Resilient Spirits: 15 Miraculous Tales of Survival

Sep 25, 2009

Posted on Sep 25, 2009 | 1 comment

Resilient Spirits: 15 Miraculous Tales of Survival
It is truly amazing what the human body can achieve when pinned against
life or death situations.
Many survivors claim it to be an out-of-body experience – when survival
instincts kick in and the brain shuts down. Below is a list of
miraculous tales of survival that illustrate the resiliency of the human spirit.

Aron Ralston


Aron Ralston was hiking in the canyons
of Utah when an 800-pound boulder fell on his arm and left him for dead.
Pinned and bleeding for five days, he chose to cut off his own arm as
his only chance of survival. Leveraging the boulder to snap his bone, he
then used a pocketknife to cutaway the surrounding tissue and tendons
and managed to rappel down a 65-foot cliff to stagger to his rescue.

Team Endurance


In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton assembled a crew for an Antarctic expedition on his ship, Endurance.
With no guarantee of return, but certain glory if they managed, their
tale began as the ship crashed into an ice pack. Stranded in an
unforgiving land and caring only for survival, the crew walked thousands
of miles, floated on icebergs, ate seal blubber and came out battered
but alive an astonishing two years later.

Joe Simpson

(source)
Joe Simpson and Simon Yates attempted to scale the Siula Grande
in the Peruvian Andes. In the midst of a blizzard, Simpson fell and
broke his leg leaving it to Yates to get the duo down to safety. Yates
lowered them bit-by-bit until their anchor slipped and left them
dangling precariously. After a silent hour of deliberation, Yates
presumed Simpson to be dead and cut his rope. Simpson fell onto an ice
brige below where despite massive injury, dehydration and hypothermia,
he managed to crawl five miles over the course of three days where he
was reunited with Yates at base camp.

Alexander Selkirk

(source)
In 1704, Alexander Selkirk caused some
trouble on his expedition ship and was left to die on an uninhabited
island in the South Pacific. His deserters left him with only a musket,
gunpowder, carpenter’s tools, a knife, a Bible and the clothes on his
back. In total solitude, Alexander managed to survive on the island for
four years and four months before he was eventually discovered and
rescued by a British ship in 1709.

Douglas Mawson

(source)
A trio of explorers set out from their
base camp to explore the Antarctic; one teammate fell through an
invisible ice crevasse taking all supplies along with him, another soon
perished due to weakness leaving Douglas Mawson as the sole survivor.
Surviving on the meat from his dog, he too fell into a crevasse but was
miraculously saved when his sled caught and left him suspended in
safety. Days later, he found his way back to camp where his condition
caused his team to ask, “My God, which one are you?”

Juliane Koepcke

(source)
Flight 508 was struck by lightning above
a Peruvian rainforest and 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke was the only
survivor. Still strapped in her seat, she was ejected from the plane and
landed two miles from the wreckage. Upon returning to consciousness,
she had a broken collarbone and was blind in one eye but had the wits to
know “where there’s water there’s people.” She walked along the river
for nine days until she found a cabin where she treated her
worm-infested wounds and awaited the owner.

Uruguayan Rugby Team

(source)
A Uruguayan rugby team was put to the
test when their plane flying over the Andes crashed into the peaks. Of
the 45 people on board, only 16 survived the initial crash and the
avalanche that followed on day 17. The survivors managed to stay alive
for 10 weeks by resorting to cannibalism – eating the flesh of the
fallen. Two of the men eventually ventured out, flagged down a Chilean
horseman and ended the 72-day struggle.

Steven Callahan

(source)
Six days after Steven Callahan set sail
on a boat he built himself, it sank and left him drifting aimlessly on a
5-foot life raft. With minimal rations and a makeshift spear, he
battled malnourishment, dehydration, sunburn, a now leaking raft and
countless shark attacks on his road to survival. In total Callahan
drifted 1,800 miles and managed to survive 76 days on the barren sea
before his rescue.

Yossi Ghinsberg

(source)
Yossi Ghinsberg ventured into the
Bolivian Amazon with a total of three friends. When they realized they
were lost and lacking supplies, the foursome decided to divide into
pairs – Ghinsberg and his partner floated a raft down the river while
the others were never seen again. Ghinsberg’s raft eventually hit a rock
and the duo was split to fend for themselves. While his partner
immediately found help, Ghinsberg was left alone in the wild for 19 days
before his partner and a rescue team recovered him.

