13 Times In Recent History Where One Decision Altered Someone’s Life Forever

Content warning: Discussions of substance abuse and graphic details of death.

Recently, we rounded up instances of people whose lives were completely altered by one bad decision. While gathering stories for that piece, I also came across quite a few ~newsworthy~, examples (aka they were in the news or happened to a public figure) worth their own piece.

Here are the stories:

FYI, just like the last story, if you have a fear of freak accidents or the worst-case scenario possibly happening, I would not read on.

1. “Boban Janković, basketball player.”

2. “That dude who ate a slug as a dare.”

3. “The guy who accidentally opened the clamp on the diving bell that was in the process of decompression on the Byford Dolphin oil rig in 1983. The sudden change in pressure caused such an explosion that five people died (all four divers and one assistant), and one was badly injured. One of the divers was sucked through a small diameter hole and basically was ripped in half and exploded. They found their remains as high as 10 meters on the oil platform…”

4. “Richard Jewell, the security guard who found the pipe bomb at the Atlanta Olympics. The media and law enforcement absolutely ruined that guy’s life, accusing him of being the bomber. He was just doing his job (and did it well), and as a congratulations, he got publicly smeared for YEARS.”

5. “Gabriel Rivera. Football player drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was going to be the new anchor on a defense trying to replenish itself. Halfway through his rookie season, he crashes his new car while going something like double the speed limit while drunk and is ejected from the car. He lived, but he was paralyzed for the rest of his life.”

6. “José Fernandez. He was a promising pro baseball player. [Fernandez was legally drunk, had cocaine in his system, and was behind the wheel when his boat crashed.] He killed two friends and himself. 24 years old. His daughter was born a few days after his funeral.”

7. “Henry Ruggs III. The dude is an all-star, first-round pick wide receiver playing in the NFL. Top 1% of the 1% in professional sports. Not only did he have fame, but he was also lining up to make millions and millions of dollars as the star in the most-watched sport in American culture. He drinks and drives, crashing his new Corvette into an innocent woman at a stop light with her dog. The car bursts into flames, trapping her and the dog, who both end up burning to death. A person died. A dog died. Because he drank and drove.”

9. “Michael Schumacher deciding to ski off-piste that fateful day.”

10. “Jimi Heselden. The owner of Segway, who died by accidentally riding a segway off a cliff.”

11. “A respected heart surgeon in Melbourne who told a guy to stop smoking right outside the hospital doors. The guy turned around and punched him a single time in the head. King-hit, coward-punched, whatever you want to call it. He fell to the floor and hit his head a second time. He was on life support for four weeks and then died.”

12. “The scientist who was messing around with the ‘demon core’ (aka the plutonium core meant for use in an atomic bomb if Japan didn’t surrender) with a screwdriver in 1946. Just one little slip-up of the screwdriver, a flash of blue light, and just like that, he was dead within nine days from the radiation poisoning.”

And lastly, on a bit of a sillier (but still unfortunate) note:

13. “I guess not destroyed per se, but Howard Dean’s political career tanked with one silly yell that got blown up by the internet.”

Do you have any other stories of people whose lives were completely changed by one decision? Maybe you have a famous example or your own personal story. Let us know in the comments or at this anonymous form.