What's the most serious illness or injury you've experienced?

[TDAS04]

When I was 4, I became dangerously dehydrated because I couldn't keep water or anything down.  My parents took me to the hospital, where I spent a few days.  I probably would have died without the hospitalization. 

[IceSpear]

I broke my femur when I was 3. The first hospital we went to said there were no problems. Needless to say, we never went back there again.

[Ebowed]

I broke my arm (slipped on sheep feces down a hill visiting a friend's farm in New Zealand) when I was 15.  I can't think of anything more serious.

[AndrewTX]

I agreed with BRTD on a poll once.

[Lambsbread]

I'm fairly certain it was about 2 years ago, but I suffered a ruptured ear drum and had to take off about a week from school. The pain was absolutely indescribable--it was the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. My ear frequently had blood and other liquids pouring out of it, which meant that I had to sleep on towels instead of pillows. I was put on various different meds and I healed within due time. Still, the pain was horrific and I hope I never experience anything like it ever again.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

I recently learned that I have a very severe case of sleep bruxism. If not for the mouthguard I'm getting next month I could very well grind my teeth into stumps.

[Franzl]

Pneumonia at age 11

[H. Ross Peron]

Severe flu (with high fever) and pneumonia freshman year of high school

[free my dawg]

Bad flu at six years old. Would not recommend.

Had I not caught the mastoid infection sooner it would probably be up here too.

[Paul Kemp]

2nd degree burns to the head and edges of face. A few areas were 3rd.

[Phony Moderate]

Depression maybe, or Asperger's. I dunno.

[Fritz]

Do chronic illnesses count, like diabetes and parkinsons disease?

I can't decide which one is worse.

[morgieb]

Had to go to hospital for some virus when I was 3. Don't remember the specifics there, haven't really had anything more serious than a cold over the last 10-15 years.

[Adam Griffin]

I was very accident-prone up until the age of 2 or so. One time, I crawled between some chairs and the like that were placed around a wood stove to keep me from getting too close to it, and slapped both of my hands on it. That left my hands with a bunch of warts on them for years (my Indian grandmother kept rubbing banana peels on them and supposedly the potassium ultimately made them go away).

Probably the most serious injury was around the same time, when I saw a cat outside a glass door and ran over to see it. My shoe was untied, I stepped on the shoelace, tripped and went face-first through the glass door. Had to have quite a number of stitches, and I still have a Harry Potter-like scar on my forehead from that.

I also had a pretty bad concussion when I was 18 while playing Red Rover on concrete. >_> Otherwise, nothing major in terms of illnesses or even broken bones (I believe I broke on two separate occasions both of my big toes playing soccer, but a toe is a toe and I never went to the doctor because there isn't much they can do for it anyway).

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

If it weren't for the miracle worker doctors at the Cleveland Clinic my date of death would have been 12-13-1983.  Everyday since has been borrowed time. 

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Strangely enough, I've never been seriously ill nor injured. The only time I've been hospitalized was in the summer of 2012, after I got hit by a car while driving on my bike, but it was just an unpleasant concussion which led them to keep me for a night.

[Consciously Unconscious]

I had stomach ulcers a few years ago.  That's probably the worst that I've had.

[anvi]

I was born with a ventricular septal defect--a hole between the ventricles in the heart.  There was corrective surgery for it at the time, and that surgery was performed when I was 8 and I've been fine since.  But had I been born before the surgical procedure was invented, the circulatory problems the defect caused would have left me in a wheelchair by the time I was 12 and dead by about 20.  So, yay for modern medicine. 

[politicallefty]

I've had pneumonia twice (I think at 7 and 11). It didn't lead to hospitalization, but I remember having frequent doctor visits for treatment.

I've had a number of injuries, though nothing too serious. The most serious was probably when my leg was cut wide open when I was 12, resulting in something like 25 stitches. I'm pretty sure it was the only time I went to the hospital in an ambulance.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

I had something that didn't feel that bad but was apparently very serious.

So I had a small sore near my elbow. There was a little piece of skin that was bothering me around the sore, so I picked at it, use tweezers, etc., and the damn piece of skin wouldn't tear off. In the process, I made the wound a bit bigger (but it was still really small). It got a bit itchy, but at first it wasn't a big deal.

Anyway, it got extremely infected and swelled up. For a day or so, it was extremely painful, but eventually the swelling went down. What happened, though, is that my blood got infected. From my elbow to about a third of the way up my forearm, a vein leading directly from under the sore turned bright red.

I went to the see my doctor and had to have four doses of antibiotics a day. Apparently if I'd waited any longer to see him, this thing could've been life-threatening and I might have been talking about losing my arm. All from picking at a cut. It was kind of a scary thing to hear.

[The Dowager Mod]

Left orbital socket fractured, broken jaw left side, 4 teeth gone when first husband decided i had a punchable face.
Also a Mastectomy a few years ago.

[Arturo Belano]

I had a nasty flu at age 11.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I took a bad fall and knocked my two front teeth into my gums at the age of 3. They grew back really far apart, and had to have braces from 1st through 8th grade.

[RogueBeaver]

Splinter in my eye when I was 8.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Left orbital socket fractured, broken jaw left side, 4 teeth gone when first husband decided i had a punchable face.
Also a Mastectomy a few years ago.

thats terrible. 

For me it was probably a flu back in 2007 that wiped me out for several days.  My immune system is strong but that one really got me.  I almost checked into the hospital because I could barely get up to get water or use the bathroom.