Trusting your gut can lead to life-altering and even life-saving decisions, like these dramatic times people trusted their gut and it saved everything.
(Content has been edited for clarity.)
The Guy Just Got Creepy
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“A guy I was friendly to at work asked me to lunch. We had lunch, the conversation was ok, but something about him seemed odd and I decided not to date him if he asked. About an hour after that lunch, he sent me a love poem, via work email, and I would find him waiting at my desk when I came to work several mornings.
My co-workers teased me about it, but I was creeped out and was pretty forceful in telling him that I was not interested and to go away. He became infatuated with and married a girl in another department. Several years later one of the co-workers who teased me emailed me a link to a newspaper article reporting he’d been arrested for violating a young girl. She apologized and told me I was right to be wary.”
Reading The Signs On A Guest But Ignoring Her Gut
“I was working solo in a small urban hotel as a front desk/receptionist, and a girl about 17 or 18 came in to check in for a room. This wouldn’t normally be weird except that it was 8 a.m., and she didn’t have a reservation. Still, not exactly a deal breaker. I informed her that we had a check-in time of early afternoon and to come back at that time since I was in the middle of a few checkouts. She left without a word.
A few hours later, at around 11, she returned asking for a room. Since I had finished everything and had a few spare moments, I decided to give her a room, which was the first and only time I’ve ever had a visceral feeling of dread and unease. She was a petite girl, quite pretty, and definitely young, but her eyes were completely and utterly dead. It was like staring a corpse in the eye. I had never experienced something like that and doubt I ever will again, but nevertheless, I continued with my duties and gave her a room.
While I was giving her the rundown of the place, she seemed distant and distracted. At first, I thought she was high; it happens and it’s none of my business unless they bring anything with them into the room.
She went up to the room, and I didn’t see her until near the end of my shift when I saw her returning to the hotel, holding a plastic bag from the hardware store down the road. I greeted her but she didn’t seem to notice me. I finished my shift and went home.
That night, I told my mother about how odd she made me feel and that I had a bad feeling about her. The next morning, I went back to work and the cleaner told me that there was a guest who wasn’t opening her door to check out. I recognized the room as hers. I knocked and let myself in using the master key, and I was greeted with an odd sight: clothes neatly folded and a pair of bloody scissors. I scanned the room and found nothing out of the ordinary. I figured she was in the bathroom, so I called out to her and knock on the toilet door. I opened it and was greeted with a sight that is burned into my mind to this day. That was the first time I’d ever seen a suicide with my own eyes and hopefully the last. The next few hours were a blur of police interviews and statements and sympathy. All I could think about was how my gut was right.
Sometimes it pays to listen to your instincts.”
A Cancer Patient Takes A Bad Turn
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“I was working with a patient whose cancer was in full remission. She looked amazing and was telling me about the trips she and her husband were planning. Paris and Africa to name a couple – just all the places she couldn’t go to because of kids, military, and now cancer, but now, with nothing holding her back, she was going to take the world by storm.
It hit me, and it hit me hard. I had a terrible feeling about what was about to happen. As we were setting up her follow up appointments, she asked me if I was ok. I said gas and she laughed me off.
One week later, she died in the hospital. Her cancer returned and in record time destroyed her to the point that she was bleeding out internally. They were going through so many bags of blood that the commander of the hospital told them to stop.
I will never forget the look on her face as she dreamt of the future that I knew would never happen and the feeling it gave me.”
Something About The Guy Said Stay Away
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“I used to work at a jewelry store, and I was working the front counter when I saw a guy walking up to the door all hunched over and acting weird. He came in to sell a ring his dad had given him because, he said, ‘I need money for this ring. I hurt my roommate and I need to help pay for it.’ Everything about his demeanor was off, and my gut was telling me something was wrong, so I noped out of that and got my manager.
A couple days later, he was arrested for murdering his roommate by beating him with a guitar and stabbing him with scissors.”
A Nurse Knows Something Is Wrong, Even When No One Else Will Listen
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“I’m a nurse, and there are a lot of gut feelings, but one that sticks out is this one lady. She was a re-admit from three days earlier. She had laparoscopic surgery. I get the report and I ask about her labs. They never drew blood. Okay… weird. Anyway, they say that she is back because of uncontrolled pain.
I listen to her stomach for any signs of movement, but I hear nothing. I look at her stomach and see some redness around her surgical site. I mark the boundaries with a marker. The doctor comes in and looks at her stomach and says that it is gas pain from surgery. He puts in some orders and leaves without even looking my way. A few hours later, I notice that she hasn’t urinated. I ask if she has peed at all, and she says no and that she will try. The tech gets her up to the commode and nothing. Then she starts tanking, blood pressure in the 70s.
