Thank goodness for the gut—that part of our body that just knows when things ain’t right. The following Redditors shared the times when listening to that “bad feeling” paid off. From bumps in the night to so-called responsible guardians with bad intentions, the gut just knows. Be alert to these chilling stories of when that “something is very wrong here” feeling turned out to be true.
1. The Caretaker You Know
I’m a member of a local Facebook group to help moms find babysitters. One of the admins was a mid-20s man who babysat for tons of kids in the area and specialized in caring for nonverbal and autistic children. His posts always gave me (and some other members) a weird vibe but he was loved by this group as a whole. He was just arrested for molesting two children and possession of CP.
Bail is set at $2 million. It’s estimated that he sat for over 500 children in our area. Who knows how many he abused.
2. Not What I Meant By Date & Dinner
Once at a party, I was about to kiss this girl, but my spider senses tingled. I took a few steps back, and she was like "what the fu- " before throwing up. So glad I dodged that bullet.
3. The Byes That Never Were
Years ago, I was staying the night at someone else's house, maybe an hour from where I lived. That night I was so tired, but I couldn't get to sleep. I was super anxious all night, which was very unusual for me, and I just couldn't relax. I came so close to just grabbing my things and driving home in the middle of the night several times, but I convinced myself not to.
Turns out I should have. If I'd gone home that night, I would have had the chance to say goodbye to my dad before he passed away that next morning. I still regret that to this day, and I promised myself that the next time I get a feeling like that I'll listen to it.
4. Ride Home Alive
When I was 19, I was walking home at midnight from a tram stop and I got the feeling I should pretend I was on the phone. A minute after doing so, a car pulls up next to me on the empty road. It's four guys all leering at me, the one in the passenger side starts saying things like, "how about we take you for a good time," and his tone is predatory.
I try to keep it cool because I didn't want to look frightened to encourage them that I am prey, so I start telling my "friend" there's a group of guys in a car harassing me and describing the car. I hear the driver say to his mate something about my conversation on the phone and then they take off. I ran home faster than Usain Bolt with 000 now ready on my phone should they change their mind and come back.
A couple of months later, I hear on the news that in my area there was a group picking up girls and assaulting them. The description matched the car and the guys in it that followed me that night. I had the sense after my encounter to tell my work what happened and refuse to do night shifts anymore unless they paid for my taxi home.
I shudder to think what may have happened if I hadn't pretended to be on the phone that night.
5. A Poisonous Branch of the Family Tree
Aunt married her second husband and he just gave me the creeps. She came into the marriage with a daughter who was about eight at the time. These were family we would only see maybe a couple times per year. Every time, something about him gave me the heebies, even as a 14-year-old boy. Something felt really wrong. Fast forward 6-8 years later, and we learn he molested my female cousin pretty much from the day he became her stepdad.
Years of it. Aunt divorced him but he's still around because they had additional kids together. I see him comment on FB posts of the cousin he molested. I'd love for him to die a slow and painful death, the sooner the better.
6. When You’re the Responsible Adult
About 15 years ago, I left work early, like really early, for no real reason. I got home and all these kids were standing near my door (apartment complex next to a pond) and they were all staring at me and not saying anything. I went inside and dropped my bag. It wouldn’t stop weighing on me how weird it was, so I went back outside.
I spoke to them asking what was going on and one kid meekly asked if I could help his friend. A kid I didn't see was sitting on a curb surrounded by all the rest. They had all jumped the fence next to the pond, except he slipped and impaled the flesh of his inner thigh and got stuck, the kids helped pick him up off of it, but he was just sitting there bleeding everywhere with a bunch of meat hanging out. I got him treated and ambulance on the way, he came back a few weeks later with his family to thank me, said I saved his leg.
There were 6-7 kids who all just followed me with their eyes without any sound (no talking, no shuffling, no kid sounds) as I walked down the sidewalk, that’s what freaked me out. The kid in question was sitting on a curb in between them facing away so I didn’t notice him. When I asked what was going on, they parted like the Red Sea.
He was in shock and asked me if he needed help and then lifted his shorts leg. Everyone was eerily calm about the whole thing. However, once lights and sirens came, they scattered to the four winds. The railing was made of 1/2” steel tubing. The top had a horizontal runner about eight inches from the top of the picket. Each picket was four inches apart and the tops of each picket were pinched together flat then the edges were folded in, creating a spear but without any barbs.
