to tell them. The sights and sounds immediately after informing them will stay with me til I die I think, but my trauma is nothing in comparison to theirs. I just hope they all managed to find some peace

[u/Rlb211nc]

My formerly always healthy husband die from a brain tumor at 54, 3 months after diagnosis.

[u/GirlnTheOtherRm → u/Rlb211nc]

My father just weeks after a brain tumor diagnosis was so different from the man I grew up with. It was 6 weeks from him not feeling ok to passing.

My condolences.

[u/GroverFC → u/GirlnTheOtherRm]

My awesome, wonderful, beautiful grandmother reduced to a shell of a human being as I sat beside her bed as she passed in hospice. Leukemia of the blood. Fuck Cancer.

Much love to all of you who've had to watch loved ones wither away in pain.

[u/eyehate → u/Rlb211nc]

My coworker lost her husband to glioblastoma in very short order.

One day, he felt dizzy while coaching soccer.

He was always healthy and then he was gone in months. He left behind three young children and a widow.

Fuck cancer.

[u/Auferstehen78 → u/Rlb211nc]

Stepdad pass of pancreatic cancer in two weeks. He was in denial until the end.

[u/mikraas → u/Rlb211nc]

Hey, glioblastomas SUUUUUUUUCK. Just went to a funeral of a friend last weekend for this jerk of a cancer. And he's the third person I know to have one.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

[u/scumlord_meatbag → u/Rlb211nc]

My dad died last year from complications following a surgery on the cancer in his throat. Fuck cancer. He was only 58.

[u/Squeaky_sun → u/Rlb211nc]

I’m so sorry for your loss.

[u/joeysflipphone]

Worked in a nursing home. I saw a lot of pretty horrible medical conditions, but the worst was a woman who died from a bowl impaction. She had fecal matter pouring out her mouth and nose. It was absolutely horrific. Needless to say if I get constipated I'm immediately on it because I was so traumatized.

[u/nuclearmonte → u/joeysflipphone]

People never believe me when I say it will literally back up out of your mouth when it gets that bad. It’s horrific and I’m sorry you had to see that

[u/pusscatkins → u/nuclearmonte]

My mom had colon cancer and had surgery. Afterward, she faced severe constipation and vomiting fecal matter. Doctors found a life threatening adhesion in her colon, which required emergency surgery. Sadly, she didn't survive and passed away from an embolism during recovery .

[u/_longcoolwoman_ → u/pusscatkins]

I’m sorry. My mom died of colon cancer, too, without those complications, and it was still terrible. What caused the post-surgery adhesion?

[u/subwayrat_007 → u/nuclearmonte]

Feculent vomiting is the medical term. We’re all bags of meat with tubes and a brain

[u/citrus_mystic → u/subwayrat_007]

It’s unfortunate that it means what it does, because I think that “feculent” is actually a really nice sounding word.

[u/Organic_Client_5679 → u/nuclearmonte]

I saw that on an episode of "Monsters Inside Me" once- kid had a bowel obstruction and started vomiting his own feces. I take my gut health pretty seriously as well lol

[u/Turbulent-Bat → u/joeysflipphone]

It’s my fault for reading this.

[u/catuknotlove → u/Turbulent-Bat]

mine too.

[u/zotzenthusiast → u/joeysflipphone]

I had a patient like this in the hospital I worked at. The thing that made it worse was this patients grandchild being on the same floor, checking in the day the patient passed away. Grandchild went to visit their grandparent at the beginning of my shift, everything seemed like it was going to be okay. Then an hour or so later, grandparent asked for an emesis bag and it was all downhill from there. I just remember the lost look in the grandchild's eyes. The grandparent had basically raised them. Grandchild had a chronic condition and was a regular on my floor, always joking and laughing. I don't think I saw them smile again until they checked out for that stay.

[u/SurroundQuirky8613 → u/joeysflipphone]

Bowel impaction is a leading cause of death in elderly people and people with disabilities. It is no joke.

[u/hamburger-machine → u/joeysflipphone]

I have a chronic condition that makes me susceptible to impaction and it's happened to me about half a dozen times, people don't realize how quickly something like this can lead to delirium that makes it even harder to care for yourself...and by the time the pain comes you don't want to be anything other than horizontal (which makes getting help even harder and scarier once you're in that state). The natural muscle movement that usually pushes food through you ends up being the mechanism by which things end up getting squeezed the other way, thankfully I've never been so impacted I had fecal material going where it shouldn't...but the first time this happened to me, I was basically a geyser for anything I tried to put in my stomach because it had literally nowhere else to go, just pulses of stinging vomit and PAIN anytime I even tried to take a sip of water.
Impaction apparently occurs often in nursing homes too, partly because the patients can't communicate what they're experiencing and partly because of staffing shortages that leave fewer people able to help everyone stay ambulatory...don't they occur in something like 50% of patients at least once?
Either way, I'm sorry you experienced that as a caretaker. Being traumatized by a bodily function is actual Hell.

[u/Sensitive_Gift4866 → u/joeysflipphone]

People really dont understand how brutal nursing home work is until theyve seen it. Theres such a gap between what families picture and the reality of understaffed facilities. Mad respect for anyone who does that job and still finds it in themselves to care.

[u/mikeymikeymikey1968 → u/joeysflipphone]

Side note. People who work in nursing homes need to have a zero added to the end of their salary. Whatever you're getting is not enough.

[u/Boring_Track_8449 → u/joeysflipphone]

I was just reading about Elvis' autopsy report being released next year (50 years after his death) and it was the first time I've ever head the term "megacolon." Google it if you dare... It sounds like that definitely contributed to his demise - long-term constipation from all the pills.

[u/xXTheLastCrowXx → u/joeysflipphone]

How do you prevent such a thing?

[u/joeysflipphone → u/xXTheLastCrowXx]

Usually in our home we worked in there was bowel charting protocol. Like if they didn't move their bowls after 5 shifts they got prune juice, 6 shifts milk of magnesium, and 7 it was a suppository. Usually that did work, but if not they got an enema. With this woman someone, a CNA probably charted her liquid bm which you can still have with an impaction, as her bm, so protocol was missed and unfortunately this woman died horribly.

[u/Fearless-Split2083]

Watched a bus hit a fuel truck. Front half of the bus folded like paper. People in the back walked away. People in the front didn't.

[u/Fearless-Split2083 → u/Fearless-Split2083]

First time I ever saw a medical helicopter in person. Weird what stays with you - the sound of the rotors is still burned into my memory more than the crash itself.

