Graphic Source: Feebleminds

Most of us will die, if we fall off of a building or get electrocuted, that is just the natural order of things. Our bodies were just not made to take that kind of punishment. There are some people, however, that have survived some terrible accidents, accidents where they should have died and yet they not only lived, but recovered. One of these people was a man who was a loving father, but who had a wife that wanted him dead. She gave the court an old address for him, knowing that he couldn't be reached there and a divorce was granted without his presence. The divorce favored her enormously. Not satisfied with this and trying to get him completely out of her life, she then charged him with sexual abuse of their child. The jury found him innocent. Next she charged him with threatening to murder her. Again a jury found him innocent. She then threatened him with death and at that point he filed a police report. On his way to work one day, he was hit by two shotgun blasts and lay in a pool of blood. A neighbor found him and he was still alive and told the neighbor that his wife's brother and her new husband shot him. The shot just missed his spinal cord. The mother had told the daughter, after the event, that she knew beforehand what was going to happen and apparently did nothing to stop it. The brother was caught and is serving a 16 year sentence, but didn't implicate anyone else. The ex wife only got 7 months in jail, but the judge noted that she was a pathological liar. The new husband was now looking for a hit man to kill the poor guy. The hit man he finally hired turned out to be an agent in the office of the District Attorney and all the arrangements had been recorded, both on film and audio. The new husband got 25 years in jail. Five years after that the ex husband got custody of his daughter, who told him that her mother had told her that he had tried to molest her, but she now realized that this was a lie.

The poor father was still suffering from his injuries and this made it hard for him to find work. He looked up someone that he knew 20 years ago, who was involved in real estate. He got a job and for some unknown reason, the guy moved in with him, it is believed that this was based on a sob story of needing temporary shelter. What the father didn't know, was that this guy had been friends with his ex wife. While going to a house, he became in distress and rushed into a restaurant and asked if he could use the bathroom. They let him and he went in and threw up, collapsed on the floor and died. His friends are convinced that he was murdered, but the autopsy stated that he had clogged arteries and died of a heart attack. There are some poisons out there that can make it look like a heart attack, when you die. Did this poor guy get poisoned? I guess we will never know.

An electrician can be a very dangerous profession. If you are the least bit distracted you might just electrocute yourself. Heck, I shocked myself so bad one time, that I was lucky that I didn't die. The electrician I am talking about went to work as he did every work day. This day was a little different. He didn't get shocked, as I am sure that you all thought, but he did have a heart attack. Here is what makes this story so strange. He was put in an ambulance and was dead. The paramedics managed to revive him. He died again and again the paramedics revived him. The guy died 31 times within one hour and was revived from the dead 31 times. I guess there is a little irony here, because the electrician was revived using electric shocks from a defibrillator. One paramedic went on to say that 3 shocks from a defibrillator is usually the most anyone can tolerate, after that they die for good.

World Trade Center
Photo Source: U.S. Coast Guard

Isn't it strange how some people seem to survive against insurmountable odds? There is a guy who was in California, who was caught in one of the earthquakes. He was on a bridge that collapsed under his car. The car fell and was stuck on a girder or piling right above the water. He managed to climb out and get to safety. The car getting caught was sheer luck, because below the bridge was the bay. He returned to his home in New York City and his job at the World Trade Center. He was on one of the middle floors of one of the towers on 9/11, when an airliner was slammed into it. His wife was also working in one of the towers. Both he and his wife managed to escape the Holocaust. I think that this guy should buy a lottery ticket.

Two of our canine friends survived the sinking of the Titanic, the ship that was responsible for taking so many human lives. How was this possible? Here is the sin of it all, the first lifeboats that were lowered into the water had so few people in them, that when the dogs were put into the boat it didn't matter and no one objected. Can you imagine this, life boats leaving half empty when there weren't even enough boats for all the people on board?

One of my favorite stories is about a member of a bomber crew on an American plane in World War II. As the bomber was flying to a raid over Germany, the plane was hit by flack. The plane began to burn and some of the crew bailed out. One poor unfortunate flier couldn't get to a parachute, because of the flames. He knew that if he didn't jump, he would be burned to death. He decided that it was better to die jumping out of the plane than to die burning, so he did. As the ground came hurtling up at him, he assumed the perfect landing stance and rolled on impact. The ground was soft and against all odds he survived the jump from over 10,000 feet. He broke both his ankles, but this was a small price to pay for such a daring leap.

Titanic
Photo Source: U.S. National Archives

The Titanic had two sister ships, the Britannic and the Olympic. The Britannic was used as a hospital ship in World War I. She had made several runs, but struck a mine and sunk. As the life boats were being lowered, two of them were lowered into the propellers and over 30 people were killed that way. Two of the survivors that were rescued had also been aboard the Titanic. The Olympic never sank, but it wasn't for the lack of trying. She was in two collisions. One with a war ship, which damaged both ships severely and the second when she hit and sank the Nantucket lightship.

Then there is the story of the mountain climber. He loved to go out on his own and scale those tall peaks, Somehow he got his arm wedged between the mountain and a large bolder and just couldn't get it out. He tried for days with no luck. He knew that no one would find him in time and that he would soon run out of water and food. Finally he made the decision of a lifetime. He decided to cur off his arm. He twisted his body and rammed it against the boulder, breaking the bones in the arm to make it easier to cut through. He only had a pen knife, but it was sufficient for the job. Without any pain killers he managed to do it and tie the stump off so he wouldn't die from loss of blood. He then climbed back down the mountain and was picked up by some people on a road at the bottom. This man's bravery knows no bounds.

Scientists are experimenting with a way of bringing people back from the dead that have died from cardiac arrest from blood loss. I think I saw this in a horror movie somewhere. This is the real stuff, however. This type of death is the number one cause of death among troops. In this country over 50,000 people die from it every year. It is suggested that a cold salt solution could be put into the body after it has been flushed and this would lower the temperature to 50 degrees, preserving the body and organs and essentially buying time to make the repairs. After everything was fixed, warm blood would be pumped into the bodies and a shock administered to the heart to bring the person back to life. Using this method, it is believed that an extra two hours can be gained. Quoting one of the scientists, We weren't terribly optimistic this would work, but lo and behold, it was effective,"