25 Times Listening To A Gut Instinct Saved People’s Lives

Our bodies are always trying to share some information with us, if only we knew how to listen to it. We are taught the basic indicators of our bodies’ signs from a young age, such as when we feel hunger pangs, we may be in need of nutrition or water. When we feel tired, we may be in need of sleep or rest. But there are a million little cues that our body gives to our brains in order to indicate what it may require at any given time. So it’s safe to say that a valuable element of self-preservation is within us, and our gut instinct plays an important role in that aspect. 

#1

Image source: covertredditaddict, freepik

Three years ago I was planning a major fundraising event. I was working ridiculous hours trying to make sure everything was going to run smoothly. I had worst case scenarios planned out like a crazy person. One day I was climbing the stairs after getting home rather late when I became unnaturally short of breath. As I sat on my bed my breathing returned to normal. My face became hot with what I can only assume is what’s considered a hot-flash in older women. I started to tingle with fear. I don’t know how to explain it exactly. It was like I could feel electricity in the air warning me something was wrong.

I immediately packed my laptop, paperwork, extra clothing, toothbrush, and so on, and I slowly walked down the stairs to my car driving myself to the ER. As soon as I got through the doors I collapsed, unable to breathe. I don’t recall everything that happened right after, but what I do recall was being in the hospital for 8 days because both of my lungs were littered with blood clots. I had gotten a blood clot in my lower left calf from sitting & working too many hours on the event. It broke loose and spread throughout my lungs (the Doctor said it looked like my lungs were filled with popcorn). Had I not driven myself to the hospital when I did, the nurse said I would have died. I will NEVER ignore shortness of breath again, and I WILL trust myself when I KNOW something is wrong.

#2

Image source: fiestiier, syda_productions

I was a young, naive freshman in college and had basically no experience talking to boys. This guy had sat next to me for My whole 2 hour psych lecture and casually talked to me the whole time. Just little comments about the lecture, showing me things on his laptop. Innocent stuff. When lecture ended and we got outside it was POURING. Like, to this day I’ve seen rain like that maybe twice in my life. Rain that would physically HURT to walk in. He offered me a ride and I said yes, but as he was pulling the car up I thought to myself “don’t get in” and took off running to my dorm. Saw him on the news a few months later for raping two women.

#3

Image source: Utkarshg9, EyeEm

Was very ill, woke up to vomit and made it to the sink. Thought about rinsing it and go back to bed, but felt like I should turn the light on. Did, and it was full of blood. If I’d gone back to bed I would’ve bled to death in my sleep. I got a fun ride to the hospital at 2am. Luckily that bleed finally got me onto the transplant list. And 2 years later I got my nice pre owned piece of liver. September 30th will be my 8th liverversary! Yay!

#4

Not me, but my dad was maybe 100 feet from being on the 35W Bridge in Minneapolis when it collapsed. He said he didn’t know why, but his foot just gravitated to the brake pedal and he slowed way down, and sure enough right after that the bridge went.

The creepiest thing was watching security cam footage where we could see his car. It was surreal seeing how close my own dad was to death.

Image source: Ceyeber

#5

I was in a shared Uber with one other girl I don’t know, both in the back. We’re driving through the city and some guy off the street asks the Uber driver for a ride a few blocks away through his driver side window.

To my surprise, the Uber driver says yes! Like, WHAT?! This guy was not a paid pick-up, he was just some guy who asked a random stranger for a ride. Us and Uber driver were talking about some liberal topics, so maybe he thought we’d be cool about it? The guy hops in the front street, starts chatting it up with the Uber driver. We’re driving a couple blocks, and he keeps saying “Right over here, just a couple more minutes” and we’re getting farther and farther from the main drag.

I speak up and say “Sorry, where did you say you need to go again?” and he replies “Just around the corner,” and I say “If it’s just around the corner you can walk then, right?” and he starts getting snippy and ignores me and says to the driver “Come on, man – just a couple more blocks” and the Uber driver is like “Yeah, sure thing.”

