5 People Whose Scars Tell The Story Of How They Cheated Death

Many of us can remember a close call that made us scared in a way we couldn’t describe but that also made us feel lucky to be alive. However, when a life-threatening experience passes, it can leave a lot behind.

When we describe the scars a traumatic experience has left on us, we’re just as likely to talk about it from a mental perspective as we are from a physical one. Even if the event brought no harm to our bodies, it could make us afraid to do what we once loved and, depending on what it was, make it hard to trust people. In some cases, even the comfort we get from sleeping can be invaded by visions replaying the horrors all over again.

Yet sometimes those scars and the ones left on our skin are two sides of the same coin. It’s this relationship between physical and emotional scars that photographer Emily Goddard sought to capture with her When Death Leaves His Mark series.

With this, she asked people who suffered near-death experiences to show the scars they received from their ordeals. She did this with the hope that she could tell their stories visually and do “justice to their raw beauty.”

With that in mind, this is how she displayed the five people willing to bare their scars for her and the world.

Please SHARE this with anyone you know who may relate to their struggles.

1. This man goes by Gezz and his large scar comes from a rare and difficult operation.

To treat testicular cancer, some surgeons will make an incision across the entire abdomen and remove the afflicted lymph nodes. It’s rare in recent times because it’s such a high-risk procedure, but sometimes it’s necessary in advanced cases.For Gezz, the operation was needed after the cancer spread to his stomach.

You’d think it would take a while before you could do much of anything after such a major operation.

However, Gezz reportedly appeared in these photographs just six weeks after it had happened and days after doctors gave him the all-clear.

2. This is Floss, who underwent a spinal fusion back in 2011.

It’s unknown exactly why she needed the treatment, but it would have to be a serious reason indeed for the chronic pain that can sometimes happen after the operation to be worth it. 

3. Ben here got this scar after undergoing a frontal lobe lobectomy.

This became necessary in 2002 after a bad sinus infection developed into a serious brain infection.

Although the scars we’ve seen so far are from surgeries, sometimes a serious accident can have similarly dramatic results.