Incredible rescue cases that are hard to believe. The most incredible extreme cases in which a person survived

Most people, having skipped a meal or forgotten their jacket at home in cool weather, think that the day is hopelessly ruined because of this. The slightest feeling of hunger or cold makes you feel uncomfortable. But what would you do if you found yourself in a difficult situation on the brink of survival?

This article presents ten incredible stories about people who had it much worse than you with your hopelessly ruined day.

The man who drifted on a raft on the high seas for 76 days

In 1982, Stephen Callahan, an American author, naval architect, inventor and sailor, collected all available wood materials and built a boat on which he sailed from the Canary Islands. He took with him a little more than a kilogram of food, about four liters of water, a solar desalination machine and a homemade spear.

Six days into the voyage, Stephen Callahan's boat sank, forcing him to drift offshore on a 1.5 x 1.5 meter wooden raft for 76 days until he was rescued. During this time, Callahan's raft covered a distance of almost 3,000 kilometers. The man managed to survive against all odds, including attacks by bloodthirsty sharks.

The teenage girl who survived a plane crash that fell from a height of three thousand meters into the depths of the rainforest

On Christmas Eve 1971, seventeen-year-old Juliana Margaret Koepke flew with her mother on LANSA Flight 508 to Pucallpa, where her father worked. None of them suspected that due to an absurd accident (a lightning strike), the plane would crash, and Juliana would become the only person who would survive the terrible plane crash. The girl, with cuts and a broken collarbone, wandered the jungle for nine days looking for help. She survived in the wild thanks to her parents, who taught her to cope with extreme situations from childhood.

A teenager who lived in the wild for two months

In November 2013, eighteen-year-old teenager Matthew Allen, who has a mental disorder, left home without his belongings and mobile phone and never returned. Two months later, he was found covered in leeches in the Australian bush. During this time, he partially lost his sight, lost about 30 kilograms and developed gangrene in his lower extremities.

For two months, Matthew Allen saved himself by drinking water from an almost dry stream.

Two men who survived a car accident and spent ten days searching for help

Uruguayan rugby players Nando Parrado and Roberto Caneza were among those lucky enough to survive a passenger plane crash in the Andes in 1972. Then, 29 people died as a result of the plane crash.

Nando Parrado, Roberto Caneza and other surviving passengers (sixteen people in total managed to escape) wandered through the mountains for ten days in search of help. To survive in the frosty conditions, they had to resort to cannibalism: for a week they ate the flesh of dead people.

In 1974, British author Piers Paul Reid wrote about the survivors of the 1972 Andes plane crash in Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors, which later became a bestseller. Later, the story described in the book was used as the basis for the plot of the film “The Living,” written by Ethan Hawke.

In turn, in 2006, Nando Parrado published the book “Miracle in the Andes: 72 days in the mountains and my long journey home.”

A man who had to amputate his arm to survive being trapped

The story of American climber Aron Ralston was used as the basis for the plot of the film 127 Hours starring James Franco.

In 2003, Aron Ralston put on his boots, grabbed a backpack with a hydration system, climbing gear, a folding hiking tool, put a mountain bike in the back of his truck and set off on a five-hour drive to the other side of Utah for a solo hike that he knew nothing about. didn't say.

While walking through Blue John Canyon in Canyonlands National Park, Ralston accidentally found himself in a dangerous trap when a huge boulder weighing 360 kilograms fell on his right hand. The climber spent 5 days with his right hand pinned under a boulder. When his food and water supplies ran out and Ralston was faced with a matter of life and death, he plucked up the courage to do the unthinkable - amputate his right arm with a dull pocketknife.

Despite the severe pain shock and bleeding wound, Ralston managed to get out of the crevice. He walked for several hours under the scorching sun until he finally came across a group of tourists who gave him first aid and called a rescue helicopter.

A mountain climber who woke up from a deep hypothermic coma that lasted eighteen hours

In 1996, Dr. Seaborn Beck, along with nine climbers, decided to fulfill his cherished dream and conquer the mighty peak of Everest. Unfortunately, the attempt to do so turned into a nightmare, after which Dr. Seaborn's life changed forever.