This created a place to put your foot to hop the fence, provided you didn’t slip. So luckily it was smooth in and smooth out. What’s horrifying, and I never thought of until now, is the way that he had to fall to impale his thigh means he hung there with all his weight on it. Jesus.
7. The Kid Gloves Are Over
I was like six years old and in the backyard of my best friend/neighbor's, swimming in a three-foot play pool thing. She went inside to ask for something and right as she left, a guy on a motorcycle drove down the alley and stopped. The fence was a small chain link fence, so he definitely saw me and stopped. And I could see him clearly, like 20 years later it's still so vivid.
He pulled out some gloves and put them on, which is the last thing I saw him doing as I got out and ran through their garage out the front, and inside my house next door terrified. He drove around the front down the street slowly and about 10 minutes later, shot two kids at the park at the end of my street.
8. Girl Talk
I used to work in a big city as a medical emergency responder/dispatcher. One night, I arrive for my shift and like one hour later, I get this call. A man calling for his wife who was choking on food, and who suddenly started to "feel better" during the call, which made him change his mind and say he didn't need an ambulance anymore.
I could've stopped the call there, cancel it or rank it as low priority. But I had this feeling, and when the man asked me if I wanted to speak to her, I said yes. "Ma'am, this is the emergency services, are you sure that you don't need help of any kind?" No answer. "Would need the services of the police?" "Maybe." So, I ask. "Is the guy beside you dangerous?" "Yes."
Man, the rush of adrenaline I got. I made her go to safety and then she told me all about how he had been beating her for a long time, how she had no way to get out of this, that she was choking while eating because of the stress of being beside him...I worked with the police and they went on the scene, probably preventing the woman from being beaten up again.
Always trust your instinct.
9. A Big Sibling is the Best Lifeguard
My siblings and I were swimming at a neighbor’s house with their kid, but the adults were inside. Randomly, a thought came into my head: "Where’s my sister at?" She easily could’ve gone inside or have walked across the street and be home, but I felt like I needed to find her ASAP. I got all of us kids to search when we noticed she was at the bottom of the pool, completely blue.
She made a complete recovery and is one of the best parts of my life. Thought I should clarify a little bit and add ways to prevent drownings. She was only four, and my brothers and I were around 10. One brother got her out, one sprinted home across the street to get my mom, and I called 911 to get paramedics.
We are very lucky and grateful we got a happy ending, but not everyone does.
10. Listen to Cinderella
My father started publicly dating a woman shortly after my mother died (I later learned she's likely the woman he'd been having an affair with before she died). I liked her. One evening, my father took me to one side and asked how I'd feel about him asking her to marry him. I got an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach and felt nauseated.
I told my father I didn't want him to, and he asked why as he thought I liked her. I explained that I did like her but had a bad feeling and he said, “That's just a feeling, they don't mean anything.” He already had the ring and proposed straight away. I got really excited about the engagement, the wedding, moving to a new house, and my impending little sister.
After the wedding, she changed. After my half-sister was born, she went unstable. She abused me, my full sister (my mother's child), and later my half sister (her own child). He only left her when my doctor told him something was clearly going on with her that was affecting my health (she was putting a substance that I'm intolerant to in my food and my father wouldn't believe me and would force me to eat whatever she made, however I couldn't get a doctor alone without her to tell them) and my maternal grandmother told him if he didn't leave her, she'd go for custody.
He accused me of lying for the entire time leading up to that and has never asked me about any of my attempts to get help since.
11. What’s the Harm at a Farm?
I had a co-worker who used to go to parties in high school. Several of the parties in her senior year were at some guy’s farm. She went to one and bailed right away, saying it felt weird. The guy who owned the farm was Robert Pickton.
12. Father Doesn’t Always Know Best
The first friend who reached out to me in high school invited me to a sleepover. Eventually, it became a weekly occurrence. Met her stepdad and instantly my stomach was unsettled. He was weird, tried too hard to seem cool/strong/useful, and stuck around us when we set up the sleeping bags in the living room and hung out. I kind of understood why he lingered the first night, but the lingering continued throughout the couple of years I stayed over.
I told my mum I thought he was weird and suspicious and she told me never judge a book by its cover. One day I found out that my friend had been continuously molested by him for years and had told her to bring friends over so he didn't molest her (her mother admitted it was so he could groom the friends). He was physically aggressive with me one day, and I never went back.