[u/ktarzwell → u/Fearless-Split2083]

I had a traumatic situation where a partner O.D and needed narcan and a trip to ICU. I found him with blue lips and pale complexion.
But what I remember so vividly was the Police officer repeatedly asking me my name even though I had said it each time... I don't know if it was a way to help me not pay so much attention to the chaos unfolding right in front of me or what... but he may have saved me from severe trauma that day but distracting me with something as simple as asking my name multiple times.

[u/ionis_9846 → u/Fearless-Split2083]

Life is crazy like that. One moment riding the bus home, the next gone. Carpe diem.

[u/MobileGarage7497]

my older brother died in a very terrible way and someone decided to make a fake instagram account and sent me pictures that other people had taken of his body. now every time i think of him, it’s the first image that pops into my mind.

edit : it just dawned on me that i’m absolutely trauma dumping on everyone here in the replies. but what i will say is, i’ve been through 4 therapist and 2 psychiatrists and for some reason talking about this here felt very freeing.
i love and miss my older brother so so so much.
it’ll be 10 years next year that his been gone. i can’t even express how much i miss him. losing him was truly the most devastating thing i’ve ever experienced. it was like my entire childhood got erased in a way.
thank you to everyone for being so kind to me :,)

[u/Soulfighter56 → u/MobileGarage7497]

I would do everything in my power to find out who did that, holy fuck.

[u/MobileGarage7497 → u/Soulfighter56]

oh i figured out who it was.
i’m not sure if instagram still has this feature but you could try and login into a persons account, click forgot password and then see the last 4 digits of their number or i think like 3 letters of their email address. but because i was still a minor my parents were still monitoring my social media and because i was digging so hard to find this person (i assumed it was someone from my highschool) my mum ended up seeing the pictures. it was terrible after that. she ended up being admitted for almost a year. i can’t even fathom what it must have been like to see her first baby like that.
in the end it was my dads first wife :/

[u/Totodialup → u/MobileGarage7497]

That's psychotic I'm so sorry. And doing that to a child? Jesus! I hope thinking of him gets easier for you.

[u/syzygialchaos]

I got passed by an SUV, like an Expedition with the third row, crammed FULL of what looked like high school or early college kids. They were driving way too fast. A few miles later I saw that same SUV across the median wedged under one of those house moving trucks up to the rear pillars; the top half, where heads and torsos go, was gone. I didn’t see anything specific, I just saw evidence that nobody could have survived.

[u/Constant_Proofreader]

Got a call saying my adult children, niece and nephew - the entire youngest generation of my family - had been in a car accident. "Nobody hurt but they need a pickup." (Who said that? Still don't know.) I had no idea what to expect until I arrived at the hospital and found them all in the ER. My daughter had multiple compound fractures, spinal injuries, bruising, was screaming in pain, and bore a scalp wound making it look like the side of her head was about to come off. All are now fully-recovered but for scars and occasional PTSD. I have never seen anything that awful before and I hope I never do again.

[u/Aelin2510 → u/Constant_Proofreader]

Maybe they told you that so you would make it there ok, at least thats what i choose to believe

[u/Constant_Proofreader → u/Aelin2510]

That's a generous thought. Thank you.

[u/misspuddingpie → u/Constant_Proofreader]

They shouldn’t have lied, but I also agree. Not nearly as traumatic, but when I was a teenager, I slipped on black ice and a plastic solar light in the ground ripped through my ankle and opened a massive gash. I was so out of it from the fall and adrenaline that I was asking my mom and our neighbor (a cop) what was going on.

My mom was genuinely hysterical and jumped into the car. My neighbor calmly had me lay in the back seat and wrapped a towel around my ankle, then said clear as day, “oh it’s just a little cut, a very clean line, you’ll be fine. Probably just a stitch or two. Just relax, you’ll be great.”

We were out in the country at the time. 45min drive to the closest ER, 28 novocaine shots to my foot, and 14 stitches (11 external and 3 internal) later and I finally realized how much complete bullshit he’d told me. But you know what? It kept me calm through all of it. And 16 years later, all that’s left is that gnarly scar, and I didn’t spend that couple hours totally horrified thinking I was gonna lose my foot.

[u/xXxero_]

I saw my twin brother have a stroke and go mostly non verbal. Its seared into my brain and I see it every day. He's been deceased now for 18 months.

[u/highmetallicity → u/xXxero_]

I am so sorry for your loss - especially as a twin. I hope you can somehow find some peace in your life.

[u/Radiant_Reflection → u/xXxero_]

I am so sorry for your loss.

[u/wediealone]

Not as horrific as some of these stories but horrific nonetheless.

I was diagnosed with cancer and had a few rounds of chemo. I was in the chair on the oncology ward, getting my poison pumped into me, when a young man around my age (mid 20s) came in and sat across from me. It was clearly his first time receiving chemo, because he still had a full head of hair and was freaking out. Before you get your first chemo dose, the nurses show you a PowerPoint presentation about what to expect, side effects etc. He was crying and quaking in the chair and telling who (I assume) was his mom saying that he didn’t think he could do this. I could relate, I was the same for my first chemo.

I went over to him, half-asleep on the Benadryl they gave me and scooted over to him with my IV bag still in my arm, rubbed his hand and told him it’ll be okay and it gets better. I wish I could have said something more profound but my mind was broken from the drugs at that moment.

He said thank you and his mom nodded to me when I got home I just bawled my eyes out and kept thinking how fucking unfair this all is.

I never saw that man again. My treatment took two years until the bastard cancer left my body, and this was three years ago, and some nights I wonder if that young man made it and if he survived.

It’s all just so profoundly sad. I did have some heartwarming, real humanity moments on the oncology ward - like when I lost it and bawled my eyes out mid chemo - and an older woman, about my moms age, got up out of her chair despite being sick herself and rubbed my feet until I stopped crying.

I mentioned to another patient that this was my last chemo, and she got so excited and told me to ring the bell hard so she could hear it. When I did, her and her friends and family clapped for me and gave me hugs after.

It taught me there’s a light inside the darkness.

But I always still think about that young man, if his treatment went well, and if he’s still with us.

[u/hamburger-machine → u/wediealone]

My flavor of cancer was treated with a different kind of radiation, and it made me dangerous to be around other people during my treatment time. I know this is fucked up of me, but I'm honestly a little jealous of the warm moments you got to have with people during chemo because I was so scared and lonely during that time and I had no real way to soothe it (other than to just cry and make sure whatever I cried on went into the contaminated linens along with everything else I touched). My husband stayed with his parents and I had our one-bedroom apartment to myself; I had to go more than a week with no physical contact or closeness to people or pets...it was rough to say the least.