While climbing Everest, he fell into a deep hypothermic coma, in which he remained for eighteen hours. Dr. Seaborn almost died. He miraculously managed to survive, but not without dire consequences. Doctors subsequently amputated his upper and lower limbs and also removed frostbitten skin from his face. However, Dr. Seaborn is not discouraged, he enjoys his life as never before.

In his book Left to Die, Dr. Seaborn writes: “At the last moment, some unknown inner force saved me from death. I, barely dragging my feet (literally like a walking dead), reached the camp where my rebirth took place...” His book formed the basis of the plot of two films - "Left for Dead" and "Everest".

Two men who got lost in the Amazon rainforest and lived there for three weeks

In 1981, young and naive Yossi Ginsberg, along with several of his friends and like-minded people, went to explore the Amazon rainforest and got lost in its wilds. At this point, the travelers realized that they had very little food left.

Afterwards, a quarrel arose between the friends, which ended with two of them leaving, separating from the group, and no one saw them again. Ginsberg was left alone with Kevin. They had a hard time in the three weeks they spent in the jungle. Ginsberg's raft hit rocks; he found himself cut off from Kevin, and so they were forced to split up. Yossi spent 19 days alone in the jungle, after which Kevin found him and saved him.

A teenage girl who was seriously injured in a horrific car accident but was able to walk again against the odds.

At the age of seventeen, Katrina Burgess signed a contract with a modeling agency. Just a few months earlier, she had suffered a terrible accident. She was hospitalized with a broken neck, pelvis, left leg, spine and punctured lungs. Doctors said she would never walk again. Katrina underwent countless operations and, despite all the disappointing forecasts of doctors, got back on her feet.

The man who fell from the 47th floor and survived

In 2007, two brothers Alcides and Edgar Moreno were cleaning windows in a New York building. Unfortunately, that day they forgot to wear seat belts, which is why a terrible tragedy occurred. The brothers fell from the height of the 47th floor and flew down.

Edgar died on the spot from his injuries, but Alcidus miraculously managed to survive. He was admitted to the hospital with multiple fractures of the ribs, right arm, both legs, as well as a serious spinal injury. Alcides fell into a coma, but eventually came to his senses and was able to walk again.

According to Dr. Philip Barry, who treated Alcid Moreno, it was truly a miracle.

The man who survived a hippo attack

After serving in the British Army, Paul Templer returned to his homeland, Zimbabwe, where he got a job as a river guide. One of the trips along the river almost ended in tragedy for Paul.

In 1995, a man witnessed a huge hippopotamus attack his colleague. He did not stand by and tried to help the poor fellow.

When Paul came close to the hippopotamus, it opened its large mouth and swallowed it whole. The man somehow managed to escape from the animal's mouth, but suffered a serious injury to his arm, which required amputation. Despite this, Paul continues to work as a river guide to this day.

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From the depths of the Amazon to the open oceans, below are twenty-five amazing stories of survival against all odds:

25. Juliane Koepcke

She was the sole survivor of the LANSA Flight 508 crash, which disintegrated in mid-air over the Peruvian rainforest after being struck by lightning. Juliana fell thousands of meters down while strapped into her seat, but her fall was softened by the jungle canopy and she survived with only a broken collarbone. Fortunately, there was a stream flowing near the place where she fell, and after she wandered along its bed for 9 days, she was rescued by lumberjacks.

24. Nando Parrado and team

After a Uruguayan rugby team crashed a plane high in the Andes, the survivors resorted to cannibalism. One of the survivors, Nando Parrado, managed to find a way to climb the 5,181-meter peak that had left the group stuck on the glacier. They then walked for 10 days before being rescued.

23. Steven Callahan

Sailing from the Canary Islands towards the Caribbean with a small sail, Stephen's boat sank in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, leaving him adrift for 76 days. He eventually made it ashore in the Bahamas.

22. John Colter

John Coulter was an American trapper who was captured by the Blackfeet Indians in 1808. After they stripped him naked and told him to run, Colten realized he was the subject of a "man hunt." He managed to evade and even kill several of his pursuers on the way to Fort Raymond, which was almost 321 kilometers away.