Tami Oldham Ashcraft

(source)
When sailing vet Tami Oldham Ashcraft
and her fiancée Richard Sharp accepted the duty to deliver a sailboat
from Tahiti to San Diego, they never considered Hurricane Raymond.
Caught amongst 50-foot waves and 160-mph winds; the boat capsized and
knocked Ashcraft unconscious. She woke 27 hours later to find that Sharp
was gone and the boat was in shambles. Determined, she reconstructed a
makeshift mast and sail, plotted a 1,500-mile course to Hawaii and
braved forty days at sea.

Ricky Megee

(source)
Ricky Megee was drugged while
hitchhiking and left for dead in the middle of the Australian Northern
Territory. Disoriented and malnourished, he constructed shelters when
needed, drank water when he could and lived off of leeches, insects,
snakes, frogs and lizards. Surviving the outback for a total of 71 days,
Megee started his fight at 230 pounds and was a mere 105 pounds when he
wondered onto the farm that ultimately rescued him.

Mark Inglis and Phil Doole

(source)
Mark Inglis and Phil Doole were climbing
the peaks Aoraki Mount Cook, New Zealand’s highest mountain, when a
white storm surrounded them. Desperate, they built a snow cave in an
attempt to stay put and wait-out the blizzard’s wrath. Though they
managed to survive the elements for 13 days with minimal rations, they
both suffered extreme frostbite and their legs were later amputated.

Joe Spring

(source)
An innocent day of cross-country skiing
in Steamboat Springs, CO turned nasty for Joe Spring when he broke his
leg. In the middle of nowhere and with minimal day-trip
supplies, he crawled 13 hours a day for eight days in the direction of
home. Greatly dehydrated and losing more than 35 pounds before his
rescue, he spent his nights shivering in tree wells and drew motivation
from the anguish that others would feel if he were to die.

Andrew Taber

(source)
Andrew Taber and his friend Loïc Pillois
found themselves lost in a 78-mile section of forest near Approuague
River in South America. Spending a total of 51 days in the jungle, the
duo divvied out tasks for survival and resorted to eating beetles,
tarantulas and even bugs that swarmed to their excrement. They lost 100
pounds collectively on their 76-mile journey to the edge of the jungle
where they were miraculously sited just 2 miles from Saül.

Poon Lim

(source)
Poon Lim jumped overboard with a life
vest moments before the boilers exploded on his WWII battleship.
Stranded at sea, 750 miles east of the Amazon, he was the sole survivor
of the wreckage. After securing a small life raft, he spent his days
fashioning fishhooks from nails, snaring birds and corralling rainwater
for hydration. Now a legend, Lim was discovered by a Brazilian fisherman
133 days after the original shipwreck.

One Response to “Resilient Spirits: 15 Miraculous Tales of Survival”

1. The Guitar God says:
   
   October 21, 2009 at 10:05 am
   
   Add “without internet” to all of these and these are truly remarkable.
   
   
   2. true lilly says:
   
   Your comment is awaiting moderation.
   November 6, 2011 at 6:54 pm
   
   In my 50 years of life, I’ve been greatly blessed with more than a
   few life saving miracles, but the outstanding, officially recorded
   answer to a faithful mother’s prayer, was when my son, DIED in my arms,
   and CAME BACK TO LIFE. Raised in a medical family, knowing first aid,
   somehow I knew, standard practice wouldn’t be enough. “Oh God, what do I
   do!”, and the answer that ‘fell in my head’, was “THUMP HIS CHEST.”, so
   I did. I skipped all mouth to mouth etc. and thumped his chest, and
   kept thumping, as my other son was on the phone with the ambulance
   service, describing everything (like him not breathing for 10 minutes),
   but getting no instruction as to what to do while we waited, and
   waited…by the, very long, time they did arrive, he was not only
   conscious, but his stats were so good, I had to argue for them to take
   him to hospital! The Miracle? It was months later, that it made the
   World News: Doctors had ‘Discovered’, in REAL EMERGENCIES, Go Straight To
   CHEST COMPRESSIONS and KEEP IT UP. Skip mouth to mouth etc. So again I
   Thank God, that He caused me to IGNORE “Best Practice”, AT THE TIME, and
   ASK HIS ADVICE. Oh and ten minutes in warm weather, not freezing
   conditions that slow degeneration, with no oxygen getting to his brain,
   well, he “should have” at least been brain dead…instead of “too healthy
   to take to hospital”!
   

Billy Rubens Mondeo...!!!



It Was Attacked By Thugs Who Were Meticulous In Identifying Where The Electrical Fault Was...!!!