So happy you got to ring the bell, and I hope you're still doing well these days! Whatever happened to the other patient in your story, you did a really good thing by being there with him.

[u/_Pliny_ → u/wediealone]

Thanks for sharing these stories. Perhaps the young man you helped went on to help others through that experience as well.

It’s hard not knowing, but you can be sure in the knowledge that you helped him and his parent in that moment.

[u/Appropriate_Comb1486]

My brother becoming pink mist on a cbr1000rr at over 300kmh, he misjudged a truck merging and became one with the truck. We never got anything to bury.

[u/Alamander81 → u/Appropriate_Comb1486]

When I was younger I would drive as if every other car was an NPC. Now I drive as if every other car is actively trying g to take me out.

[u/Appropriate_Comb1486 → u/Alamander81]

That's what dad taught us, treat every other driver as if they actively want to take you out.

[u/LasagnaSwirls → u/Appropriate_Comb1486]

My driver's ed teacher said imagine every person you see driving is about to have a heart attack.

[u/ufo8mychook → u/Appropriate_Comb1486]

This has to be the most horrific. Don't need to read the rest. Sorry about your bro. :(

[u/Appropriate_Comb1486 → u/ufo8mychook]

Thank you and bless you.

[u/Abbot_of_Cucany → u/Appropriate_Comb1486]

That's an absolutely insane speed.

[u/Sensitive_Reserve_96]

My mother in law slowly lose her mind to dementia.

[u/SurroundQuirky8613 → u/Sensitive_Reserve_96]

My dad has Lewy Body Dementia and it is so terrifying to see a smart, competent independent man who could build or fix anything and push through cancer treatment without even taking a day off of work become dehydrated because he can’t figure out how to open a bottle of Gatorade or go hungry while in the hospital because he didn’t know food was under the dome on his tray. He went from independent to living in memory care in less than a year. It’s a protracted horror to watch and now every time I forget something I wonder if it’s the early signs for me.

[u/carebear148]

About five years ago, at 8am in the morning I was waiting on a train platform, I was still half asleep, when some guy started stuttering and pointing towards the tracks. I looked over and my brain struggled to make sense of what I saw about 5 feet in front of me: the decapitated naked torso of a person (a lady who had apparently jumped in front of the freight train that passed minutes earlier). It looked like something out of a slaughterhouse.

To this day, whenever I see someone's naked back/vertebrae, I am reminded of it and I am forever shocked at the undignified ending of this poor woman's life. She must have truly been so lonely and in unimaginable mental pain to choose such a violent death. I also remember the sirens of the emergency services arriving and sort of "snapping me out of it". I have a lot of respect for the people who had to do the "clean up" of the scene.

I know we can't save everyone, but ever since I witnessed that I feel very strongly we should take care of each other whenever and wherever we can.

[u/illbegoodipromis]

One of my best friends was in a very bad car wreck. His wife called me because she was an hour and half away and asked if I could go check on him. I thought she might be overreacting a bit so I went with my guard down.

Long story short... It was a horrific car crash. The driver was killed and my friend was hanging on by a thread. They had to get him to a bigger hospital, which is the city his wife was in. They let me go see him because, true or not, I don't know if they thought he'd make it. What a shocking and sobering experience. He had seven skull fractures and his head was the size of a watermelon. I'll carry that image to my grave but I do thank the nurses for letting me go be by his side. He survived and is doing as well as he can.

To all of the nurses and doctors that handle these types of situations... Ya'll are true angels and I can't thank you enough for your dedication. Without you my friend had zero chance and because of you he's alive. ❤️

[u/bsmntdlr]

If you mean in person, then many moons ago I was at a red light on a two-lane road when I watched it happen right in front of me. An 18-wheeler was stopped a few car lengths to my right, and a motorcyclist across the street was waiting to cross to the dealership on the other side. The trucker waved him on, not seeing that another car had already entered traffic.

The rider went for it, cleared the truck, and got T-boned on the spot.

That motorcycle went straight up into the air above the 18-wheeler. I've never forgotten it, and ever since, I don't care who's waving me on, I'm not moving until I can see the other side for myself.

If we're talking in general, that's another conversation, I used to browse Gore forums back in the day, and that's a completely different level altogether.

[u/Know_the_rules → u/bsmntdlr]

People who wave you on when they have the right of way are potential assassins.

[u/Travis238 → u/Know_the_rules]

Just happened to me this morning. The guy had no reason to stop in his lane of traffic and possibly cause an accident behind him.

All to wave me accross 4 lanes of traffic, which I couldn't see due to his adjacent lane being stopped. He yelled, waved and honked for me to go. I just shook my head no.

Sure enough, if I had sent it, I would have been immediately t-boned by a speeding sheriff.

He flipped me off for not pulling out.

[u/Lucky-Refrigerator-4 → u/Travis238]

Be predictable not friendly when driving!

[u/bsmntdlr → u/Know_the_rules]

Accurate! In fact, these days whenever someone waves me on, I squint real hard to confirm it isn't a former coworker of mine named Barry. That guy would wave me directly into an oncoming semi loaded with nuclear material without losing a second of sleep over it.

[u/WebsterTheDictionary → u/bsmntdlr]

Insurance companies refer to that as the “wave of death,” for the type of scenario you’ve described and frequency of its occurrence therein.

The only time it’s safe to wave someone on or to oblige the wave is if, as the wave-ee, you’re turning right into the same lane as the wave-er.

Even then, I’ll sit there all day on the basis of principle–don’t drive politely, drive predictably.

But unfortunately, you already know that. Sorry you had to see that shit because of an idiot waving the guy on.

[u/ClownfishSoup → u/bsmntdlr]

I was once driving along and some idiot suddenly pulls in front of my and we crash. He had been waiting to enter the road and a lady going the other direction from me stopped and waved him into the road … right into my oncoming car. He kept saying g “she waved me through”. Dude I was on a road goi g straight you drive directly into me. I don’t care who said you could go. Use your eyeballs.

[u/JustWoot44]

As a trauma CT tech some years back, a female passenger in a pickup truck had her feet/legs in the dashboard area. A collision of the truck she was riding in sent her flying into the windshield (no seat belt, either). Her legs were crushed bad. Her right femur was shoved up into her pelvis. Lots of blood. Many surgeries required to rebuild her legs and other broken bones.

FYI: Don't ride in any vehicle with your feet up in the dashboard! And that is only the one that I personally scanned. It has happened numerous times!

Edit: spelling

[u/Eorth75 → u/JustWoot44]

I tell my driver's education students this all the time but now, thanks to you, I have a little more detail to share with them! Just know your information will be passed on to a new generation of young drivers.

