Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Describe Their Craziest 'One In A Million' Experiences

People Describe Their Craziest 'One In A Million' Experiences
person lying on bed and another person standing

There are several things we think, for better or worse, will likely never happen to us.

Sometimes, they might be things we wish, even pray, will happen, such as winning the lottery or marrying a royal.

Then there are the things we are grateful for that the chances of them actually happening to us are slim to none, such as a rare, terminal illness, or being struck by lightning.

Unlikely as these experiences are, they do indeed happen to people.

Such as the extraordinary case of Australian Bill Morgan, who in 1993 came back to life after being legally dead on the operating table, and went on to win the lottery not once, but twice!


Redditor -SharkBoy-- was curious to hear some other extraordinary instances of people finding themselves in "one in a million" situations, leading them to ask:
"Were you ever that 1 in 1,000,000? If so, what's your story?"

Unexplained Malaria

"Not me, my wife."

"We lived in Jacksonville, Florida."

"She rarely gets sick, but has mild insomnia."

"Around Wednesday, she had a low fever, and complained of aches and sweats at night and trouble sleeping."

"That weekend she wanted to see the Doctor."

"I told her she probably had the flu, just wasn't used the aches, and she always has trouble sleeping, but if she was still feeling bad Sunday we'd go to a clinic."

"Saturday night she couldn't sleep so we made an appointment for Sunday afternoon."

"But on our way there, sure enough she's feeling better."

"Doctor checks her out, she's feeling fine now, no fever, he says she probably had meningitis but is recovering."

"I'm due to go on a business trip to California the next day, Monday, and ask him if he thinks it's fine I go."

"He says, yeah, no problem."

"That evening, wife is eating and laughing and all is good."

"Monday morning I leave early."

"That afternoon, my neighbor calls, and lets me know my wife was wandering in the street in a delirium."

"My wife didn't know where she was, so the neighbor drove her to the ER."

"I book a flight home that night."

"The hospital checks her out."

"She has a fever, her blood cell count is in the basement, and she is completely out of it mentally. "

"They're not sure what's wrong, and a bunch of specialists start descending on her."

"I have to fill out a bunch of paperwork on her medical history, where we've been, etc."

"They think maybe it's some weird auto-immune disorder."

"Not good."

"She gets a bunch of transfusions and put on a cocktail of meds while they figure it out."

"Third day in the hospital, the infectious disease guy comes in."

"Blood parasite."

"Maybe tick born."

"She'd been to the mid-West recently, coulda caught it if she went walking in the woods or a park."

"Next day he comes in."

"Figured out the parasite."

"'Why didn't you tell me she left the country?'"

"Huh?"

"She hasn't."

"'Well, she has malaria'."

"Malaria?"

"I thought you couldn't get that in the U.S."

"'You can't, you need to go home and bring me her passport'."

"What the hell?"

"I retrieve her passport."

"CDC comes, does a whole case study on her, which they wouldn't release to us."

"Mosquito traps setup around the neighborhood, mysterious vans start driving by spewing clouds of stuff."

"My wife stays in the ICU for a week, but recovers just fine. "

"If you look at the 2010 CDC Infectious Disease report you'll see a discussion of malaria, and how the XX number of cases all are related to people recently returned from endemic areas, except for one woman in Duval County, Florida who received it from a cryptic vector." Reddit

Invisible Appendix

"When I was 14 years old, I woke up one day with heavy stomach cramps."

"We called the hospital and they told us that i probably have a stomach flu and should go to the doctor next morning."

"After one of the worst nights ever, vomiting and sleeping next to the toilet we went to the doctor."

"I had a fever of 40 °C and was aching a lot."

"The doctor told me I had to to go to ER and have it checked out because she thought my appendix was inflamed and causing the pain."

"We went to the ER and I stayed in the hospital for about 2 weeks, but they couldn't find anything."

"They treated me with broad range antibiotics and after 2 weeks I was feeling a bit better and they told me to go home and recover."

"The night i got back from the hospital I went to bed and started hallucinating that I lived in a retirement home and that pirates were coming to steal our food."

"So I was flailing around trying to fend of pirates when my mother came in and asked what all the fuss was about."

"I told her what was going on and she looked at me like I had summoned a devil."

"She took my temperature and she instantly took me to the ER again."

"I had a 41°C fever."

"When we went back to the hospital I got treated immediately for inflammation and they did a wide range of test again."

"They saw that something in my body was inflamed but they couldn't find it."

