Shannon Malloy
in 2007, Shannon Malloy was in a car crash that caused her to be internally decapitated! Her spine was separated from her skull and all connecting ligaments and tendons were cut loose. Despite this, she managed to survive.
Shannon had to endure several surgeries, one “fusing her skull to her spinal cord; she suffered nerve damage that made her eyes constantly cross and limited her speech ability.
Roy C. Sullivan
Anomalien
The chances of being struck by lightning are very slim; the chances of being struck by lightning twice (on different days) is seemingly impossible; so what are the odds of being struck by lightning seven times? With our world record holder, Roy Sullivan, the events happened as follows:1942 – Sullivan was hit for the first time when he was in a lookout tower. The lightning bolt struck him in a leg and he lost a nail on his big toe.
1969 – The second bolt hit him in his truck when he was driving on a mountain road. It knocked him unconscious and burned his eyebrows.
1970 – The third strike burned his left shoulder while in his front yard.
1972 – The next hit happened in a ranger station. The strike set his hair on fire. After that, he began to carry a pitcher of water with him.
1973 – A lightning bolt hit Sullivan on the head, blasted him out of his car, and again set his hair on fire.
1974 – Sullivan was struck by the sixth bolt in a campground, injuring his ankle.
1977 – The seventh and final lightning bolt hit him when he was fishing. Sullivan was hospitalized for burns in his chest and stomach.His “lightning hats” are on display in New York’s and South Carolina’ s Guinness World Exhibit Hall.
Ann Hodges
Sylacauga, Alabama 1954. While Hodges was napping on her living room couch, a grapefruit-sized meteorite crashed through her roof and ricocheted off her large wooden console radio, before it struck her on the arm and hip. She was badly bruised but able to walk. Against her husband’s wishes, Ann donated it to the Alabama Museum of Natural History, where it can be seen today.
Ben Carpenter
TheStar
In 2007, Ben Carpenter, 21 years old and wheelchair bound, was “picked up” accidentally by a truck. He was pushed by the semi-truck for 4 miles at 50mph, after the arms of his wheelchair got stuck in the grill.
The story goes that the driver had stopped at a red light, and couldn’t see Carpenter crossing in front of him. The light changed and Carpenter ended up having the ride of a lifetime.
Bethany Hamilton
On October 31, 2003, Hamilton, age 13 at the time, went for a morning surf in Kauai with best friend. Around 7:30 a.m. she was lying on her surfboard with her left arm dangling in the water when a 14-foot tiger shark attacked her, severing her left arm just below the shoulder. She not only survived the ordeal but has gone on to become an international celebrity.
Phineas Gage
humanitiesmedia
On September 13, 1848, Gage (a railway worker) was packing a hole with gunpowder, adding a fuse and sand, and then packing the charge down with a large tamping iron. The gunpowder ignited and the iron bar shot through his left cheek bone and exited out the top of his head, and was later recovered some 30 yards from the site of the accident. Within minutes he was up and walking.
A few days later he had fungus of the brain. A couple of weeks after, 8 fluid ounces of pus from an abscess under his scalp was released. Damage to Gage’s frontal cortex had resulted in a complete loss of social inhibitions, which often led to inappropriate behavior. He was no longer the same Gage that his friend’s and family knew. Today his skull and the iron bar that shot through it are on display at Boston’s Warren Anatomical Museum.
Tami Oldham Ashcraft
Listverse
In 1983 Tami Oldham Ashcraft and her fiancé set out from Tahiti on a sailboat with the goal of delivering it to San Diego. Just 3 weeks into the trip, a category 4 hurricane hit. The boat capsized immediately and her fiancé fell overboard.
Now alone, Tami managed to make a makeshift sail and pointed what was left of the boat towards Hawaii. She survived 41 days and 1500 miles on a jar of peanut butter and a few cans of food until she finally reached land.
