Out of all the moments in your day-to-day life, waking up is usually not the most eventful. Usually.
Here, people reveal a time that they woke up and were surprisingly in a hospital bed.
1/28. I was watching Voyager on TV, next thing I was in a hospital bed. Turns out I’d gotten up too fast, lack of blood flow to the head and passed out, hitting my head on the floor hard (I’m 6’6″) and fractured my skull. Confusing.
2/28. 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 really weird experience.
3/28. I was teaching an organic chemistry lab in grad school. 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.
4/28. 18 year old me got super wasted on Smirnoff Watermelon vodka at some little club in Florida. 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.
5/28. 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 (which I still don’t remember).
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, dragged against the other edge of the sidewalk, knocked out cold.
Another neighborhood kid was in the area, 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.
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6/28. Was at the pool, 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 lay in a coma for 2 days, during which they kept my body temperature low (to prevent cerebral damage caused by lack of oxygen). I was allowed to go home a week after the accident.
7/28. Diabetic, went to sleep normally, woke up 2 days later in the hospital.
I hot too low while sleeping that I passed out, fortunately the time I passed was close to the time I’m supposed to wake up, my brother found me half dead and took me to the hospital.
8/28. Happened when I was in kindergarten. Apparently I fell down the stairs after stepped on my own trousers.
9/28. I hopped into the back of a mate’s pickup after a rugby game, went to sleep and woke up in 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 as airports.
I was the lucky one, the other three guys in the truck never woke up afterwards. Twenty years and it still gets me.
10/28. 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.
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11/28. 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 6inch 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.
12/28. Does it count if I woke up in hospital surprised with the results? 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 anaesthetic 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 in total in hospital.
13/28. Was at school, about 8 years old. It was sports carnival day, I don’t know if they have that everywhere its where the whole school spends the day competing in various sports. I was watching the other group play tee-ball. Next minute, hospital. I woke up feeling like I’d just had a dream that I was in an ambulance. Apparently I did briefly wake in the ambulance but not for long. I was thwacked in the forehead with a flying metal bat, had a massive abrasion which turned into the oddest scab you’d ever seen, like a unicorn had his horn lopped off. Still have a scar there where my skull cracked and healed with a kind of divot in it.
14/28. Was heading to a friends bday party. Something happened on the way there, I’m still not sure what; eyewitness accounts vary. I high-sided and then slid about 30 feet on my face. Thank god for full-face helmets. Still don’t have any recollection of about 24 hours or so from before I left my house. Ended up with a bad concussion and some decent road rash.
About 6 months later, I met the guy who left his vehicle to help me. Turned out to be a good friend of my sister’s husband.
15/28. Woke up in the hospital, too weak to press a PCA pump being told I’d been in a catastrophic motorcycle accident, had suffered extensive injuries to my entire (except my left arm, spine, and head thank the universe) body and had been in a medically induced coma for 5 weeks. I lost any memory of the event, or the week prior to it.
I was hit by some unrepentant doucheburgers who were out on parole (repeat offenders), and decided it would be a good idea to assault a 711 clerk, rob the store, and lead the police in a 30min chase at excess speeds up to 100+. Their joy ride ended when they went the wrong way on the freeway, took the on ramp going 70 mph against traffic and slammed into me at a speed of 120mph (I was going 50). We know all this from the police report. I never had a chance since the on ramp sloped up, then back down to enter the freeway and I hit these guys at the crest of the hill (never saw them). The impact sliced through their engine block, so they ran on foot after that. The police recorded their statements (after being followed by helicopter and being apprehended) as “What you arresting me for?” (story continued on the next page…)
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They got 9 and 5 years in a plea deal, and I was notified when they were each let out after serving less than half the sentence. Please note, they were 100% sober, knew they hit me, and they left me to die. I’m a generally compassionate person (or at least I try to be), but I hope their lives are a living hell and that they live a long time. I hope they never get the chance to hurt someone again, but I fully expect that thats what they’ve done (for my own mental health, I’ll never try to find out what’s become of them).
This was over 10 years ago, and I have a good life now (loving gf, a mortgage, a super smart border collie, everything I ever wanted) although its been a serious struggle. I didn’t get any money except for $50k from the victims of violent crimes fund+(remarkably) their auto insurance. My medical bills were +$3M, but I was insured (thankfully, since I’d just started the job 6 months prior). I used that money and my hospital/recovery time to get my MBA, and have worked hard as hell to move up in my (new, I had to change since I’m not very agile anymore) career. I’m still severely and permanently disabled (I’ll never run again, nor have any real balance, need a cane and lost the use of my dominant arm). But I’m lucky, since I still have my faculties and look relatively normal.
I don’t own a motorcycle anymore, and will never attempt to ride again (you need 100% of your physical faculties as well as mental to do it safely). I don’t blame my motorcycle at all. I miss riding and probably wouldn’t have faired much better in those speeds in a car. If you ride and are reading this, please make sure you buy the best safety gear and wear it every time. I’m only here today because I did, and no amount of skill would have saved me from being in the exact wrong place at the exact wrong time. I was wearing a Nolan flip face helmet ($300 at the time). Thank you Nolan for your outstanding quality and commitment to safety. I still have that helmet, and its scratched and cracked all the way through.
That could have been my skull.
