The Student Room Group

Could I have died?

When I was 11, in P.E we were doing gymnastics and messing about. Being a stupid child, I squeezed myself between two very thick mats. It was fun at first, but then someone sat on the mat above (not deliberately) and I was pinned down. The only body parts I could move were my hands, head and feet. I started hyperventilating and sobbing thinking I was going to die. Luckily the person above came off the mat after about 2/3 mins and I wriggled my way to freedom with my face red and dripping with tears. I didn’t reminisce about this incident until something on the news brought the memory back.

My question is, if the person hadn’t gotten off for a long time, could I have suffocated? My legs were sticking out of the two mats from the knees down so it wasn’t airtight in there, but there was substantial pressure on my chest from the person sitting above and I certainly remember feeling like I was going to suffocate. This has really been playing on my mind the last few days in a somewhat PTSD-type way, so I would appreciate a candid answer.
Reply 1
1 of the ways that people die when they have been buried is due to chest/lung compression and not being able to expand their chest enough to breathe, I would say that takes quite a lot of weight and the weight of a single other human being ontop of you probably wouldn't have been enough to make that happen unless the human being was a fully grown adult, you being a child.
Also the mat on top of you would have meant that the other persons weight would have been distributed more evenly over a larger distance making it less likely that you weren't unable to breathe properly. I would expect that the reason you thought you were going to die was not due to not being able to breathe properly by way of compression but rather by way of mild panic attack.
So all in all I don't think you would have died from that incident.
Couldn't you talk?
So your mouth was clear? That wasn't stopping you from breathing?

You can certainly be smothered to death. Death by compression of the chest is also possible but far more unlikely and probably not under such circumstances. To feel panicked when it happens though is normal - that is the response which makes you breathe harder and try to get whatever it is off of you!

Thinking about something, even a large amount, is not PTSD.
If they stayed there long enough, and it was stopping you from breathing properly, then obviously you would have died. Can't really survive without breathing, can you.

Although I fail to see a) why you did it in the first place and b) why you couldn't scream for help.
Reply 5
I could have died lots of times already, last one was about 2 months ago when I was in a dinky car and my sisters boyfriend was driving, he is used to driving on the other side of the road and pulled out an a high speed intersection after not looking both ways, there was an SUV doing around 80-100km/h coming towards us, it would have hit us side on and killed us all on impact, but even though he didn't look, I did. I shouted stop and he slammed on breaks, the car coming towards us swerved and only just managed to not crash as they were skidding and we were already in the middle of the intersection.

We're alive but it very nearly ended right there for four of us, and probably would have, had I not done my driving test just a few weeks earlier and got into the habit of looking even when not driving, something I never did before. I've had many a near death experiences (so much that it's kinda worrying), but at the time you don't really appreciate the gravity of what nearly happened.
(edited 5 years ago)
Reply 6
Original post by IronMan115
When I was 11, in P.E we were doing gymnastics and messing about. Being a stupid child, I squeezed myself between two very thick mats. It was fun at first, but then someone sat on the mat above (not deliberately) and I was pinned down. The only body parts I could move were my hands, head and feet. I started hyperventilating and sobbing thinking I was going to die. Luckily the person above came off the mat after about 2/3 mins and I wriggled my way to freedom with my face red and dripping with tears. I didn’t reminisce about this incident until something on the news brought the memory back.

My question is, if the person hadn’t gotten off for a long time, could I have suffocated? My legs were sticking out of the two mats from the knees down so it wasn’t airtight in there, but there was substantial pressure on my chest from the person sitting above and I certainly remember feeling like I was going to suffocate. This has really been playing on my mind the last few days in a somewhat PTSD-type way, so I would appreciate a candid answer.


Simple answer is yes you could have died. There's a good few things that would have to have gone wrong or that could have prevented you from dieing though.
There are a few ways being stuck between two mats could kill somebody but the main ones are by covering their mouth so they can't take in any air or by putting pressure on their chest so they can't take on enough air.
Both of those things would take at least a little while especially in your case as your face wasn't totally covered. In that time it is likely somebody would notice your feet sticking out and help you before you suffered too much difficulty breathing. There's then also a period of time where you may not have enough air to stay concuous but can still be helped out and then get enough air to wake up and recover. There's then even a time where you have stopped talking in any air, but can still be resuscitated.
It is still possible to go past all those stages and die, but you were a fair bit from death in that situation and what really matters is that you did get out and you are okay.
Also with situations like that they often feel a lot worse than they are because you are panicing. Panic makes it harder to breathe and in a situation like that would make you feel so much closer to death, but frankly chances are if it got bad enough you would pass out and then without the panic your body would find it easier to breathe until they got off you.

It's pretty scary knowing you have been in a dangerous situation or even just being in a situation that feels dangerous. It reminds us how things can go wrong and that we are mortal and it's also just pretty freaky thinking of all the what ifs- how creepy would it be of my teacher had to give me mouth to mouth? What's it like to be in an ambulance? How would my parents feel? Etc etc.
At the end of the day though as scary a thought as it is you go through every day avoiding death. Every time you put food in your mouth you could choke, every time you get in a car it could crash, every time you walk into a building it could suddenly collapse, just standing in the middle of a field a plane could fall out of the sky and hit you. But you've made it this far and now than likely will make it a lot further. You just have to keep on living your life because worrying about all the things that could go wrong or that almost did isn't going to achieve anything (unless you have a job as a risk assessor I guess).

I've had a coupe of experiences myself where it felt that bit closer to death than your normal everyday stuff and it's pretty freaky. Sometimes it still freaks me out that I was in those situations. But I'm still here and living my life and that's what matters. There are so many other times in my life where I could have had a near death experience but didn't and hey I ain't dead yet so I figure the odds are more in my favour than against. :smile:
Reply 7
Original post by Student-95
Couldn't you talk?

I was screaming. I guess no-one could hear.
Original post by IronMan115
I was screaming. I guess no-one could hear.


You sure it wasn't intentional?
Reply 9
Original post by nexttime
So your mouth was clear? That wasn't stopping you from breathing?

You can certainly be smothered to death. Death by compression of the chest is also possible but far more unlikely and probably not under such circumstances. To feel panicked when it happens though is normal - that is the response which makes you breathe harder and try to get whatever it is off of you!

Thinking about something, even a large amount, is not PTSD.

Yes, my mouth was clear, however I wasn’t able to expand my chest fully and it was a confined space (but not airtight).

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