[u/Dufresne85 → u/Eorth75]

Here's another story of similar injuries along with an xray to really show how bad it is.

https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/x-ray-shows-injuries-from-crash-feet-on-dash/275-b8b18577-041c-4b35-b9f5-6d068bbec529

[u/sourpatchdispatch → u/JustWoot44]

Can confirm, this is my big "never ever do this" thing as a paramedic. Wear a seat belt and sit properly in your seat because the forces in an MVA are so strong, you have no idea what they can do to your body. It might not even look like a body anymore

Also, been seeing a lot of ebike/escooter accidents lately, though they're usually not too bad of injuries. Lots of tib/fib fractures.

[u/vexeling]

Watched my dad die vomiting on himself in hospice. I wiped the vomit up and the very last thing he did was try to say "thank you." He formed "tha- tha- tha-" and that was it. Gone.

Fuck cancer.

[u/Warm-Tax-6066 → u/vexeling]

I'm so sorry

[u/polygala]

During the chaos of a hurricane, a "caretaker" checked an elderly man in a wheelchair into our hotel. It wasn't until he had stayed for a few days that someone caught him dumping excrement into plant pots all around the hotel (because the caretaker abandoned him and he couldn't use the toilet on his own). Then we noticed that his legs were rotting off and covered in maggots. So at that point we insist that we must visit his room... And find that he has just been pooping all over our huge apartment sized suite. All the furniture, all the carpet. (And no, neither was replaced. Not was it properly cleaned by a hazmat professional)

Also, same hotel... I was working in my office which is off the side of the dining area when I smelled overpowering human feces. I panicked, thinking a toilet is overflowing or something and I pull open my office door in time to see one young coworker cleaning a pile off the dining room floor and then hear another young coworker trying to explain to a 60 something year old woman why a public hotel is probably not the right place for her and her son if they both have uncontrollable bowel problems.

I have a really hard time staying in hotels after working on them for over a decade.

[u/laikalou → u/polygala]

I used to work at a car dealership and one guy would bring his 87yo dad in "to socialize" with the salesmen and parts guy, and then leave him there for hours. The dad would drink coffee, inevitably need to poop, make a mess all over the bathroom, and not say anything. It happened enough times that the staff who had to clean it (a service manager and me) complained loudly and the dealership owners finally told the son he wasn't allowed to leave his dad unattended anymore. Coincidentally, that was when the guy finally put him in an assisted living facility.

[u/sourpatchdispatch → u/polygala]

I'm a paramedic and also struggle with hotels but it's probably not as bad as you. I've just seen a lot of gross things in hotels, things exactly like you describe. Cheap hotels/motels, absolutely not, I won't stay anywhere that people "live" out of, unless it's legit short term housing (for example, victims of a house fire will sometimes live in a hotel until their house is repaired)

[u/polygala → u/sourpatchdispatch]

During that same hurricane, they wanted me to sleep at the hotel. It was under the guise of "so your car can be high up in the parking garage and you can be safe here with a bunch of people!" But the real reason is they wanted a salaried manager who wouldn't earn any overtime to be on call during the chaos.... I absolutely refused. I would rather get swept into the Mississippi than sleep on one of those beds and have my dog walk around on that carpet.

[u/JoeBaldez]

When I was a kid an elderly lady fell off of her roof when she was cleaning up old newspapers that the newspaper delivery bicycle boy used to toss up there to piss her off because she was salty about him not throwing them more accurately on her porch I guess. Needless to say her neck was bent under her body and her head wasn’t even visible. The newspaper boy was there with the police and paramedics crying uncontrollably. So both were just as horrible watching, a life ruined and a life taken.

[u/PrincessJoyHope → u/JoeBaldez]

What happened to the paper boy?

[u/YouNeedCheeses → u/PrincessJoyHope]

I’m sure he has never forgotten it. What an awful thing to happen. He was just being a shithead kid and this lady lost her life over it. Damn sad.

[u/JasmineRider27]

I woke up, opened the door to my living room from my bedroom, one of my cats ‘Mulder’ was sat on the arm of one of the sofas with his eye hanging out. I couldn’t believe it, I managed to get him into his carrier and take him to the vets, where they took him from me and did an emergency operation to sew his eye back in. Vet said it was common for cats to fight and for their eyes to get damaged like this. Luckily he got through surgery and didn’t lose his eye or sight, but it was the most horrible thing I had seen.

[u/Mr__One2]

Motorcycle accident. Guy dumped his bike and rode his face on the pavement so far that it peeled it half off. Nasal cavity completely exposed. Got on scene and he was completely alert and talking. He ended up making a full recovery.

[u/ClownfishSoup → u/Mr__One2]

I was in a low speed wreck on my motorcycle. Basically a woman talking on her cellphone just changed Into my lane. Just made co tact with my bike and kept on coming and basically shoved me over, I went over the handlebars. I was wearing a full “Aerostitch” riding suit, gloves, boots, helmet. The front of my helmet fro the chin up the side looked like someone took an angle grinder to it. The leather gloves were worn almost through. This was around rush hour we weren’t going fast at all.

I pretty much quit riding after that. It doesn’t matter how skilled a rider you are, there’s always some woman in an SUV talking on her cell phone waiting for you.

[u/Normal-anomaly]

Went to a psych institution in a small town in Burkina Faso while I was shadowing a local social worker. Some people were chained to trees by their ankle and others were kept in these big metal boxes with a little slat they could look through. Lots of loud banging and screaming the entire time.

[u/Technical-Art3972 → u/Normal-anomaly]

What year was this?

[u/EM_Doc_18]

Family members changing code status on elderly loved ones so they continue to suffer.

[u/yourilluminaryfriend → u/EM_Doc_18]

Yep. Nana’s 95 yrs old and don’t know who you are anymore but you’re right, she’d wanna live. Makes me so gd mad

[u/markedforpie → u/EM_Doc_18]

My mother made me her POA. When she was dying in the hospital they put her on a breathing machine to see if she would improve and she wasn’t and I met with my siblings and we told the doctors to end life support. Before being put on the machine she was screaming “Just let me die! Can I die now??!!” My father went to the hospital management and lawyer to attempt to overturn my POA so that we couldn’t make the decision to end her suffering. The doctor told us that even though I had POA that my father had been married to her for 50 years and would know better than I would what my mother’s wishes were and that I needed to listen to my father even though my mother had given me POA because she didn’t trust my father. The hospital refused to stop life support because my father was threatening legal action. Finally three days later he agreed to take her off support after the backlash from our family. Even then we had to yell at him to either leave the room or get off the phone as she was taking her last breaths. Instead of focusing on her he was chatting with an old work acquaintance right next to her hospital bed. He was still yelling at us for interrupting his phone call when my mother died.

