This Man Survived A Dangerous Fall That Left Him Paralysed | I Shouldn't Be Alive S5 EP5 | Wonder

you a young hiker out photographing the Canadian coastline makes a catastrophic decision I instantly got the feeling you get when you're going over the top of the roller coaster I knew that I was gonna be quite a mess at the bar The Fool leaves him with terrible injuries it wasn't just a little crack bone was definitely separated from other bone stranded on a remote beach his only hope is to drag his broken body to safety I had to get to help where I was gonna die there's really not two ways about it but when no help comes his only chance of survival lies in overcoming one final unimaginable challenge that time pretty much figured that I wasn't gonna be making it out no matter what I did [Music] [Music] give me a break [Music] [Music] get a rocket 26 year old Canadian Jordan acuity has a passion for the great outdoors after finishing his degree he worked on organic farms all over Western Canada before losing his heart to the tiny island community of Hornby off the country's North Pacific coast there's a real sense of community people helping each other out everyone knowing everyone that's that's something that really appeals to me Holmby has one small settlement and only a scattering of residents there's a lot of great people there and there's not too many people there so those are two things that I sort of valued and it has another major attraction kilometer after kilometer of hiking country and a wild and windswept coastline there was lots of great hiking around there huge sea cliffs the sandstone formations are really quite unique it's just gorgeous really a picturesque place Jordan runs a small gardening business but he grabs every chance he can to take off on a hike today he's heading for a remote beach on the island's easternmost tip he'll take some nature photographs and be back home where he lives on his own by lunchtime [Music] it was sunny but it was still you know the end of October so I threw in an extra big wool sweater I made myself some tea threw it in my backpack [Music] threw my bag over my shoulder and instead of just following the trail I just decided to go bushwalking [Music] there's definitely a bit of a scramble up and over some logs and and that sort of thing all stuff I like doing half an hour later Jordan reaches the coast ten meters below is that famously inaccessible mushroom beach the way down to the beach is kind of treacherous it's tricky to climb down the steepness of the descent keeps most people away so it's kind of nice and secluded there's a rope that someone had tied to the base of a tree near the top to sort of help over this one bit which is pretty close to vertical but I just hung onto that and follow that down it's a tricky climb even with the aid of the road careful now [Music] Jordan knows the only way off mushroom beach is to climb back up the cliff but that's a problem for later on B's vacation season ended weeks ago so he has the place all to himself the only sign of life on the beach is a makeshift wooden shelter now it's sort of a neat thing to look at I took quite a few pictures of it i plop myself down on the beach and lean back and sort of relax for a few minutes we pulled out an old 1970s National Geographic that I'd gotten at the FreeStore on the island and receded to while away the next hour so just reading the breeze was nice and warm the tide was out here the waves crashing a little bit it's about as peaceful as you're gonna find after his break Jordan sets off to look for images that inspire [Music] I started as a newspaper writer and photographer there taught me a few things and I fell in love with it there's lots of unique stuff unharmed me to keep the rolls going through the camera pretty easily [Music] Jordan heads north in search of the Sunstone rock formations the beach is famous for that was part of my mission I was gonna go take some pictures of the the sandstone after exhausting all the ground-level angles he starts looking for a high vantage point the cliff wall is continuous all the way around and I spotted a Ledge about half way up that looked like it would be quite a nice perch to get some good shots of Vancouver Island on the horizon I decided to leave my camera and see if I could make my way up and then it fell it looked like it was a decent spot then I'd like my bag up it was quite a big camera bag I had all my gear in it [Music] was wondering how I was gonna get up there there was no obvious road I've always been one to sort of enjoy climbing trees and scrambling over boulders and that sort of thing so it was pretty easy climbing you know I didn't have to find any hand holds or footholds or anything like that but the higher jordan climbs the steeper the cliff becomes [Music] I would made my way up quite a treacherous little section the cliff right there it's pretty much vertical he then hits another problem to get to the ledge Jordan has to clamber around a bulge in the rock face Jordan thinks about giving up the climb he knows a slip from this height could prove fatal but he really wants that shot I just reached around to sort of shift my way around it virtually as soon as I got my fingers into this crack this rock came off I had my footing on the ledge but not my balance for what seemed like an eternity i watch this rock go down there was a good 1 Mississippi 2 Mississippi before it hit I looked at it and I and I thought that's me next I knew I couldn't