Beating the odds and surviving a normally deadly situation, such as a plane crash or freak illness, can truly be a one in a million experience. If you're lucky enough to pull through, you get bragging rights for life. And you may even end up fearless... who wouldn't want that?
--SharkBoy-- asked: Were you ever that 1 in 1,000,000? If so, what's your story?
Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.
Seems like a waste, but okay.
For my seventh birthday we went to Disneyland.
They just happened to be having a car a day giveaway when we were there.
For my seventh birthday, Mickey Mouse gave me a Pontiac Firebird.
Do you still have the car?
Nah, since I was only 7 at the time, the car went to my mom. By the time I was old enough to drive, it was scrap.
Nature works in strange ways.
I was diagnosed with leukemia and I got a bacteria growth which killed the leukemia, a real 1 in 1,000,000 chance. I almost died thanks to that bacteria, though.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
But did you pee on it?
When I was a kid, I was chilling in the water of the Mediterranean Sea in Turkey. Suddenly I felt an awful burning sensation on my stomach and my legs. I looked like I had been brutally sandpapered and I got a 40°C (104°F) fever.
Turns out I made contact with a jellyfish, and later found out that it hadn't happened on that beach for 10 years or so. I was just extremely unlucky.
What beach was it? I got a really minor jelly fish sting when I lived in Turkey also. No idea on the rarity at that beach tho.
It was in Alanya, 22 years ago.
There are like three 1:1,000,000's in here.
Not sure about the odds on this one, but I survived a "non-survivable" plane crash. I was on an old po-2 (famous for being very safe and uncrushable) on a tour of the desert in western China when I was like 7. My father's friend who hosted me and piloted the plane didn't survive but somehow I got out with a concussion and apparently passed out for almost a day in the middle of the desert, in the wreckage of the crash, 50 km from the town/airport, on the edge of the desert. The people who found me were some tree planters (they plant greens in the desert to protect towns from sandstorms, a lot of people who live in these desert towns in China do this) found me on their way picking up a shipment, and the only reason they looked was bc they were making a bet on how fast the egg would cook in the sand and went off the road to test.
Edit: First thing first, according to legends, 15 min, I never tested it though. So, according to my dads, the theory that I might have lived was because the plane was mostly made out of fabrics and wood. So when the plane crashed, the front half collapsed and took the majority of the impact. Though I got knocked out, I was probably covered under the wreckage and in the shades, it cooled me off enough to survive for a day or so!
That's awesomely unbelievable! Did it make you afraid to fly, or fearless?
Nah, tbh, I didn't remember enough for it to actually cause like a traumatic experience or anything.
And that, kids, is how I met your mother.
How I met my wife.
I'm from the Netherlands, she is from the US. We met in Israel.
It was my first weekend in Israel, decided to go on a pub crawl to meet some people and have fun, as I'm buying the ticket my now wife walks up to the counter to also buy a ticket. The girl working there introduces us, we hit it off the first night but I'm leaving in 2 days to stay with friends of friends in the middle of the desert for 3 months.
2 days after I leave I lose my phone, don't have any way to get back in touch with her. I had little money and could stay/work with the people in the desert. But I kept thinking about her so after a week I say I'm leaving. Take the next bus (goes 3 times a week, at 5am) and then a train to Tel Aviv. I had no idea how to find her, where to stay and very little money.
I email a couple hostels to find a work/stay agreement, those jobs are very popular and usually planned months in advance. I get an email back when I arrive in Tel Aviv, I can come in for an interview because they have a spot (this is already ridiculously lucky).
Right after the interview and dropping of my belongings. I went back to the first hostel to see if they would give me information, they wouldn't give me anything.
Now I'm at a loss, Tel Aviv is a city of more than half a million people, I don't know anyone and have little more than the clothes on my back.
Kind of defeated I start wandering around/exploring the city. After a couple hours I get hungry and decide to treat myself to a restaurant. I'm well out of the tourist area and find a place that's almost empty and rather cheap. I sit down, order a drink and something to eat. As I get my food I see my now wife walking past the restaurant, she sees me I see her. I'm literally dumb struck and just kind of grin and wave (remember how I lost my phone? She didn't know that and just thought I ignored her) she waves and keeps walking. I throw like 200 shekels (way too much) in the table and sprint after her, explained and the rest is history.
Really poor timing.
I was in 2 separate car crashes in 2 separate cars in less than 45 minutes apart. I wasn't the driver for either crash. First car was hit from the side. Friend came and picked us up, car lost traction and we slid off the road and hit a pole. Neither was that bad, just poor timing.
I was too! If you count the ambulance. Someone pulled out in front of me and I hit them because I had no time to brake. Had some bad back pain so an ambulance took me to the hospital. On the way there, someone pulled out in front of them!
What kind of f*ckwit pulls out in front of an ambulance?
Autoimmune disorders suck.
I am a 19-year-old male. In August of last year, I was driving with my sister, when suddenly her face turned cold. "Gavin your eyes are yellow," I remember her saying. I quickly pulled down the passengers mirror, and to my horror, two yellow eyes radiated back at me.
Fast forward, I spent a month being sick, the initial diagnosis was Hepatitis A.
Went back to the doctor, nothing was better(things were worse in fact). Was sent to the ER, then to the liver transplant unit at UCSF. By this point my eyes had turned muddy orange, and my pee was the color of... a mahogany tree.
