Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Share Simple Mistakes That Have Actually Ended Lives

Reddit user SuffocatedByThighs asked: 'What simple mistake has ended lives?'

Make us preferred on Google

Not to startle any of you, but death stalks us.

We all have nightmares about diseases and murderers.


But what if, in the end, we just choke on a pickle we inhaled too fast?

Maybe instead of a pickle, a little coleslaw would have been the wiser choice.

We'll never know.

The most minute things can send us packing.

Redditor SuffocatedByThighs wanted to discuss the things that can extinguish our lives in the most basic ways, so they asked:

"What simple mistake has ended lives?"

Tripping over untied shoelaces.

It can break your neck.

TIE YOUR SHOES!!!

Off the Rocks

On No Falling GIF by Outside TVGiphy

"There have been too many instances of rock climbers rappelling off of the ends of their ropes, which could have been easily avoided by tying stopper knots at the ends of their ropes."

LZRDLZRD

Seconds

"I worked at a tire place for a summer and the first thing they told me was 'See that torque wrench? One mistake with this and you can kill a whole family in a matter of seconds.' I thought well, better take this thing seriously."

FrenchMicrowave

"Man for a second I was thinking 'F**k you'd have to swing that thing around fast to take out an entire family' and just bluescreened on the idea of changing a tire."

lurking_my_a**_off

How Vexing...

"THERAC-25. The world’s deadliest software error. Cost several radiation patients their lives by administering lethal amounts of radiation, and for a while, the doctors didn’t even know."

Longjumping_Event_59

"THERAC-25 suffered a particularly vexing sort of error known as a race condition. Essentially, the circuit required multiple inputs in a particular sequence, but sometimes the timing of that sequence could get thrown out of whack and it would lead to all sorts of nonsensical output."

"This is less than ideal when all you're doing is manipulating pixels, but when your software is handling radiation beams you really don't want this to happen."

"Even more vexing is that race conditions are frequently heisenbugs, which can vanish altogether when one attempts to study them. If you don't have a good idea of what's causing the error, you may never cotton on to what sort of bad input is required to test it. Under those circumstances, it's easy to write them off as imaginary, only to then find."

dancingmadkoschei

Heavy Drifting

"Leaving the stranded vehicle on the road in winter and trying to walk to get help. It happens in rural parts of our province once or twice a year and they find the body a few days later. They get disoriented and freeze."

Regina_Runner

"I got blown off a road in high winds. Heavy drifting. Less than a mile from a friend's house after I had turned around. Drifts made it impossible to complete the trip. Trying to run a mile in full blizzard conditions was a fight for my life as an in-shape 24-year-old male athlete.

"rotyag

Simple Slips

Uh Oh Omg GIF by BounceGiphy

"Almost any simple mistake can end a life if you're an anesthesiologist, that's how my grandpa died in his early 60s."

dwserps

Any second. Any moment.

Stay vigilant people.

Celibacy could be better...

Oh My Wow GIFGiphy

"Not being honest with doctors about Viagra. It has many dangerous drug interactions and can cause a lot of problems from what I’ve heard. Trust me the doctor ain’t gonna judge you guys, they have seen many more embarrassing things. And it would suck to die because you wanted to hide something just for it to be later stated in your death certificate."

The_upsetti_spagetti

Check the Numbers

"As a healthcare worker, giving the wrong amount of insulin."

UzumakiHorror

"During the first shift of my first clinical rotation in nursing school, I watched a nurse draw up insulin out of an auto-injector pen that was CLEARLY marked to specifically not do that AND she was drastically wrong about the dosage and almost killed a guy by giving him essentially like a hundred times the intended dose."

someguynamedg

Stay In

"Pulling the knife out of someone."

rcadephantom

"Yeah, I did that but it was a broken tree branch that had impaled my leg. Without even thinking I pulled it out. Blood started gushing so I pulled off my shirt and tied it into a pressure bandage. I was lucky I didn’t bleed to death."

