Buzz
Humans are often recognized for their incredible resilience and their ability to overcome some of the most dreadful circumstances. Some might attribute it to miracles or divine intervention, but we may never truly understand what empowers some to prevail over life-threatening accidents or intentional acts of violence and suffering.
This leads us to question what we, ourselves, could survive. How could someone withstand days trapped in a sunken ship? Is it possible to survive being sliced in half by a moving train? Can a person endure having their throat slashed? Yes! Discover the stories of 10 extraordinary individuals (and animals) who endured terrifying events and survived to share their experiences.
10. Tim Lancaster
On the morning of Sunday, June 20, 1990, at around 8:20 am, the co-pilot of British Airways Flight 5390 transferred control of the aircraft to Captain Tim Lancaster, who was 42 years old. The flight was on its way to Málaga, Spain, from Birmingham, England.
Soon after takeoff, a windscreen panel detached from the plane’s fuselage. The rapid decompression was so intense that it yanked Lancaster out of his seat and sent him headfirst through the cockpit window. However, the positioning of the flight controls caused his legs to become trapped behind them, preventing him from being fully ejected from the aircraft.
The flight attendants took turns holding onto Lancaster. After a while, many thought the captain had passed away—after all, the intense wind had caused his head to repeatedly slam into the plane’s fuselage. However, the co-pilot feared that letting go of Lancaster could compromise the integrity of the plane and endanger everyone’s safety.
They held on to him without giving up. Their persistence was rewarded when the plane finally touched down, and Lancaster was still alive. Miraculously, he had only sustained bruises, fractures, and some frostbite. Incredibly, within five months, he had returned to work and resumed flying in the cockpit.
9. Finn the Dog
Finn is a dog who, on Wednesday, October 5, 2016, was serving as a police dog on duty with his handler, PC Dave Wardell, in Stevenage, England.
The officers were on the hunt for a suspect believed to be armed. They soon located him—and indeed, he was armed. As the man tried to flee, PC Wardell called out a warning, but the suspect kept running. At that point, PC Wardell released Finn, who quickly caught up with the man and clamped down on his leg.
In a fit of rage, the suspect drove a knife into Finn’s chest and struck at the dog’s head, yet Finn stubbornly held onto the man’s leg. PC Wardell soon caught up, disarmed the assailant, and neutralized the threat.
Finn was immediately rushed to a veterinary clinic for urgent surgery, during which a part of his lung was removed. Miraculously, despite the severity of his injuries, Finn made a full recovery and was back in action as a police dog within just 11 weeks. After the attack, the 16-year-old assailant faced no charges, prompting PC Wardell to champion the creation of Finn’s Law in England and Wales, which ensures that anyone who injures a service animal cannot claim self-defense.
8. Putney Bridge Woman
On Friday, May 5, 2017, a shocking incident was captured on CCTV in London, England. A jogger, seemingly without provocation, shoved a woman—a complete stranger—into the path of an oncoming bus as she was crossing Putney Bridge.
The video captures the woman tumbling to the ground, falling backward into the street, directly in front of a double-decker bus. Miraculously, the bus driver reacted with exceptional speed and skill, swerving just in time to avoid hitting her.
The woman narrowly escaped with only minor injuries. Sadly, the man who shoved her remains unidentified.
7. Jennifer Morey
On the evening of Saturday, April 15, 1995, Jennifer Morey from Houston, Texas, prepared for bed as usual, unaware that this night would unfold differently from all others.
Hours later, Jennifer realized there was someone lying next to her in bed. The intruder held a knife to her throat, and as she screamed, he ordered her to be quiet—using her name in the process. (This detail will be significant later.)
The man’s voice was unfamiliar to her, yet he clearly knew who she was. Despite her attempts to fight back, the man eventually slashed Morey’s throat and fled. Miraculously, Morey survived the brutal attack and quickly called 911, receiving the help she needed. The police wasted no time in discovering that her assailant was the apartment complex’s security guard. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, while Morey made a full recovery and went on to open her own law practice.
Ironically, Morey had chosen this apartment complex precisely because she believed it to be a safe haven.
6. Charla Nash
On Monday, February 16, 2009, Charla Nash was viciously attacked by a chimpanzee named Travis in Stamford, Connecticut.
Travis had lived with Sandra Herold since he was just three days old. Although he had been involved in a few incidents before—such as escaping a car and chasing a pedestrian—nothing compared to the horror he would bring upon Charla. When Charla stepped out of Sandra’s house, holding Travis’s favorite toy, the chimp became enraged and launched a brutal assault on her.
Despite Sandra’s desperate attempt to stop Travis from inflicting further harm on Charla by stabbing him with a butcher’s knife, the assault only ceased when a police officer shot the chimp. By then, however, Charla had already endured unimaginable injuries. Travis had torn off her hands, ripped away her eyelids, nose, and lips, and shattered many bones in her face.
Travis died that day, but against all expectations, Charla survived. She underwent multiple surgeries, including a face transplant in 2011, and now lives independently with some part-time assistance.
5. Harrison Okene
On Sunday, May 26, 2013, Harrison Okene likely believed that it was his final day on Earth.