Took a month or so but I couldn't take it and gathered as much evidence that I could (things that used to mean nothing were suddenly glaringly obvious that something was wrong) and went to police. It was something I never really wanted to be true, but it had happened before (same sort of "something is very wrong here" situation has happened to me a few other times with similar or same results) and I just knew that I couldn't be wrong, but I did question myself along the way.
13. Clear as Glass
I was at my grandparents' for a gathering. Me and some of the other older kids were playing catch or tag in the front yard, I can't exactly remember, doesn't matter. The younger kids were playing in the backyard, doing whatever the heck kids do. While playing, I could SWEAR I heard a crying/wailing/screaming sound, but it was very quiet and distant. It was one of the most horrific screams I've ever heard, but I asked the others and they didn't hear a thing, and all insisted it was nothing.
I don't know why but felt absolutely dreadful and terrified, yet everything was fine, so I decided to go check it out. I run into the backyard and it turns out my little sister (4-5 years at the time) was bleeding severely—she was covered in blood and trying to crawl towards the house, I swear it was out of a damn horror movie, looking back I can't believe this actually happened.
Long story short, my little cousin (7-8 yrs at the time) decided it was a good idea to play "catch" with some broken glass he found in the backyard and ended up cutting her jaw very deeply. Kids are dumb.
14. When the Monsters Aren’t Under the Bed
When my mother started dating her second husband. The moment I saw him, I knew something wasn't right, but being a kid, I had no idea what. Fast forward to their wedding. From the moment they were married, he turned into a physically and emotionally abusive piece of trash. Luckily after a while, my mother got up the courage to kick him out She got a restraining order and a divorce. I only realized a few years ago that there was something else up with him as well.
He would come into my room at least once every day (as far as I know, only when I was awake). He'd sit on my bed and try to talk to me with a creepy smile on his face. His hand would be on my leg, and he'd get closer and closer to me as his hand got higher and higher. Then he'd get to about my knee, suddenly stand up and walk out.
I only told my family about that a few years ago, and I'll never forget the horror on their faces. As far as I'm aware, he didn't do anything to me other than what I said above. But who knows. A year or so after my mother kicked him out, he beat a guy half to death with a pool cue. Never saw the inside of a cell.
15. Now That’s Good Housekeeping
I used to clean vacant houses for a living. One day I was working at a house near the end of a dead-end street. There were maybe six or seven houses on the one side of the street before an intersection with a stoplight, so it was a pretty heavy traffic area. I was cleaning out the property just fine when my Spidey-Sense went off the charts.
I was inside the house, but I pretty much dropped everything, got in my car and started to drive outta there. On the corner, I saw a weird looking guy and had a nasty feeling about him. When I got home it was all over the news, that guy was now known for being a cop killer, making the start of his career right on that street corner about 15 minutes after I hoofed it.
Told my boss that I wasn't going to go back to that property. He understood.
16. The Sharp Part of Town
Four students of mine won the first prize for a project they did, and we all got a free trip to London. We had spent the day sightseeing and were exhausted, so we got an ice-cream and sat on a bench in a park to relax. A couple of minutes later, I notice this couple walk by slowly, staring at us. My spidey-senses go mental.
I do not like these people for some reason. She walks by and sits on the bench next to ours, and he sits on the bench across from hers. They aren’t talking, just looking at each other. And that is when I notice her reaching into her pockets. I jump up, grab my students and run out of the park. My poor students are confused AF and wondering what the heck is wrong with me, when all of a sudden, we hear screaming. Turns out the woman stabbed another couple walking through the park, trying to rob them.
It scares the ever-loving heck out of me, knowing had I not gotten my students out of there, we would have been stabbed and robbed.
17. Don’t Trust a Damsel in Distress
I used to pick up hitchhikers in the 1980s and early 90s. I was into Jesus and wanted to do good deeds. One day, I saw two women who looked rough hitchhiking on the side of I-295 in Jacksonville, Florida. Based on their appearance, I thought they were leaving an abusive situation or something. I pulled over to pick them up.
As they walked up to my van, they exchanged creepy looks, sort of a “are we gonna do this?” expression. I got bad vibes and drove off right as they were reaching for my door. I felt bad later and beat myself up for it. What if they really needed help? A few days later, I saw sketches of them on the news. It was Aileen Wuornos (the serial killer from the movie Monster) and her girlfriend. The guy who picked them up after I drove off was murdered and dumped in a swamp.