"I stayed in the hospital for about 2 more weeks when they finally found what was going on."

"My appendix was inflamed and burst the night ."

"I was having the hallucinations but on all the scans they couldn't see my appendix."

"The doctor told me that if I came in 2 days later I would have died because of the puss flowing in my body."

"Apparently there is a 1% chance of all the appendix cases that the appendix is so stretched out that they couldn't see it on the scans or that the area was so inflamed they didn't see it."

"So after staying on antibiotics for about 2 more weeks they finally removed my appendix and all the pain was gone."

"I stayed in the hospital for over 4 weeks just because of my appendix and my bad luck on being that 1%."- Warplevel

Making The Happiest Place On Earth Even Happier!

"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."- CaptchaGremlin

earth reasons GIFGiphy

Unique Allergy

"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."- Mannaminne

Life Saving Bacteria

"I was diagnoses with leukemia i got a bacteria growth wich killed the leukemia, a real 1 in 1,000,000 chance."

"I almost died thanks to that bacteria though."- InNeedOfFriend

An Odds Defying Love Story

"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."- Dominusatrox

John Cusack Serendipity GIF by MIRAMAXGiphy

Jaundice

"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 :)"

User Deleted

Crash

"I survived a “non-survivable” plane crush. 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 dessert, 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 sandstorm, a lot of people live in these desert towns in China do this) found me on there 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."

"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!"

yusenye

Tumor

"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 🙏🏼"

erieberie

Lucky 7s

"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."

indiesnobs

You never know when the odds will, indeed, be in your favor.

Sometimes, when the odds seem against you, it's still worth it to give it your all, as you may find yourself surprised and happy with the results.

On the flip side, always best to be prepared, as you never know when your luck might turn on you...


More from Trending/best-of-reddit

TikToker @richi_luvv; Sabrina Carpenter
@richi_luvv/TikTok; Sabrina Carpenter/YouTube

Kidz Bop Just Released A Cover Of A Super Suggestive Sabrina Carpenter Song—And Fans Are Not OK

Kidz Bop, the long-running music outfit that refashions pop songs for the ears of children, usually focuses on upbeat, bubble gum pop tunes, right?

It's like the kind of songs you'd hear at, say, the grocery store, retooled for the elementary school set.

Keep ReadingShow less
screenshot from Fox News broadcast
Fox News

Sean Hannity Roasted After Claiming His Friends In NYC Are 'Scared' After Mamdani's Win

When Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary for New York City mayor in June, Republicans and some old school Democrats were positively apoplectic.

An immigrant Muslim of Gujarati and Punjabi Indian parents who has lived in NYC since he was 7 years old, the 34-year-old New York State Assembly member was the stuff of nightmares for the MAGAsphere. Mamdani was a non-White, non-Christian, Uganda-born immigrant and progressive Democrat.

Keep ReadingShow less
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Zohran Mamdani
Andres Kudacki/Getty Images; Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

AOC Has Democrats Applauding With Her Viral Reaction To Zohran Mamdani's Historic Win

New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had people nodding their heads after she opened up about why democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani's win in the New York City mayoral election on Tuesday is so important for the country at large as well as for the future of the Democratic Party.

Mamdani successfully took on the establishment to become the first South Asian, first Muslim, and first millennial mayor-elect, running a campaign that focused predominantly on the city's affordability crisis and that successfully batted away racist and Islamophobic backlash from right-wingers who claimed his policies would "destroy" the city.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Mike Johnson
Fox News

Mike Johnson Gets A Swift Reality Check After Trying To Downplay The Election Results

House Speaker Mike Johnson was called out after displaying his clear denial over Tuesday night's election wins for Democrats, claiming that "no one should read too much into" the results despite major upsets.

Democrats won races around the country, particularly in Virginia, where Abigail Spanberger became the first woman to the win the governorship in the state's history, and in New York City, where Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, successfully took on the establishment to become the first South Asian, first Muslim, and first millennial mayor-elect.

Keep ReadingShow less
A man in a suit walking down the sidewalk and pulling a bag
person in black suit jacket with r ed bag walking beside metal fence
Photo by Romain V on Unsplash

People Who Quit Their Jobs On Day One Reveal What Made Them Say 'Nope, Not Doing This'

Every now and then, simply because we need money, we might take a job that doesn't fulfill us in any way, but at least keeps our bank accounts happy.

Some jobs, however, are so soul-sucking that even with no other prospects immediately on the horizon, we can't, in good conscience, keep working them.

Keep ReadingShow less