Steven Callahan
Spy
Steven Callahan was sailing from the Canary Islands in 1982 when his boat sank after 6 days into the trip. Left adrift on a 5-ft life raft, he managed to survive on just 3 lbs of food and 8 pints of water for 1800 miles, enduring starvation, dehydration and multiple shark attacks. After spending 76 days on the open ocean, he was finally rescued by fishermen in the Caribbean.
Eric Le Marque
In 2003, Former Olympian Eric Le Marque was out snowboarding in the Sierra Nevada Mountains when a huge fog sent him off course along the 11,000 foot slope. He tried for days to make it back to civilization, but he was actually traveling in the wrong direction.
“I remember falling back into the snow, looking at my feet and going, ‘You’re going to lose your feet.’”
Despite what should have been a life-ending mistake, Lamarque survived for 8 days in the snow until he was found by a team that was looking for his body. Before this, the longest time anyone had survived conditions like these was 3 days.
Matt Suter
Privet
In 2006, Matt Suter was in Fordland, Missouri on March 12 in his grandmother’s home when a tornado carrying a devastating wind speeds of 150 mph touched down just outside of the house. As the storm started to Tear off the front and back doors, the twister sucked him up and right through the window. Miraculously, Matt awoke in a field minutes later over 1300 ft from where he’d been, with only minor scrapes and bruises.
Harrison Okene
Worldtime
In the early morning of May 26th 2013, a tugboat carrying 12 people capsized and sank in the Atlantic Ocean. However, 100 feet below the surface, Nigerian cook Harrison Okene was the only survivor trapped within an air pocket. He knew his death was imminent but hoped against hope that his rescue would come.
Due to the air pressure at that depth, the oxygen managed to last alot longer than it normally would and Okene survived for 3 days with only a bottle of Coca-Cola to sustain his energy while he fought off barracudas and sharks that swam through the boat’s corridors. The photo above is from when salvage divers went into the wreck to look for bodies and they found the Okene to their surprise.
Isidro Mejia
NYdailynews
In 2004, Mejia was doing construction work on a roof of a house when he fell off with his nail gun. Amazing enough, the fall didn’t kill him, but the six 3 1/2 inch nails that accidentally shot into his neck and skull certainly should have. He survived because the nails barely missed his brain stem and spinal cord.
After hours of grueling surgery to remove the galvanized nails, Mejia, unbelievably was released and made a full recovery.
Ahad Israfil
In 1987, Israfil was cleaning a gun when an accidental discharge blew half of the then 14 year-old’s brains away. Miraculously he survived and later graduated with honors. Doctors were able to fill the hole with a silicone block, saying “the flap of skin was pulled over and hair grew back, giving him a fairly normal appearance.” Cranioplast was used to put the “icing on the cake”
Vesna Vulovic
In 1972, a 22 year old flight attendant named Vesna Vulovic found herself at 33,000 feet in the air and quickly descending to the earth without a parachute. How did this happen?
After her plane blew up, she fell to earth from almost 6 miles in the sky, only suffering a fractured skull and dozens of broken bones. Somehow she not only survived but made a full recovery and is listed in the Guinness book of world records as the person surviving the highest freefall.
Ludger Sylbaris
1989 – Sylbaris was locked in a single jail cell that was partially underground on the Island of Martinique surrounded by stone walls, ventilated only through a narrow grating in the door. It was very solitary to say the least.
Little did he know that one fateful day, his island’s volcano, Pelee was about to erupt and free him, but not in the way he had hoped. Superheated steam and volcanic gases and dust, with temperatures reaching over 1000 °C and flattened all the buildings in the city. The entire population was burned or suffocated to death except for Sylbaris who was safe because of his well fortified cell. He did suffer horrific burns but he lived.
Juliane Koepcke
Alchetron
On Christmas Eve of 1976, 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke was flying in an airplane over the Peruvian Rainforest when suddenly lightning struck the right wing, crashing the plane. She survived this, finding herself strapped in her seat in the middle of the jungle.
She followed a stream for 10 days until she finally found a hunter’s hut where she treated her multiple broken bones. The next day, she was found by hunters and brought home to safety.
