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It’s well known that diseases can be fatal. Each year, deadly pathogens invade healthy individuals, cause illness, and take lives despite medical progress. However, there are times when the most vulnerable—such as the elderly, the unborn, or individuals afflicted by rare, life-threatening diseases—defy the odds in such remarkable ways that they reignite hope in the human body's capacity for survival.
10. Brain-Eating Parasite
When 12-year-old Kali Hardig from Arkansas went for a swim, she contracted the rare and deadly parasite Naegleria fowleri, which travels through the nose and into the brain, where it begins to consume tissue. After Kali started suffering from a high fever and vomiting, her mother rushed her to Arkansas Children’s Hospital. There, the family was devastated by the grim news that the condition, primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), had a survival rate of less than 1 percent. To make matters worse, Kali’s case was one of the most severe N. fowleri infections ever recorded. She couldn’t breathe without a ventilator, and was treated with the same anti-fungal medication used for the only two other known survivors. The infection was so rare that many doctors had never encountered it, forcing Kali’s medical team to try untested methods in her treatment.
To combat the infection, doctors lowered Kali’s body temperature, a method typically used in brain trauma patients to limit brain damage. She was also given an experimental drug, miltefosine, originally developed to fight breast cancer, which lab tests showed could eliminate harmful microbes. Though still awaiting FDA approval, this drug was administered to Kali. After a few days, her tests revealed that the parasite had been eradicated.
Doctors remain unsure about the exact factors that saved Kali. While miltefosine may have contributed, it was likely the combination of an early diagnosis, the anti-fungal treatment, and the careful management of her brain pressure that helped her survive. The same drug hadn’t worked for a boy with a similar infection three years earlier. Given the severity of her infection, Kali should have followed the same tragic path, but seven weeks after her struggle began, including 22 days in the ICU, she was finally able to go home.
9. Katie McGuire
Katie McGuire will never remember how narrowly she escaped not being born. While still in her mother’s womb, she developed a life-threatening condition so rare that only six infants had ever survived it. Her mother, Rosalin, from Scotland, was well into her pregnancy when doctors noticed something was terribly wrong. Katie’s heart was only beating one-third of its normal rate. This was a sign of a rare disorder known as anti-Ro La, where a mother’s body produces antibodies that, if untreated, lead to heart damage in the unborn child. Without intervention, this condition is fatal.
One possible solution is to deliver the baby early and treat the infant afterward, but Katie’s situation was more complicated. She was already gravely ill, and at 23 weeks gestation, she was far too premature to survive outside the womb. Doctors discovered that five children in the US had survived similar conditions when their mothers were treated with a course of corticosteroids. These steroids helped protect the babies from the antibodies’ harmful effects. By the time Mrs. McGuire was near the end of her pregnancy, she had received 77 steroid shots. After birth, Katie required a pacemaker, but she became the first baby in Scotland to survive anti-Ro La.
8. Patrick Abram Jr.
In April 2010, a father and son, both named Patrick Abram, were together when the younger Patrick complained of a sore throat. His father, concerned, noticed other unusual symptoms: his son’s jaw and left foot were swollen, and his eyes looked slightly yellow. Worried, his father took him to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed him with the rare and potentially deadly Lemierre’s syndrome.
In brief, Lemierre’s syndrome can be described as the most dangerous sore throat one could ever encounter. It occurs when severe inflammation develops near the tonsils, often manifesting as a blood clot filled with bacteria near the jugular vein. Without medical intervention, the clot may burst, releasing the bacteria into the bloodstream. Though each case is unique, all vital organs can be affected, leading to organ failure. Even the brain is at risk.
At 23 years old, Abram had to undergo surgery to have his skull opened in order to relieve the pressure on his brain caused by the infection. After nearly a month in the ICU and several additional months of intravenous antibiotics, Patrick triumphed over the disease, which is known to strike even the young and healthy.