I had to have a Karen moment and get loud and be like “No, stop the car. You are not paying for this ride, I am. You can walk from here. I’m uncomfortable, and you need to get out of the car NOW.” The guy looks at the driver like “What the f**k?” and the driver is like “Sorry, but she is paying and I need to respect that” and kicks him out.

Turns out there was a string of car jackings and robberies in that area that he was taking us. I’m guessing he was taking us to his buddy’s spot who were armed.

No f*****g way, dude. Uber driver got reported. Ladies, learn to not be polite.

Image source: lsoplexic

#6

Image source: anon, Loucaski

When I was in college, I lived in a sketchy part of Chicago (Humboldt Park/Logan Square before gentrification).

I liked to take late night strolls, even when I was living in that neighborhood as a 20-year-old woman. Yeah, I know. Pretty dumb of me.

One night, I was feeling stressed out so I embarked on one of my late night strolls.

I was walking along a somewhat busy road. Cars were zooming past me. Pretty normal. I wasn’t paying much attention because I was too wrapped up in whatever was stressing me out that night. Suddenly, a chill shot up my spine. Hyperviligance washed over me and I became more alert than I had ever been. Something was wrong. Someone was watching me.

I quickly spotted a car. It was driving in the opposite direction, a little slower than usual. It was too dark for me to see anyone inside the car, and the car was pretty unassuming. But I still knew something was off. They were watching me. I just knew.

The car drove past me and then made a u-turn. Now it was right behind me, creeping along the curb.

Luckily, there was a Walgreens a few blocks ahead. I started walking faster, and the car eventually sped past me and disappeared into a corner. I somehow knew I wasn’t safe yet, so I still sprinted to Walgreens.

I told the security guard what happened, and we both went outside. The car was parked up the street, about 50-100 feet away. The security guard was a big guy who looked intimidating. He marched toward the car, and the car immediately backed up, made a u-turn, and then booked it out of there. The security guard called the cops, and they drove me home.

I never took a late night stroll again.

My gut made me more alert, but it was really the security guard who saved my life. I’m positive that if he wasn’t there that night, something bad would’ve happened to me. I wish I could find that security guard to thank him.

#7

Image source: Tarot_6, Alaksiej Čarankievič

Went on a date with someone from Tinder.. The whole time he’s talking about himself, it’s nothing but the worst of the worst stories, about him being a*****e to his multiple exes but blaming them, telling me how his daughter hates him, and other horrible stuff that I can’t even bring myself to say.

While he’s talking I’m pretty much having a panic attack, the voice in my head is saying “calming GTFO!” So I say I have to go to family dinner, he’s making every excuse to keep me and for me to go home with him so I just get in my car and go.. we’re at a Starbucks outside.. he follows me! So I call my mom, she tells me to go over and that she’s calling the cops.

Luckily she lives in a gated community where a guard is at the booth so he can’t follow me in. He turns around and speeds off. The cops get there I give them all the information I have on this guy, he went in to details about his life and I told the cops everything.. turns out this guy kidnapped and brutally r***d a girl and was on the run and was stupid enough to tell me his real name when we met in person. It was a long summer of multiple court dates just to end in him getting a b******t sentence.

#8

Image source: myuniquenameonreddit, Getty Images

Not my gut feeling, but my mom’s. She wouldn’t let me go out of town for a weekend with my best friend. We were supposed to go to an overnight picnic, where her older, responsible guy friend would “escort” us in his safe, new car. My mom categorically refused, and my teenage self became hysterical to the point of slamming doors and yelling profanities at her.

The next day I find out my best friend and another girl were decapitated in a car accident. The guy drove drunk waaaay too fast on a country road. The car hit the gravel on the side of the road, and the car flipped a few times before hitting a tree that ripped the car in half. My best friend’s parents had to identify her remains through jewellery they found at the scene.

She was 17, I was 16. My mom saved my life that day. RIP Anna.