Howard G. Ulrich
Wiki
On July 9th of 1958 Howard G. Ulrich and his 8 year old boy, Sonny, were out boating in Lituya Bay of Alaska when a huge rock slide created a 1,720-ft-high tsunami. It destroyed everything in its path but somehow their boat was untouched, and it surfed on top of the super-wave while everything below was devastated.
Witnesses claimed the wave and the boat were moving at about 600 mph. When it was all over they miraculously ended up back in the bay where they had started with no injuries.
Ricky McGee
Learni
Ricky McGee picked up a hitchhiker in Australia on January 23rd of 2006, who ended up drugging him. He woke up under a tarp and rocks only to find that dingoes were trying to eat him.
After scaring them away he found himself alone in the Australian Outback, and managed to survive for 71 days eating leeches, snakes and frogs. He lost over 125 pounds, but was rescued by a rancher who came upon his makeshift campsite.
Norman Ollestad Jr
On Feb 19th, 1979, 11 year old Norman Ollestad Jr was on a plane with 3 other people when they encountered a sudden blizzard and crashed in the San Gabriel Mountains in California. He was the only one who survived.
Now, alone and without food and water or anything to keep warm, he descended the mountain with his shoes as makeshift skis and two sticks for poles. He was finally rescued 9 hours later when he reached the bottom. The photo above is of Ollestad today.
Aron Ralston
In an event that happened in 2003, Ralston lived through an event so traumatizing, it became the inspiration for the movie 127 hours. Ralston was the climber who became trapped in a cave when a boulder rolled onto him crushing his arm and trapping him for 5 days. As a final attempt to escape death, he amputated his own arm with a small dull utility knife and then hiked out of the canyon where he was found and rescued.
Jim Thompson
During the Vietnam War, Jim was captured and held as a prisoner of war, at which time he was beaten and tortured over a period of 9 years.His plane was shot down in 1964, with Jim taking a bullet and breaking his back in the process. After being captured, Jim was held in a jungle camp and jammed into a wooden cage too small for him to sit up or fully stretch out.
For months his captors wanted him to sign papers saying that he was treated well but Thompson wouldn’t sign them. Months later after vigorous torture he reluctantly signed the papers. As a reward, he was moved into solitary confinement for four years. He was finally moved into a prison with other prisoners which was great, except that the beatings and torture continued until during his captivity, he became so weak that he suffered a heart seizure.
He recovered and attempted to escape 5 times. Another prisoner who saw Jim reported that he thought the enemy had placed a corpse in the cell next door. However, Death forgot the fact the Jim was a Green Beret and he held on until he was finally released in 1973. He weighed 90 pounds. he lived another 30 years till his death in 2003.
Brent Case
gizmodo
Brent Case, the 53-year-old bear attack surveyor from Vancouver Island in Canada whose ability not to move while he was being shredded alive saved his life. Case was taking pictures for a surveying job along the remote Bella Coola coastal area of British Columbia, north of Vancouver. Case was holding an ax in his right hand as the bear attacked but it was too close to use. Instead, he dropped it and fell to the ground, curling up in the fetal position and telling himself not to move.
The bear grabbed one arm and tore into it, then took Case’s head in its mouth and shook him, tearing gaping wounds that left his scalp hanging in bloody flaps. After throwing Case into a boggy area and jumping on him a few times, the bear finally backed off. Although the grizzly was still not far away, Case saw his opportunity and, bleeding heavily from his scalp and both arms, he ran in a crouch to his truck, which was parked nearby.
In the truck, he was safe for the moment, but his ordeal was hardly over. Case still had some 15 miles to drive on a rough road to get to help. He amazingly survived.
Alexis Goggins
Goggins ordeal started when her moms boyfriend kidnapped Alexis and her mom. The mother tried to get help and managed to call 911, but the cops said they couldn’t send anyone.
The abductor became enraged when he caught her making the call and opened fire on the mother and daughter. Two bullets struck the mother before little Alexis dove between them, begging the shooter to stop. Without hesitation, he shot six times, little Alexis taking the bullets that would have killed her mother. Miraculously the little girl and her mother survived.