the most scared I’ve ever been was when I almost died at 8 years old.
growing up I was rather accident prone - the summer between 1st and 2nd grade I was at a friend’s birthday party & he had a fun idea that we should all ride our bikes to the lake. I had recently gotten a new bike and it had hand brakes, previously I had only used backpedal brakes & in retrospect I probably shouldnt have been riding it yet. on the ride to the lake I took a wrong turn and the bike landed in a rut on the side of the road which launched me into a barbed wire fence (back peddling fast af but, eh, no brakes there). got a really nice concussion (mid-80s, no helmets) but when I fell onto the barbed wire, it ended up ripping a good bit through the top and outside of my leg, through the fat layer and into the muscle (which was fortunate because the major artery is on the inside of the leg). the wound was only about 3 1/2 inches deep and 6 inches across but when you’re 8 years old your legs arent that big to begin with.
when I came to my friend’s mother was understandably losing her shit, driving at rally racing speeds to the local doctor, ~10 miles away. my blood was splattered everywhere on the passenger side of the car and she was screaming at me to apply pressure outside of the giant fucking hole in my leg. honestly thought I was going to die - the memories are pretty hazy after that but mind-shattering trauma will do that.
modern medicine and 150 intramuscular and about the same in dermal stitches saved my life. 35 years later and I still have 100% nerve damage on the outside of my leg above the knee to about mid-thigh. never been that scared since - once you’re forced to confront your own mortality everything else is really tame in comparison.