keep my balance and instantly got the feeling you get in your stomach when you're going over the top of a roller coaster the adrenaline kicked in right away knew that this wasn't gonna be a little twist your ankle sort of fall below was just a bunch of jagged rocks I knew that I was gonna be quite a mess at the bottom I was thinking I was gonna have to be sponged off the cliffs pretty much when I first started falling time seemed to slow about as close to stopping as it could that was sort of the most surreal part of the fall but it didn't take long for gravity to speed it back up again then suddenly I was on the bottom [Music] there I was at the bottom staring up at the blue sky and where I had just been up on the ledge there and I could feel that there had been a big impact my head was definitely swimmin it just hurt but I was surprised I wasn't dead that was my first stop I was more happy than scared at that point just because I realized the you know the fall was over and I still had my brains in my head it's a miracle he's alive but jodan can't believe he's escaped serious injury I knew I couldn't gotten away from a fall of that high scot-free the first thing I did was check my head I figured I must have given it a pretty good whack nothing felt broken and everything else was looking pretty good so I was sort of enjoying these small victories he remains cautious my next fear was that I'd broken my back somewhere and wouldn't be able to to move my legs paralysis is his worst nightmare it took me about five minutes of laying there to get the courage up to try and wiggle my toes [Music] when I did finally get the courage and and they moved I was ecstatic I felt that if I was still alive if I wasn't paralyzed and anything else would be inconsequential my next mission I suppose was to see sort of what shape I was in beyond those two basics of still being alive and still being able to move my legs as soon as I tried to roll over I could sort of feel the bone them grating against each other I immediately knew that something was you know very very broken [Music] I heard a heard I don't know if heard is the right word you sort of feel it more a crunch I was sweating from the from the pain and from the shock and I reached behind and just gently sort of I was touching my hip I was very aware that it wasn't just a little crack where once there was smooth bone there was now a couple jagged pieces sort of grinding into each other um and was pushing against the skin the foal has completely shattered Jordans pelvis it's a horrific injury that effectively separates his right leg from the rest of his body standing is out of the question he tries to turn onto his stomach so he can at least crawl [Applause] now Jordan realizes the terrible situation he's in he's left his mobile phone in his van he lives on his own so no one will be looking for him and mushroom beach gets almost no visitors this late in the season Jordan is completely on his own [Music] I knew that the seclusion of the area was definitely not in my favor Jordan lives alone so it could be days before anyone notices he's missing his first priority to find warmth before the chill of the North Pacific night sets in my mind went back to the beach and all the driftwood there my plan was to somehow get back there and have myself a nice cozy bonfire Jordan breaks down his survival plan into single manageable tasks first he must crawled 100 meters back to his backpack I knew I'd have to get back to my bag which had warm wool sweater and that last gulp of tea that I kept in the bottom my thermos but first Jordan must shift onto his front his horrific mangled pelvis turns this apparently simple task into a nightmare [Music] [Music] it's a pitifully small victory with a terrible cost in agony and it Sonya start I've started to pull myself forward with my arms as soon as I try it I would just get nothing but overwhelming pain and my body just wouldn't work the hundred meters feels more like a hundred kilometers every movement grinds the edges of Jordans broken bones together and tears at flesh muscle and nerves it's all taking way too long I remember watching old old movies where people would be in some sort of discomfort and either biting on a bullet or biting on a strap you know so I thought I'd try it biting on the belt takes his mind off the pain tearing at his toe so I put a lot of pretty deep indentations into the search strap with my teeth but the terrain constantly throws up obstacles that block his path there's boulders the size of cars there's boulders the size of lazy boy recliner there's boulders the size of one-bedroom apartments all around this area and as I was only about a foot and a half off the ground I couldn't really see sort of what was beyond the next Boulder give me a break it was very very frustrating because every inch was being bought with a lot of pain it just became a landscape conspiring to keep me from possibly living sort of a prison that I had to get out of [Music] although Jordan makes steady if painful progress the terrain just gets tougher there's sort of a slot between two boulders that I couldn't get through just pulling myself sideways I sort of had to prop myself up on my arms and swing my legs underneath in his bid to clear this latest obstacle jordan gets hopelessly stuck I couldn't move I couldn't go forward I couldn't go back I was sort of stuck because I couldn't get my right leg to follow the rest of it it was just sort of being dragged behind [Applause] although I knew that you know with the wind and everything like that no one was gonna hear me I just started yelling for help I thought was there 15 minutes or so and you know my arm strength started to give from holding myself up for for that long he has to act even if it means risking further damage to his shuttered pelvis in the end the only thing I could really do was just pitch forward onto my shoulder and try and shelter my my right side as much as possible with my left but the leg bones connected to the hip bone so when I did that that was excruciating it's taken two hours of agonizing progress to travel 40 meters and Jordans not even halfway to his back but he's totally exhausted as he braces himself as next effort he makes a horrifying discovery he didn't notice the tide coming in now it's just a few meters away I knew I was below the high tide mark and if I couldn't make it above the high tide mark I would have lasted five minutes [Applause] the sound of the waves against the rocks only about two and a half feet you know below from where you are and there's a long way to go you have a lot of time to think about you might not get out [Music] Jordan makes it to higher ground and his bag by the time I made it back to my bag it was dark it took me four hours to get the roughly 100 yards 75 yards back to my bag it's taken four hours to travel a distance that took less than a minute before his for his reward is a mouthful of hot tea and a thick wool sweater to help him get through the coming night the temperature was dropping quite quickly as it was getting dark to be able to pull into this magic bag and pull out you know some chance of salvation was what was great Jordan hunk is down for the night it's a beautiful night out you know the gentle lapping of the waves and and all that it would have been quite an idyllic spot if I wasn't in the circumstances I was in he knows that whatever agony he's endured today the next stage of his journey will be much further and much harder I knew that I'd need strength for the next day and to do that I'd need to sleep but that was virtually impossible all I could do was sort of lay on my back and and fade out maybe for 10-15 minutes at a time and then I shift and just the pain would wake me up I would wake up and wonder where I was and why I was lying on this rock ledge instead of you know in my warm cozy bed every time I'd remembered what had happened it was definitely a feeling of dread bitterly cold and in pain his sleep is broken by terrifying flashbacks of his fall every time that I would just about fall asleep it was me falling off the cliff again it was a very long night [Music] I was quite happy when this guy started to to lighten cuz that meant I could stop killing time there and and start moving again Jordans not expecting anyone to find her nobody comes down to the beach this late in the season all he can do is keep going back to the pebble section of beach he'll use the wood there to start a signal fire but it's nearly 400 metres away four times as far as he travelled the day before I figured out that if I took the strap and wrapped it around my right leg I had a pretty good handhold that I could sort of use to to pull my leg along with the strap stops the leg from pulling on his crushed pelvis allowing him to cover ground twice as fast and with less pain the new technique is a revelation it wasn't such a struggle and and that in a way he gave me hope what Jordan doesn't know is that he also suffered serious internal injuries in the fall with every hour his chances of survival are slipping away [Music] all these rocks are sandstone so I was it was like pulling yourself over sandpaper it didn't take long before my fingertips I scraped them off past the nerves past where I could feel that they were hurting at all just keep going the rocks are now destroying his legs as well thus a stunted worn right through the pants and right through most of my leg I was pretty sure that I'd worn through the skin and the top muscle on the and the bit of nerves as well every centimeter of progress he makes is tearing in the heart unable to escape the mid afternoon Sun Jordan is becoming severely dehydrated the dregs of tea and his thermos a long gun tormented by thirst he's surrounded by water he can't drink these shallow pools had formed in the sandstone I knew most of it was saltwater but I was so thirsty I was hoping that the salt content would be low enough that it wouldn't hurt me [Music] dragging himself through the salty rock pools is torture to his open wounds but it's the quickest route thro the day I could feel bummed sort of grinding against other bone I knew I was getting weak in a hurry my situation was definitely on the downward spiral Jordans worsening internal injuries are taking their toll his head throbs and his vision blurs but then among the waves he spots something I could see in the distance a kayaker 26 hours after his horrific fool risky visit hint yelled as loud as I could and you know tried to wave my arm I kept watching it didn't seem to be getting closer or further away after a little while I realized that what it was was just a rock I was just kind of jutting out of the water Jordan is losing the battle between his body and his mind [Music] now and there's worse to come he's only halfway back to the beach from the weather suddenly turns I was very cold so for it through and I realized that the wood on the beach would be pretty soaked as well desperate