Trust your gut!
18. Use Your Head
There is such a thing as a feeling of "impending doom" when your body is like, “Yo, you are about to die." It is a real thing. I had not been feeling well, and all of a sudden, I sat up and had a distinct feeling of "You are going to die soon if you don't do something." I drove myself to the ER and on the way was getting chest pains.
I went in, told them, and they took me to the back. After some tests, there were a lot of people around me injecting me with a lot of different stuff. Turns out I had a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in my lung) which at any second could have gone to my brain and killed me then and there. The doctors said if I had left it any longer, I would have been dead.
Thanks, brain!
19. The Father of All Cries for Help
One night during finals my junior year at university I received a text from my father at 1:30am. "I love you." My heart sunk. My family is not affectionate. My family doesn't say "I love you.” My father does not text me. For some reason, I woke up three minutes after receiving the text while my phone was on silent. I called to see if he was okay. No answer.
I immediately got in my car and tore off to my dad's place. I let myself in and found him in bed with a handful of pills and a loaded pistol on his nightstand. He immediately broke down in tears and I held him for what seemed like an hour. I saved my father's life that night and have always checked in on him since. He's in a much better place now.
20 A Cancelled Delivery
One day, about two weeks ago, I woke up and didn’t feel pregnant any more. Just found out today that the baby has no heartbeat.
21. The World’s Worst Funhouse
There was a house near mine that had multiple cartoons on the front wall and cameras over all the gates. I always assumed that it was a daycare center or something, but it turns out it was just a regular house. Sometime later, the police jailed the owner of the house for child abuse. He baited boys from the neighborhood to play his Nintendo 64 and such.
Until today, I'm not really sure if one conversation I heard between two 10-12yr old boys was linked to this case. They were talking about how hard it becomes when you stick it in. They lived in that same street.
22. Country Road, Take Me Home
Driving with a friend of mine through a pretty remote forest road. A couple of guys in the middle of nowhere tried flagging us down. I almost stopped for them before an alarm went off in my head and I stepped on the gas. My friend started saying "what the fu..." and at the same time there was a shot and a bullet hit the back of the car.
We made it to a police station. Turns out there had been a bunch of people and vehicles going missing in the area that same week.
23. An Offer You Should Refuse
I love my stepsister to pieces, but she is way too trusting with people she doesn’t know well. About ten years ago, she was living with a couple of roommates who became her “best friends.” She would tell me stories about them (over the phone, we lived in different cities) and I would just think, “Jesus Christ, these girls are messes.”
She could hear the wariness in my voice after telling me stories about their troubled lives and how “They’re really good people who have just been through a lot!!!” I didn’t buy it. I can’t think of all the stories because it’s been too long, but they were always really sketchy. Cut to my stepsister inheriting $20k from a deceased relative.
She was young and super excited about it and I knew she probably didn’t keep the new money a secret. About one freaking week later, one of her roommates calls her panicking, saying that this guy who she’s been talking to online kidnapped her and was holding her for ransom. A $15k ransom. And she called my stepsister for the ransom.
Not her parents. Her freaking roommate. She calls me, freaking out because she didn’t know what to do. I asked her if she had told her roommate about the money. Of course, she did. Move out, sis. Gtfo. Those little girls who are really good people but have just been through a lot...yeah they’re liars. She reluctantly followed my advice and thankfully didn’t try to make a deal with them.
I told her to call the police. If I remember correctly, she didn’t. She still worries me sometimes.
24. That What You Get for Being a Bag Lady
I was walking home and a woman approached me to ask for directions. I told her how to get where she wanted to go, but she didn't walk that way. Instead walked beside me and kept pace with me. This made me incredibly uncomfortable, so I said, "Have a nice day" and doubled my speed (not running, but outpacing her significantly.
A moment later, I heard running footsteps. I must have instinctively gripped my purse strap, because I held onto it as she ran by and tried to snatch it. We ended up tussling for a moment. I shouted very loudly "Help! She's stealing my purse!" Neighbors came outside, causing her to walk away. She did not get my purse.
25. Take a Sharp Turn at Nopesville
I pulled into a gas station around 8-9 PM that wasn’t in a ghost town or anything, but it was insanely dark due to the time of year. As I pull towards one of the pumps, I see this dude slowly pacing near the entrance of the convenience store, and we make eye contact. I quickly pulled the car to another pump towards one of the entrances to the gas station, trying to be safer but thinking I’m probably just being paranoid.