Olddog_Newtricks2001

"Shock is an IQ reducer. I once sliced a bit off the side of my hand with a broken glass, and sort of dazedly picked off the piece of me and tried to stick it back on. It did not work."

UncannyTarotSpread

Stay Dirty

"Mixing cleaning ingredients."

Jonnysource

"My dad was trying to unclog his kitchen drain and mixed drain cleaners by adding one then adding another a few minutes later. It started bubbling and he began coughing intensely. I heard him coughing from the other room, saw what happened, and opened the nearby window to get rid of the chlorine gas he just produced."

"I forgot there was a large hive of wasps that had moved into that window and they did not appreciate this unexpected interruption. I took him to the emergency room for the gas exposure and it was tough explaining that the wasp stings were not why we were there."

CharmingTuber

Dear God

Jeff Goldblum What GIF by The Late Late Show with James CordenGiphy

"A friend’s husband locked himself out of their home. He tried to get in through a window that had security bars. While squeezing through his foot slipped and he essentially hung himself on the window sill."

Cokej01

Life is fleeting. Here is proof.

LIVE!! But live smart.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Omar Jimenez and Nancy Mace from CNN interview
CNN

Nancy Mace Gets Blunt Civics Lesson After Claiming Every Muslim Elected Official Is A 'Trojan Horse'

South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace was called out by CNN anchor Omar Jimenez for her lack of understanding of the First Amendment after she published a series of Islamophobic tweets, including one referring to every Muslim elected official in the country as a "Trojan horse."

Mace's posts came after Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan's Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. El-Sayed, a physician who campaigned on expanding healthcare access, strengthening the economy, and ending unconditional U.S. military aid to Israel, became the first progressive to win a statewide primary in a state carried by President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. He is set to face former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers in November.

Keep ReadingShow less
Bill Cassidy; Donald Trump
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

GOP Senator Hit With Brutal Reminder After Slamming Trump Over Executive Order To Break Up MMR Vaccine

Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy was criticized for voting to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) after he spoke out against President Donald Trump's executive order recommending that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine be broken up into separate shots.

The new policy would recommend giving the MMR vaccine as three individual injections rather than as a combined shot, while also spacing childhood vaccinations across separate doctor visits.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump
@atrupar/X

Trump Slammed After Claiming Infants Get Vaccines The 'Size Of A Bottle Of Soda' In Unhinged Rant

In the latest move toward promoting conspiracy theories and anti-vaxxer pseudoscience over legitimate research, MAGA Republican President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled Delivering Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations for Americans.

The signing ceremony was attended by members of his administration and other guests, including anti-vax activist and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., White House policy advisor and Project 2025 architect Stephen Miller, and health economist and controversial National Institutes of Health Director and acting Centers for Disease Control Director Jay Bhattacharya, who attended medical school but never practiced medicine.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ryan Reynolds; Janice and Jeff Ivey
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images; Jeff Ivey

Ryan Reynolds Has Hilarious One-Liner After Texas Couple Moves To Wrexham After Being Inspired By His Reality Show

After watching Welcome to Wrexham on Disney+ and visiting Wales seven times in the past two years, Texas couple Jeff and Janice Ivey decided to make the big move from Texas to Wrexham.

The docuseries stars Ryan Reynolds, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Rob McElhenney, and the Wrexham soccer team, and it showcased a sense of community that the couple loved. Since Jeff has UK citizenship thanks to Scottish ancestry, the Iveys decided to put it to good use to visit various places in Wales, focusing their time on Wrexham.

Keep ReadingShow less
Brooke Shields on @grier_henchy's TikTok
@grier_henchy/TikTok

Brooke Shields Offers Iconic Clapbacks After Daughter Hops On 'Bully' TikTok Trend To Jokingly Mock Her Gray Hair And Wrinkles

A lot of trends that get popular on TikTok are mean-spirited, in most people's opinion, and now there's a "bully trend" going around in which people say unkind, critical things to a friend or family member and give them a chance to clap back.

When her daughter Grier approached her with the trend, Brooke Shields was ready.

Keep ReadingShow less