#9

Image source: _Anon_E_Moose, janteeruk2018

I was driving my family in our suv and was stopped at a light to make a left turn. I get the green arrow and start to hit the gas when I hear my husband scream “STOP!” I slam on the breaks and a giant pickup truck runs the red from our left and screeches to a stop 30 yards past the intersection. I definitely would’ve been k****d and my entire family injured.

So we all take a deep breath and I tell my husband I hadn’t seen the truck so it’s a good thing he did. He says he didn’t see the truck.

Then why did you yell “STOP!” I ask him. He says he didn’t yell stop. The kids say no one yelled anything.

To this day I swear I heard an audible voice telling me to stop. But no one else did.

#10

Image source: CommanderDinosaur, freepik

Relaying a friends story:
He was living in London and about to catch his usual bus when he felt like a cigarette. Just as he lit up he could see his bus pull around the bend. He considered throwing out his Ciggy but thought, bugger it, I really want my smoke, next bus was six minutes away. So he didn’t board his bus and watched it drive a bit down the road when suddenly he was knocked to the ground by a powerful unseen force. His bus was the victim of a terrorist bombing and exploded just after the stop.

#11

Image source: Tazluh, EyeEm

My buddy’s sister moved away from home, and within the first week of her living in her own home a man comes up to her door and asks her if he can “use her phone in her house because he is lost”. She didn’t buy it, felt uncomfortable and said no. Few hours pass, she walks outside to multiple police cars, ambulances and fire trucks. Turns out the guy went next door and m******d her 2 neighbors who let him in.

#12

Image source: prpslydistracted, Ekaterina Sazonova

Not me individually, but we were three couples traveling from TX to CO. One car and one Suburban. We’d swap out couples, women, men. We were up in the mountains and the weather was getting iffy pretty quick; overcast with mist in the upper elevations. One of the women was getting upset by the mile. The mountain road was a succession of curves. We had to leave one area to go to the next one and she cried and told her husband, something is wrong. We’re not supposed to go up there. Stop, please turn around!

They had been married for decades and he later said, “I’ve learned to listen to her.” So we did. It was several miles to the small town we just left. We got coffee at a drive in and after a while she calmed down. The server came by with coffee and asked which direction we were driving. She told us. “No, you won’t. We just heard on the radio they had a big landslide on that road. The sheriff and state police have blocked it off. A couple cars slid down the hillside. No word on them yet.”

#13

Not my own but one time I scrolled through my fb feed and a suggested group had a post by a woman who was grieving the sudden loss of all her pet rats over two days. It had just been posted, halfway round the world- it was late night for them.

I felt the nagging in my brain and joined the group, waited for approval and finally was able to comment “hey if you don’t have a carbon monoxide alarm, get fire fighters out immediately- do not go to bed!”

She thankfully saw that comment of mine right as she was about to go to bed- called the fire dept out and had an air quality test immediately. They might have all died in their sleep if not for my niggling feing.

Image source: Natural_Category3819

#14

Image source: RaisingWild, syda_productions

Almost 8 months pregnant, normal, complication free pregnancy. Walking through the grocery store i had a twinge of a headache. Told my husband we needed to go home.

At home i took a shower and relaxed a bit, but got an urgent “impending doom” feeling. Still just a tiny headache, not even enough for a tylenol. Packed my toddlers diaper bag and requested we go to urgent care.

The whole ride there i felt fine, wondering what i was even going to tell them at check in. But that “you’re not okay” feeling was still looming.

We pulled in, i carried my sleeping two year old inside and basically said, “Im pregnant and something isnt right.”

My blood pressure was 256/148. I had a seizure 7 minutes after getting in the room. If i had told my husband to drive past and go to the ER, we would have been stuck in traffic, as a truck had rolled over. If i hadnt left the grocery store or my house when i did, theres a chance i wouldnt have made it.

We got a ride to the hospital when i was stable, i was induced at 35ish weeks, and my son was born perfectly fine, albeit small. I stayed on blood pressure meds for 8 days before it went back to normal.