7. Eric Majusiak
At 28, newlywed Eric Majusiak was an active hunter and content with his career in the Army Corps of Engineers. Life was great until he started experiencing joint pain. Within hours, he was hospitalized and unable to move. For the next two months, Majusiak remained unconscious, kept in a medically induced coma while an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine took over his breathing. The ECMO machine’s primary function is to oxygenate the blood, and it played a crucial role in saving his life. In fact, he became the longest-surviving ECMO patient who didn’t require a lung transplant.
Majusiak was diagnosed with hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), a condition in which his immune system was essentially attacking him, producing excessive white blood cells that destroyed other cells. This rare and deadly autoimmune disorder causes tumors and organ damage. As if that wasn’t enough, doctors discovered he also had Still’s disease, a painful and debilitating form of arthritis that likely triggered the HLH.
Despite these dire diagnoses, Majusiak faced the challenge head-on. Even after being told he had only a 5 percent chance of survival, he fought back. He relearned how to talk, walk, and breathe independently again. He endured three months of chemotherapy, powerful steroids, and lung dialysis. By May 2012, just four months after his health crisis began, he was discharged and returned to work in August.
There is no cure for HLH, and Majusiak still experiences stiffness and pain daily. Doctors informed him that surviving two years would make him a “long-term survivor” of the disease. As of now, he has surpassed that milestone, having already lived three years and counting.
6. Deadly Watercress
A rare illness struck down two women simultaneously in South Africa. Known as human fascioliasis, or liver rot, this disease hadn’t been seen in the country since 1964. With these latest, unnamed victims, only five cases had ever been recorded there. Both women, one a chef from Plettenberg Bay and the other an elderly pensioner, had consumed contaminated watercress purchased from local farm stalls. This watercress was infested with a liver fluke parasite that, once ingested, entered their bloodstreams and settled in their livers. The parasite attaches to various plants such as watercress, dandelion leaves, lamb’s lettuce, and spearmint, and cannot be washed off by rinsing.
Due to the extreme rarity of the disease and its absence for nearly a generation, doctors ran numerous tests and considered various theories before identifying the infection as parasitic. The necessary drug, Triclabendazole, was not available in South Africa due to the infrequency of the disease and had to be imported directly from the World Health Organization in New York. While the 73-year-old woman managed to recover, it was too late for the chef, who tragically passed away two months after her diagnosis. Though not typically fatal, this infection remains highly dangerous and can destroy a healthy liver. It can also affect cattle.
5. Ken Estep
Ken Estep, a man who had rarely been sick throughout his life, was on a family vacation when he suspected he had caught the flu. Feeling exhausted and unwell, the retired Estep went to a clinic, only to be told it wasn’t the flu. A few days later, when he began experiencing difficulty breathing, another doctor sent him to the hospital. Estep’s condition deteriorated alarmingly fast. Upon arrival at the emergency room, he was diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease, a severe form of pneumonia responsible for the deaths of 29 people at an American Legion convention in 1976.
Both of Estep’s lungs were severely affected. With a ventilator assisting his breathing and placed in an induced coma, the prognosis was grim, and doctors didn’t expect him to survive. But just one week later, Estep miraculously woke up, and only a couple of days later, he was discharged from the hospital. Although he experienced some disorientation, leading to another brief hospitalization, he defied expectations. Despite being told he would need oxygen for the rest of his life, Estep never required it.
It’s unclear exactly how Estep contracted the infection, but during his family trip, he stayed in several hotels, which made every pool, hot tub, shower, and air conditioner a potential source. To develop Legionnaires’ disease, one must inhale the legionella bacteria, which can cause pneumonia that is often fatal if not treated.
4. Abigail Beutler
Abigail Beutler was happily kicking inside her mother’s womb, as most unborn babies do, while her devastated parents were being told she wouldn’t survive due to Potter’s syndrome. The fetus, at just five months old, had no kidneys. The situation worsened because the absence of kidneys meant Abigail couldn’t produce fetal urine, leading to almost no amniotic fluid. Without enough amniotic fluid, her lungs couldn't properly develop.
Determined to save their daughter, the Beutlers approved an experimental treatment. At Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Congresswoman Jaime Herrera-Beutler received a weekly injection of a saline solution directly into the womb to provide the fetus with the necessary fluid to encourage lung development.
