Just as there are good days, there are bad days. All that can be done is to move and look forward to the next day. But for some people, a bad day is not just a bad day. Instead, it could be considered the worst day of their life. These are the stories of people who had their life ruined in a single day. All stories have been edited for clarity.
All Because Of A Phone Update
“One of the former anesthesiology residents in the program here was in his last (CA-3) year. He was emergency call. They basically never ever call you in, but you have to be available in the event that you do get called in. Most people will sleep with their phone on or go out to the movies or do basically anything within a 30 minute drive of the hospital.
Some crazy car accident happens that night around 2 am and multiple trauma cases are going back into the OR. Our dude fell asleep and his iPhone did some automatic update so he didn’t get the call from the hospital immediately. His pager battery also died sometime that evening. He doesn’t realize any of this until he’s getting ready for work the next day at around 5:45 am and sees his phone blown up. Shows up to work at 6, fired on the spot. Guy was 2 months away from graduation and starting salary of $400k a year plus overtime.”
It Started With A Phone Call
“I caused it and was happy to do it. I was a Captain in the Army at the time. One of my soldiers, a senior E-4 looking to make Sergeant, had just gone through a rough divorce, his first, her second. Anyway he has made Darth Vader’s theme song/march song the ringtone on his phone for when she called. He was outside having a smoke and I was walking by his desk when she called. I smiled at the humor of it and looked down to glance at his phone which instantly made me lose my smile. As his phone rang with the ring tone for his now ex, the screen showed a picture of her daughter, about 6 years old, asleep and naked. She was not sending the picture, it was what he had attached to come up when she called.
I instantly sent two of my sergeants to ‘sit’ with him and keep him at the smoking bench but to say nothing while I had my company first sergeant call CID (central investigations division) to send me a detective.
Long story short, detective seized his phone, home computer and office computer. Found that since the divorce, he had been living off post/base with a 16 year old girlfriend and had been trafficking kiddie smut of his ex-step daughter that her mother knew nothing about.
Between the evidence and my testimony, he was sentenced to 25 to 55 years in federal prison for peddling child smut as well as statutory assault of his new girlfriend.”
It Ruined Everyone There
“I stepped outside of work and looked across the street, just in time for a toddler to yank free from his mom and throw himself in front of a semi.
I watched three people die that day, even though only one went under the tires.
His mom was put into custody. She went insane right then and there. I can still hear her screaming in my head. No human being should ever make a noise like that.
She killed herself the day they let her out of the hospital. He was her only child and she watched him die so close that she got splattered by him.
The driver of the big rig couldn’t even get back into the truck to move it. Another driver moved the truck for him, then his company sent a new driver to pick it up.
He never drove again. Fell into a bottle. It wasn’t his fault, he was going 25, the kid jumped too fast for anyone to react. Doesn’t change the fact that the man he was died that day. After the kid’s mom killed herself, he got worse. He fell apart. Last I heard, he was getting into hard stuff. He’d come into my store every so often to buy a drink a few years later. He was kind and sweet and broken inside.”
“We Were So Close”
“I worked on a failed tv show once, it was a late night variety show. The guy who was the host was one of my oldest friends and we thought we had done it, it was a dream come true. We’d filmed some episodes and gone on a quick break around Christmas. I’m based in another city so I went back for the holidays.
We were all set to get back into it, I’d come straight from the airport with my luggage (I pack light) and literally had my hand on the door to the studio when I got a call from the producer. The host had been accused of assault. We went over to the producers house and talked through it with some of the cast, then went into the EP’s office to discuss what was going to happen. The host was in his office waiting for our verdict. When it became clear that no one wanted to continue, I went into his office sat down and told him it was over. The last words I said to him were, ‘We were so close.’ We vomited in a bin and cleared out his stuff. We all signed a nondisclosure then I went and sat in a park for what felt like forever, then got a plane ticket outta there.
The show never saw the light of day and I haven’t spoken to him since. But I remember thinking that I’ve never seen someone’s life crumble right before my very eyes before that day. The silence before I told him and the realization that everything he had worked for was over. I remember I couldn’t look at him in the eyes, the shame and anger I’d felt. The dude was banished back to our small awful home town and now lives with his parents. He doesn’t do comedy, he doesn’t work. Just lives at his parents place getting fatter and fatter.”
He Should’ve Stayed Calm
“When I was in EMT school, we were told about a paramedic student (instructor was a paramedic as well) who observed a stabbing call.
They arrive at the bar and see a dude with a knife in his abdomen, medic student takes lead and pulls the knife out, something you never do as I’m sure you know. Senior Medic loses his mind at what the student did, asking him what he was thinking. Student freaks out and, you guessed it, puts the knife back in.
The patient died as a result, student lost any chance of having a good job (not even just in EMS) and was charged with the death of the patient (might’ve been manslaughter, I don’t remember). His entire life was ruined because he freaked out and made a mistake on a call, not a rookie mistake or a common slip up, but in about half a minute he ruined his life.”
I Ruined His Life
“I guess in this case, I ruined his life.
