Times you thought "this is it"

0:00The Breakfast Club Podcast I read a story first in this morning when I came to work and occasion you read stories and you just transfixed by them. Okay, there's a long story. It's in the herald, I won't bore you with all the details because we've been here for 10 minutes. Long story short, two people, Donna and Paul, off the coast of California. They're both battle dedictions and drag habits. They're friends, not lovers, but they decide to rent a jet ski. Laws in California not supposed to take jet skis after dark. They didn't obey those laws, they went out. They got knocked off their jet ski. He's a big man. In being knocked off their jet ski by a wave, he gets thrown onto his back and the impact causes him to lose his breath. He's winded basically and he can't, he's going underwater. His partner kind of lifts him out of the water and says, we've got to get help. The jet ski's gone for all money. They are bobbing around two little specks in the dark, two little specks in the vast ocean. Lost, adrift, gone for all money. Nobody knows they're there. Because they shouldn't be there, so tell anyone.

1:02Exactly. Oh. She says, I'm going to swim for help. They don't even know where they are. He says, don't leave me. She says, you've got to swim. He says, I can't. She sits off. She keeps calling his name to his response because she wants to know that he's okay and then suddenly he stops calling back. He's either out of range or he's gone under. She finally gets to shore, calls help. They race out to try and find this guy. He's been drifting, drifting, drifting far from where they fell off the jet ski. And I'll leave you to read this story if you wanted to hear me tell you how it ends. Oh yeah, you can't stop now. What happened? Is it a good ending? No. Just jokes. Oh. I'll beat Friday. Well, you've answered the Simon Cowthing. It's not a good ending. It's a great ending. The funer-judges has us.

2:05They find the guy. He's a big man. They find him. Everybody's fine. But I mean, my heart wasn't my mouth reading the story. Even retelling it to you then, it was like, it's, I mean, what do you do? Yeah. And it's like, not everyone has had that moment. You might have a, if you have to suddenly slam your brakes on in the car and you have a sudden rush in your heart, you know, you just have to have a heart shake. Like that. But then there is the next level of that of actually thinking this is it. And it's so scary, and your life can flash before your eyes. And you think, am I dying? And that is, and you know what? And most people probably don't have that experience. Not to outdo that story, I was 11 years old. I was an Ashburton. I was down by the Ashburton River. I was swimming. The river was swolding because there had been a storm, which is what was fantastic. Because I'm these inflatable tires. Go down the river, get knocked off the river, get dragged into a kind of like an eddy, like it's like, that's sort of a whirlpool under the tree. I go under. And I'm 11 years old, so I'm fully aware the memory is still right ever present now.

3:06I'm under. And I'm absolutely trapped by this branch. I can't get up. And with, I'm not embellishing this for the radio. I don't, I've only remembered when I was looking at this one. Yeah. I'm under the water trapped by the branch. And I was gasping and I was so terrified that this was that, as an Elevator, I honestly thought, I'm actually dead. So how did you... Then I felt the most incredible feeling. Yeah. And it was my father's arm. And he had found me, literally close under the branch. He's a big man, my dad, and farmer, and just pulled me out by my neck, basically. I was sobbing and coughing and gasping, but that was honestly to this day I thought I was gone. Can you see the panic? Because quite often, there could still be a way out for people of these things, especially with water-related stuff, but the panic is what gets people. And then you do things, you're stressing and panicking and not breathing properly. And then that's where a lot of the problems can actually happen.

4:08Yeah, and that's blind panic. And that's what I was born with. Blind panic. And telling that, I'm like, man, I've forgotten all that until that moment. I can still remember that, like it was absolutely sharp as a tack at that moment. I thought that's it. I have a similar one, not as action-packed as yours, but I had heaps of health issues about 10 years ago, and I had been in, and I had had... I'd had a historic to me after a long saga. And then there was a complication with that once I was at home, which led to... The ambulance being called, and it came out of nowhere, this freak thing where all of a sudden I just lost all this blood. Like we're talking like... Like the leotus. And leotus of blood. And my sister was about to leave and fly back up to the far north, and she had a bagpact, I remember she had a bagpact by the door, and then I remember calling out to her, I said, oh, it was like, pen, pen. And then she walked in and she said, like, the floor was red. Like the floor was red. And then... But what I remember is a little bit of that, and then I remember sort of blinking,

