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If we had the choice, I think that most of us would go through life never seeing anything that would scar us for the rest of our days.
That said, the majority of people will never be that lucky, because life is life and weird and messed-up stuff happens all the dang time.
These 17 people have some stories to tell, so make sure to prepare yourself before you read on.
17. A bad day at work.
Had to attend a report of someone jumping in front of a train at a station (train wasn’t stopping there so was moving fast). His legs were still where he’d been hit; the rest of him was sprayed along a mile of railway.
My job was then to walk along the track picking up little pieces of human being and putting them into a body bag one at a time. While a lot of it was just red meat, occasionally you’d find recognisable body parts. I found what was left of the head when I was walking along one of the platforms looking for it. I was looking down and thinking “skull fragment… bit of brain… skull fragment… scalp…”
I still remember picking up one of his ears. It had a piece of his cheek attached and there was a few days stubble. That image will stay with me forever.
16. Nightmare fuel.
I saw a man on fire in a car. He was already dead but the fire was “cooking” him and he was moving around due to the contracting of his muscles from the heat.
It was literally my second call as a volunteer firefighter.
15. You don’t want to see that.
I am a physician and I was doing mandatory rural work in a small town in the border between Colombia and Venezuela. I heard a bunch of yelling and screams from the nurses so I expected something bad coming into the ER… There was a car crash close to the hospital and they brought the wounded…
There was a 5 year old kid who was missing a hand, ear and had multiple cuts on his body but he seemed to be alive so we rushed and started working on him and during my examination I was getting ready to intubate him (put a tube on his throat to protect his airway) and when I opened his mouth I saw a LOT of blood and brain tissue coming down from his cranium into the back of his throat…
That means he had a cranial base fracture and his cranial contents were just draining into his esophagus… I knew at the time there was nothing else for me to do so I immediately switched my focus to his sister (13-15 year old sister) who was in a better shape. One of the worst days of my life for sure.
14. Kids shouldn’t have to be survivors.
Working in CPS, it’s always the sex abuse cases. You just wouldn’t believe the s**t you hear come from these kids’ mouths recounting the incidents.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the resiliency of kids who have endured sexual abuse is one of the most awe-inspiring and incredible things to witness.
I’ve seen kids go from those experiences to testify in trials, present at conferences, and comfort other kids going through it during meetings.
It’s tragic and no kid should ever have to experience it; on the same token, it is happening (a lot more than people talk about) and these kids are survivors.
13. Whoa.
Watched a person get their head chopped off by the rotor of an E2-C Hawkeye. Took me a few seconds to realize what had happened.
The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is chaos, man. One of the most dangerous places a person can work in, and those that do get a kind of danger pay for it. If you’re even slightly distracted for a second or make s minor mistake, that can be the difference between life and death.
Made me sorta glad I worked P-3’s instead, even if my command was so crappy I almost wanted to kill myself by the time I left — though, half of that was the crappy life I had to deal with at home, too.
12. Wrong place, wrong time.
The lady that jumped over the balcony into the lobby at the Marriot Marquis in Atlanta a few months ago.
She hit the kiosk before hitting the lobby floor, which cut her in half, and then exploded when she finally hit the floor. It was pretty crazy.
11. He can’t forget it.
When I was a paramedic I got called for a self inflicted gunshot wound.
It was an 80 year old man. Apparently the day before he buried his sister and she was the last one of his family and friends left. Everyone in his life had died.
He decided to put a 12 gauge under his jaw and end it all. The wall was covered in skull fragments, chunks of brain matter and what was left of his head just looked like mangled hamburger meat.
That wasn’t the worst part though. Idk how this happens but his face was laying next to his head completely intact halfway dangling off of the pillow that he’d laid down on.
That was almost 10 years ago and I’m still bothered by it.
10. I wouldn’t want to see that.
While I had summer job as a toll collector, a work van with 13 people inside lost their brakes and they hit the concrete barrier protecting the booth.
The most messed up part, was seeing the guy that got stuck in windshield….it was a bloodbath.
9. Hard to blame him.
A year into my friend being a paramedic, him and his coworker were the first ones to arrive to the results of a child accidentally shooting his sibling with a high caliber rifle. Said the kid who was shot was hit in the abdomen and not much of it was left. And the kid who shot the gun had some severe wounds from the recoil.
He quit as soon as they were done with the call. No idea what happened with the kid or family after.
8. That poor kid.
When I was 10, I was hanging out with a couple of friends, riding our bikes.
This truck comes flying down the road, and we jumped out of the way. One of my friends didn’t make it. He almost made it, which made it even worse for him.
The truck swerved to avoid us and in the process, my friend’s leg was run over, and he was dragged for what seemed like an eternity. He screamed, which damn near drowned out the sound of the truck’s screeching tires.
I was told I saw it, but I don’t have any memory of seeing anything. Only the horrific sounds. There was very little left of my friend’s face, after being dragged so far on the pavement. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry.
Another time, when I was 13, I was in a wreck with my mom and brother. After it was over, my mom said I looked at her and screamed. Again, I don’t remember that part. My mom’s nose was split in half, like a Venus flytrap. We never knew how that happened, but it did. I’m so glad I don’t have that image in my head as well.
7. When it happens to you.
Maybe not that messed up to someone else or if you watched this kinda thing in a video, but messed up to me because it happened to me so I saw it all up close and first hand.
It’s just before midnight and I’m on a motorcycle coming home. I’m literally one street from my turn and a guy blows a stop sign and T-bones me. Drivers often don’t see motorcycles. Most drivers brains are like wired to react to a set of headlights so one headlight doesn’t register as a moving vehicle?