21. Ernest Shackleton Expedition Team

When Sir Ernest Shackleton was traveling to cross Antarctica on foot, his ship became stuck in the ice and, without assistance, he and his crew were stranded for 22 months. For the first year, the crew lived inside the ship, but after the ice destroyed it, they moved onto the ice. Ernest eventually decided to sail 1,287 kilometers in a lifeboat to the island of South Georgia, where a small whaling operation was taking place.

20. Aron Ralston

Aron's story became widely known in 2003 when he had to have his right arm amputated to free himself after he was stuck between a boulder and a rock wall. He was hiking in Utah when a boulder shifted and pinned his arm.

19. Pierre Viaud

In 1766, Pierre Viau was on board a French merchant ship that was wrecked during a storm off the coast of Florida. He struggled to find food and shelter in the Florida swamps and even killed his slave to prevent him from dying a painful death from starvation. However, in the end he was saved.

18. Debbie Kiley

In October 1982, Deborah and four other people traveled on a yacht from Maine to Florida. After rough waves off the coast of North Carolina destroy their boat, they find themselves stranded in shark-infested waters. One of them swam away from the group and was never seen again, and the other was eaten by sharks right under the raft. Of the entire team, only Deborah and one other person survived.

17. Gremlin Special Passengers

On May 13, 1945, a US military aircraft nicknamed the Special Gremlin crashed into a mountain in Dutch New Guinea. Three of the surviving passengers found themselves surrounded by a tribe of notorious cannibals. Luckily for them, the tribe fed almost exclusively on members of the enemy tribe. Ultimately, the trio was rescued.

16. Whaleship Essex Crew

After a sperm whale rammed and sank the ship, 21 sailors from Essex began to be carried away by the current. Resorting to cannibalism and quenching their thirst with urine, they eventually made it to an uninhabited island with limited resources. They split up to find help and some returned to the ocean in their boats. Of the 21 people, only 8 survived.

15. Jan Baalsrud

In March 1943, Jan and a group of foreign soldiers arrived in Nazi-occupied Norway from England. Their goal was to help in the resistance. After the mission failed, Jan was chased across the Norwegian tundra. He had almost no clothes on and suffered a bullet wound. Eventually, he found a friendly Arctic village, whose inhabitants helped him escape to England.

14. Abby Sunderland

While attempting to become the youngest girl to circumnavigate the world solo, the mast of Abby's 12-metre yacht broke some 3,218 kilometers offshore in the middle of the Indian Ocean. She was rescued by a fisherman two days after she made a distress call.

13. Hugh Glass

After he was badly mauled by a bear during a trapping expedition in Missouri, the expedition leader asked several men to stay with Hugh until he died and then bury him. However, the men left him while he was still alive and informed the leader that he was dead. When Hugh regained consciousness, he crawled to the Missouri River and then reached Fort Knox on a raft. Along the way, the natives helped him by covering his festering wounds with bear skins.

12. Beck Weathers

Documenting the deadliest season in the history of climbing Mount Everest, the best-selling Into Thin Air tells the story of Beck Weathers, who miraculously survived collapsing in the death zone. After spending 18 hours in sub-zero temperatures, he came to his senses and stumbled back to camp. His face was horribly disfigured and he lost both arms.

11. Donner Party

This group of American pioneers was trying to reach California when a series of misfortunes forced them to spend the winter of 1846 in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Some members of the party resorted to cannibalism to survive, and in the end, only 48 of the 87 members of the party made it to their destination.

10. Lt David Steeves

He was supposed to fly from California to Alabama, but Lieutenant David Steves never arrived. During the search, he was not found and he was declared dead. However, two weeks later, he returned on foot from the Sierra Nevada mountains after being ejected when something exploded on the plane.

9. Balloon Crash

In the winter of 1920, three American naval lieutenants flying in a hot air balloon crashed deep in the Canadian wilderness. They walked for a week until they finally reached a trading post on Hudson Bay.

8. Yossi Ghinsberg

In 1982, Yossi and three of his friends became lost in the Bolivian Amazon. The group split into pairs and they never saw their two comrades again. Yossi and his friend built a raft to float down the river, but lost each other on the river's rapids. His friend was rescued, and Yossi was found 19 days later, watering the river bank.