Once I sit there for a minute and decide to put my car in park, he quickly rushes over to my me. By the time I’m back in drive and peel out through the entrance into an oncoming lane (luckily no traffic), I saw him pulling out what looked like a large knife out of his jacket...I’m glad I didn’t disregard my gut that night, that's for sure.
26. Send Him to the Doghouse
Laid eyes on my sister's then-boyfriend and instantly hated him. I then noticed one of our dogs acted out of character around him, which made me hate him even more. We found out a year later the boyfriend had been beating my sister regularly.
27. A Maternal Instinct Holds Water
Not me but one of my best friends growing up, her mom told me this story: They had just bought this house that had a built-in swimming pool. My friend had a little brother, who was under the age of two at the time. Everyone was taking a nap but unbeknownst to the rest of the house, the two-year-old had woken up and decided to go outside on their deck.
I guess the mom woke up and had this terrible feeling come over here. Without hesitation, she quickly checked on her children. Panic set in when she couldn’t find the two-year-old. She found him face down in the pool. He did survive the whole ordeal. If she hadn't felt that gut feeling to wake up, that little boy wouldn't be here today.
28. A Disturbance in the Force
In high school, I came home early one Friday evening to find that my house just felt off. It’s so hard to describe, but the feeling I got walking into my living room just immediately had me on alert and didn’t feel right. I walked into the kitchen to find a half-eaten burger from McDonald's, which I found strange. Called out to my parents, got no response. Called them on their cell, got no answer.
30 minutes later, my brother called to tell me that my dad had a heart attack and to get to the hospital. Thankfully it turned out okay, but my gut quite literally knew something bad had happened the moment I stepped in the front door.
29. So Much for To Serve and Protect
When I was a student in middle school, a kid in my class had a dad who was a police officer. He came to our class when we were in sixth grade as a parent/job thing. He wore a bulletproof vest and invited all the kids who wanted to go poke it or whatever. Not too weird, but seemed a little off to me, so I stayed in my seat.
Two years later, by the time we were in eighth grade, he was a resource officer for the local public junior high, a different school than his son and I went to. Well, while his son and I were in eighth grade, friend's cop dad was grooming another eighth-grader at his school. By the time cop's son, the girl the cop was grooming, and I were in 10th grade, the cop was caught climbing into the girl's window by her father.
It turns out, this cop started grooming this girl when she was in eighth grade and at the school he was resource officer for, and by the time she was in 10th grade, he had been having sex with her. As far as I know, he's still in jail, nine years later. His son later went into the Marines and seems to have a good life, at least.
11/12 year old me had a weird feeling about this cop, even though I went to school with his son and went to church with him, saw him all the time at the junior high, because at the time, my mom worked there and I'd see him when I was at the junior high with my mom. I'd see this guy at least once a week. Gave me the creeps.
30. Don’t Lose That Sixth Sense
I was walking home when I suddenly had this gut feeling, "I will be mugged.” I kept walking. When I got to the corner, two guys jumped me. They started delivering some punches and man, I’m no Rocky. My shirt was devastated, my nose was bleeding, my glasses flew like three meters away. My gut didn't exactly help, but at least I saw it coming?
31. Furr Real Friends and Consequences
My parents’ cat LOVES me. Loves to sniff and lick my feet, play with me from his window perch and generally be an adorable goofy little badass. So last week when we all went out to dinner and back to their house for drinks, the cat didn’t come out to greet me. It was odd. He was under the bed and refusing to come out...which was unusual, but we had our first thunderstorm of the season and he's only two so we chalked it up to being freaked out and left him there.
90 minutes later my "THIS ISN'T RIGHT" instinct is ringing like a mental fire alarm so I went to check on him, and he still wouldn’t come out or move...and he didn’t seem to recognize me. $1,000 in emergency vet bills at 3 AM and we find out he had broken his femur very badly, needed another couple thousand worth of surgery and would likely have been in pain for the rest of his life and had bladder complications that would have needed frequent catheterization.
We think he must have snagged a nail jumping down from his window perch, which was about five feet high and hung there or landed poorly. I've never seen my stoic 6'4" dad cry harder than when they made the decision that it was cruel to keep him alive and that if they loved him, they should put him down. Our entire family is heartbroken.