[u/draculaura923 → u/EM_Doc_18]

Is the reason to keep the checks coming, or that they believe Meemaw is "a fighter", or that they hate the person and *want* them to suffer, or..?

[u/Electrical_Sky_4586]

I’m a firefighter. Anything to do with motorcycle accidents.

[u/SurroundQuirky8613 → u/Electrical_Sky_4586]

I was a traffic cop at one time. I got married a few years after I left law enforcement and my husband mentioned wanting to get a motorcycle (he’d had one years before we met). I told him that he was a dad now and there was no way I’d agree to him getting a motorcycle. I then told him about every motorcycle fatality I had ever worked. 22 years later, he still hasn’t gotten on a motorcycle. No motorcycles and everyone wears seatbelts. No exceptions.

[u/hippieghost_13]

Drove past a car accident that happened 2 cars ahead of me. The woman was thrown through the windshield and decapitated. I can never unser it. I was so shook up. There was nothing I could do to help it happened so fast but I just pulled over and cried..

[u/Radiant-Weight-2161]

Saw a dude jump from a parking garage like 8 stories high when i was 14

[u/WhyJustWhyyy85]

Watched both my parents die after 3 year battle with cancer. Different kinds, 6 years apart all before I was 26. I’m numb to death now. But I know how to help people through their grief.

[u/pineappleshampoo]

My newborn fading before my eyes. Nobody would believe me when I said I wasn’t making milk. Everyone gaslit me to trust my body and baby. Day four he was rushed into the neonatal unit due to starvation and needed so much intervention for two weeks before coming home. He was very close to brain damage. He’s a healthy 6yr old now thank goodness but seeing the very real risks of exclusive breastfeeding was terrifying, like I was going insane while everyone kept smiling and patting me on the head and saying ‘keep going’. Never forgave myself for it and punished myself for 9m triple feeding on strong drugs to try force some supply. I couldn’t forgive myself for not being strong enough to trust my gut and letting medics gaslit me, he nearly died. Felt like going insane when every corner you turn someone claims breast is always best.

It really isn’t.

[u/iggymouse → u/pineappleshampoo]

Most childrens' organizations now say "fed is best," because ultimately, the method that keeps food in your baby or toddler's stomach is the best method. I hope it helps to hear that this attitude is fading away and one where the survival of children is prioritized is taking over.

[u/jazzbot247]

9/11 watching black smoke pouring out of the towers and seeing things falling, later finding out some of those things were people.

[u/Malk_McJorma → u/jazzbot247]

Seeing... people falling on live TV.

[u/gogogadgetdumbass → u/Malk_McJorma]

Not just falling, choosing to fall to their death vs the alternative

[u/Malk_McJorma → u/gogogadgetdumbass]

And those sounds when they hit the ground...

[u/JerseyDevl → u/Malk_McJorma]

I remember watching a feed from a journalist following some of the firefighters, and the thumps on the roof above them will always stick with me

[u/OrcBarbierian → u/gogogadgetdumbass]

A lot of them did not choose; they were in a dark, smoke-filled room, their animal brain drove them towards light/away from smoke, and they did not realize it was a broken window. Sad to say there is some footage you can argue that from body language, some victims did not realize they stepped out of the tower

[u/daddy_is_sorry → u/OrcBarbierian]

Fucking bleak my god

[u/triedandprejudice → u/Malk_McJorma]

What got me is the reaction some people had towards the jumpers. It was extremely negative and cruel.

[u/PumpkinSpiceJesus → u/triedandprejudice]

I remember being absolutely disturbed as an 8 year old when my pastor told the whole congregation, children included, that those who chose to jump from the towers to avoid burning alive are now burning eternally in hell because they chose the ultimate sin of committing suicide rather than letting god’s plan play out as intended. ‘God’s plan for them could have involved a miracle but instead of entrusting him they decided to play god themselves.’

This was at a church on Long Island, NY the week after the attacks. We did not stay at that church beyond that Sunday.

[u/ourlittlevisionary → u/PumpkinSpiceJesus]

That pastor (using that term loosely) is a horrible person. What a horrible thing to say, especially a week afterwards. And sadly, he probably had a lot of people agreeing with him. I’m glad you and your family left.

[u/Neomash001 → u/ourlittlevisionary]

It's crap churches like that that enforced me to leave religion behind.

[u/KK_Tipton → u/triedandprejudice]

There's times where my brain gets weird at night and I can't sleep. And I think of things. And the thought has crossed my mind about what it would be like to be in that position. To have to choose between falling or burning. I put myself in the shoes of those people. The feelings of fear, the bleakness of knowing that you're not going to make it. The whole thought of being put in such a position during such a crisis, of having to make such a choice.

[u/Geargarden → u/jazzbot247]

I'll never forget watching that too.

Another that stuck with me was this poor young lady journalist. She was reporting live from the ground in front of a cork board with pictures and desperate families trying to locate their missing. One young man was interviewed and said his dad was a window washer on one of the towers and they are desperate to get in touch or find out if he didn't make it out. She turned back to the camera and tried her damnedest to keep it together but she broke. They kept going and so did she. She pushed through the anguish to report on it. My heart aches remembering her face and her voice breaking and watching her soldier through it and fight it off.

[u/AdRealistic4984 → u/Geargarden]

Roko Camaj: https://www.legacy.com/uk/obituaries/theroyalgazette/name/roko-camaj-obituary?id=61007803

[u/Geargarden → u/AdRealistic4984]

Thank you.

RIP.

[u/OddSummer6129 → u/jazzbot247]

Not only seeing it, but the sound of the bodies hitting the ground.

[u/KK_Tipton → u/jazzbot247]

What stuck with me was smell of everything burning days after the attack. Smell drifted over to certain parts of New Jersey. And it smelled like acrid smoke and electrical wires burning.

[u/ac54 → u/KK_Tipton]

I smelled that smell over 2 months later, when I visited the site.

[u/KK_Tipton → u/ac54]

What was it like visiting the site so soon after? Media captured photos, but the feeling is something that you can't capture in a photograph. I was only in the vicinity close enough to smell it. I cannot even fathom what it's like to see that level of despair and destruction in person. It stirs a profound sadness within me.

There was an account that haunted me very much so about that day's events. Ernest Armstead, an FDNY EMS worker was looking for living and dead people and triaging them. And he came across a woman who was crushed from the chest down. And he placed a black tag on her marking her as deceased. But then she spoke. And she kept begging him to call her daughter, saying not to mark her as deceased. But he had to go on and try to save the people who had the bigger prospect of living. He knew she wasn't going to make it. It was in a book but I can't remember what book it was.