7. Hiroo Onoda

Former Japanese intelligence officer Hiroo, who fought in World War II, did not give up until 1974. In fact, he spent almost thirty years hiding in the jungles of the Philippines because he refused to believe that the war was over.

6. Captain James Riley

In 1815, American captain James Riley and his crew were shipwrecked on the coast of North Africa. They were captured and sold into slavery, leading them on a wild journey through the heart of the Sahara Desert. They were eventually released by a British merchant who sympathized with them.

5. Lewis and Clark Expedition

Sent by Thomas Jefferson to explore the West, she was robbed, wounded, and nearly starved to death many times. Without the help of friendly local tribes or their interpreter, Sacajawea, they would certainly have perished.

4. Robertson Family

321 kilometers from the Galapagos Islands, a pod of killer whales rammed and destroyed the ship of the Robertson family. The parents, three children, and a family friend were adrift for 36 days before being rescued by a Japanese fishing trawler.

3. John McCain

After his plane crashed during the Vietnam War, Lt. John McCain was captured and tortured repeatedly for nearly 5 years until he was finally released. He even once refused an earlier offer of release, saying that if every second prisoner who came after him was not released, he would not go anywhere.

2. Steve Fossett

Two-thirds of the way through his quest to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon alone, Steve attempted to fly through a storm that was passing over the Coral Sea. At an altitude of 9,144 meters, hail blew a hole in his balloon and his passenger basket began to fall into the ocean. Surprisingly, he survived and was rescued 10 hours later.

1. Slavomir Rawicz

After being sentenced to 25 years in the Siberian Gulag, this Polish officer, along with 6 others, escaped from a camp in Yakutsk and walked 6,437 kilometers across the ice of the Siberian tundra, the Gobi Desert, through Tibet and through the Himalayas to British India.

Modern medicine can sometimes work miracles. Injuries, illnesses, and various disorders always have a survival rate that indicates the likelihood of whether a person will survive. For example, when falling from a height of 150 meters, the mortality rate is 99.9 percent. Here is a small percentage of cases where people managed to survive against all odds. Such cases in medicine are called nothing less than miracles, and although they do not occur so often, they still happen.

1. A metal rod pierced through a man’s head

The survival of Phineas Gage, which occurred back in the 19th century, is still considered a miracle. At the time, this incident was not only incredible, but also helped doctors understand how brain injuries affect physical and mental health.

In 1848, Gage was working as a construction worker on the railroad when an explosion caused a metal rod more than 1 meter long to pass through his skull. The doctors managed to pull out the rod, but the man experienced paralysis on the left side of his face and certain mental changes occurred.

2. A teenager lived for 4 months without a heart.

14-year-old D'Zhana Simmons had a weak and enlarged heart and needed a transplant.
Unfortunately, the donor heart did not take root and was removed. This meant that the girl had to live without a heart for almost four months. Instead of a heart, blood was pumped by two artificial blood pumps. However, she survived and 118 days later she underwent a second successful heart transplant.

3. The girl's body, which was supported by stiletto heels

After suffering multiple injuries in a car accident in 2009, 17-year-old Katrina Burgess's bones were reassembled using 11 titanium pins that were attached to her neck, spine, leg, and a screw to support her neck.
After five months of operations, she was able to make an almost complete recovery and signed a contract with a modeling agency.

4The Woman Survived Beheading

In January 2007, Shannon Malloy was in a car accident that severed her skull from her spine. Fortunately, the spine itself was practically undamaged, but the woman remembers how she lost control of her head. This injury is called "internal decapitation."

The woman was taken to the hospital, where 9 screws were screwed into her head and neck. A device called a "halo" was attached to hold the head in place. Although Shannon had difficulty swallowing afterward and suffered damage to her optic nerve, she slowly recovered.

5. A woman rose from the dead

While her organs were being supported by a ventilator and her family discussed organ donation, Val woke up and began talking. Moreover, when the doctors decided to examine her, they found out that everything was fine with her.