to reach shelter jordan presses on with every raindrop my chances of lighting a big signal fire on the beach shrunk hour by hour fingertip my fingertip finally an incredible 30 hours after he started his grueling marathon he reaches his destination [Music] it's too wet to start a fire but at least the wooden shelter he photographed yesterday offers some protection from the elements thank you thank you the shelter wasn't waterproof or or wind proof by any stretch of imagination but compared to the outside it was definitely the Ritz to me there was no way for me to get dry I just kept on my wet clothes and tried to keep two small balls I could to sort of try and consider my body heat I knew that the possibility of meeting my end from exposure was becoming very real Jordan discovers the drinking water from the tidal pools was a mistake I just laid there and ratchet up sea water for half the night I was just feeling so awful it was probably the longest night of my life [Music] in the freezing darkness and in the depths of despair Jordans thoughts turned to his parents and his brother Justin back in Saskatchewan I was thinking about my family but not so much about me seeing them again I was thinking about how crushed and how sad I would be if the situation was reversed how frantic and how you know devastated I'd be if if something like this happened to my little brother Justin we're pretty close if I was sitting at home cozy and he didn't make it out his firmly a used to hearing nothing from him for days on end by the time they discover he's missing he could be dead now I sort of stopped hoping that someone was gonna come down and find me in and realized I would have to find people as opposed to them finding me I was gonna make it I had to get up to the cliff the sheer cliff he climbed down two days ago to reach the beach he's the only way out it was a struggle on the way down even when he was fully fit [Music] climbing up the cliff without the use of his legs is surely an impossible task I [Music] either had to get to help where I was gonna die there was really no two ways about it and when your choices are put that simply it's it's you don't need a lot of motivation to to carry on [Music] I was at the bottom looking up from a foot and a half off the ground it was very daunting to to look up and and see the size of it I can't believe I'm doing this I wasn't sure that I was gonna make it Jordan faces a vertical climb of some 10 meters you'll have to rely on the strength in his arms to halt his entire body weight up the rope but there is no alternative if he doesn't attempt the climb he will die on the beach one two three my hands were more hamburger than hands and just with my strength my injuries the odds were definitely stacked using my hands as much as possible to brace myself I was being so painstaking in choosing which rocks I would use for a handhold knowing that if I made the wrong choice ah that would be the end of me Jordan knows he can't survive another for his crushed pelvis means his legs are useless all he can do is trust the strength in his arms and pray that the Rope holds he's nearly at the top when the unthinkable happens the rope came undone from the tree that it was attached to and I was very lucky not to tumble back down when that gave way luckily gave me half a second to reach over and grab the nearest rock and somehow keep from falling Jorden realizes with horror that his arm muscles are about to give out my arms were just dead logs and my grip was becoming weaker and weaker and it was becoming apparent that something one way or another was gonna happen pretty soon it was the scariest point of the whole thing Jorden calls on the last drop of strength in his failing muscles I was very aware that I it was do or die I was just completely out of strength in my arms I couldn't feel my hands I couldn't get my fingers to flex they just weren't able to keep a solid grip on any rocks there are now just centimetres standing between him and safety if I didn't get above it I would die there is no no question and if I fell from this this wall as well I would die and there's no question in that with the thickness of the rocks and the lack of feeling in my hands it was a pretty perilous way to sort of maneuver but that was all I could do if he slips now then his grueling two-day ordeal will all have been in vain if I made a wrong move here I was either gonna die or be paralyzed he's made it when I found myself done top after I'd flopped myself over the top of the vertical bit I I really felt that had gotten past the worst of it but it's come at a terrible price I cuts everywhere has broken up as I was so near a complete exhaustion that I couldn't move a muscle for probably 10 minutes but I'd felt like I just climbed Everest Jordan's achievement is superhuman but it's only one small step towards survival it's taken him two days to cover just 500 meters the main road is almost three times as far again that he's chronically dehydrated I was still in the same predicament I was in when I was at the bottom of a cliff very badly injured and although physically closer to getting help there's no sign of it anyway [Music] ah how you know I'd call for help Wow there is no sign of anyone help me Jordan is hoping that if he can reach one of the forest trails he might encounter a hiker the weather was still not exactly what you call ideal hiking weather so I didn't really expect anyone to to be out tramping around at that time I was