10 Extremely Miraculous Survivors

In our life we come across some miraculous and incredible survival
stories which leave us in awe and admiration. All such stories teach us
one thing that struggle for survival requires will of high magnitude; a
desire to live and go back to family. This strong will has miraculously
brought people back from death against all odds.
[some of the images below might be disturbing in nature]

Gejinder
September 19, 2010 at 9:53 am
When god is there nothing can happen.

tadhg
September 23, 2010 at 6:03 am
If God was there at all, none of this stuff would have happened.

true lilly Your comment is awaiting moderation.
November 7, 2011 at 7:19 am
tadhg: the whole world is under the rule of The Prince of Death, and has been since oxygen formed (yes science has recently discovered
that LIFE EXISTED on earth, BEFORE oxygen formed), as is clearly
described in God’s Word. GOD CREATED, SUSTAINS and SAVES LIFE, while we
yet remain under death’s rule, and that will not be forever.

Anyway, for Your Real Life’s sake, consider that, and this:

In my 50 years of life, I’ve been greatly blessed with more than a
few life saving miracles, but the outstanding, officially recorded
answer to a faithful mother’s prayer, was when my son, DIED in my arms,
and CAME BACK TO LIFE. Raised in a medical family, knowing first aid,
somehow I knew, standard practice wouldn’t be enough. “Oh God, what do I
do!”, and the answer that ‘fell in my head’, was “THUMP HIS CHEST.”, so
I did. I skipped all mouth to mouth etc. and thumped his chest, and
kept thumping, as my other son was on the phone with the ambulance
service, describing everything (like him not breathing for 10 minutes),
but getting no instruction as to what to do while we waited, and
waited…by the, very long, time they did arrive, he was not only
conscious, but his stats were so good, I had to argue for them to take
him to hospital! The Miracle? It was months later, that it made the
World News: Doctors had ‘Discovered’, in REAL EMERGENCIES, Go Straight To
CHEST COMPRESSIONS and KEEP IT UP. Skip mouth to mouth etc. So again I
Thank God, that He caused me to IGNORE “Best Practice”, AT THE TIME, and
ASK HIS ADVICE. Oh and ten minutes in warm weather, not freezing
conditions that slow degeneration, with no oxygen getting to his brain,
well, he “should have” at least been brain dead…instead of “too healthy
to take to hospital”!

Fascinating...

Have You Ever Read About Ernest Shakeltons Folly To The Antartic...

He Had A Third Man Experience...!!!



Mystery of the third man

When John Geiger read Sir Ernest Shackleton’s memoir of his 1914-1917 Antarctic expedition, he was transfixed by the legendary polar explorer’s tale of his battle for survival after the team’s ship, Endurance, became trapped in ice.
In the final weeks of the expedition, Shackleton and two companions had made a heroic, last-ditch attempt to reach a British whaling station, so they could get help to the other members of the expedition who were sick, exhausted and waiting 1100 kilometres away at Elephant Island. Filthy, ragged, dehydrated and ill-equipped, the trio trekked 38 kilometres across glaciers and icy mountain ranges on the island of South Georgia, reaching the British settlement 36 hours later.
The Toronto-based writer was in awe of Shackleton’s powers of physical endurance.
But it was the metaphysical aspect of the story that stayed with him — the “unseen presence” that, according to the explorer, had accompanied the three men on the last harrowing stage of their journey.
“It seemed to me often that we were four not three,” Shackleton wrote in his memoir, South.
Later, in his public lectures about the expedition, he referred to this presence as his “divine companion”.

http://www.south-pole.com/p0000097.htm

Now Like Most British Explorers Of That Age,

He Was An Heroic Failure...

Taking A Stroll In Sub Artic Conditions, With A Hip Flask And A Pair Of Plus Fours...

The Best Heroic Failure Is Oates And His Just Popping Out For A Breath Of Fresh Air, Malarkey...!!!

And The Non-Challant Attitude That Scott And His Compadres Had Towards This Doomed Venture...

Speaking of DOOMED...
like this "Loose Brick Chuckers",
who have NEVER BUILT ANYTHING
of ENDURING VALUE...
...the CACKLING HYENAS,
CACKLING TO LOUDLY
to HEAR THEIR HUNTERS...

RE: DO JUSTICE - START with the "respected people" WHO USE and PROTECT VIOLENT SCUM.

I once asked for just a little Justice. Since then, I daily see,
The Ivory Towers of those who KNOWINGLY PERPETUATE EVIL, being shaken.