Okene, a cook aboard a tugboat assisting an oil tanker in the Atlantic Ocean, found himself in grave danger when the rough sea caused the tugboat to capsize. The boat settled on the seabed, 30 meters (98 feet) below the surface, and claimed the lives of 11 crew members. Remarkably, Okene was the sole survivor.
How did he survive this catastrophic event? He found a room with enough air to keep himself alive. Inside, he managed to create a platform to elevate his torso above the water, a strategy he knew would delay hypothermia and prevent drowning. However, he was aware that his time was running out.
Okene was eventually rescued by a team of divers and made a full recovery. Though he swore never to enter the ocean again, just two years later, he earned a commercial diving diploma. Interestingly, the diver who saved him also handed him the certificate.
4. Phineas Gage
It seems impossible to survive an iron rod driving through the cheek, entering the eye socket, and exiting from the top of the head. But that is exactly what happened to Phineas Gage.
In 1848, in Cavendish, Vermont, Gage was working as a railroad employee, blasting rocks to clear the path for a new rail line. When the iron pole pierced his head, it destroyed much of his frontal lobe. The frontal lobes are responsible for our personality, behavior, and emotions. After the accident, those who knew Gage reported dramatic changes in his behavior.
Dr. John Martyn Harlow, who was responsible for treating Gage’s injuries, noted that Gage had become ‘fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity, which was not previously his custom.’
Gage lived for another 12 years after the tragic accident, but it is widely believed that the seizure which ultimately took his life was linked to the traumatic injury he suffered more than a decade earlier.
3. Alison Botha
The story of Alison Botha is one of the most horrifying and extraordinary survival tales in recent memory. Her attack occurred near Port Elizabeth, South Africa, on Sunday, December 18, 1994.
While returning home from a friend’s house, Alison was confronted by a man with a knife, who forced his way into her car. He demanded she vacate the driver’s seat. Terrified for her life, Alison complied with his commands. The man then took the wheel and told Alison he needed to borrow her car for a few hours. But as he stopped to pick up a friend and continued driving toward a secluded area, Alison realized she was in immediate danger.
In a secluded clearing, two men, Frans du Toit and Theuns Kruger, brutally raped Alison and inflicted over 30 stab wounds. But their cruelty didn’t end there. Fearing Alison might survive and report them to the authorities, they nearly disemboweled her and slashed her throat so deeply, it almost severed her head. Once they were sure Alison was dead, they abandoned her lifeless body in the clearing.
Against all odds, Alison survived. Miraculously, she regained enough strength to crawl to a nearby road and flag down passing motorists for help. She later recalled how she had to hold her nearly detached head in place to prevent it from falling backward. Despite the horror she endured, Alison recovered, sharing her story in a book and giving lectures on her survival. Both Toit and Kruger were sentenced to life imprisonment, with no chance of parole.
2. Mary Vincent
In the 1970s, hitchhiking was a common and seemingly safe practice. Many people believed it was a harmless way to travel. Unfortunately, some were not so fortunate.
On Friday, September 29, 1978, 15-year-old Mary Vincent from Las Vegas, Nevada, accepted a ride from Lawrence Singleton. She had been waiting with two other hitchhikers, but Singleton claimed he only had space for one. (Did anyone else feel a sense of foreboding at this point?)
After a while, Singleton pulled over the van and got out to relieve himself. Vincent took the opportunity to tie her shoelaces. But before she could even stand up, Singleton attacked her with a hammer. He forcefully threw her back into the van, bound her, and subjected her to repeated rape until she eventually passed out. When she regained consciousness, she found herself being dragged away from the van.
Vincent fought back, but Singleton was armed with a hatchet. He struck her left arm with it, severing her hand and forearm, then proceeded to cut off her right forearm. He callously discarded her body down a steep incline into a drainage ditch, leaving her to die. But Vincent refused to give up. Summoning all her strength and determination, she crawled back up the embankment and was able to get help from a passing young couple.
Vincent was rushed to the hospital, where she physically recovered, though the mental scars would remain. Singleton was sentenced to just 14 years in prison, of which he served only eight. After his release, he moved to Florida, where in 1997, he murdered another woman. He was convicted once more, and Vincent, after twenty years, faced him in court and testified at his sentencing. Singleton was sentenced to death, but he passed away from cancer in 2001 while awaiting execution.
1. Truman Duncan
Much like Phineas Gage, Truman Duncan worked on the railroads. In June 2006, in Cleburne, Texas, Duncan endured an injury of a similarly catastrophic nature.
While riding on the front of a train car, Duncan lost his balance and tumbled onto the tracks below. He tried to outrun the train, but it quickly gained on him and began to drag him beneath its wheels. The nightmare lasted for a staggering 23 meters (75 feet), with the train essentially severing his body at the waist.
Incredibly, despite the severity of his injuries, Duncan's will to survive remained unbroken. He managed to grab his phone and call 911. As he awaited help, his thoughts turned to his wife and children. When he felt himself growing drowsy, he would force himself to move and stay alert to preserve his strength.
Emergency responders arrived after about 45 minutes. By then, Duncan had lost more than half of his blood. However, defying the odds, he survived. Over the course of more than 20 surgeries, he had his left leg amputated at the hip and his right leg amputated above the knee.
Duncan returned to work at the rail yard, though he shifted to an office position—probably a safer choice, given the circumstances.
