The Many Ways I’ve Almost Died (Part Two)

9 min readMar 19, 2021

Hi there! 🙂 I’m back, alive and barely functioning, but kicking.

So, as you may recall, I posted Part One of The Many Ways I’ve Almost Died here. Just click the link to read that.

Without further ado, let’s get to Part Two!

Hi, Debbi Mack here. And I promised you a second part of the many ways I’ve almost died. And so here it is. But first notice my new backdrop. It’s a door. Yes, a door. We’re doing some renovations on different parts of our house and this door makes a nice backdrop, don’t you think? I mean, you’re less distracted by all the junk that was back there, right? I mean, I’m less distracted. Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh yeah. The many ways that I’ve almost died. Here they are.

So then the next time I almost died, a freaking tornado went right by my car.

So then the next time I almost died, a freaking tornado went right by my car. I was at library school at the time and I came out and the sky looked so dark, and this woman stood there at the door and wouldn’t move. And I went by her and I’m like rushing to the garage. And I had heard something about a tornado warning in Virginia, but then when I got to my car, I heard on the radio that it was in Hyattsville. So I was like, I got to get out here. And the next thing I know, I’m stuck in traffic on this road. And I looked in my side-view mirror and there’s this freaking tornado right there. I mean, it was coming right at me. And I was just like, Oh my God. And then, you know, a few hundred feet away, it crossed over to the other side of the road and went onto the campus. And the thing still went right by my car, because I could hear the transformers blowing up as it got closer and closer. It was the scariest thing. One of the scariest things I’ve been through in my life.

And then another time I almost died, I was hit by a truck, a tractor-trailer on the [Capitol] Beltway.

And then another time I almost died, I was hit by a truck, a tractor-trailer on the [Capitol] Beltway. In my car. It was really weird because I was doing a delivery for a law firm as a law clerk at the time. And I was in the right lane and I saw this tractor-trailer suddenly make a move into the lane next to mine. And I thought he was trying to come over so he could get off at the next exit. So I kind of sped up a little to let him in — behind me, you know? But the next thing I know, Bam! He hits the rear of my car and I’m hearing this eeeeehhh sound. And my car is turning around. I can’t control the wheel, of course. And then Boom! He hit me again. And then I went spinning across all four lanes of the Beltway and hit this side rail. And, as I was spinning, it was like I was going in slow motion.

And I thought, Oh my God, I’m going to get hit. And then nobody hit me. That was the strange thing. And then, as the guardrail’s coming closer, I thought, Oh my God, I’m going to flip over the guardrail. I think I was on a bridge, too. So I was afraid I was going to go flipping over and, you know, die or something. But I didn’t, I just crashed into the guardrail and I just sat there like this. And then I just started, after the initial shock wore off, I just started laughing, because I couldn’t believe I was still alive. And it turned out that the tractor-trailer had a tire blow out or something, because somebody cut him off, and there was this lawsuit and everything. I wasn’t sued, but I was brought in as some kind of, I don’t know. I don’t remember now how I was brought in.

Was I sued? No, I sued for damages. That’s right, because my insurance company wanted to recover what they paid for me. So I was brought in there and I had to do a deposition and it was just a mess. I’m just glad, I’m so glad to be alive.

And then possibly the worst one was when I fell down the escalator or down the “up” escalator.

And then possibly the worst one was when I fell down the escalator or down the “up” escalator. I was in Boston for a writers’ conference and I accidentally went down to the wrong platform. So I took the “up” escalator to get up to the platform in this train station. I thought I was going to save some money by taking the train to the hotel instead of a cab. Well, let me tell you this “up” escalator was a single file escalator and I had dystonia and my hand was not working right, as usual, and I was trying to pull my bag onto the escalator and it got stuck.

And then, as I was trying to pull it, I fell and I tried to grasp the hand rail. And I didn’t. I failed to grasp it. And I just went down and I was just like upside down on this “up” escalator, you know, pointing downwards. As I said back when I first blogged about this (here’s yet another reprint), I fell southbound on a northbound escalator. And so there I was. This guy was behind me, but the suitcase was blocking his ability to get to me and help me up. So I was like, Aaaah! And he said, don’t worry. The top is coming. I was like, okay. And we get to the top and I get halfway pushed off and I’m still on the escalator. I’m still half on the escalator. So I was pushing myself up to keep my face from getting completely ripped off by the escalator. And I was so scared and my hand was giving out and I thought, any second, now I’m just gonna, my face is just going to turn into hamburger. And I was yelling, Help! Help! Help! Over and over.