They WILL FALL, and DESTROY ALL who use those 'defensive positions of respectability'
to ATTACK JUSTICE, and IT WILL BE JUST, BECAUSE THEY HAVE ALL BEEN WARNED.

Isaiah 14:1-32
http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Isa&c=14&v=1&t=KJV#1
1
For Jehovah will show mercy to Jacob, and he is
yet certain to choose Israel; and he will actually give them rest upon
their soil, and the alien resident must be joined to them, and they must
attach themselves to the house of Jacob.
2
And peoples will actually take them and bring them
to their own place, and the house of Israel must take them to
themselves as a possession upon the soil of Jehovah as menservants and
as maidservants; and they must become the captors of those holding them
captive, and they must have in subjection those who were driving them to
work.
3
And it must occur in the day when Jehovah gives
you rest from your pain and from your agitation and from the hard
slavery in which you were made a slave,
4
that you must raise up this proverbial saying against the king of Babylon and say:
“How has the one driving [others] to work come to a stop, the oppression come to a stop!
5
Jehovah has broken the rod of the wicked ones, the staff of the ruling ones,
6
the one striking peoples in fury with a stroke
incessantly, the one subduing nations in sheer anger with a persecution
without restraint.
7
The whole earth has come to rest, has become free of disturbance. People have become cheerful with joyful cries.
8
Even the juniper trees have also rejoiced at you,
the cedars of Leb´a·non, [saying,] ‘Ever since you have lain down, no
[wood]cutter comes up against us.’
http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Isa&c=14&v=1&t=KJV#1

http://forum.davidicke.com/showpost.php?p=1060342667&postcount=32055
http://forum.davidicke.com/showthread.php?t=11956&page=3172

Elsa Corp was murdered
after a parole blunder
left her killer free
by:Geoff Wilkinson
From:Herald Sun
November 07, 2011
12:00AM
107 comments

Elsa Corp was murdered during a blind date. Supplied

THE family of a young woman strangled by a parolee is still waiting
for an apology after a bureaucratic bungle left him at large, free to
kill her.

Elsa Corp, a 26-year-old hairdresser, was murdered on her first date with a man
she did not know was a violent serial offender on parole.

Her killer, David Patrick Clifford, is one of three parole violators charged with murder
after Corrections Victoria caseworkers failed to notify the Parole Board they had committed new offences which could have led to their parole being cancelled.
Corrections Victoria was notified that Clifford had been arrested on three separate
occasions before he killed Ms Corp on February 1 last year.

When he murdered Ms Corp
he was on parole for drug trafficking,
had already breached parole
and a suspended sentence
following other earlier convictions
and was awaiting sentence over
the bashing of a bar owner.

Results: Parole bungle
Thanks for voting!
Should authorities apologise to the family of a woman murdered after a parole bungle?

• Yes 96.44% (2494 votes)
  
  
• No 3.56% (92 votes)
  
  

Total votes: 2586

• Elsa's dreams won't come true
  
• Police arrest parolee Adelaide Now, 19 Jul 2011
  
• Eight murdered after parole bungles Perth Now, 20 Jun 2011
  
• Close watch following parole fiasco Herald Sun, 20 Jun 2011
  
• Free-to-kill parole fiasco Herald Sun, 20 Jun 2011
  
• 40 per cent of parolees reoffend Adelaide Now, 18 Jun 2011
  

Ms Corp's parents, Andy and Gilly, said yesterday no-one had taken
responsibility for their daughter's death or said they were sorry.

Mr Corp, a former UK policeman, said the family wrote to Police Minister
Peter Ryan and Corrections Minister Andrew McIntosh last week seeking
information and answers.

He said his family did not know Clifford was on parole until they read a story in the Herald Sun in June this year.

"It's absolutely gutted us, because it was a very bad failure in the system,'' Mr Corp said.
"For the sake of a bit of training, or procedure or supervision, the system fell over and failed us.

"Our daughter would probably be alive today if there hadn't been these stuff-ups''.

Ms Corp was on a blind date arranged by a girfriend
when she was beaten, slashed and strangled in a South Melbourne hotel room.

She is believed to have been lured to the room in the belief other friends were going to be there.

Clifford, 30, was due to stand trial on October 25 for Ms Corp's murder, but
decided on the eve of the three-week trial to plead guilty.

He will be sentenced after a Supreme Court plea hearing later this month.

Police handling of the parolee issue was addressed in last month's explosive report by the Office of Police Integrity.