I call for a rapid response. I try to tell her everything points to sepsis to me, but she physically turns away from me to talk on the phone to the doctor. She gets an order for a bolus of fluids saying that the patient is just dry and needs fluids. The fluids run through and the doc leaves, saying the blood pressure is better. It is in the 80s now.
I come back in to recheck and her blood pressure is now in the 60s. I call rapid again, and luckily I get a different nurse. She comes in and asks me what is going on. I tell her everything I had noticed and she says that since the blood pressure is unable to be stabilized, the patient will be transferred to ICU. I demand that labs need to be drawn. She agrees and the patient is transferred.
The patient was septic. She was the sickest patient in the ICU for four weeks. The redness I had marked turned into full-blown blisters that covered her entire stomach. Luckily the patient lived.
Always listen to your gut.”
A Vet Saves A Dog
“I am a vet. I gave a vaccine to a toy breed dog. The dog had this vaccine before with no problems, but immediately after giving the shot, he just looked slightly off to me. Maybe just more quiet than usual. All vitals were normal, but just not quite his typical happy self. My gut said ‘Ehhh, this is not right.’ I asked the owner to wait 15 minutes before leaving to make sure there was no bad vaccine reaction.
Five minutes later he had an anaphylactic seizure in my lobby. I was ready for it.
Immediate emergency treatment for anaphylaxis and one hour later he is barking head off incessantly in my treatment room to tell me he’s ready to go home.”
Everybody’s BFF Is Bad News
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“I knew this guy in the service with me. We were both military police and pretty good at our jobs. All the higher-ups loved this guy because he was so sharp. Uniform was always spot on, knew every code in the book, aced all his quality checks, always the guy that volunteered instead of getting ‘voluntold’ to do something.
All the other MP’s didn’t like the fact that he one-upped everyone else but he was always throwing parties in the dorms, and most of the drinks were provided by him, so they begrudgingly got along with him.
I just did not like him and couldn’t put my finger on why. He didn’t brag or act superior. He was generally nice and chill to everyone. But there was just something. Flash forward two years and I move to another base and forgot all about him.
The base I moved to had a very small corrections facility. So small that all their food came from the chow hall. Every shift, the patrol had to go pick up the food and take it to the facility. One time, I was tasked with this, and so I got the food and went to the facility.
I knew one of the officers on duty, so I went inside to chill out for a few minutes and use one of their computers to check my emails and update some paperwork. As I was going inside, one of the inmates was mopping the floors, and I said excuse me, he looked up, and of course, it was the high-speed trooper from my last base. He had been busted using and selling speed.”
A Premonition Of Disaster
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“I sat down on my break at work and had a sudden horrible feeling something really bad would happen. I’ve never had this feeling before or since. Low and behold, mid-shift, I cut off my finger. There was blood everywhere, and I threw up from shock. Very weird.”
He Sensed A Robbery
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“My parents used to own a convenience store, and we lived in an apartment down the street. For some reason, I really wanted to go home early that day, no reason other than I felt antsy. I tried to convince my mom to take me home.
Well, we went home later, and found that someone had broken in and robbed us. They walked out with a safe box. I wanted to yell, ‘I told you so,’ but I didn’t, and I’m sure my parents felt regret at not taking me home that night.”
Ignoring The Bad Feeling Prevented A Fire
“I used to work at a gym located in a strip mall. I didn’t want to go to work one night. I just had a feeling in the pit of my stomach, but I went anyway, because of the money.
Halfway through my shift, my co-worker asked, ‘You smell something?’ I thought he was kidding, and that he’d farted. And then I smelled it, too – a chemical burning, like printer toner or burning plastic.
I looked at the space heater (which I’d always hated because it wasn’t safe, plugged into the extension cord, plugged into a power strip and not a surge protector) and immediately realized that the power strip was toast. There were sparks and a tendril of smoke emanating from the outlet containing the extension cord.
I turned off the heater, unplugged it from the extension cord, and unplugged the power strip, which my coworkers had been content to leave as-is.
The power strip was charred in two places, meaning this had probably happened before. Their other power strip, I found later, also had the same charring. Clearly, there are some intelligent people there.
I probably stopped the gym, and possibly the whole strip mall, from going up in flames.
I quit two weeks later.”
Saving A Patient
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“I used to work in a mental health hospital. It included two floors, an elevator, and two sets of stairs. One particular night shift I needed to get to the top floor, and for some reason had the ‘urge’ to walk up rather than take the elevator. The stairway was right by a patient’s room, and I noticed a sheet/fabric draped over their locked door. I thought it was a bit weird and continued walking until it suddenly dawned on me what was happening. I called staff for assistance and together we found the patient hanging on the other side.