16/28. 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 ok 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. 38 stitches, a partially shaved head, and 3 days later I was at lunch with the same regulars.
17/28. Walking home from work, was hit by a truck.
Even though it wasn’t a hit and run I didn’t know who the driver was until about a month later (strangely I didn’t think enough to ask). I was having Dinner at my best friend’s place and his older brother came home and looked at me as though he’d seen a ghost.
18/28. I was riding my young horse, in training to jump. We rode up to our first 3ft 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.
19/28. Was knocked out by flying squirrel while bike riding near my house.
20/28. Had a seizure at work and was apparently walking into walls and fell down in the bathroom. My mom came to pick me up, brought me to my place. I fell down and had another seizure and my mom called an ambulance.
All I remember was going into the bathroom at work after puking in my lesson room. I woke up in an ICU with everyone telling me that I had brain cancer and that I only had two weeks to live. They started chemo treatment immediately at Cedars and now I’m completely clean of cancer.
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21/28. Fell off monkey bars at a playground and was knocked unconscious – remember waking up in a hospital bed to a doc telling my parents about some metal in my head X-ray and then them taking my pony tail out ( metal was in my hair tie).
22/28. I didn’t die in a motorcycle accident. It was a pleasant surprise.
23/28. I was 16 and hit by a Ford F-350. I am a tiny human, I’m under 5 foot and this truck hit me going 40 mph when I was in the crosswalk. I was launched across the entire intersection. I don’t remember anything 20 minutes before until 10 days later. When I woke up finally I had been in a coma for 5 days, both my lungs had collapsed, I had 3 blood transfusions, a chest tube to drain the internal bleeding, three surgeries and the whole left side of my body broken. I couldn’t walk and my vision and memory had been damaged. It’s been 6 years and I’m doing great now. You wouldn’t even know anything happened to me except I have memory issues and arthritis, but I like to think I came out on top in this situation.
24/28. I was at a party with a friend in some college town. The street we were on had these three story apartments built side by side. The whole street was partying, even on the roofs. We got separated and it was time to go (we don’t live in that town). Anyways, I see an ambulance going down the street and knew it was for my roommate. So I follow the ambulance and sure enough, he was laying on the ground, barely conscious. He tried to jump from one building to the next and didn’t even come close. Luckily for him, his head broke the fall.
A few weeks later he finally asked….”Oh yeah, hey man, that night we went to Lawrence and I woke up in the hospital, what happened?”
25/28. Wife, 2 year old son and myself went to visit a couple of friends out in the country. Had some food. Had a couple of drinks myself. Had an amazing time. Wife was sober, I was wrangling my young one back into his car seat to go home, because he was overtired and unhappy but made sure he was good and snug.
Pulled out of the driveway after waving goodbye to our friends.
I came to almost a month and a half later. I could barely move my legs and arms due to neuropathy and fatigue. I had a feeding tube up my nose and a colostomy bag.
The doctors told me that I had actually come to a couple days before while I was still in intensive care, but the nature of the anesthetic they had me on meant I kept kinda waking up, fading back and forgetting everything. At this point I was able to remember things normally (story continued on the same page…).
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They told me right off the bat my son was fine; completely unharmed and in the care of a very old and dear friend with 3 kids of his own already. My wife was alive and relatively uninjured with the exception of some damage to her leg and a moderate brain injury that she would recover from slowly.
They kept the details about the accident from me for a few weeks while I was recovering, but basically my wife missed a stop sign in the middle of a dark, poorly marked country road and we got T-boned by an SUV. Other driver was fine.
Its been over 2 years since the accident.
I got the strength back to walk again, but because of pins/bolts/plates in my left ankle and shin I’ll never likely be able to run again. The neuropathy in my legs wore off, and eventually wore off in my arms to the point where I can use them normally again but it was a lot of therapy, retraining, time.
Suffered PTSD about 10 months after by the time I was back at home.
From time to time, I still have nightmares about something that I don’t technically have the ability to remember.
26/28. I was shot in the stomach at about two feet range by a guy who had the gun in his backpack.
He was in the process of robbing a story when I walked in, and I didn’t see it happening as he had the gun hidden, and a lot of other people in the store didn’t know either. I asked him if he was in line, because he was kind of to the side, and he turned and fired. I don’t remember anything from after entering the store. The rest I’ve had pieced together.
He shot me three times, hitting mostly muscle, but also one kidney. I’m entirely fine today, but that was a fairly alarming realization of how close I came.
27/28. 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.
28/28. This was back in 2012. I was a bartender at the time, I kicked out a guy and his buddy after one of them flipped out and lost his shit over a bet in a game of pool. He was acting pretty aggressive and when I started to come out for behind the bar to escort him out, he threw his bar glass at he.
I closed the bar down about an hr later. As I was walking out the back door, there he was, about 10 ft from me and still pissed off that I had tossed him out.
That’s the last thing I remember. All the other details came from my g/f who had called 911 and saw the whole thing go down.
I blacked out, when I came to I had been told that I had been stabbed 5x and had the top of my ear cut off. I was in local hospital getting staples/stitches and waiting to be transported to other hospital to have my ear reattached.
Right before I was about to be transported, the police came into er and told me me found the guy. He still had the bloody knife in his pocket and a bunch of prescription drugs in his hotel room