I've never regretted being right about anything this much in my entire life.
32. Head of Miseducation
Middle school vice principal was loved by everyone in the school. I was always creeped out by him. When I was in eighth grade, he was found having sex with a previous student of his, who was only 16 at the time. He had a wife and kids when this all went down.
33. That’s Not Butterflies in Your Stomach
I woke up from a nap with this horrible stomach pain. I called my mom and she told me to just take an antacid, but I just felt that it was something very wrong. I went to urgent care, who immediately sent me to the ER. Turns out it was my gallbladder and I had to have surgery.
34. Rock(et) and Roll
Went to see fireworks one time. As I was watching, I got a bad feeling, being as close as I was, and I wondered how many people have died from fireworks. Not even 30 seconds later, one of the launch pipes for the fireworks tipped or something. All I remember was fireworks launching and exploding right in my direction, and one of the firework tails whizzing right past my head, then me running away like mad.
35. Sometimes You Can Judge a Book By His Cover
A dude named Jeth. He spoke in this really specific way. I can't describe it—all I can say is that is just sounded wrong. He always gave me bad vibes when I was around him, and he ended up being a "nice guy" and got stalker-level obsessed with the girl I was dating.
36. A Criminal Record Would Be the Real Party Pooper
At a party in college. Two thoughts occurred at the same time... 1) "Wow there's a lot of people here!" and 2) "A lot of these girls look really young..." Noped the heck out. Found out later party was busted, and several people who were there ended up in jail for a variety of things.
37. Don’t Drink and Jerk
Went out for beers with some friends. Guy at the bar kept staring at my female friend. Didn’t think anything of it initially, thought maybe he’s just into her. Then, alarm bells start ringing for some reason. Minutes later, he went to my friend and I saw him try to slip something in her drink while she was talking to another friend of ours.
Good thing I was watching told him to screw off with that roofie BS. He tried to punch me but missed. Bouncer saw; he got kicked out. Funniest part was that when we met up with a mate of mine from university that night, he was getting his butt kicked for doing the same thing to his girlfriend.
Watch your drink, lads.
38. Leave the Show with Your Lives
My mom and dad were at some sort of festival when my dad felt some sort of change in the air, like something bad was going to happen. He and my mom got out of there quickly, wouldn't you know it, some drunk dude with a gun started firing at the crowd.
39. At Least They Were Already in a Hospital
I work at a psych hospital. I was in the cafe with an adult unit and the adolescent unit was also there. I had known one of the kids from when she was on the children’s and normally we had a good rapport. I went to say hi and told her I was proud she had been staying out of trouble, and a few of the other girls reacted weirdly to me saying it and the girl looked guilty.
I told the staff on the unit and said they should keep an extra eye on the girls because I had bad vibes about it. The staff kinda brushed me off. A half-hour later four girls (including the one I knew) literally almost killed the two staff, one got her head bashed in and suffered brain trauma and the other staff was blinded in one eye.
40. A Litter of a Problem
I was suddenly going to the bathroom constantly and had a lot of blood in my urine. I became convinced I had a really serious issue. I went to the doctor, did some tests; they shrugged me off because they were negative. Another doctor, same thing. Finally went to the ER one night because the pain was so bad. They found a cyst on my ovary that was the size of a golf ball.
I had emergency surgery to get it and my right ovary removed and they said everything would get better. My issues were still there a month post-op and I was having a really hard recovery. I knew something else was going on. Told my surgeon and he literally said, “Take pepto” after I had been dealing with these issues for months.
I insisted something was still wrong. Finally, after begging he sent me to a GI specialist and guess what?? I was diagnosed with severe ulcerative colitis AND a rare liver disease. But no one took it seriously for seven months.
41. Not All Rest is Easy
About six years ago, my sister and her family were visiting. Her daughter—four months old at the time—was napping in the house while the adults were hanging outside. I went into the house to grab something and glanced over at my niece. She was limp and strange looking, like spaced out. It really freaked me out, so I picked her up, panicking a bit, and handed her to my brother-in-law.
By this time, she was back to normal, so we shrugged it off. I said something like "Oh I forgot how babies look when they sleep." Within 1-2 days, my niece started having 10 seizures a day. What I had witnessed was a seizure. That was the beginning of a multi-year nightmare of seizures, hospital visits, neurological testing, and many different types of anti-seizure meds.