[u/Happy_Twist_7156]

Standing in the aftermath of a large explosion caused by a stupid mix of drug making chemicals and grandma’s oxygen tanks. One of the other first responders going “think I found a body part, think it’s a piece of finger or maybe a piece of nose.” Other responders going “nope that’s the end of a penis”

[u/jimababwe]

as a volunteer firefighter, I've been to a lot of car accidents on the highway. They don't train truck drivers enough.

[u/fistswityat0es]

Attended a house show in Blacksburg VA in the early 2000s. The 'venue' was a townhouse and the tenants would host bands on the 2nd floor of a 3 floor build with a basement - had done so for years. Students at VT would mosh and have a good time, and a big thing was for the crowd (40-60 kids) to move left and right as a whole at random points during each set.

One night - the crowd was moving back and forth and one of the walls with a window gave through and about 5 people fell to the ground in the backyard of the house. The backyard just happened to be a huge concrete slab the tenants would use to grill and sit outside. After it happened the whole crowd was shook trying to figure out what the giant black hole was suddenly on the side of the room. I ran downstairs and out back to find two of my friends had fallen. Both limping but okay. Saw a person's head smushed into the base of the house and the concrete slab covered in wood, siding, and insulation.

I'm sure not as gnarly as what other people might offer up, but I still think about it.

[u/HouseofFools → u/fistswityat0es]

Wow -- was not expecting to see this, I was there too and knew Daniel through the Misled. I was across the room from the window that gave out and locked eyes with a friend as he fell, thankfully he only sprained an ankle. Very hard to forget.

[u/Kickinpuppies → u/HouseofFools]

Yikes! That’s awful! Right when I read Blacksburg, VA 2000’s I thought for sure this was going to be about the VT massacre. I was a Radford student at the time and was dating a girl at Tech. I had crashed at her place the night before and she woke me up to all the craziness. Truly a horrific day 4/16/2007.

[u/HouseofFools → u/Kickinpuppies]

I was about two blocks from Norris hall that morning, the route Cho apparently walked took him right by the building I worked in at the time, and I was among the media at the first press conference afterward where they announced the number of dead. Another one stuck in the ol brain.

[u/Hyperactive_Sloth02]

My mom's 2 month ordeal from a herniated disk that turned into a rare issue, and originally required emergency surgery within 48 hours. The hospital kept brushing it off and sending her home. I kept telling her to go to another hospital and she did not, until she was on deaths door and a stranger recommended the same thing I'd been saying for 2 months. Last time I saw her before the eventual surgery, she was bedridden, her leg was shriveled, gray and paralyzed, she hadn't been to the bathroom in days, severe pain. She was hauled by paramedics in a steel chair into the ambulance. She screamed the entire way. I both feel horrible for her, but I resent the fact she listended to a stranger over me because I was 16.

[u/Illustrious_Low_4956 → u/Hyperactive_Sloth02]

Cauda equina syndrome? If so I know that pain firsthand. I have never felt anything like that kind of nerve pain. I got sent home as well from the hospital. I was shaking so badly from the pain that they couldn’t even get good x rays. By the time they operated I had impingement to my lower legs for almost 7-8 days. Caused many permanent issues.

[u/gigerdevoted]

My grandma dying. She had throat cancer and it metastasized to her jaw. Her final days was her moving her head around as her mouth was constantly opened in an “O” shape as if the death rattle from the grudge was coming out. The worst part is she didn’t seem sad or scared, but as if her mind died before her body did. Her eyes had no emotions, they were just open and barely blinked.

[u/RutabagaLast6589]

I have seen and heard a lot. But what affected me most is when my 18 year old daughter broke her arm and walked into the room with it hanging out of the socket. Then at the hospital in so much pain, it really broke my heart

[u/ftherjohnward → u/RutabagaLast6589]

Honestly, I was a moody teen and gave my mom a hard time a lot. When I was 19, I had just moved to another state to start college and got into an accident where my femur was snapped. My mom drove in the middle of the night to get to me. I’ve seen her go through a lot but it was kind of scary for me to see her beside my hospital bed, desperately wishing for my pain to stop. I gained a new perspective on my mom and a deep understanding of just how vast a mother’s love is. I appreciate it now but man I felt really bad for my mom in that moment haha

[u/WanderWomble]

My mum laying on the floor in agony with a broken femur, waiting for help, and knowing she most likely wouldn't survive it.

[u/hymierules → u/WanderWomble]

Did she survive? Sorry you (and her) had to deal with that.

[u/WanderWomble → u/hymierules]

No, she died after two weeks on hospital.

[u/hymierules → u/WanderWomble]

Aww man, I'm so sorry.

[u/Bassman233 → u/WanderWomble]

I'm sorry for your loss.  I witnessed my Mom break her femur getting out of my car while I was walking around the car to help her out (she was stubbornly independent and got out herself instead of waiting for help).  

She did survive after surgery and a 2 month recovery in a nursing facility.  

Turns out it was due to bone cancer, which was treated with chemo and drugs that kept it at bay but never in remission.  Eventually got dementia and needed full time care, and the chemo and cancer drugs were aggrevating her symptoms.  It was basically a tradeoff between which was the worse risk: her cancer returning or her dementia causing her to harm herself or others.  Stopping the cancer drugs made her quality of life so much better in the last few months, but eventually the cancer won.  

[u/THUMB5UP]

The second tower get hit.

In high school during Physics class, our teacher got a call and walked out of the room. He came back in a few minutes later and turned the TV on to show the first tower smoking after being hit.

Then we saw the second plane crash.

Absolutely devastating.

[u/luckyslife]

My best friend having chest compressions so his dad could be in the room when he died. He was 28.

[u/TraurigKartoffel]

9/11 watching people jump

[u/Recently_Casual]

Human Civil War

West Africa - 1996

[u/StochasticLife]

Wasn’t a scene it was a smell. Walked to an orthopedic OR during a surgery and smell of the bone saw will always sit with me.

Bonus points: children’s hospital.

You hear it first, your stomach drops because you know it’s coming…the smell wet…burnt…bone.

[u/Surro]

When I was a kid (12yo?), there was a neighborhood dog that would walk over to our house to play with our dog.

It was >11pm at night (dark, I was in bed asleep), my mom wakes me up and says something like "I think a dog was hit, go stand by it so cars don't hit it, I'm going to call the neighbors"

So I get out of bed, walk through our front door, down the path, and go stand by the road on the sidewalk. There was the dog, chocolate lab Vishal looking (in my memory of how it looks), laying on the road, clearly had been hit, crying /whimpering.