My ex and I were trying to work things out between us after he had cheated and lied to me 5 times. I had gone crazy on him and he made me believe everything was my fault. Even though the cheating happened first and the crazy happened after, but whatever…
He texted me telling me that he had a girl who liked him. I told him to tell her he was taken. He said he would if I bought him a knife. So I bought it for him and showed him the receipt. He then said, ‘Actually, I’m going to choose a person over a knife’ and blocked me.
I found out that he had been staying up all night with this girl for about a week now. When he was telling me he was ‘too tired’ to make love to me, he was actually up all night with her on the phone. When he asked me for the best pictures I had of him, he was asking so he could impress her. This made me pretty angry.
So I joined the chat server he met the girl in and sent her a word document with every screenshot of his cheating, as well as a list of people to contact if she wanted to confirm my story, and a video of him telling me to kill myself multiple times. She showed this to the chat server, they banned him, she cut ties with him, etc.
I then called his mom. She still sided with me, told me her son was a piece of garbage, and offered to reimburse me for the money I spent on gifts for him and the money I spent on visiting him. About $1,000. I felt bad about this and refused, but she said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll take it from his account.’ I still tried to decline her offer but she pushed and pushed, so I gave her my routing number and she sent me the money. She also made him delete all his social media. The next day, she decided we should all stop talking to each other.
So my ex lost his friends, the girl he cheated with, his money, his long time loyal girlfriend, and his social media all in one day.”
It Was Supposed To Be A Short Drive
“My best friend of 10 years was also my neighbor. One night around 1 am, I was up waiting for him to get home from the pub so we could chat and have a smoke. The pub was less than 3 miles from our neighborhood, so it wasn’t that far. Eventually after texting back and forth, he told me that he would be a little longer at the pub so I told him I was tired and to drive safe. The next morning as I’m in the bathroom, I hear my mom answer the door followed by some commotion and screaming… My mom then opens the bathroom door crying hysterically and just tells me that my best friend had died in a car accident the night before. At first, it didn’t make sense to me; I had just spoken to him the night before, it’s impossible, I thought.
But it was true.
I got dressed and went outside in pure disbelief. I saw his parents and brother along with other neighbors in disarray. The neighborhood was really close and everyone knew/cared for each other) The parents were pale and in shock, praying out loud to let this be a dream and not reality (his family and ours were basically one big family. They had two sons, 22, 19 (at the time) and one of them was gone forever.
According to the police, he’d crashed no more than 30 minutes after I texted him, which was devastating for me to learn. He left the pub with his close friend, he was a passenger and his close friend was driving. They had a RWD car, so it is believed (according to the scene) they tried to drift coming out of the pub on a wiggly road doing about 70-80MPH. Over-steered, tried to recover, overdid it, hit a curb, caught air and hit a concrete light pole. The car split into three separate pieces, my best friend (passenger) was ejected and died upon impact. The driver (his close friend) made it out with a couple of stitches to the head. They were both heavily under the influence and it didn’t help that the car had a faulty passenger seatbelt. I don’t think the seatbelt would’ve helped though, as the car hit the pole on the passenger side. The driver got ten years for vehicular manslaughter and has a 3 year probationary period after. Both families were devastated.”
I Survived But He Never Recovered
“I was 13. My dad had gone to the neighbors across street to borrow their riding mower (dad had known this person’s family for many years) so I could mow our direct neighbor’s lawn to make a few bucks. This was on July 6th, somewhat important. We got to the end of their driveway ready to cross the road. According to my dad, he said something along the lines of ‘go across the street’ and was going to finish the sentence with ‘when I say go, and clean the sticks out of the yard.’
Being excited because I was going to make some cash and get to use the riding mower, when I heard ‘go across the street,’ I took off. I was hit by a car going 55+ in a 45 and my dad saw it all. My friend down the street was out playing basketball and recalled to me how he heard my dad screaming, crying and cursing around a bunch of jumbled words.
The next car to pop the hill was an off duty EMT. This person saved my life. Immediately called in an emergency helicopter. I died in the helicopter and was brought back. I was in a coma for over a week. I then had amnesia for 2+ weeks. I barely remember waking up as myself in the hospital. It was all so odd. I don’t remember any of it. Never have. Closest date I can remember is July 4th and the fireworks show. I have lost most of my childhood memories except for a few that I cherish, but at times I have to be reminded if they are real memories.
This destroyed my dad. He become severely depressed. It caused unknowing emotional abuse with him always wanting what’s best for me, but going about it the very wrong way. Using negative reinforcement for everything. This caused me severe depression. My dad never recovered. Ended up turning to substances. My dad passed 10 years ago, and I’m still an emotional wreck behind the meds, and false positive attitude. I have dreams of fist fights with my dad that wake me up because I throw real punches. At the same time, I miss my dad so much. I’d give everything to talk to him again. At least in the dreams I get to hear his real voice.
She Ruined Everything
“I had a former colleague who was doing his residency in General Surgery. He had just started his 5th and final year of training. One day, in the middle of a surgical case, the police show up at the hospital for him. A tech pulled him out of the OR, and he was arrested right there on the spot in front of everybody, still in most of his surgical attire. He had to do the walk of shame through the entire hospital, in handcuffs and OR scrubs.
