There are just too many things we witness throughout life. And there are just some things no human should have to witness. I've lost track on the amount of things I wish I could unsee. Don't you walk away thinking... "Why God? Was that really necessary?" That one moment will almost certainly be one one the moments that you never escape. It's seared into the memory. There when our eyes are open and closed. Awake, asleep, it lingers.
Redditor u/Rainbow-Pickel-Squid wanted to hear some stories to get us SHOOK by asking... [NSFW] What's the most f*cked up thing you've seen?CAUTION!! Going forward, there is some material here not suitable for young eyes. NC-17!!
I'm easy to faint. My knees go weak at the drop of blood, mine or other's. So when I have to witness horrific life moments I try my best to flinch or look away. I just don't have the stomach for it all and my dreams are already rough enough. Let's see what everyone has had to flinch for...
Dad
The bruising and swelling of my dad's eyes after being shot in the head during a robbery. He did not make it.
I'm so sorry to hear about that, truly. I hope you're doing alright.
Trauma
We were at the lake with some friends. We were waiting at the dock for some more people to show up and we're just chilling in our boat. Well another boat came flying in and rammed the boat ramp. I noticed the people inside that boat were trying to lift a person off the floor.
I realized the people were covered in blood so I ran over to help. I jumped in the boat, and there was just pools of blood everywhere. And a dude that had gone face first into then boat propeller. I was 16 and will never forget the sound he was making, like trying to breath. His face was stripped like cut up almost perfectly. His jaw and one of his eyes dangling.
I helped them get him off the boat and onto a towel. Covered in blood, waited for an ambulance to arrive. He ended up dying about 20 min later. Legit didn't sleep for like 2 days. The worst part was there were two little girls in the boat, like maybe 6-8 years old. I can't imagine what trauma it did to them.
People Explain The Worst Thing That's Ever Happened To Them On Their Birthday
In the Fires
I was a firefighter for years and saw a lot, but one thing that still sticks with me is trying to perform CPR on someone who had been shot five + times. With the amount of bright red blood squirting out with every compression, we knew he was going to die but had to try something.
Bodies squished beyond recognition in car wrecks was always tough too, especially since it was often a hit and run or drunk driver in the bad wrecks.
Also, CPR on an infant is something that I never want to be involved in or see again in my life.
No one had noticed him...
Day at the lake...
Alice Lake, north of Vancouver toward Whistler, is a popular place to spend a summer day. There's a beach for those who don't mind chilly water, picnic ground, and a wooden pier. Our whole family was out there for a picnic, as were many others, enjoying Saturday in the woodland park.
Suddenly a man is striding through the the various knots of people: "We're looking for a two-year old boy who's gone missing..." The chatter and laughter stops in seconds; some people head for the forest to see if he's toddled up a trail, others to the parking lot or out in their canoe or boat to scour the shore. Nobody finds him.
Attention turns to the dock, usually crowded but now empty. RCMP members have arrived, and a man who has his diving gear in his car volunteers to search offshore; the distraught parents agree. He is in for less than a minute before his head appears. The cops speak with him. Shortly after, the boy's body is lifted from the swim ladder, covered in a sheet, and carried to a waiting ambulance.
The whole beach goes back to their day, but much subdued, many people visibly upset. Word comes that the boy had wandered through the busy pier and tried to climb down the ladder. He fell backwards, his legs hooking on the lowest rung as he went upside down and drowned.
No one had noticed him.
In the Box
The corpse of a woman who was in a metal box for 50 years.
I work at a cemetery and was helping with an exhumation. This person was in a metal casket. I was fairly new at that point and I had only seen bones so far so I wasn't expecting much different. I suppose the smell and the fact that the senior guys were wearing rain gear on a cloudless day should have clued me in on this being different. We had dug down to the casket, but here was difficulty with getting the casket out of the ground.
It was decided that we would get the doors off, remove the body, then remove the rest of the casket. For whatever reason I was the one told to get in the hole and open the doors to the casket once they were exposed. After ripping on the door to force it open I was met with a few seconds of pure, abject horror as I gazed upon the desiccated, lipless, eyeless face of a woman who was buried 50 years earlier, now 4 feet away from mine.
She still had teeth and hair, her eyes and nose had collapsed, and the rest of her exposed skin was some ghastly mix of yellow, green and blue. The bottom of the casket had a layer of yellow/green fluid that made me unable to swallow any of my saliva for the next hour without feeling the urge to throw up.
I was able to get somewhat over it and helped rig some spinal board thing with some ropes so we could slide it beneath her to lift her out of the hole (which was only 3.5 feet deep or so).
We had to prop up her upper body with a pitchfork to be able to slide the board beneath her, it was surprising how stiff and heavy she was. We got her into a temporary cardboard casket and she was loaded into the van of the coroner/funeral home people. I think the family had bought a mausoleum and that's why she was being transferred. So far that's the only really intact body that I've come across at work, people are usually dirt or bones by the time they can be disinterred.
Ok. I'm already grabbing for my vodka. I mean... helping someone with no face, from a blade propeller? I don't even know where to start. And I really don't want to. I'm taking a deep breath and then I'll try to continue...
