Buzz
Some people call it 'the survival instinct.' Others refer to it as 'the human spirit.' It's the force that pushes us to keep moving forward in the face of hardship, that quiet whisper urging you not to surrender when it feels like the world is working against you. It’s what kept these men and women going when fate brought them to the edge and made them confront the abyss. They aren't superheroes, but they share one thing: they refused to give up when death seemed like the only certainty.
10. Otis Orth
On March 2, 2014, 52-year-old Otis Orth left his cabin to pick up supplies in the nearby town of Trapper Creek, Alaska. Taking a shortcut, he rode his snowmobile along the icy, wooded trails. As usual, he had his golden retriever, Amber, with him. She sat calmly on the seat while he stood on the side panels, keeping her protected between his legs.
Just minutes into the journey, disaster struck. Otis felt the rear treads of the snowmobile break through a patch of ice, causing it to fishtail uncontrollably. The vehicle veered off the trail and crashed into a thicket, disappearing from view. Groggy but conscious, Otis attempted to move but found himself unable. He had dislocated his limbs and injured his neck in the crash. To make matters worse, his body heat began melting the snow beneath him, causing him to sink further into the drift. The only movement he could muster was wiggling his fingers and toes to maintain circulation. As night fell, the temperature dropped, and Otis felt himself slipping away, just a short distance from his cabin.
But Amber, his loyal dog, refused to let him die. Seeing her master shivering and unable to move, she crawled on top of him to provide warmth. With the temperature plunging to -13°C (9°F), Amber’s body heat became a life-saving factor. She stayed by his side all night, whining to keep him alert. When Otis lost feeling in his legs around midnight, she cuddled closer to him. As morning broke, she chased away ravens that tried to peck at Otis’s eyes, always returning to curl up by his side.
After nearly 24 hours of waiting, Amber heard the sound of a snowmobile approaching in the distance. Otis weakly urged her to find help. Amber followed the noise and began barking, leading the men back to where Otis lay. By the time Otis was airlifted to the nearest hospital, he had been stranded in the snow for 26 hours. He credits Amber with saving his life.
9. Danny Jay Balch
Danny Jay Balch had planned to head to the beach, while his friend Brian Thomas had his heart set on camping in the mountains. Only after much persuasion did Balch finally agree. The next day, the two friends made their way to Green River, a peaceful, tree-lined campsite beneath the looming presence of Mount St. Helens. It was May 17, 1980, just one day before one of the most catastrophic natural events in U.S. history.
At 8:32 AM the next morning, after a calm night spent by the campfire, Balch awoke to find Thomas staring at him with sheer horror in his eyes. But Thomas wasn’t looking at Balch—he was staring out the tent’s window behind him. Balch turned around and immediately became alert. Through the trees, he saw a massive red plume filling the sky. Mount St. Helens had erupted. The two men scrambled out of the tent just as the shock wave hit. Thomas dove for cover under some fallen logs, but Balch was knocked off his feet by a powerful surge of ash and heat that swept through the clearing.
The first eruption brought a blast of ice and snow, freezing Balch to the bone. Moments later, he was scorched by a fierce wave of heat that seemed to bake him alive. The intensity was so severe that it began to peel the skin from his hands. He crawled toward the river, hoping to cool off, before setting off in search of Thomas. The peaceful clearing had transformed into a battlefield in an instant, with trees felled and some shattered to pieces by the eruption’s power. Ash began to fall like snow, quickly reducing visibility. Yet somehow, Balch managed to find Thomas, trapped beneath a pile of tree limbs. Thomas had broken his hip and could no longer walk. Balch, still barefoot, was forced to walk on the embers that now covered the ground. Within minutes, the air was so thick with ash that they could barely see each other.
For two hours, they sat on top of the branch pile, breathing through their shirts, waiting for help they knew would never arrive. They were positioned on the north side of the volcano, directly in the eruption’s path. At the time, they couldn’t know it, but the eruption had obliterated the volcano’s north face, triggering the largest landslide in recorded history. Massive stones, large enough to crush vehicles fell miles from the mountain, while lava reduced trees to ash 8 kilometers (5 miles) away from the mountain’s base.
At last, Balch witnessed a sight he would never forget: Sue Ruff and Bruce Nelson, two other friends who had been camping nearby, carefully making their way through the debris. They quickly constructed a shelter for Thomas and then set off with Balch in search of help. Barefoot and exhausted, Balch trekked nearly 18 kilometers (11 miles) through a desolate wasteland of ash and fire before encountering a family of hikers. Together, they spread the word: survivors had been found. Ruff and Nelson were located first, but they refused to board the helicopter until someone came for Thomas. In the end, Balch, Thomas, Ruff, and Nelson survived, but two of their friends weren’t as fortunate—they died in their tent, holding each other close as the eruption claimed their lives.
Danny Balch still regrets not going to the beach that weekend.
8. Ben Nyaumbe
What seemed like a typical Easter weekend for Ben Nyaumbe, a resident of Sabaki, Kenya, took a terrifying turn when he stepped on something soft and squishy. Unfortunately, it wasn’t an Easter egg—it was a 4-meter-long (13 ft) python, and it wasn’t happy. The snake latched onto Nyaumbe’s leg, pulling him to the ground as he screamed for help. The situation quickly spiraled downhill from there. With a firm grip on Nyaumbe, the python dragged him up into a tree, winding itself tighter around his torso as it climbed.