so thirsty every cell of my body was you know just dying for water you can go without food for you know a week or two but four days without any substantial amount of water and you're not gonna be around much longer the rain soaked ground chills Jordan to the core but after nearly a hundred hours without fluid he grabs the chance to ease his parched thirst I was just so thirsty I see a particularly tasty looking droplet on the edge of a blade of grass so I was basically just crawling around licking the grass for the water and you know if you found a cobweb that would have 20 or 30 good looking drops on it I could pretty much just eat the cobweb the toll from the climb up was pretty apparent but I knew I had to keep going so instead of looking at it as one big long pole that I had to do I'd break it down into sections of about ten poles and then I'd rest and give myself five or six seconds of rest and then go as hard as I could close to collapse Jordyn drags his broken body across the forest floor for six punishing hours as the light starts to fade once again Jordyn claws his way to a picnic table in spite of his agonizing injuries jordan has somehow dragged his shattered body on an epic journey of nearly two kilometres and up a sheer cliff but now he's exhausted all his physical and mental reserves I could feel that my health was getting worse I couldn't go any further forward pretty much figured that I wasn't gonna be making it out no matter what I did despite all his aerobic efforts Jordyn Daugherty is convinced that at the age of 26 his life is ending there was nothing to do but lay there wait for death and you know think of all the people that I wasn't going to see again [Music] by some miracle jordan survives the night as dawn breaks he draws on his final ounce of strength and determination severely dehydrated and slowly dying of his injuries he forces himself to go on in a last desperate bid for life my plan on the forth day was to get as close as I could to where the people might chant upon me I was that close to death all I could think was just keep pulling the temptation to curl up and let go is overwhelming but Jordan refuses to go quietly it probably took me around two hours to get about 20 yards so I was only maybe going five six feet at a time and then passing out for 10 or 15 minutes the physical reality had set in and there was really no more mind-over-matter to be had there was no way I was gonna get to the trailhead or very much further for that matter because the distance I was able to go before passing out was just getting shorter and shorter I was actually gonna die very soon then he his voices he thinks the sound is hikers on a nearby trail it was my first real chance of rescue he's out I've yelled as loud as I could to attract their attention but jourdan's yells emerges barely a whisper the voices melt away into the trees it just seems like it was just the cruelest joke I was thinking that was my chance that was it the despair I felt getting so close to being rescued I've never felt that much bleakness in my life [Music] he starts to slip in and out of consciousness dreams in reality blurring into one another the sounds of voices return just meters away I started yelling again just yelled and yelled at them this time Jordan can actually see hikers through the trees but they're getting further away every step they were taking they're taking my survival with them the last two people in the group we're probably about two steps away from being out of sight behind these trees and there was a lady in an orange rain jacket and I could see her stop and sort of [ __ ] her head and it you know she obviously had heard something she started looking around and took a few steps back in in my direction and finally saw me [Music] as soon as she saw me I just I can't even describe how relieved I was I just watched him run towards me and just thought to myself well I've done my part I'm I'm your problem no it's beyond Joey it was beyond anything this was this was a chance at life again here Jordan's four-day ordeal would have finished most people but his stubborn refusal to give up saved his life I came as close as you can get I think two to dying and it looked like I was gonna gonna make it [Music] Jordan was treated for a ruptured pancreas and internal hemorrhaging injuries that could have killed him within hours in a series of operations surgeons fix Jordans shattered pelvis using 12 centimeter long titanium screws he also needed major skin grafts to his legs and hands Jordan recovered fully and enjoys life at home with his family he lives every day as though it's his last the only guarantee that we're given is that we will die we can't pick when or how the only thing we can affect is what we do with the time that we're given I see my life now as something that is not to be squandered even in the smallest amount [Music]

Channel: Wonder

Views: 2,562,856

Rating: 4.840549 out of 5

Keywords: wonder, i shouldn't be alive, i shouldn't be alive full episodes, wonder i shouldn't be alive, man crawls from hell with broken body, i shouldn't be alive climb out of hell, i shouldn't be alive s5 ep14, i shouldn't be alive series 5, i shouldn't be alive 2019, i shouldn't be alive full episodes hd, crawl from hell, survival stories, survivors tell their story, extreme survival, extreme dangerous situations, dangerous situations

Id: EQYgtiQOlWw

Length: 48min 2sec (2882 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 29 2018