On the Inside
Infected coronary bypass wound which ate through the sternum and rib cage, the patient had a hole in her chest and the whole heart, part of the lungs were visible. Disgusting and interesting at the same time.
Do Not Operate
A safety instruction video from where my cousin used to work. it was about how NOT to operate heavy machines. It was a security footage. A guy came up to the machine, he tripped and fell right into it. It started spinning him around, after a few seconds it ripped his legs and arms off, the floor was covered with his organs.
Crash
Happened last week. We were at a bar sitting on the patio. Hear a loud screech and then a thump. Someone drunk a-hole had hit a pedestrian going ~50 mph in this tiny, pedestrian friendly street. What makes it really messed up is that the victims legs came flying off. Like all the way off.
Didn't even land near the dude. Cops and ambulance were there real quick and we saw them loading the guy up quite clearly missing important body parts. I keep checking the news and there's been no word about his status.
Secrets Downloaded
I used to fix computers back in the 90s. Y'all have no idea how much messed up crap people download. Holy crap the amount of horrific violence I came across is absolutely insane, and a lot of times the stuff wasn't even hidden, they'd save to their desktop or something.
I called the cops every time I saw stuff that was actually illegal, of course, but you can't unsee that horror. It was horrible. It really messed me up.
On the Cam
That one dashcam video where a family are driving along and a pole or a plank of wood or something falls off a wagon in front of them, comes right through the windscreen impaling the mum, instantly killing her. You don't actually see anything though, it's the audio that gets you.
Edit: It was a brick.
bad memories...
My father in law was an EMS director for 30 years, and he said he still has nightmares about giving babies CPR from a drowning, choking, etc.. He said those were the worst calls, and nothing else comes close. He felt so helpless - even though he knew the babies were gone the parents would scream for him not to stop trying to resuscitate.
Smash
Uncle was a firefighter, on his day off he passed a car that smashed into a bridge, family of 4, car on fire, everyone was stuck inside screaming. Uncle tried to save them but it was too hot, watched them all burn. He quit firefighting, had some pretty severe PTSD.
Don't Drink and Drive!
I'm a volunteer firefighter and was deployed for a road crash.
A drunk driver smashed into a couple who was driving on the opposite line, the two bodies were torn apart, blood and guts everywhere in the car. I picked up a mobile phone between the girl's feet and the locking screen was a pic of her with a maybe 2-3 weeks baby, i learned later that it was their son.
The drunk driver made it with minor injuries.
Poor Rabbit
I once watched a child kill a rabbit with his bare hands. The thought of it still bugs me and I won't go near the kid.
So, I was visiting some of my large extended family one year, say about 10 years ago. My uncle has 3 kids and they had a little hobby farm at the time. More just a bunch of odd farm like animals, but whatever.
This story is about the youngest, who was about 6 at the time.
I was out in the yard saying hello to the little baby goats when I look over and I see my little cousin trying to grab one of the rabbits. I have seen him pick them up before and while he's a little rough, they don't seem to mind.
Well not this time. This time the little bunny bit him. Not like enough to take off a finger or even draw blood, but enough to piss my little cousin off something fierce. I was about to go see if he was ok when I noticed that we wasn't crying, so I figured he was fine.
Next thing I know, he's grabbed the rabbit by the throat and it's freaking eyes are bugging out. It's mouth opens up and it's tongue is sticking out, then it makes this ungoddly sound and then stops kicking.
The little devil just tosses it aside and walks off to go play with the ducks. Like nothing happened.
Gave me the most unnerving feeling at the time and I'm still not sure about that kid.
17
Best friend was shot/murdered in front of me when I was 17. Had issues with the wrong people and we were in his house watching TV when 2 guys kicked in the door and shot him. It happened so fast that I was still on the couch when they ran out.
On the Highway
I saw a girl run across the highway and get hit by a semi on a highway in Mississippi. I stopped and she was definitely dead, it was obvious there was nothing to be done. A bunch of people rushed out from the nearby group of trailers and started picking up her things and take her jewelry. I'm not sure what was going on, really.
A few of them were yelling at a man that was standing there and from the conversations is kind of put together she was running from him. I'm not sure if she jumped out on purpose or didn't see the truck. That's not the only fatal accident I've been the first person to the scene but I'm on mobile and that's enough for now.
Prisoners
When I worked in the prison service I saw a bloke who had choked on his own vomit, that was pretty tough. He wasn't dead when I saw him but he did die later. Also saw a prisoner airlifted to hospital after he'd managed to throw a vat of boiling oil over himself.
Swollen...
I use to serve in the Coast Guard. We got a call for a floating body in the river. We pull up on what appeared to be a middle aged man belly up. We could see that his stomach had swelled from being in the water awhile but couldn't figure out was in between his legs. As we got closer, we realized his nut sack swole but 4 times the size. Needless to say that vision is forever in my head.
I'm glad that's over. I can't continue on the Reddit thread and I wish you all well if you choose to. But I really hope we're all getting therapy. After reading all of that, it's proof all humans need it.
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
@lpeterp/Bluesky
@FPWellman/X
@bobsbeatgmail.com5/Threads