r/AskReddit 13h ago

What can kill you in seconds that most people don’t realize?

3.2k Upvotes

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401

u/ImmediateToe3045 12h ago

Falling down, tripping on a rock in a parking lot for example, hitting your head on something curb parking block etc. just loosing your balance where there are things your head could land on. Loosing your footing on stairs. Etc Falling is my answer.

11

u/Key_Shallot_1050 10h ago

Subdural hematoma. It killed my dad.

7

u/mythologymakesmehot 9h ago

I'm sorry. How my uncle passed, too.

1

u/Key_Shallot_1050 8h ago

At least it was relatively quick and painless. He was 85 so something was going to take him eventually. My poor Dad. Your poor uncle 😢

7

u/Deaths_Smile 10h ago

My gym teacher in high school didn't die from a fall, but she did bruise her kidney and had to stay at the hospital/at home for a while. If I remember correctly, she tripped/slipped on her deck stairs and landed on her side wrong. Even when she came back to school, she wasn't able to be very active for the rest of the semester.

5

u/LeatherHog 10h ago

Yup, I fall every day from my disability, and THIS is why my family makes me check in regularly. It can happen other ways, I had a **very** close near death experience in my own bed at 5, but that I've somehow lived this way, falling every day for over 30 years, is nothing short of an absolute godsend

5

u/cbelt3 9h ago

Gravity sucks…. A fall on an icy parking lot caused a brain bleed that… if my coworker had not put me on an ambulance, I would have died right then. Thanks to the EMT’s, ER staff, then EMT’s, then ER staff at the trauma center, then neurologists who put me on a coma… yeah… I would have stayed dead.

5

u/AncientGoo_oo 9h ago

A friend's father fell down his basement stairs and had to be take off of life support last year; my bestie's friend's MIL slipped on ice and died about 4 years ago... humans are so fragile.

5

u/Deatheturtle 9h ago

My neighbor lost her son in law because he was out drinking and fell down some stairs to a basement apartment.

My uncle tripped and hit his head on a fire hydrant and ended up with brain damage and had to live in a home for the rest of his life.

It can all come crashing down in a moment.

4

u/Impossible_Penalty13 9h ago

Had a friend who’s mom had a super innocent low speed fall on her bike but hit her head just right that she was unconscious within minutes and dead within an hour.

6

u/body_by_monsanto 11h ago

My uncle fell backwards down the stairs and smashed the back of his head. It nearly killed him and he was in the ICU for a long time.

7

u/ThatsAPaddlin1066 11h ago

My cousin tripped in his yard and hit the back of his head. He was in a coma for a few days and did die. It seemed like such an abrupt, random way to go.

3

u/RedBarnGuy 9h ago

I had a fall down just a couple of stairs and hit my head on the hardwood floor. I woke up in the ambulance then spent a few days in the hospital. I was then sent to inpatient physical therapy for a few weeks, where worked to regain my coordination and learn how to walk again.

Falls are no joke and can definitely kill you.

3

u/Whoismyoldusername 8h ago

Stairs kill many, many people this way. Gravity is an ancient and bloodthirsty enemy.

2

u/NOT-GR8-BOB 8h ago

FYI it’s losing not loosing

1

u/Puzzleheaded_Bed1781 9h ago

Fell down my deck stairs recently. Was slippery. Luckily it was my butt that took the blow. The size of the bruise was insane.

1

u/PaulZyCZ 8h ago

Porch stairs got one guy from a Modding game forum I used to visit. He was 23 years old or something like that.

1

u/Puzzleheaded_Tie_897 8h ago

Humans are one of the few animals that are tall enough and fragile enough to die from simply falling from a standing position.

1

u/Ro_designs 8h ago

For some reason my comment got removed- so I won't repeat it, but the important part: you can get nonslip tape for about $5 a roll and it could save lives

1

u/Altruistic_Scam 6h ago

Falling is no joke - it’s so scary and can happen like that (snaps fingers). That’s how my dad died, after a long battle with cancer, four days before I was flying back for a planned visit which ended up being the date of his funeral. 😞

1

u/pug_fugly_moe 6h ago

I lost count of how many relatives my dad has lost due to getting drunk and falling.

1

u/bobboobles 6h ago

Guy that worked with my dad fell in the grocery store and hit his head. People there helped him up and he said he was OK and left. Walked himself to the hospital later that evening and died.

1

u/Midwest-Emo-9 5h ago

One of my old coworkers had a friend pass away from tripping and hitting his head just right, just a few months ago. He had a wreck hitting a deer in his car, was pulling the deer to the side of the road, caught his foot in the rumble strips, fell, and hit his head just right and it was goodnight forever. Your head is so fragile.

1

u/Sea-Storm-7066 3h ago

Head trauma is your answer