6. Two twins survived after their parents had to choose one.

When couple Shannon and Mike Gimbel were told they would have to kill one twin so the other could survive, it became a parent's nightmare.

The twins had a rare disorder called feto-fetal transfusion syndrome, in which babies are connected by blood vessels and one twin literally takes the life of the other. If you leave two twins, both have a 90 percent risk of death.

At first the Gimbels decided to part with the weak twin, but an alternative appeared. Doctors used lasers to burn through the blood vessels connecting the twins, separating them. Both twin girls survived and were born two months later.

7. A man survived falling from a height of 150 meters

In 2007, window cleaner Alciedes Moreno fell from the 47th floor while at work. Unfortunately, his brother, who also fell, did not survive.

However, Moreno, although he suffered serious injuries, including a collapsed lung and blood clots in the brain, miraculously survived, clinging to an aluminum platform. To understand how rare this case of survival is, it is worth knowing that half of the people who fall from the 4th floor die, and almost everyone from the 10th floor dies.

Moreno underwent 16 operations, but after six months he was able to walk.

8. A man’s vision was restored with the help of a tooth.

Builder Martin Jones remained blind for 12 years after an accident.
But thanks to an unusual operation, he was able to regain his sight. The procedure involved removing the man's tooth and using it as a lens holder. The tooth was inserted into the eye, and now Jones has almost perfect vision in his right eye.
Thanks to the operation, the man was able to see his wife Jill, whom he married after the accident, for the first time.

9. The girl’s brain was stabilized with superglue

The girl Ella-Grace Honeyman has been suffering from a rare blood vessel disease, an aneurysm, since birth. In this case, blood could seep into her brain from holes in the vessels.

To combat this, doctors resorted to a procedure using a kind of medical superglue to patch up these holes. Although the procedure did not completely solve the problem, the girl will be able to live a normal life for a long time.

10. A man survived after half his body was cut off

In 1995, Chinese man Peng Shulin was cut in half when he was hit by a truck. The height of the remaining half of the body was 66 cm.
He underwent several surgeries in which skin from his face was grafted onto the rest of his body. The man was able not only to survive, but began to walk thanks to specially designed prostheses with bionic legs. Peng continually strengthens his upper body and is able to walk with the help of prosthetics.

How strong is our body - and most importantly, what is the strength of our spirit? I present to you some exciting stories about the incredible strength of spirit that allowed people to survive in the most extreme conditions. Be strong!

Harrison Okene

On May 28, 2013, divers were looking for the cause of the disaster of the Jacson-4 vessel, which sank off the coast of Nigeria. What they didn't expect to see was a survivor. Harrison Okene was the cook on the ship. He entered the latrine just as the ship capsized. The unfortunate cook was trapped - fortunately, an air bubble had formed here. The poor cook sat under water for three days and had already lost hope when he suddenly heard the sound of hammers. The divers pulled out the cook, who was stunned with happiness: Okene vowed never to set foot on the deck again in his life. Still would.

Robertson family

Expedition Endurance

Juliana Margaret Koepke

Apollo 13

Rolston

Man rose to the top of the evolutionary pyramid not only because he managed to get on his feet and learn to harvest crops. The main thing that distinguishes him from other creatures is the awareness of impending death. Thanks to this, people can take care of safety in advance and make the right decisions in the most extreme situations.

The stories of survival are terrifying and impressive at the same time. Awareness of death helped to make decisions that contradict common sense. But it was thanks to them that the heroes of our 7 stories were able to talk about their salvation.

Survive in the Sahara without water

Extreme marathons are a way to test your endurance in conditions that are difficult for the normal existence of even those who have all the equipment and an adequate supply of water and food. Mauro Prosperi participated in the Sand Marathon for the first time. The distance of 250 km ran through the desert.

The first stage of the foot race went according to plan. But one day a sandstorm began. Mauro waited for her in the tent. When I came out of it, I saw that the landscape had changed beyond recognition. All participants had a compass and map, but navigation without a starting point was unsuccessful. The athlete simply started walking through the desert. The water supply ran out and he urinated in the bottle to save at least some grams of liquid.