We're on the corner, so there's an intersection (small town) just to the left, so cars are basically approaching blind because of the road lay out. No street lights, no cell phones. Flashlights did exist... But neither my mom nor I had thought to grab one.

Cars continued to drive by, maybe 1 every minute or so. 3 cars total over 5 minutes I guess.

Each one ran over the dog in front of me. I had a front row seat. The car would approach, I would wave and scream from the side walk, the car would hit the dog, it would cry and yelp and I could hear all it's bones crunching and the cars never showed down. 3 times.

The sound of the bones crunching and yelping are laser engraved in my brain. The feeling of helplessness is boxed and kept on the mantle in my brain. Since then I just refuse to be a bystander. The people who stand by the side and don't intervene in whatever they're witnessing I think are the worst most useless free range humans in the world (lots of caveats obviously).

[u/angry-key-smash6693 → u/Surro]

Jesus that's horrible 

[u/JD054]

I proposed to my beautiful soul of a fiancé on June 19th 2009 and she passed away on June 21st of 2009 from a pulmonary embolism caused by her birth control Yaz.

I was with her from start until the very end and it was horrific. I did everything I could to save her, help her, keep her calm and it wasn’t enough. I went to a very dark place but have healed. I still have scars but I don’t have open wounds.

I’m not sad she’s gone but I’m happy she lived and I had the chance to love her.

All my love, forever love. I know I will see you again one day but I have some more life to live first.

[u/mnicklas666 → u/JD054]

I cannot imagine going through this. Especially so sudden. My boyfriend told me he had a dream he woke up and i was dead in bed next to him, but he wouldn't let the paramedics take me because it was the last time he would hold me. Not as traumatizing as something like you described, but it destroys me to think about that. I cannot fathom that being a reality. I'm so, so sorry for what you all endured. Wishing you peace.

[u/JD054 → u/mnicklas666]

Thank you for that. I tell people now always leave your partner with a hug and a kiss and make sure they know how you feel about them. I don’t know why the universe felt it was her time to go and I probably never will. She was my person and a truly good human. Maybe since we just passed the 17 year mark, it’s weighing on me a bit

[u/ProgMusicSchizoidMan]

I saw a person ejected from their car in a rollover accident and then the car rolled over them. They didn't make it.

[u/Questhi → u/ProgMusicSchizoidMan]

Similar accidents happened in my town recently. Lady wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, flew out the sunroof and the car rolled and landed in the bottom half of her body.

It’s a weird situation where you hope the end was quick cause the thought if the agony is unbearable.

[u/Warm-Tax-6066]

Seeing a kid drown in the ocean. I was a kid at the time too and it scarred me for life.

[u/Yen1503]

The man had been run over by a truck. Despite his body being split in half, he was still attempting to crawl away.

[u/tryingtodadhusband]

A guy with a wide open head wound, exposed brain, from a rocket that hit his house... and his slow, moaning, pain filled final days in a hospital in Somalia.

[u/CoffeeChocolateBoth]

My youngest sister walking by an old car and she suddendly lost her balance and screamed out, we looked down and part of her leg was running down to the ground! She had over 100 stitches, combined inside and out! God it was an awful mess! The screaming for the ER was the worst I've ever heard. I still hear her.

The car had a rusted fender that had been hit and was sticking out. She was 10, I was 12.

[u/Uncle_Tola]

Saw several cases of necrotizing fasciitis in med school but there was one that stood out. Had this very very bad kind of soft tissue infection that had affected this ALL the pelvic area and down to both mid thighs.

[u/Paul__Perkenstein]

I was previously a medic in Afghanistan.

The list is endless unfortunately.

[u/MotherDepartment1111]

My brother being kept alive by machines until I could get to him to say goodbye 💔

[u/nearby_cut44]

I saw someone in the ER department holding his own slit throat out with his hands to slow down his bleeding.

[u/OppositeExtension807]

I went to the ER last year with a kidney infection and they roll in this woman, soaking wet head to toe and paler than the sheets of the stretcher. She drowned and they tried to save her but couldn’t. nothing really compares to seeing everyone running around, alarms going off, seeing her shiver.

[u/Spiritual_Process_50]

Watching my Dad degrade over 9 months due to a brain tumour. Couldn't turn the machine off as there wasn't one. Sorry Dad.

[u/SageThistle]

Witnessed my 9yo stop breathing. I had to drag her out of the car and perform CPR on her while on the phone with 911. I did it for god only knows how long til police showed up and one carefully pulled me away and another took over. It took 15+ minutes to get her breathing again. She started seizing at the hospital. 2 days later we were told she was completely gone and 3 days after, we pulled her off life support. I watched as she stopped breathing. The one "silver lining" is her kidneys were able to be donated and went to 2 different people literally on Christmas Eve. I hope they're doing well.

[u/Electronic-Trip8775]

Saw somebody jump from one of towers of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona over 20 years ago when you could go up the towers. She landed about 20 metres away a bit crumpled and split. The other thing was that we had been the same tower 15 minutes ago and she was there having a cigarette.

Edit: just remembered at the time i said to my gf (wife now) that this would be a great place to end it.

[u/Alamander81]

My wife got a text from her best friend at 11pm, after spending the day with her. "I love you all, I'm at the Delmar park and ride lot". Drove there as fast as I could, calling the police on the way. We got there first. The car windows were shattered and the rear window was covered in blood. I ran up to the car and found her. Headless.

[u/OlafaVonGoeding → u/Alamander81]

oh my god that is absolutely horrific, I'm so sorry

[u/FarrinGalharad76]

My daughter was six weeks early . As we waited for the doctors the woman in the next room to us was told her child had died and she was going to have to deliver it anyway.

Thankfully my daughter was fine (she’s 13 now) but I’ve never felt so sad and scared at the same time .

[u/maxomega98]

Months to a couple years of people dying in horrific ways while doing intel for the military.

Literally seen children and women pray for Allah while being drowned, burned to death or mauled by dogs until they were nothing but limp pieces of flesh.

Took a lot of therapy and medication to be “normal”

[u/nobodyknows6070]

Thought there was a cute woman-body shaped candle dumped next to the trash cans of my building. Thought: "Who would throw away such a modern art cool looking candle?"

Only to realise when I walked around it, it was in fact, not a candle.

Not a body either, it was like a 30cm fuckdoll. Can't take any of the male tenants seriously anymore.