Anyway, I get hit on the right side and somehow twisted around the bike, landing on the pavement and the bike is on top of both my legs. And his front bumper is pinning the bike onto me. I sit up (not smart to move after a serious accident) and don’t remember feeling pain (I had the wind knocked out of me), but I raised my left arm and saw it was completely twisted around backward. It was broken in half above the elbow. Which was messed up for me to see my own arm all mangled. I immediately knew this was a serious accident.
I look up at the driver, expecting him to get out and help me, exchange insurance info, etc. I’m mostly concerned with getting out of the street so I’m not hit by another car. The driver backs his car off my bike. Then puts it drive and takes off. Which was the 2nd messed up thing to see.
A bystander saw the crash, saw that I’m in an intersection, immobile, and cars are coming. She runs into oncoming traffic to stop the cars from running me over (very cool and super NOT messed up). The cars stop and, I think, maybe 5-6 people all came out of their vehicles to help.
I’m still in shock so I can’t remember feeling any pain. Someone lifts the bike off my legs and, out of reflex, I adjust myself (really not smart given what happened). I raised my legs to scoot back and felt my left leg lift and my right thigh and knee lift, but my right foot didn’t go with it. I realized my leg, like my arm, was also broken in half. Which I couldn’t see but I could feel how messed up the situation was.
I knew that it’s really bad to move anything near a broken bone because the bone can punch through the skin and expose the wound to open air. So, while panic sobbing, I ask a guy “m-my leg’s broken. Did.. the bone punch through?! Can you see?! It’s bad if the bone punches through, right??” He looks at my leg, pauses, then says “uhhh you’re gonna be cool man, don’t worry.” Clearly trying not to mention my pant leg was soaked in blood and the bone clearly punched through.
So I have a plate in my arm and a rod in my leg now. Silver lining: the guy who hit me and ran off.. His bumper broke off as he escaped and his license plate was attached to it. So he was caught almost immediately and charged with felony hit and run.
Maybe this isn’t ask messed up as most of the other stories, but thought I’d share anyway.
6. It tortures your mind.
Firefighter here, I have seen some s*%t.
Ones that stick in my head are mostly children, I distinctly remember one, his burns were extreme to say the least, all we could do was try and cool them until ambulance arrived, all he could do was howl, a long, guttural wail that I can still hear as if I was there today, he didn’t last long.
Another was a wildfire body search, parent wrapping themselves over the young kid to try and save them from the inevitable.
The worst part is the way this sh*% tortures your mind for years afterward, they become your own children/partner in your dreams, but the memory itself is still there and you know it’s not.
5. No kid should have that memory.
When I was 11 years old I watched my best friend get run over and dragged 30 feet by a minivan, hit and run. His brains and blood were everywhere.
I ran up to him and watched him take his last breaths. My heart is still broken, 24 years later.
4. This story gets worse and worse.
Woke up one night to a loud bang. Looked out the window and saw someone had crashed into the tree next to the apartment I lived in.
Saw the driver get out and run away. I called the cops and went outside to survey the damage. The driver had hit someone and pinned her head against the tree. The top half of her head was missing… She was barely breathing, unconscious and obviously dying.
Then a kid comes running across the street followed by an adult. The kids sees the body and realizes it’s his mother. Starts screaming “that’s my mom!” Goes up to the body and loses his s**t screaming. The adult that was with him starts pulling him away.
Turns out the driver was the mother’s boyfriend. He was going like 60 in a 25 zone and swerved off the road aiming for her.
3. Cancer sucks.
Watching the cancer take over my uncle’s body, making him go from looking fine to completely unrecognizable in just 2 weeks. Side of his neck (where the cancer was first discovered a year before) was inflamed to the size of a watermelon.
When it was decided to take him off of life support my aunt and cousin wanted him to pass in their home and not the hospital. At this time I had no clue how aware of his surroundings he was and if he knew what was happening to him. He had already looked dead besides breathing and groaning.
Family came to visit one last time and in a struggling voice he said “you guys can watch tv if you want.” First time I had heard him speak in weeks and it sent chills down my spine. Couldn’t believe he was fully aware and able to speak at that time.
2. A heart-stopper.
While climbing Denali (highest peak in North America). I saw a guy and his brother try to ski the Messner face.
Everyone was cheering as the one brother started the run, and then we all turned silent and horrified as we saw and realized he deff wasn’t skiing anymore but falling and sliding down the massive ice face.
Seeing this guy’s body literally go through the air for a while over bumps between crevasses. And then seeing his body just stop.
And his brother at the top looking down. clearly knowing what just happened. Deff a heart stopper and a humanity check right there
1. Sometimes it’s a gift.
When I had cancer as a kid, one of the nurses came to me and asked if I’d be willing to become friends with someone who wasn’t expected to make it. I said yes. She wheeled me into a darkened room where the girl’s mother was feeding her through a g-tube. She saw me and began crying, thanking me for being her daughter’s friend.
The girl was incredibly kind. She had a hard time speaking and her mother had to translate. She had brain tumors. Every time they removed one, several more took its place. All of her friends had deserted her, not wanting to see her lose her memory and die. I was her last friend. Even when she forgot her doctors and nurses, she recognized me.
I didn’t see it as a burden. I saw it as a gift. I was so important to this dying girl, she remembered me. When I didn’t want to fight my stage 4 cancer, she gave me motivation. She didn’t give up. R.I.P. Renee.
It takes some guts to remember things in such detail, so kudos to these folks.
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