On the 3rd day he came to the tomb. It was protection from the sun and sandy wind. There were bats hiding in the room. Mauro drank the blood of 20 individuals - this helped replenish the fluid in the body. 2 planes did not notice the smoke of his flares, at that moment despair washed over him. The man cut his wrists and fell asleep... But in the morning he woke up alive and saw that the blood had simply coagulated. It was a “second wind” - he realized that death did not want to take him.

Mauro Prosperi moved through the desert behind the clouds that were only there in the morning. During the day he rested, ate the blood of lizards, and chewed cacti. I was guided by animal excrement. On the 9th day I went to the oasis. There he was found by a tribe of Berbers. During 9 days of living in the desert, he lost 16 kg of weight and walked 300 km. The marathon runner managed to survive not only because of his excellent physical fitness:

• clarity of thinking and calmness helped to find sources of liquid;
• knowledge of the characteristics of the desert - to avoid overheating and burns;
• the athlete somehow activated forgotten and deeply hidden instincts.

In glaciers on one leg

Joe Simpson was a member of a climbing team that consisted of three people. He and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, set off together to the summit of Ciula Grande, leaving Richard Hawkins at camp.

There were only 15-20 meters left to the top when Joe fell off the cliff and hit his foot on a rock ledge. The shin bone went through the knee joint and split the lower part of the tibia. A healthy partner began to organize the descent. Weather conditions and loose snow complicated this process.

There was a little less than 1 km of altitude left to the camp when they realized that there was a steep cliff below. Simpson was hanging over a cliff with a huge crack underneath. Simon was in an equally dangerous position: the loose snow was spreading under him and the risk of falling along with his wounded partner was increasing. Simon waited an hour, hoping Simpson would reach safety. But the rope remained taut. Simon cut it...

The loose snow softened Joe's fall. He had a choice - to expect death or to take the insignificant chance that the situation left him. He began to descend down the crack. 40 meters were covered in 5 hours, but there were 9 km ahead. With a painful shock, in an altered state of consciousness, Joe moved, surrendering to the will of the delusional voice that was heard in his head. The climber literally crawled to the camp from which Simon and Richard were planning to leave in a few hours.

Joe Simpson's survival was possible due to the following factors:

• eating snow helped maintain strength;
• the climber chose, albeit insignificant, a chance to live;
• in a state of altered consciousness, basic instincts aimed at survival were activated.

Prisoner of the Ocean

Many people have heard about the movie "Life of Pi", but few people know that most of the survival devices were invented in a real situation. Stephen Callahan is an experienced yachtsman, inventor of navigational instruments, and yacht designer, who became known to the world thanks to his 76-day drifting in a dinghy on the Atlantic Ocean.

Callahan set out on a solo race in a sloop of his own design. One night there was a storm and his ship collided with a whale at sea. The traveler managed to get into a lifeboat. After the storm subsided, he carried away from the sinking sloop his bare minimum for survival - a watermaker, a supply of food, a flashlight and a guide to surviving in high waters.

While drifting, 9 ships passed by him, he was poisoned by paint that peeled off the desalination plant, received 3rd degree sunburn, his boat was attacked by sharks and he struggled with himself - madness and panic seized him more and more often.

Callahan's boat washed up on the island and a day later he was found by local fishermen. Stephen Callahan is not the only person who managed to survive captivity of the World Ocean, but his rescue is a real feat. They helped him:

• professional experience;
• ability to tolerate social isolation;
• cool prioritization (for example, he endured the pain of ulcers, but kept drinking water for internal consumption.
• Drinking the blood of fish and birds saved me from scurvy.

Reasons why people manage to survive in unrealistic conditions

1. Choice of life. From this moment on, the subconscious launches a certain program to activate ancient instincts. Disgust and fear go away, and in their place comes the ability to see and take advantage of all the chances that every moment of life presents.
2. Body endurance. In the desert, in the mountains, on the water - everywhere these people entered into battle with nature, having previously increased their physiological threshold of endurance.
3. Adaptability. Each of them accepted the environmental conditions and began their marathon of survival taking them into account.

Thanks to these stories, we get not just knowledge about how to deal with an extreme situation, but also that the cost of life is so high that it is better to avoid such tests.