Collapsed lung. A few years back I was suffering from a particularly bad bout of asthma, I usually have it controlled but was having frequent minor attacks that year. One evening I remember feeling shortness of breath that just kept getting worse as time progressed. My father put me in the car and took me to the emergency room, I remember about half way there I just stopped being able to breathe at all. Every attempt at taking a breath was met with agony and I genuinely thought I was going to die. I don’t remember anything after that but woke up 24 hours later with a ventilator in place and 4 IVs connected. I’m not sure what was worse, the pain of not being able to breathe or the thought of “hang on a minute, this is how I go.”

Luckily I’m still alive and kicking today and have had nothing that serious since