So I was pushing myself up to keep my face from getting completely ripped off by the escalator.

And somebody, I heard somebody say, “Hold on, don’t panic, hold on, hold on.” Or something like that. And he came up behind me and somehow I managed to push myself over. And there was this guy leaning down, and I grabbed his hands and he pulled me up and it was just the scariest thing in the world. And apparently, I cut myself just a little bit and I didn’t know it. And there was blood coming out all over my face and people were walking by looking at me. And I was like, what is it? And then I realized, Oh my God, they’re all looking at my face. So I patted my face. And then I realized there was blood all over my hand and I said, Oh! My! God! Just like that. And then there are these other things that happened that were so strange. I mean, the guy who rescued me said, don’t panic.

And then I realized there was blood all over my hand and I said, Oh! My! God!

He kept saying, don’t panic, don’t panic, though. So I’m like, I’m not panicking. And he said, “Don’t hate me because I’m black.” And then he ran away and I was like, what? And I looked over at these guys who were next to me. I said, what was that about? And they just kind of looked at me. And that’s when I realized something was wrong, other than just my falling and that I had blood all over my face. Well, it was just horrible. And I ripped my jeans and I was covered with grease. And it was, ugh, I looked like a wreck. And I got to the hotel. I took a taxi. Yeah. I ended up saving a lot of money. Right? And I get to the hotel and the people behind the counter are like, “Hi, checking in?” And they didn’t say a thing about how I looked. And I was like, wow, okay. Do people come in here looking like this all the time? They were really professional people, total professionalism there. But yeah, it came up because I had a little road rash on my chin, actually. It didn’t look too attractive. And I thought, how many agents are going to talk to me in this condition? Well, you’d be surprised. Many of them did. And they seemed really nice, but I didn’t get an agent. Oh, well.

BTW, to read an even more detailed description of the incident in Boston, just click here! 🙂

And then there was the time that I thought I had almost become quadriplegic.

And then there was the time that I thought I had almost become quadriplegic. Okay. I was staying at this hotel. I’m not going to say which one for fear of them possibly getting sued or something, but I’m staying at a hotel and I was going to a film seminar. So I decided to stay in DC overnight to go to this thing that was happening Friday night, followed by all day Saturday. Okay. So I’m staying at the hotel in DC and in the morning I take a shower and while I was taking my shower, I slipped in the tub and I went down. It was cause my foot was clenching (due to dystonia) and I went down and hit the back of my head on the side of the tub. And I just laid there going, oh, you know, I was just in total shock. It happened so fast that, you know, at first I just didn’t move at all.

And then I started wiggling my toes and my hands. Moving my hands around, and I realized I was okay. But, you know, the back of my head hurt, and it was right in the area below your skull. And so, very gingerly, I managed to get myself out of the tub and finish off my shower, because I still had soap in my hair. And so then I was feeling a little shaky. A little shaky. Yeah.

And I got out, dried off, called my husband and said, guess what happened? And I told him, and he starts asking me these questions. Like, what year is it? Who is the President? And I answered them correctly. And I said, do you think I need to go to the hospital? Cause I really want to go to this seminar. You know? And it was a film production seminar that has really changed my life in many ways. Like a lot of things have changed my life.

But, anyway, so yeah, we decided it would probably be okay for me not to go to the hospital. But then when I was sitting there in the middle of that seminar, I had this sudden recollection of watching Million Dollar Baby and the part where she hits her head on the stool? And I thought, Oh my God, that could have been me. I had this moment where I just blanked out completely and didn’t hear a thing of what the instructor was saying. And it just stunned me so much. Just the thought of possibly being quadriplegic because of this goddamn dystonia. I don’t know. It was just frightening as hell. Anyway, I’m still alive, and hopefully will stay that way for a while.

[Blogger’s/Vlogger’s Note: But there are no guarantees, are there?]