She was diagnosed with a seizure disorder. Thankfully, the docs found meds that worked, her seizures went away, and she was eventually weaned off her medication. She has been seizure free for four years! Now she is a healthy, beautiful and happy little lady!
42. Have Heart, Not a Heart Attack
Came back to work after a week off for Christmas vacation and immediately noticed something was off with my friend. I had no clue what it was, but I just knew was something was wrong with him, but I couldn't explain what it was. I kept asking him if he was alright, but he kept saying everything was fine. On the second day, he came up to me and asked me how to do something that I know he knew how to do; I had trained him on how to do it.
I became very concerned at this point. The third day was New Year’s Eve, so we only had a half day and he was working on a spreadsheet. End of the day came around and I took one look at it and I could have printed it out and called it modern art, that's how horrifying it looked. I called the boss over and he pulled him off of it which caused my friend to break down and start crying because he couldn't understand that he had done anything wrong.
I was moving to a new place over our day and a half off, so I simply told him that something was wrong with him and he needed to get some help. We came back in for one day on Friday and my friend wasn't there. I learned that he was in the hospital because of a heart attack. Later on, we learned that during the days leading up he was suffering from mini strokes and that all of my constant nagging about if he was alright ultimately led to him thinking that maybe there is something wrong with him.
So, he called a taxi to take him to the ER on New Year’s Eve where they immediately recognized that he was having a heart attack. A doctor later told him that if he had not gone to the ER when he did, he would not have woken up if he'd gone to sleep that night. Because of this, my friend says that I saved his life through the power of our friendship.
43. Tragically Right to Be Worried
My mom called me when I was out with a friend. She told me my brother didn't come home last night. She was very worried, even though this is not the weirdest thing for a 21-year-old. I went straight home, and we both felt like something bad had happened. At home, his phone was on the couch in the living room so we couldn't contact him. We called the police and after a week of investigation, his body was found drowned in a nearby lake. I miss him every day.
44. Lifesaver
I work as an ER nurse and had a patient with a little dizziness, a little nausea and a swollen abdomen. She was fairly bright, able to talk, and nothing seemed too horrific. But she was turning a grim gray color and breathing quickly. Our average wait time today was two hours. I could have put her back in the queue and moved on.
But I had a little dark feeling that there was something sinister happening here. So I called our most senior doctor out of a consultation and asked him to see her. Right now. Ever heard of your abdominal aorta? Enormous blood vessel that can pouch out, suddenly rupture, and make you bleed internally to death in minutes?
It’s called a burst AAA (abdominal aortic aneurysm). You’ve heard of it now. That’s what she had. I’ve never seen one before. But now I have. Within five minutes, she was barely responding. Within ten, her blood pressure had dropped to a barely sustainable level. Within twenty minutes, I was pouring blood into her and eight people were around the bed.
Within an hour, she was on an operating table clinging to life. But because I raised the alarm, and because my team worked their butts off, that woman is still, somehow, alive. Feels good, man.
45. Some Devastatingly Flawed Logic
I worked at a daycare. One of the mothers gave me the heebie jeebies. She would show up randomly and be like "my baaaaaaby, I neeeed my baaaaby." Like, moms love their kids and miss them, but her obsession with her daughter really made me feel weird. She ended up killing her daughter so that she could be an angel. It really messed me up when I found out.
46. Grandma's Intuition
We had a serial killer in South Carolina a couple years ago. No one knew what he looked like yet but he had already killed three people at this point. Well, my granny has lived alone since my paw-paw passed about 15 years ago. She lives at the end of a long dirt road with about 10 other families but the closest one was about a quarter mile up the road.
One afternoon some random guy comes knocking on the front door of her house. My granny is a practical woman, she has never been to school because she grew up on a farm and was expected to pull her weight, but she is a smart woman. She goes to the door but doesn't open it—it’s a glass door. The 40ish-year-old man is there asking if he can use the phone since his car broke down, but Granny doesn't like the look of this guy.
If he doesn't live here there is no reason for him to be on this road and if he was visiting someone their house or anyone else's house would have been closer since she lives on a dead end. Anyways, she tells him that no he can't use the phone and needs to leave. She backs up and picks up my paw-paw's 410 as she goes. Once he sees the shotgun he hightails it out of there. About a week later the cops finally catch the serial killer and lo and behold if it isn't the same man.
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