Turns out his ex-wife had gone to the police claiming that he had assaulted their children. The children testified to this effect as well. All of us were blown away. This was the sweetest, most cheerful guy ever. Nobody thought him capable of something like this. Sure enough, it came out several months later that the kids’ statements were coerced and that his ex-wife falsified the whole thing. It wasn’t the first time she had attempted to mess up his life, but it was definitely the most successful. Dude’s career and life were over.”
All From One Bad Decision
“Very popular twin sisters were both killed one weekend. They were passengers in a vehicle that was racing another vehicle when the driver lost control on a turn and flipped the car.
The driver – a friend of mine and classmate – was in the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and received a cavalcade of well-wishers. None of them knew what actually happened. Once the truth came out about the accident, he became persona non-grata. I don’t remember what charges he faced, but he faced them.
Later, the guy who’d bought them drinks was so guilt stricken, he turned himself in. He got a minor slap on the wrist, which didn’t do his conscience well. Last time I saw him he was years removed from the incident, still regretting it and drinking his life away in a trailer park. I’m sure he’s dead by now.
The guy they were racing also came forward from guilt, otherwise no one would have been the wiser. I don’t know if he was charged with anything at all.
There are several lives ruined by this story, all from a couple inebriated decisions.
This wasn’t my first experience with classmate death. During the summer following 4th grade a classmate was shot in the head during a drive by. That was heavy to deal with. But this one was just incredibly heavy.”
She Found Unexpected Letters
“One of my coworkers arrived at work sobbing hysterically. It took a while to calm her down to the point where we could understand anything she was saying. I thought she must have been robbed or something, but it turned out she’d just found love letters in her car, from her mother to her husband.
They were having an affair. It wasn’t just that the mom was infatuated and writing to him.
All I could think was that a) if that were me, the last thing I’d do is show up to work and tell everybody, and b) I’d probably drive off a cliff. Or … I don’t know, murder my husband? How do you ever recover from that? I mean, if my husband was just having an affair with a chick or another man, I’d just divorce him… but MY MOTHER!? I don’t even know what I would do…. I still think about that. Poor girl. She was such a nice person and did not deserve that. “
He Didn’t Leave After The First Warning
“I work as a social worker in a institution where we help inmates with their release from prison. Some of them struggle with their new freedom and so my job is basically to help them learn how to live again.
This is how I met Jörg (I live and work in Germany). He identified himself as a ‘gay double-murderer.’ He proceeded to tell me his story.
During this time, many people frowned upon gay relationships or anything out of the norm. Despite this, he was able to hide his relationship with his boyfriend for 5-6 years. He always was a calm, friendly type of guy (and he still is). He worked at a supermarket near his apartment, where he live with his friend.
One fateful day, he went home earlier because his boss had sent him home. He entered the apartment and realized there were noises coming from the bedroom.
You could probably imagine what is going down to cause these noises.
His boyfriend was having fun with another man in his bed. To make it worse, they didn’t even stop when they saw that he had entered the room.
He was shocked but managed to calmly say, ‘Just get out my apartment. Just go. I don’t want to see you anymore. You have 2 hours and when I return, you better be gone.’
He then promptly left for a nearby bar where he proceeded to drink until he was too inebriated to think straight and then drank some more. After 2 hours (Of a lot of Jack’s, Tito’s and other stuff) he left for a local gas station and bought another bottle of good ol´ Jack Daniels. He then went home to continue drinking his grief away. When he came home, he caught his boyfriend and his lover still in his bed.
He promptly emptied the bottle and smashed it on the head of his boyfriend, who suffered a heavy skull fracture (cause JD-Bottles have edges). The bottle splintered and in a’blood rage’, stabbed the rest of the bottle into the neck of the other guy. Lover boy died instantly while the boyfriend died in the ambulance of blood loss from the fracture.
Jörg called the ambulance and the police and turned himself in. The court sentenced him to life sentence and ‘security custody because of the brutality.’ He’s now has 23 years in prison all because of his boyfriend.”
Just A Clean Up Job
“I used to work the front desk of HR for a big hospital. There was a cute elderly gentleman who had been hired for the janitorial staff. I on-boarded him and remembered how sweet, kind, and appreciative he was all the time. One day, a few months into his job, he came to the front desk and looked completely different. His light spirit was gone and had been replaced by something much, much darker. He had come in to set up counseling appointments and proceeded to tell me why. His story went as follows:
He was on the job when he received a call that a patient had fallen and he needed to go to ‘X’ spot to help clean it up. That was it.
Of course, he didn’t realize until he arrived at the scene that the patient had jumped to her death from the top of a 5 story garage building. He was the first person there, totally unprepared for the gruesome scene. No one had warned him of what he would find. No one thought that the poor janitor could’ve been spared from seeing that. My heart still goes out to him (this was about 8 years ago). I hope he got lots of counseling and was somehow able to move on with his life. He didn’t have to say much for me to understand how deeply traumatized he was. Poor soul.”