Just one day after receiving the fifth injection, Abigail decided it was time to arrive prematurely. Despite four days of attempting to delay the birth, Abigail came into the world, screaming loudly to prove her lungs were fully developed. While Abigail became the first baby to survive Potter’s syndrome thanks to the groundbreaking treatment, she still needed dialysis due to her missing kidneys. Once she’s old enough, she will receive a kidney transplant.
3. Steve Burkes
After being bitten by his new Amazon green parrot, Steve Burkes developed a fever late at night and suspected the bites might be the cause. His wife accompanied him to the emergency room, and what began as a routine precaution turned into a nightmare for them both.
For two days, doctors at Jennersville Hospital in Chester County, Pennsylvania, tried to stabilize Steve with antibiotics and a respirator. However, when his blood pressure plummeted and his lungs failed to function properly, despite the respirator, he was transferred to Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia. His condition had worsened to the point where survival through the helicopter ride was in doubt. He survived, but his lungs were nearly non-functional.
Steve’s illness was baffling. It mimicked other diseases, but all tests came back negative. With no clear diagnosis, he was isolated in a wing with two H1N1 flu patients. Desperate, doctors attached him to an ECMO machine. Every three hours, a special bed rotated him while he remained on a respirator. The 59-year-old was given a 50 percent chance of survival and was expected to remain on ECMO for weeks, followed by months of rehabilitation.
Steve’s recovery was as mysterious as his illness. He was on ECMO for only one week, and after another week, he was well enough to be released. His rehabilitation lasted just one hour. He walked out of the hospital as if nothing had happened. The doctors, still puzzled, concluded that an unknown virus had caused pneumonia, which then developed into acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Steve credited his parrot for saving his life, as he was told that if he hadn’t gone to the emergency room that night, he would not have survived.
2. Paul Gaylord
Paul Gaylord never imagined that trying to save his family cat would lead to losing his fingers and toes. The Oregon welder was attempting to help his pet, who had accidentally swallowed a mouse, when the cat unexpectedly attacked him. Forced to put the animal down due to its suffering, Gaylord was left with a painful surprise two days later—he woke up feeling like he had the flu. A doctor diagnosed him with 'cat scratch fever' and sent him home. However, his condition worsened, and soon he was hospitalized with failing organs and extreme sweating.
In a desperate search for answers, the family exhumed the cat. Although cases of this nature are rare—only about 10 are reported annually in the US—doctors were stunned to find that the cat had tested positive for the black plague. The disease, carried by fleas, had killed 50 million people during medieval times, but it is now a rare occurrence.
Gaylord suffered a particularly aggressive infection, as evidenced by the rapid onset of his symptoms. This suggested that an overwhelming amount of bacteria had passed from the cat to him during the attack. At 59 years old, Gaylord spent an entire month in intensive care before doctors could confidently declare him a survivor. However, the damage caused by the plague was severe enough that he required amputations of his fingers and toes.
1. Monica
Monica's nightmare began with a fever just hours after giving birth. She had undergone a C-section, and everything seemed normal at first, so she initially assumed that the fever was just a normal hormonal response. But when the fever persisted for several days without relenting, she was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, a horrific flesh-eating bacterial infection. The bacteria were so aggressive that doctors had to remove her uterus, ovaries, gallbladder, and a portion of her colon all in one day to save her life.
Four weeks after the initial infection, the damage to her limbs became irreversible, leading to the loss of both her arms and legs. The infection had blocked blood flow to her extremities. Monica made the courageous decision to proceed with the quadruple amputation, choosing to continue living her life rather than giving up. Following the surgeries, she endured several more months in the hospital, undergoing 37 additional procedures. During her time in the hospital, she got married to the father of her newborn in the chapel and committed herself to an intensive physical therapy regimen.
Throughout her ordeal, Monica never succumbed to despair, as many medical staff had feared. Instead, she made it her mission to serve as a role model for her children, showing them the strength of a true fighter. Monica returned home just in time for Christmas. Although she missed small, everyday moments like braiding her daughter’s hair, she accepted her new reality with grace and determination, a feat that would break most people.
