It's a scary feeling waking up and not remembering how you got somewhere. It's even scarier if it's in a hospital. Fifteen people share their craziest injuries and what it was like regaining consciousness.
“I fell off at the apex of the jump. That’s all I remember from that day. Apparently I…”
“I was riding my young horse, training it to jump. We rode up to our first 3 foot jump. He stopped, so I started preparing to turn him around and try again. He then reared up and hurled himself over the jump. I was completely unprepared for him to jump. I fell off at the apex of the jump. That’s all I remember from that day. Apparently I took his saddle off, hosed him down, and drove myself home. Next thing I remember I was being wheeled in for a CAT scan. I broke my back (this wasn’t discovered until MUCH later since I was still mobile) and fractured my skull. My helmet was in 3 pieces. I still own this horse. He’s 22 now and we still ride. Just…no jumping.”
“They were telling my family to prepare for the worst…”
“I was running a half marathon with a friend and we had just passed the 10 mile mark and I felt like I was getting into a groove after I struggled a bit the previous few miles. Woke up the next day in the ICU with my family all around me. Heat stroke + Rhabdomiliosis. I was admitted with a temp of 108.6 and they were telling my family to prepare for the worst. Had to stay in the hospital for a few days and then take it easy for a few months but otherwise came out unscathed. Don’t recommend it.”
“Was knocked out by a flying squirrel while…”
“Was knocked out by a flying squirrel while bike riding near my house. Woke up a day later in the hospital.”
“My surgeon, mother, anesthesiologist and two nurses all looked super awkward and said…”
“I went in for a stomach operation, woke up and said ‘oh, huh, it doesn’t hurt that bad.’ My surgeon, mother, anesthesiologist and two nurses all looked super awkward and said ‘Well…we didn’t do the surgery. You had an allergic reaction to one of the drugs given to you in the anesthetic process and flatlined. We spent 40 minutes stabilizing you.’ I was absolutely in awe. I felt fine until I started to get clammy, then my BP went to 40/20 again and I passed out. Spent four days in ICU, and a week total in the hospital.”
“He thought I was an angel in my reflective gear…”
“Was walking down the road one night (proper side of road in reflective gear) headed to the gas station for some Mt. Dew and smokes. Suddenly it’s two days later and I’m strapped to a hospital bed. Apparently I was hit by a Mitsubishi 3000 GT. Kid driving was coming from a rave, high as a kite, and thought I was an angel in my reflective gear. He tried to catch me with his bumper. Fun times.”
“Student had poured fuming HCl in the wrong beaker…”
“I was teaching an organic chemistry lab in grad school. A student asked a question so I turned around to answer and woke up in the hospital later that day. Student had poured fuming HCl in the wrong beaker and it was giving off a weird gas so he pulled it out of the fume hood to ask me what was wrong and stuck it directly in my face. I don’t know what he put it in, but it was apparently something pretty bad.”
“Went to sleep and woke up in the ICU…”
“I hopped into the back of a mate’s pickup truck after a rugby game, went to sleep and woke up in the ICU in traction with no feeling from my waist down. Turns out we had a head-on collision with a drunk driver, and I went through the back of the cab, picking up a host of broken body parts including four compressed vertebrae. A year and a number of surgeries later, I walked out of hospital an inch shorter and with enough metal in me to set off metal detectors at airports. I was the lucky one—the other three guys in the truck never woke up afterwards. Twenty years later and it still gets me.”
“I fell off a barstool and…”
“Got super wasted when I was 18 years old on Smirnoff watermelon vodka at some little club in Clearwater, FL. Apparently I fell off of a tall barstool and busted my head. When I woke up, I wasn’t even sure what state I was in. Accidentally called my friend’s mom in North Dakota trying to get a ride to somewhere other than the hospital. A decade later and I still can’t drink anything with that watermelon flavor.”
“Apparently I fell down the stairs after…”
“Happened when I was in kindergarten. Apparently I fell down the stairs after stepping on my own trousers. Next thing I know I’m in the hospital.”
“Next thing I know it’s Easter Sunday…”
“My brother and I were outside playing with squirt guns (this was 2001 so I would have been 11). Next thing I know it’s Easter Sunday, I was in a hospital bed with a massive headache and blurred vision and the last thing I remembered was 4 days ago. Apparently I fell backwards and smacked my dome on the curb hard enough to fracture my skull and bruise my brain. Got 2 weeks off of school, which was cool back then, and I’ve had to wear glasses ever since. Apparently, according to my mom, the first sign of consciousness in the hospital was me getting out of bed, taking a piss on the floor, and then going back to sleep for two more days. The whole thing was a weird experience.”
“Thirty either stitches, a partially shaved head, and 3 days later I was…”
“Cut a guy off while bartending in college. He wasn’t too happy, grabbed a bottle, and chucked it at the back of my head as I turned around. Woke up in a hospital bed with my best regular and his wife ensuring me I’d be okay and the guy wouldn’t ‘be a problem.’ Super reassuring other than the fact this was a pretty unsavory biker bar and the regulars, though amazingly kind and loyal to me, weren’t the most savory human beings. Thirty eight stitches, a partially shaved head, and 3 days later I was at lunch with the same regulars.”
“Turns out I had actually drowned, but…”
“Was at the pool and next thing I know I wake up in a hospital bed, feeling very cold and my throat hurts. Turns out I had actually drowned, but the lifeguard had pulled me out and reanimated me for about 45 min. Then I was flown to the hospital by helicopter, where I was in a coma for 2 days, during which they kept my body temperature low (to prevent cerebral damage caused by lack of oxygen). I went back home a week after the accident. Don’t remember a thing.”
“Woke up in a hospital bed feeling fine, no idea what happened…”
“I was twelve in 1982. Woke up in a hospital bed feeling fine, no idea what happened. Nobody else in the room. Last person I remember hanging out with was my friend, Scott, so I call his house. His mom answered, advised me to call my parents. No answer at the home phone. So I’m sitting in this bed, trying to figure out why I’m even there. I finally discover that the rolling table over the bed opens up, and there’s a mirror under the lid. Across my forehead and down the whole right side of my face are fresh abrasions. ‘Ohhh, that’s why.’ Finally get hold of Scott and learn the story. Apparently I was riding my bike down a sidewalk near the grade school. Sidewalk takes a 45 degree left turn, and I cut the corner. Grass is deep and a little wet, and my front wheel catches on the edge of the sidewalk, flipping me over. I landed on my face, was dragged against the other edge of the sidewalk and knocked out cold. Another neighborhood kid was in the area and hustled back to alert my parents. My Dad took me to the hospital in his car, and I woke up the next day. Yes, my parents just left me in the hospital by myself.”
“I was watching Voyager on TV, next thing I know I’m in a hospital bed…”
“I was watching Voyager on TV, next thing I know I’m in a hospital bed. Turns out I’d gotten up too fast and because of a lack of blood flow to the head, I passed out, hitting my head on the floor hard (I’m 6’6”) and fracturing my skull. Confusing.”
“Woke up in the hospital summer of 2002 cuffed to a hospital bed…”
“Woke up in the hospital summer of 2002 cuffed to a hospital bed. Tubes all over me and stitches all over my chest. The night before I was hit by a drunk driver. Had a 6-inch gash down the center of my chest exposing a few ribs. After I was discharged I spoke with the gas station attendant who told me that he denied the driver a beer sale because he was already wasted. That asshole was never found. That was pretty bad but apparently I woke up in a daze a few hours earlier. Doctor had me sedated and arms secured to the bed because I was trying to pull my catheter out.”