Have you ever heard a story and thought, “No
way is that actually possible!” Well, some people have lived through the most
impossible and extreme situations that it’s kinda hard to wrap your head around it! Take, for instance, the story of Jean Hilliard. This 19-year-old woman was found frozen solid,
and (get this) she managed to survive! It all started when Hilliard lost control
of her car while driving home late one night. The car wouldn’t start after the accident,
so she decided to walk to the closest person she knew who lived about 2 miles away. But since it was the dead of winter in sub-zero
Minnesota temperatures, she collapsed before she could reach his door. Actually, she only missed it by 15 feet! The homeowner found Hilliard frozen solid
the next morning and rushed her to the hospital. Her skin was completely frozen, her eyes weren’t
reacting to any light, but she was alive! Her pulse was only 12 beats per minute, and
her body temperature was just 88°F. (Remember, 98.6 degrees is where it should be!) Since the doctors couldn’t put an IV through
her frozen skin, they wrapped her up in an electric heating pad and waited anxiously
for her to come to. The doctor who managed to revive her was stunned
that the girl didn’t have any brain damage and was able to keep all her limbs, although
she did lose a few toes to hypothermia. Hilliard’s recovery has been dubbed a medical
miracle, which is probably pretty accurate! But still, it’s also proof that our bodies
are built for survival. You see, in the extreme circumstance of sub-zero
temperatures, the human body will slow down all internal activities like heart rate and
breathing to stay alive. Well, that’s pretty helpful, indeed! But there are plenty of other situations when
the body defies all odds and expectations, like the story of a construction worker in
the 1840s named Phineas Gage. When explosives used to clear the way to build
a railroad went off early, a huge iron rod was sent right through Gage’s head! Now here’s the weird bit: he didn’t even
seem phased by the whole thing! He casually chatted with people who walked
passed him while waiting for the doctor to arrive. Can you imagine? Like, “Oh, hey, Bill! Yeah, I got this minor inconvenience I gotta
go take care of.” Anyway, Gage then developed a brain infection
that had him close to death, but looks like he wasn’t ready to go. He made a full recovery and only lost use
of his left eye and part of his brain. He could still live a normal life, go back
to work, and do all the day-to-day activities he used to, even with a piece of his brain
missing! Now, I know what you’re thinking, “How
is it possible to lose part of your brain and not have anything wrong with you?” Well, here’s where it gets even more bizarre. Gage might’ve just kept going on with his
life, but anyone who knew him before the accident said that he’d changed into a completely
different person! Medical experts explain that this was likely
due to the fact that the piece of his brain that was damaged is where our personalities
are stored. Yeah, who would’ve thought?! Another man had an interesting story to tell
after what should’ve been a typical mundane day at the office. He’d come in on a Saturday to catch up on
some work. He later got into the elevator and rode down
to the first floor. Again, nothing out of the ordinary! But when the elevator stopped on the first
floor, the man heard a strange sound. He said it was like metal clanging way up
above him. He then had to make a quick decision when
the doors started to open: either stay where he was or jump out of the elevator. Good thing he decided to do the latter because
at that moment, a large steel board came crashing down to the bottom of the shaft with a massive
smash. The doors then simply closed as if nothing
had happened! As for why this huge metal thing almost came
crashing down on this poor guy just pulling some overtime, well, that was because the
maintenance crew that had been repairing the old elevator that week had forgotten to fasten
a panel, which caused it to come loose. Oops! The next story is about a few friends who
were all relaxing in a hammock. Hey, that’s just usually how these things
start: a typical day with nothing out of the ordinary! Anyway, while the friends were lying there
making small talk, the weather took a turn, and it got pretty windy. They heard the branches crackling above and
even joked about how crazy it’d be if one of them broke off and came crashing down on
the hammock. (Now that’s some pretty disturbing humor...) A little while later, the wind got worse and
the branches started to move a lot. They decided to call it a night and go inside. Only a few seconds after they went back in
the house, a huge branch snapped and fell on the hammock in the exact spot where they
would’ve been lying! Would they have lost their lives or just been
seriously injured? It’s hard to say, but, luckily, they got
out of there just in time to never find out the answer to that question! A man named Chris Gursky decided to do something
new and adventurous while he was on vacation in Switzerland. Naturally, he thought hang-gliding sounded
like a great idea! He was pretty excited for this adrenaline
rush, and it was exactly that which probably ended up saving his life! You see, the pilot didn’t strap Gursky properly
to the glider. The man did fall, but he grabbed onto the
pole and the pilot’s shoulder just in time to catch himself. Gursky had to hold on to dear life with all
his strength for a whole 3 minutes before the pilot could attempt to land safely. Three minutes might not sound like much, but
it’s an eternity when your fingers are supporting all your body weight! Gursky walked away from this terrifying situation
with just a broken wrist, a torn bicep, and, more importantly, his life! Ya know, everyone always says it’s good
to be adventurous and try new things, but stories like these make me really appreciate
the couch potato lifestyle... Have you ever heard the saying “lightning
doesn’t strike the same place twice”? I guess it’s still true, but nobody said
anything about it striking the same person twice…or even 7 times! Yep, that’s right, a man has been struck
by lightning seven different times, and he lived to tell the tale. Roy Sullivan has even been placed in the Guinness
Book of World Records for his strange attraction for lightning. Each time he was struck, he gained a different
injury, from the most minor, like lost eyebrows, to pretty severe burns. Talk about being in the wrong place at the
wrong time, seven times! Maybe he shouldn’t leave his house anymore… And if you’ve never seen the movie Touching
the Void, then get ready for spoilers! Well, not really, because I’m not talking
about the movie itself but the real event it was based on. A man named Joe Simpson and his friend Simon
Yates were climbing in the Peruvian Andes. Something went horribly wrong and Simpson
broke his leg. Yates tried to lower his buddy down from the
mountain with a rope as far as he could, but he ended up having to cut the rope to save
himself. Miraculously, Simpson landed on a ledge with
only the one broken leg. He then thought for sure that this is the
place where he’d take his last breath, but he then did something remarkable. He crawled 6 miles to get back to base camp. It took him four days to make the journey. He wrote a book about his experience, and
that then became the 2003 movie. Come to think of it, all of these stories
would make incredible films! Some of them might seem rather impossible,
but I assure you that they’re all true and that there are millions of others out there
that are probably even more bizarre than these! Actually, if you know any other incredible
stories of survival, leave them down in the comments! And don’t forget to give this video a “like,”
share it with your friends, and click that subscribe button to stay on the Bright Side
of life!