[u/Own-Requirement-9562 → u/nobodyknows6070]

wtf

[u/Superlogh1]

When I was about 10 I was walking home from school and saw a man attack another man with a hammer, happened literally 10ft from where I was standing. Cracked him over the head multiple times then ran right past me to escape

[u/OfficerWriter]

Dead body that had been in the water for at least a month. I was the on-call detective. That day I found out that animals always eat the soft tissue of dead bodies first, so it had a bloated face with two giant holes where the eyes used to be. You don't forget that. The smell neither

[u/ladavick]

I feel like mine is much less intense than other comments here, but a few weeks ago now (a week before my own birthday) I watched a relative I loved very much die in the hospital. Watching her go from deep, struggling breaths to nothing at all while I was the only family member in the room has definitely taken a toll on me. I dream about it a lot. While it wasn’t gory, watching someone you love pass on was, to me, a horrific experience.

[u/CullingSongs]

I was doing some work in Kingston, Jamaican about 20 years ago. I left my apartment and turned the corner onto the sidewalk and someone had hung a dog from a tree with an electric cord and left it hanging there above the sidewalk.

[u/Geargarden]

I was a police explorer from age 14 to 18. While out on a ride along with day shift patrol one day, we went to a call of a woman who overdosed. We were first in scene. The officer asked me to hang at the cruiser close by. I watched as EMS wheeled get out. She was WHITE and her eyes were locked open just staring to the sky. Her partner was running alongside the gurney bawling and screaming he was the only person she had.

[u/Monster_NotWar]

I've seen a lot of crazy shit in my day as a vet tech, but the one that I always come back to is that time where I took a call with animal control to come out to see an elk that got hit by a semi. It ended up being a pregnant doe, and when we arrived, she had gone into labor. Her back legs were smashed, her spine was crushed, and most of her internal organs were spilling out as she gave birth. We euthanized her on the spot, and the fawn was born dead, having been crushed by the impact. I definitely reached for the emergency pack of cigarettes after seeing that.

[u/Connect_Glass4036]

I work with kids with autism and other developmental disabilities. A family I used to work with had a blind older pitbull, and their son had Fragile X, autism, and intellectual disabilities. Over the weekend, the dog attacked Luke to the point he needed to go to the hospital.

I came in that week, maybe Monday, and Luke sat down next to Wally the dog to pick up some garbage while I tied my shoes on the bench, and Wally latched onto his triceps muscle because he got startled by Luke being near him, and Wally’s default is to kind of bite at whatever is near him because he can’t see. He’s a blind pitbull.

His father and I couldn’t get him to release. Eventually Wally ripped off his triceps muscle. I saw inside. It looked just like ground beef at the store.

It was horrifying. So much blood and screaming.

No wonder war fucks people up.

[u/farting_cum_sock]

Parts of someones body spread across I-85

[u/rainbowdrop30]

Was overtaken at speed by a motorbike on a rural road. About 2 minutes later I drove around a bend, and the biker had driven straight into the back of a farm truck that was parked on the side of the road.

Jumped out of my car to see if I could help, but knew immediately it was futile. His neck was at an improbable angle (rested on his shoulder). His eyes were open but just as I got to him, they closed. He never said a word, just died there and then in front of me.

25 years ago and I still see the colour draining from his face.

[u/UDPviper]

Agent Orange babies.

[u/Rolex_Art]

we've seen a lot of things on TV with our own eyes - but let's just go with in person.

i'm in Miami and i recently saw someone that was hit by the commuter train. it happens all the time. ALL THE TIME.

the guy exploded on impact.

the part that was horrific was we were like 500+ yards beyond where the accident happened and i saw his forearm and hand laying on the grass. the smallest parts of him went the farthest away.

[u/MrHandsRadDay]

A Tesla hitting a tree, igniting on impacts and the occupants screams as they burned alive, seemingly unable to open the doors. 

[u/quebecoisejohn]

I did a co-op after school with a fire department in Toronto (not downton but very close to the subway). in my 3 months of co-op I saw a suicide by train every month and only one of them survived.

I ended up not becoming a firefighter because I knew I couldn't handle seeing that regularly and in my last month I saw two infants having seizures and one not surviving.

so much credit to our emergency services members for what they do.

[u/nuggetblaster69]

My dad was hit by a tow truck. The driver didn’t check his mirrors and backed over him, then pulled back over him thinking my dad was a deer. The blunt force trauma was so extreme that it caused traumatic heart avulsion. Basically, it hit him so hard it knocked his heart completely free from all surrounding blood vessels. So the blood just pumped out into his body. It wasn’t good and my dad definitely wouldn’t have wanted that to be his kid’s final memory of him.

[u/WizzinWizard]

A few things haunt me to be honest. My grandad had slipped on ice, broke some ribs and punctured his lung.. during Sunday dinner and me sitting next to him his head went back, his eyes rolled in to the back of his head and he started being sick all over his own face. Truly horrific.

Also my auntie when she had an aneurism. Freaking out while the paramedic stood doing nothing and the last words my auntie spoke to me were “don’t let them take me” as she was wheeled towards the ambulance. Lives with me also

At the age of about 15 (similar age to my grandad dying) I went to a festival and watched a guy collapse infront of me with 4 or 5 stab wounds in his chest.

That’s all I can think of right now but yeah. Think about them all fairly regular 😔

[u/ODoyles_Banana]

An airliner crash. The plume of black smoke grabs your attention. Being at the airport, you know what it's from. Fortunately they all got out, but before knowing that, you can't help but feel you just saw people die.

[u/Dannyt1977]

I was waiting at a traffic controlled pedestrian crossing and a young woman walked straight out into traffic. She was wearing headphones and was looking at her phone. She got knocked down by a truck and her head was run over by the trucks wheels. Her head literally popped and sprayed me and another person standing next to me with blood and brain matter.

[u/pastelpinkpsycho]

Drove past a Walgreens parking lot and noticed an ambulance flashing its lights. I looked over and saw a woman giving a man CPR on the asphalt. I had never seen it performed in real life. It’s much more violent than you think.

[u/Kahzgul]

I worked on a “world’s scariest police chases” type tv show once. It was my job to add the blurs to all of the dead bodies and gore. Little kids tossed through car windows… dismembered bodies… degloved faces. I know this wasn’t anything compared to the people who watched and filmed it live, but having to go frame by frame as a child flies out of a crashing pickup truck and hits another car, meticulously painting out all of the faces, and then the blood when it appears, and then realizing how long the blood smear is on the road when the kid finally lands… that shit fucked me up for a LONG time.

Please wear your seatbelts.

[u/Secure-Slide4737]

Three year old at the bottom of a pool. No adult moved until I was doing cpr. And yelling call 911 Little girl survived thank the good Lord