The report said former Deputy Commissioner Sir Ken Jones had suggested
to then Chief Commissioner Simon Overland that the families of victims
allegedly murdered by parolees
be notified of the findings of an internal review.

Mr Overland, in an email reply he later implied was leaked by Sir Ken,
requested formal written advice prior to notifying the families.

The OPI report said Mr Overland cautioned that if Victoria Police had
"let the families down (he didn't) want to exacerbate the situation by
handling notification badly''.

But Mr Corp said yesterday his family had still received no formal explanation or apology from police or anyone else.

"Not at all, which hurts,'' he said.

The Herald Sun first revealed the state's parole scandal in April, when a secret
police report disclosed that 11 Victorians had been murdered by parole
violators in less than two-and-a-half years.
The report said seven of the 11 murders may have been prevented if police who had peviously dealt with the offenders over other matters had known they were on parole.

A failure in the police computer system was blamed, but after an urgent review it emerged that human error was also involved.

The review by police found that in three of those seven cases, community
corrections caseworkers were advised that parolees had been arrested
over other matters, but failed to pass the information on to the Parole Board.

Acting Chief Commissioner Ken Lay told the Herald Sun
after the review that in one of the three cases "Offender C'' - now
known to be Clifford - had been arrested on July 7, 2008, January 26,
2009, and June 9, 2009.

Each time, the police computer notified a Justice Department computer which then advised the relevant caseworker.

Ms Corp, who lived with her parents, was one of the three victims. The other two cases are still before the courts.

Acting Chief Commissioner Lay and Corrections Victoria Commissioner, Bob
Hastings, both admitted after the review that "procedural failures''
had left parole violators on the street.

It was also revealed after the review that another five murders had been
committed in other states by Victorians who had absconded on parole.

Clifford's prior convictions stretch back to 1998 and
include aggravated burglary on the home of a 76-year-old woman,
false imprisonment, intentionally causing injury, assault, resisting police,
harassing a witness, breaching an intervention order, drug trafficking,
dangerous driving and possession of an unregistered firearm.

Detectives who arrested him for drug trafficking found a handgun and
$68,000 cash in a backpack hidden in theceiling of his grandmother's
home.

One of Clifford's brothers, Sean, was convicted of larceny by finding in Sydney in 2005 after
claiming to have found a backpack containing $263,000 in cash in a lane near his home.

The last judge to sentence David Clifford told him she thought his
prospects of rehabilitation were low and specific deterrence should play
a significant part in his sentence.

Judge Jane Patrick said Clifford had not shown remorse for his part in the
drunken bashing of a Fitzroy bar owner on June 13, 2008 - only a month
after he had been released on parole.

She said Clifford was of above average intelligence, but abused drugs and alcohol and had behaved like "a violent and aggressive bully''.

She sentenced him in July last year to a total of 33 months' jail for intentionally causing injury, false imprisonment and assault, with a minimum of 21 months to serve before parole.
But in June this year, the Court of Appeal cut Clifford's sentence to 24 months with a minimum of 12 months.

The appeal judges, Justices Chris Maxwell and Lex Lasry, ruled that the
discrepancy between Clifford's sentence and that of his brother Kieran, a
co-offender, was manifestly excessive.

The Court of Appeal also found Judge Patrick had not taken sufficient account of the totality
principle, which required her to assume Clifford would have to serve another 18 months as the unexpired parole period.

A Parole Board spokesman said yesterday the board was co-operating with an independent
review of its functions, powers and processes by the Sentencing Advisory Council.

He said the board had already expanded the extent of information sharing with Victoria Police and was working closely with a separate review of the Office of Correctional Services "to eliminate shortcomings in the assessment and supervision of parolees''.

A Corrections Victoria spokesman said it had "taken steps to improve
information sharing with Victoria Police and strengthen the management
of parolees''.
[email=wilkinsong@heraldsun.com.au%20]wilkinsong@heraldsun.com.au [/email]
107 comments on this story

SEE, when I asked for JUSTICE, it wasn't 'for' me to receive now
(on top of countless blessings), but to SEE JUSTICE being received,
by those in more need...the God Blessed Wise are onto it.

true lilly wrote:Speaking of DOOMED...
like this "Loose Brick Chuckers",
who have NEVER BUILT ANYTHING
of ENDURING VALUE...
...the CACKLING HYENAS,
CACKLING TO LOUDLY
to HEAR THEIR HUNTERS...

What have you ever built, Lulzy? Besides spam...