Amazing People That Beat the Odds and Survived

There are some situations in life that may bring us close to death, maybe, sometimes without us even realizing how close we came. As a child of eleven my sisters, brothers and I went to a swimming hole. I was never a strong swimmer but decided that I would swim the length of the swimming hole.

 I started my swim and when I reached the center I knew I was in trouble. I remember sinking under the water and total panic set in. I fought my way to the surface only to go down once more. Again I surfaced, and the third time I went under but to my amazement I felt comfortable and the struggle came to an end. I didn’t know at the time but my brother had left the shore when he saw me go down the first time. It was his hand that locked in my hair and brought me to the surface. It took a long while of him holding me before I tried to swim back to shore by his side.

What was it that day that stopped me from drowning? I know my brother saved me but how did he get there in time, I never cried out? When he lifted me, I almost felt sad, that he had pulled me out. I remember I felt as light as a feather and would float away with the wind. How do some survive, where others die? Yes. I do believe when your time is up you will go. The people that are featured in this article beat all the odds and survive.

In 1994 a man named Prosperi entered the Marathon of the Sands in Morocco. During his trek across the sand, a sand storm came up and he lost his way and went in the wrong direction. Thirty six hours later he was out of food and water. He drank his own urine and ate bats in an abandoned mosque. Fearing he would be facing a slow death he decided to cut his wrist but his system was so dry from lack of water his blood clotted before he could bleed out. He was found nine days later by a nomadic family and taken to Algeria. He had been 186 miles off his route.

Robert Evans was a homeless man in Boulder, Colorado and on Sept. 2008 he was hit by a car. He was taken to the hospital in ambulance and while walking back from the hospital by himself he was struck by a train. He had survived two accidents in seven hours.

Aron Ralston went on a canyoneering trip in Blue John Canyon in Utah. A boulder fell on Aron’s arm pinning him to the ground. He spent five days trying to move the boulder, with no success. Aron drank his own urine to stay alive and videoed his goodbyes to his family. As a last attempt Aron cracked the bone in his forearm and with a pocket knife he cut away the soft tissue. He removed his body from the boulder leaving the arm behind and walked to help. He later had his arm cremated and returned the ashes to the site of the boulder.

Truman Duncan was a railroad switchman. Truman fell off the rails into an oncoming train. He was sucked in under the train and was cut in two. He lost both legs and a kidney but stayed conscious long enough to call for help on his cell phone. He waited forty five minutes for help and endured a twenty three hour surgery and lived.

Joe Simpson and Simon Yates were the first to scale the west peak of the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. Simpson fell into a 100 foot crevice and Yates had to leave him. Simpson, after surviving the fall, crawled out of the crevice and crawled for three days back to base camp.

What made the difference that these people survived where other people would have died? Can determination make the difference, sheer willpower? We will never know the answers to these questions and so we are left with our own opinions of why this happens. Life is full of mystery and these are just a few of them.