5:11and then being in an ambulance. And I remember them sort of yelling, and I remember sirens and lights, and I remember driving past work here in the ambulance, because I remember thinking, oh, there's work. And then I remember thinking, this could be, I just felt like... I wasn't my... And I felt like it was... My body was giving up, but actually what it was is I was like... Techie, and you know, techie cardio, and it was just like... And I lost so much blood that I was actually just so weak. Yeah. I think we fell asleep. No, I can't... I remember thinking, this must be it. Oh, no. And closing my eyes, being like, this is itch. Oh, man, yeah. That's what, what are we doing? Yeah, well, that's a dramatic story, because I was there, I can feel it. Oh my gosh, there's some rather dramatic stories coming in on techs. When have you thought, this is it? There's a lot of drowning stories, and there are a lot of pregnancy stories, or birthing stories, where things have gone, taken turn towards the end of all that. A dog attacks? My gosh, you guys have been through that.

6:12And Jeff says, hi, Sam and Lana, man, I feel for you being dragged underwater, Sam, and I was trapped... This is one of my worst fears. I was trapped underwater in a car. When we ran off the road, thought I was history, but managed to get myself out through the window, it felt like a lifetime under there. Oh. Yeah. Hello, Lorraine, is it? Yeah, that's right, Sam. Hey, how are you? Welcome. I'm good, how are you? Good, thank you. You say Lorraine, that for your situation, your life flashed before your eyes. What happened? Oh, look, it was incredible. We thought we'd do an adventurous day out. I was with my brother, and a group of his friends, and we thought we'd go rafting down the rangatara river, which was absolutely fantastic, until the raft capsized. And by that stage, the river had risen to... I think they call it like a grade five, when it's almost like you shouldn't be rafting. And yeah, I got stuck underneath the raft with another guy.

7:12You know, you've only got sort of, I don't know, 30 mills or whatever, and we kind of looked at each other, and thought, what the hell do we do? Yeah. We managed to get out and hold onto the side of it, but just got ripped off it, because the records were so swift. And you know, you can just, you've just got to go with the slow. You can't, you can't control, you've breathed anything. And did you think you were going to die? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I thought I wasn't coming home that night. Yeah, you know, you just see water raging over rocks, and you think, well, I've got to go down there, because I can't get out. It's just got to go over the flow. And a bit like you say, I've got myself to an effie, which was on the wrong side of the river, and just had to wait for the raft to come and pick us up. It was terrifying. I think they gave up for that, should have go back and do it again, but yeah, that was a nice... That was a nice, that was a big nice for me, Lana. Why do they do that, Laurie? Why do these companies go? Well, since she had a terrible meal,

8:14here's a voucher to come back and have another bad one. I'm thinking of another one. But I mean, some people did go back and do it again, but yeah, no, it wasn't, it wasn't ever going to be on my list again. Yeah. What a story. Thanks for sharing that, because it's scary. Yeah, thank you, Lorraine, you poor soul. Yeah, I can tell you've never forgotten it. It was there. I'm here to tell the story. Thankfully. Good on you. Thanks so much for calling and you have a great weekend. You're welcome, guys. You too. Take care. What about this story, Lana? Hi, Sam and Lana. I got into a car accident. We hit a power pole, the car caught fire. I freaked and jumped out the window. As soon as I hit the ground, I was getting electrocuted. I couldn't move, and I thought, this is it. With the electrical current going through me, I'm going to die until my brother dragged me, but in the process of him grabbing me, he was also electrocuted. Oh, wait. And then he let me go. I got electrocuted again, then he grabbed me again and saved my life. Please don't ring me. I will get too upset speaking on the phone, but I thought that was it. Of course, of course. That is... I'm glad you're here to tell a story.

9:17I'm not sure we should have done this, so I feel exhausted. Well, you came in like, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning. Ah! Let's talk about when you nearly thought you were going to die with it. OK, so I mean, they're amazing stories. It's the truth. It's what happens to people. It is the truth. Yeah, yeah. And one more, because there's just so many stories coming in. Listen to this one, Lana. It's from Karen. Hiya, Simon and Lana. My husband had a heart attack at home on Queen's Birthday weekend. A couple of years ago, I had to do CPR before the paramedics arrived. He was down and unconscious for 23 minutes, effectively dead for 23 minutes before they bought him back. He spent three weeks in hospital in a coma. Wow. These stories can be gooses. Well, because that's the other thing, isn't like, although you may have had a moment like, wonder how your dad felt with your situation. Yeah, you know where you're going. Round you, they're saying you have that moment of thinking, your life's going to be finished.