Anyways, the team of liver doctors at UCSF managed to save my liver. I was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis. Oh, and my eyes are white again :)
Hey! I have that too! I was in the hospital for a solid week and they tested me for everything under the sun until they finally realized that I had autoimmune hepatitis. I was in so much pain leading up to going to the hospital that when I walked, I could feel every bone in my feet and if someone bumped into me and hit my arms, it was excruciating. They originally thought I had cancer.
Hey it's actually really cool hearing your story.. my symptoms weren't as bad as yours, as far as the pain levels. They have online support groups for people with our condition (which I haven't tried yet), but it's really.. nice to hear of someone with the same condition. I wish you a swift recovery!
Gotta love universal health care...
Had two 11cm benign tumours growing in my spine, resulting in gradual paralysis from my chest down. They had no idea how the tumours formed. Surgery took 11 hours when they thought it would take 4 because the tumours were so complexly woven throughout my spine. I now have pretty much half a spine and chronic pain but I'd take that over losing my life from paralysis and being unable to breathe 🙏🏼
My dad has this, minus one of the tumors.
Experienced not so severe back pain his whole life. One day it just became unbearable but doctors said you're just getting old, go home and take some Advil. Lol, my dad said frick that, went to a private clinic and had an MRI done on his back. Wouldn't you know it, tumor in his spine. About 3 days later, he was on the operating table with one of the best neurosurgeons in the country. Surgery took about 9 hours. Poor sob felt so much better after the surgery that the next day, he walked and met my mom and I at the hospital doors when we arrived.
This unfortunate soul.
I'm allergic to potatoes. Never met someone else who is so I guess it's one in a million. Never eaten chips or fries.
Not me but my mom is allergic to potatoes, never met someone else with a potato allergy except my mom wow
Wow, this is amazing! Has she any other allergies? I'm also "blessed" with allergy towards carrots. :(
Well this is terrifying.
I slept wrong one night and pinched a nerve in my neck so severely I lost the use of the right side of my body, it just went silent like it wasn't there for months. I woke up in the worst pain I've ever experienced and couldn't talk, move or do anything. The ER doctor thought I was having a stroke.
My doctor had never seen a case as severe as mine and it was purely a freak accident. Recovery took months but I have use of my leg and hand again, with some numbness. Other than pain and spasms I'm mostly back to normal.
I hate reading stuff like this. If you're not safe lying asleep on a mattress, where are you safe?!?
If it makes you feel better the chances of it happening are smaller than dying in a fire in your sleep.
What up Freaky Foot?
The first one I don't know about the exact odds, but I was born on 7/7/77 and weighed 7 pounds & 7 ounces. Sadly though I clocked in at 6:50 A.M.
The other is that around the age of 14 I started to notice the outsides of both of my feet starting to get much wider. After a couple of years of buying expensive custom made shoes they decided to perform surgery on my feet. Turned out I had extra muscle growth along with something else I don't recall at the moment. My podiatrist told me he submitted a scholarly article on it. May also have been genetic as when my Dad was 3, he developed an extra toe growing out of each one of his big toes.
Whaaat? At three?? I knew you could develop extra toes as a fetus, but at THREE? Criminy. Is no-one safe?
Awwww.
A bird got into my room through a tiny hole in the ceiling and took a shit on me. BirbHole in ceiling
He looks so angry that he got caught loll
UNHAND ME HUMAN
GET YOUR FILTHY PALMS OFF OF ME, YOU BARBARIAN. DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?
Whoops.
When I was a teenager I had just started working at the local Sears auto center Express lube shop and on day one did a quick orientation and my first oil change. The manager walked away when he felt I was good to go and the oil change went well. Fast forward a few days later my manager asked me to come into his office and he explained that the oil filter I had used had one huge flaw. I didn't know what that was and it turned out the filter was pressed on backwards into the filter can and it wouldn't allow oil to flow in and it damaged the motor. They had to purchase a new motor for the person and I still kept my job. He said it was a 1 in a million chance that would have happened and it did on my first oil change.
They have insurance for a reason. All sorts of weird stuff happened at our WalMart, defective tires, filters, oil, you name it. They don't hold the employees accountable for their weird stuff.
Maybe even the manufacturer of the oil filter covered that because it was a manufacturing defect.
Pics or it didn't happen.
I've got the middle toes on both feet webbed.
So did Stalin.
Quack.
This feels like a fun fact but at the same time a threat.
Agree. That's a significantly menacing "quack."
What a legacy.
I have an unknown type of autosomal dominant centronuclear myopathy. My type of it is so rare that they haven't even seen it before. Getting diagnosed was a multi year struggle. They pretty much had to rule out everything else. It doesn't feel great to be in this club by myself. Countless blood draws, MRIs, cat scans and a biopsy and genetic test. So far, it looks like my father and I, are the only ones with it. Yay.
Edit: thank you guys for all the kind messages and support. I really do appreciate it. If anyone is going through the struggle of getting a diagnosis, message me. I can't help with the diagnosis, but I can help with the feelings.
Second edit: As a researcher has pointed out. This isn't really rare. Just a type that hasn't really been seen in the population yet. Meaning there is certainly more people out there. Just not tested or diagnosed yet. In the future, I'll probably be 1 in 50,000 to 1 in 100,000. Sorry to make everyone think I was one in a million.
My brother & I have a new type of muscular dystrophy apparently. The biopsy sucked and I hate the permanent scar (keloid scarring so it's bumpy & weird). Years of tests and being sedated for things. The files were so large it was insane. Going to the special kids hospitals up until we were old to say no enough is enough.
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