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• From people getting lost in the desert to the sole survivor of a terrifying plane
crash, we count 15 times people evaded deaths in the harshest circumstances known to man
15 - Chris Stewart • This is a story from Fareham, Hants with
a 12-year-old who was racing around in his 1,000CC Mini when it hit a barrier at 40mph
• In what is referred to as an internal decapitation, Chris's skull was severed from
his spine and he was given a measly 10% chance of survival, with doctors claiming he should've
died instantly • Amazingly in 2006, they reattached his
skull using metal plates and bone grafts - and within a few years he was off racing again
14 - Steven Callahan • It was in January 1982 that Steven set
sail on his small sailboat from the Canary Islands bound for the Carribean, but not even
one week later his ship sank in a storm, and he was left adrift on an inflatable rubber
raft • For 76 entire days he drifted with nothing
but a shirt, three pounds of food, some gear and water - eventually he washed up on the
Bahamas • He then wrote an autobiography of the
whole ordeal, so impressive that Ang Lee the director of Life of Pi asked Steven to become
a film consultant on living aboard a life raft
13 - Bethany Hamilton • An early morning in November 2003 when
Bethany went surfing in Hawaii • She was out with her best friend Alana
and their family when a tiger shark around 4 meters in length, rose out of the water
and tore Bethany's left arm clean off the shoulder
• Instead of panicking or crying, this 13-year-old girl swam back to shore with her one good
arm, even warning other swimmers nearby to get out of the water
• Pretty much the toughest girl of all time 12 - Joe Simpson
• If you've ever seen the documentary, Touching the Void, then you'll already know this guy's
story, but for those that don't: • Joe was being lowered down a crevasse
because of a broken leg when he disappeared from view, so his friend Simon Yates was forced
to cut the rope, sending Joe to what seemed like certain death
• Instead, it turned into a 3 day fight for survival in a frozen tundra, slowly moving
through the snow on a broken leg, half-frozen until his return
• If you haven't seen the documentary, highly recommend it, very powerful stuff
11 - Mark and Phil • Another ice story, this one set in 1982
on the high slopes of New Zealand's tallest mountain, Aoraki Mt. Cook
• The two men Mark Inglis and Phil Doole built an ice cave to escape the blizzard,
waiting for it to pass, but unluckily it kept up for 13 entire days - and all they had were
meagre rations with no prospect of warmth • Unfortunately the circulation was cut
off in their legs and they had to be amputated, which is something you should never have to
go through at 23 years of age • Crazily enough, they still climb to this
day with Inglis becoming the first double amputee to conquer Everest, losing fingers
and flesh in the process 10 - Juliane Koepcke
• 1971, 93 passengers aboard LANSA flight 508 when lightning struck the plane over the
Peruvian rain forests and it came crashing down
• Juliane was blown out of the plane early and landed two miles down the wreckage in
a dense thicket, where she only came out with blindness in one eye, a broken collarbone
along with cuts and bruises • She walked down the jungle following the
water running downstream until she found a cabin where she waited for the owner to come
back • She then got back to civilisation and
continued her studies to become a zoologist 9 - Anatoli Bugorski
• A formerly Soviet researcher at the Institute for High Energy Physics working on the largest
particle accelerator at the time, the Synchrotron U-70
• It was in 1978 that a malfunction forced Bugorski to lean over a piece of equipment
and look inside the proton beam chamber - but failed safety mechanisms did not turn off
the beam, and it went straight through his skull at a speed faster than light
• He claims he saw a flash brighter than a thousand suns, with no pain - but his face
swelled up and skin began to peel off • Thankfully he survived without losing
any intelligence, but he gets fatigued easily, he can't hear out his left ear and occasional
seizures 8 - Alcides Moreno
• A window cleaner who, in 2007, fell 47 storeys when their cable snapped alongside
his brother Edgar, who tragically fell to his death
• Alcides on the other hand was left in a coma with considerable damage to his body,
but soon afterwards he awoke and made a full recovery, even walking despite damage to his
spinal cord • One of the doctors quote: “If you’re
a believer in miracles, this would be one. I’ve seen it all – or at least I think
I have – until something like this happens.” 7 - Ricky Megee
• April 2006, a man who showed up as a skeletal figure near a cattle station in a remote area
of Australia • He claims the last thing he remembered
was getting his car stolen and that he was drugged by a hitchhiker, then he awoke to
find dingoes scratching at him • He then lived 71 days off a diet of leeches,
frogs, snakes and insects with water from a nearby dam and a makeshift shelter
• By the time he showed up again, he'd lost over half his body weight coming in at 48
kilos 6 - Aron Ralston
• May 2003, an 800-pound boulder falls on Aron's arm and traps it inside a canyon wall
• If this story sounds familiar, it's because we saw it in the film 127 hours, in which
he spends 5 days trapped in a Utah canyon with little food or water
• He went on to write a book about how he used the boulder to snap his own arm, then
cut off the flesh with a pocket knife until he could wander off and get rescued by some
hikers passing by 5 - Wenseslao Moguel
• A man in 1915 captured during the Mexican Revolution, sentenced to death via firing
squad • They filled him with eight bullets, and
then one more straight through his head - but he survived, feigning death until the shooters
left • He's gone on to be interviewed by Ripley
from Ripley's Believe It or Not, the story of the man who survived a barrage of bullets
which, sadly, left him a little disfigured 4 - Truman Duncan
• A railroad switchman who endured a horrifying ordeal - to have his body sliced clean in
half by a train • It was 2006 when Truman fell off a moving
train in Cleburne and it sliced him in two, but he managed to stay conscious - calling
both 911 and his family to inform them what had happened
• After a three-week coma and 23 surgeries, he came out confined to a wheelchair but very
much alive, surgeons claiming it was an absolute miracle and he should not have survived
3 - Tami Oldham Ashcraft • 1983, Tami and her boyfriend Richard Sharp
were sailing the South Pacific when a category four hurricane blew up 19 days into a 30 day
crossing • Their ship capsized and Tami, still in
the lower decks, was knocked unconscious - 27 hours later she awoke to find Richard gone,
no safety line or mainmast • Fighting down the desire to give up, she
sailed for forty days on route to what she thought was Hawaii, ending up in Hilo Harbor,
in shock but thankful to be alive 2 - Paul Templer
• 1990s, Paul was working as a river guide with a tribe of native Zimbabwe when he received
a surprise attack from one of Africa's most dangerous animals - the bull hippo
• While trying to save a colleague, the hippo swallowed Paul's head, then got mauled
with rips in his foot, a severed arm, broken ribs and holes in his chest cavity
• He then endured a seven hour operation for his recovery, and went on leading safari
trips and public speaking for charities 1 - Mauro Prosperi
• The 1994 Marathon of the Sands in Morocco, Mauro was performing the 6 day run when a
sandstorm caused him to lose his way • He ended up forgetting which way he was
running, and instead ended up far, far away from the track - within 36 hours he'd run
out of food and water, so he resorted to drinking urine and eating bats and snakes
• He tried to commit suicide by slitting his wrists, but dehydration caused his blood
to thicken, clotting each wound • 9 days later he was found by some nomads
and taken to an Algerian hospital