#15

Image source: Ashlei96, Federico Faccipieri

Not really a life saving moment but avoiding a visit to the hospital. I was staying the night at my grandmas house and I had to get up to use the restroom. I was walking in the dark and I stopped. I had this bad feeling so I switched on the light. Right in my path way a couple feet away was a baby scorpion. I had a huge chance of getting stung.

#16

Image source: jayrambling, EyeEm

I was at a bonfire and had planned to get a ride home with one of my friends. I got really anxious right before we left and ended up staying at the bonfire. On his way home, my friend had hit a light pole and it ended up falling and crushing the passenger seat, right where I would have been sitting. He was completely fine, just a few scratches and bruises but I definitely would have been severely injured if not k****d.

#17

Image source: Laaub, Getty Images

When I woke up and felt the need to go to the ER even though I couldn’t explain what was wrong. When we got there the cauterization from my tonsillectomy ruptured and I lost 1/6th of my blood in about 20 minutes.

#18

Image source: toucan_sam89, EyeEm

I was off work the day of the Boston Bombing and wanted to go shopping. I had an errand to run in Cambridge across the river but I wanted to go to a store right where the b**b ended up going off. I was just about to go there when something in me told me I should do my errand first.

Lo and behold as I cross the river, I get a flurry of texts from people asking if I’m ok.

#19

Image source: Snapsorry1234, Oscar Ramirez

It was Christmas Day, I’m driving to my parents at 6am, it’s extremely dark out, when I see a horrible accident in front of me taking up the two right lanes. Both vehicles don’t have their hazard lights on. I pull in front of them, switch my hazard lights on, and get out of my car on the freeway hoping I can help them and make sure they’re okay. I’m walking toward the first driver 18/19 who has blood all over him, he asks me to help him talk to 911 because he spoke broken English. Then I go to the second driver 60s and see if he’s okay, who just blames me for the accident. I just responded I didn’t do it. The operator then tells me to get everyone on the side of the freeway, which is only 2-3 feet from the slowest lane.

Suddenly I have this gut feeling to look to my left and as I do, I see a SUV racing toward us and I suddenly realize he’s not going to stop and he’s about to hit the first vehicle. The rest happened within a few seconds. The only thing I can think of is get out of the way and the only way was to go backwards. At the time I didn’t know, but there was an overpass behind us. As I’m about to fully fall back, I bothered to look where I was falling and saw how far the drop was. I reasoned I was either going to get hit by the SUV or be crippled from the fall and get hit by a car below me. Fat nope from my part, I hurled myself back up and as I’m doing so, I watch the SUV hit my leg. The only thing I’m thinking is “relax relax relax”.

I came out with no injuries and the young man wasn’t hit. Unfortunately the older man next to me was hit and k****d on impact. After hitting the man, the guy in the SUV (65+) hit my car and then swerved through all 5 lanes of traffic and crashed into the center divider. He stayed in his car for a while and when he tried to get out, he was frantic and tried to cross all 5 lanes while cars were going by. I screamed and told him please not to cross.

The guy that was hit was knocked like 100ft from where we were standing, past were my car was parked. His shoes, socks, money, everything was scattered across the freeway. The worse part of witnessing it was the skid marks of his blood on the freeway and his brain matter was in one little pile. All this was happening while I was still on the phone with 911. The operator asked me what happened, and asked me if I could drag his body off the freeway. I couldn’t do it, I was afraid someone else might not see the accident, hit my car, and then me.

It’s been over a year since the accident and the police report isn’t out yet. The guy in the SUV has insurance and a lawyer though. After the accident, a CHP told me that he’s seen accidents like this where the good samaritan was k****d trying to help. Take away from this: do not get out of your vehicle on the freeway.

#20

Image source: anon, wirestock

When I was in college one day my friends and I went to the mall, when we were leaving it was already late at night. My friends houses were just a few blocks away from the mall but mine was pretty far away so I told them I’ll take a taxi. I was waiting on the sidewalk and since it was late at night there weren’t many people outside. When a taxi was coming I put my hand out to signal that I need a ride. When it stopped my hand was reaching for the taxi door handle but then all of a sudden this strong gut feeling came over me and it kept repeating in my mind “Do not go in”.