The patient was fine – they had just been checked on, so they wouldn’t have been seen for another 20 minutes or so if I didn’t find them.”
Not The Kind Of Party She Was Looking For
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“I was a birthday party princess in college. Dress up as a Disney character, sing some songs, help with cake, paint faces, the typical party stuff. I get called to a party that began at 8 p.m., which is unusual but not unheard of in our industry. A lot of Spanish-speaking families will have parties well into the night. I pull up down the street (princesses don’t drive) and begin walking to the house, dressed as Sleeping Beauty with my ‘party box’ of supplies in hand. But when I see the house, I immediately know something is wrong.
There are no lights on, no cars, no balloons, none of the usual party indicators. Against my better judgment, I knock on the door. This super creepy looking guy in his mid-50s answers, in a dirty t-shirt and jeans, and the first thing he says is, ‘The party’s around back.’ I take one look at this guy and book it as fast as I can while holding a box, wearing a ballgown and being mildly crippled, to begin with. I get into my car, lock the doors, floor it to a 7-11, and call my boss.
The ‘party’ never called demanding to know where their princess went. No one asked for their deposit back. My boss called police non-emergency, but I don’t know if anything was ever done. I’m 100% sure there was no ‘party’ in that house.”
Leaving A Job Was The Correct Call
“I got a job working at a residential treatment center. I had been out of a job for a couple of months, so even though it wasn’t a perfect fit for where I wanted to work, I needed the money, so I took it. After a day and a half of training, I just felt like something was off about the place. They weren’t super strict on following state law, but there were other little things that just felt odd.
I decided to quit, even though I desperately needed the money. A couple of months later, the place had a big riot which ended with the SWAT team breaking it up and several serious injuries. I can’t say I was surprised when I read the news.”
A Family Member Doesn’t Listen
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“I was driving my teenage nephew to a job interview. In the car was also his grandmother and younger brother. Suddenly and unexpectedly, I felt as if I was compelled to speak; I had an intense feeling that he shouldn’t take the job. I warned him that I felt a terrible dread and felt that awful suffering and death was associated with the place. It also felt as if these weren’t my words and I was just transmitting a message like I was passing on an official warning. He got the job (it was in a restaurant) having ignored my warning.
The place was a hotbed of junkies who soon got him hooked too. Death, despair, and madness followed. His friends died one by one of overdoses. His girlfriend too. He became a hollow-eyed scarecrow and opportunistic thief. He broke in and stole his grandmother’s engagement ring while she was at her husband’s funeral. He went to prison, where he was attacked, and he eventually lost his mind.
Strange to report he is still alive when so many others along the way died. He’s about 40 now and living on a pension and doing ok, but the damage to his brain is permanent.”
Trusting The Gut On A Job Offer Is The Right Choice
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“I had a job interview, and during a group interview portion, everyone was super deferential to ‘Greg’ with over the top fawning over him with how great a guy he was and how it was an honor and a privilege for work for him. Greg would then chuckle and give a regal wave. The whole thing gave me a bad feeling.
Later, I received an offer and verbally accepted. Then I got the ’employee agreement,’ which was super one-side and basically said I could not do anything technical/financial outside of work without their written permission and I pre-agree that any violation of the agreement caused the company egregious financial harm. I looked it up and basically, they took a boilerplate employee agreement and made it psycho.
So I refused to sign it with those restrictions but said I would sign the standard agreement.
Greg freaked out and sent an email stating to consider the offer rescinded.
I sent a polite reply thanking him for confirming my suspicions about him”
His Internal Clock Saved A Life
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“I’m a corrections officer. Something told me to do an early round. I found an inmate hanging himself, obviously attempting suicide. Because I did an extra round early, we were able to cut him down and get him to the ER. Had I waited, he would have died.”
Forced To Ignore His Gut Almost Leads To A Horrible End
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“I was a delivery driver for a Chinese restaurant. My boss was a real jerk – he had no limit as to how far we would go to deliver. So I was on my last delivery before I could head home, and where I was headed was 30 minutes from my house. There was no address, just the name of the college hall I was delivering to and a phone number to call to tell them I was outside.
Going there, I had an uneasy feeling. I knew this was a bad area with lots of illegal substances and violence. Even though it was a college town, it was right dead in the middle of a horrible area. I got there at 10 p.m.; my anxiety was through the roof and something in me was telling me to just get out of there, but I called the customers. They didn’t answer, so I called and again they didn’t answer. I called one more time, they didn’t answer, so I left. I got home and my mom was hysterically crying watching the news.
A different delivery driver from a different Chinese restaurant with the same name as the one I work at was delivering to the same college hall I went to. He was shot dead five minutes after I left.”