It was so strong that I chose to trust it instead of ignoring it so I opened the door of the taxi and said “Never mind sir” and got a good look at the man’s face. The man insisted for me to come in but I just closed the door on him and walked away. There was another taxi coming and that’s the one I took but in a glimpse of an eye I saw the other taxi driver opening his door. He closed it again when the other taxi was approaching me and he drove off and I got onto the taxi that stopped in front of me.

The next day it went on the news that there was a r**ist playing a role of a taxi driver and was caught by the police yesterday because he decided to go out late at night in an attempt to catch his next victim. When it showed the picture of the man my heart dropped.

It was the same guy I saw as the taxi driver yesterday.

From that day on, I always trusted my gut.

#21

Image source: throwRA437890, George Dumitrache

I usually work late way out in the middle of nowhere, so I drive home on dirt roads late at night. I never see a soul on these roads. I also live in the praries, so I can see pretty far every direction.

There is a singular stop sign on my path home, and last night I was wondering whether or not I should stop because really, there is no point. You all know where this is going now, I reasoned with myself that if I don’t stop now I’ll make a habit of it and then that’ll turn into a problem so I began to slow down.

As soon as I hit the stop sign a truck came barreling through the intersection. There is no such thing as blind corners out here but I still didn’t see it coming. It was horrifying, I will never entertain ignoring traffic laws again holy f**k.

#22

15ish years ago. I’m 17. Suddenly and for no apparent reason I feel abject terror on a demolition site. Without warning I dive to my left and tackle my boss out of the way. I didn’t see anything. I didn’t hear anything. Not until the 3 ton wrecking ball landed exactly where we were just standing. I still have an open invitation to dinner with him and his family.

Image source: anon

#23

Image source: MeddlingKids1126, Diana Light

I don’t know if it was a gut feeling so much as good timing but as a kid me and my brother shared bunk beds, I had the bottom bunk. Every night I would get up to get myself a drink and go back to bed. I was maybe 6 when one night I get up to get my feckin juice and I barely had stepped out of our bedroom when there was a loud cracking sound. This woke my parents and the three of us rushed back to find that the wood supporting the top bunk matress had split and was now stabbing jaggedly into my mattress and pillow. A few seconds earlier or a minute later I would’ve been asleep there.

Also my brother didn’t wake up the whole time, despite his bed giving out under him and dropping him several feet 🤷‍♀️.

#24

A gut feeling saved my life, but it wasn’t my gut feeling. My mom knew something was wrong with me as a baby, even after the local doctors told her nothing was wrong when she took me 23 times. (deep South doctors)

She didn’t relent, and trusted her gut, and drove hours away to an actual city in our state where they found my cancer. Too much later and I’d have been dead. My so thankful for my mother, but trusting her gut and sticking with it.

Image source: Eagally

#25

Image source: Closecalllynn, The Yuri Arcurs Collection

Stopped just before leaving a mall on the way home from closing up shop to send a text to my long distance bf. It was the 5 minutes our schedules halfway lined up.

Old geezer — were talking about the around before time was a concept kind of old— came up and offered me a walk to my car. I had creepy feeling about him. I refused repeatedly but he kept getting between me and the door and the rest of the mall had gates up to prevent people from going all the way through.

So I calmly just kept denying until I came up with an excuse to dip into the restaurant next to the exit. It was closing up, but they handnt closed the side door yet. I waited to dip in until I saw someone at the host stand. I hurriedly explained the situation. He pretended to seat me. Old guy went away. Host walked me to my truck. I drove him back to the other entrance of the restaurant.

Got followed halfway home in my truck .Drove around until he turned off. Drove 20 more minutes.and then went home.

Guess who’s face popped up on my fb feed the next week.

He was essentially ring leader of a human trafficking ring.