Once in the tree, Nyaumbe fought with everything he had. With one arm pinned to his side, he used his free hand to wrap his shirt around the snake’s head, trying to shield himself from its bite. But pythons are patient predators, and with every passing minute, the snake tightened its coil. Though rare, python attacks on humans do occur. In 2008, a 3-meter (10 ft) Burmese python killed a zoo worker by crushing him and was in the process of swallowing his head when a colleague arrived. In 1996, a python killed a man in New York and dragged his lifeless body into the hallway of his apartment.
Nyaumbe’s situation was critical, but he still had one final move left. He bit the python right on its tail.
The snake loosened its hold just enough for Nyaumbe to pull his cell phone from his pocket. He quickly called the police. By the time the officers arrived, both of Nyaumbe’s hands were trapped against his side. Unable to fire without risking hitting him, the officers, assisted by villagers, tied a rope around both Nyaumbe and the snake, and together they yanked them out of the tree. After a tense three-hour struggle, the python was removed from Nyaumbe, captured in a sack, and taken away. Despite the ordeal, Nyaumbe was shaken but unharmed. The snake later escaped and remains at large.
7. Mary Downey
No one knows who Mary Downey really is. Her name might not even be her real name. But on June 29, 2014, she became a part of local New York history when she survived an experience that would haunt most subway riders: she fell onto the tracks in front of an oncoming train.
It was 6:00 AM on a Sunday, and 22-year-old Mary Downey, by all accounts, was heading home to recover from a night of partying. Staggering too close to the yellow line, she lost her balance and fell onto the tracks just as the N-train emerged from the tunnel. She tried to scramble back up, but having broken her shoulder in the fall, she didn’t have time. Just moments before the train was about to hit her, Downey rolled into the gap between the tracks and the platform, pressing herself flat as the train thundered over her.
Once the immediate danger had passed, Downey attempted to climb out again, only to be met by a chilling rumble that echoed from the dark tunnel. Seconds later, another train sped through the station, its cars just inches from Downey’s face. It wasn’t until a third train appeared that someone finally noticed Mary Downey's figure lying helpless on the tracks. At first, the driver mistook her for a piece of debris reflecting the headlights. By the time he realized it was a person, he had no time to stop before the train was already halfway over her.
After being pulled to safety, Downey was rushed to the hospital. Despite surviving three close calls with trains, her only injury was the broken shoulder sustained in her initial fall onto the tracks.
6. Ken Jones
The warning, “Even if the avalanche doesn’t kill you, the mountain will,” had never felt more true for Ken Jones than it did in January 2003. A former Special Forces member turned mountaineer, Jones was thrilled when he won a contest that awarded him a climbing holiday in Romania. The Fagaras Mountains in Romania, home to some of the highest peaks in the Southern Carpathians, presented Jones with the perfect chance to hone his mountaineering skills while enjoying the stunning views.
On a cold January morning, Jones set off from his hotel to climb Mount Moldoveanu, the tallest mountain in Romania. He went alone, didn’t inform anyone of his plans, and left his phone behind. It was a decision that nearly cost him his life. Halfway up the mountain, while standing on a precarious rock, an avalanche struck without warning. The massive wave of snow and ice swept him 25 meters (75 ft) down, leaving him with a fractured skull, a shattered pelvis, and a broken leg. In the eerie silence that followed, Jones surveyed the desolate, snow-covered landscape and realized that he was completely alone.
What followed was a testament to pure determination. Bruised, bloodied, and unable to stand, Jones, clad in nothing but a T-shirt and jeans, began his crawl. His hands and elbows pushed him forward, his legs too weak to help. Each agonizing inch he moved on one of the most isolated mountains on Earth sent jolts of pain as his fractured pelvis bones scraped together. The freezing cold dropped to -15°C (5°F) at night. Worse yet, his shoes had been lost in the avalanche.
Jones spent four days and three nights dragging himself 16 kilometers (10 miles) to the nearest town. He waded through icy waters, enduring a brutal three-hour ordeal to cross a stream. When he was eventually rescued, doctors doubted he’d survive the night. But he did, and against all odds, they told him he’d never walk again. Today, not only does he walk, but he’s also a competitive cyclist.
5. Reshma Begum
On April 24, 2013, the workers in Dhaka’s Rana Plaza heard the disturbing groan of metal beams bending. Inside the building were five garment factories, filled with heavy machinery that was never meant to be there. Nearly 3,000 workers, including 19-year-old Reshma Begum, toiled away, earning a meager £30 per month sewing clothes for export. At around 9:00 AM that day, disaster struck—the entire building collapsed.
The collapse was swift, lasting mere seconds, but for Begum, the nightmare had only just begun. She’d struck her head in the chaos, and when she regained consciousness, it was to a suffocating darkness. Trapped beneath the wreckage, she scrambled frantically, cutting herself on jagged metal and broken concrete, but no escape was in sight. All around her, fires raged, but she was confined to the blackness, surrounded by the lifeless bodies of those who hadn’t survived the collapse.
As the days wore on, Begum’s situation grew increasingly desperate. Immediately after the building collapsed, she had heard the cries of a man nearby, but he didn’t survive for long. ‘Another person, a man, was near me. He asked for water. I could not help him. He died. He screamed, “Save me,” but he died,’ she later shared with The Independent.
For 17 days, Begum survived in the rubble with nothing but four packs of cookies and a small amount of water. Air filtered through the cracks, enough to keep her alive, but there was no room big enough to crawl through, nor could she see any daylight. She shouted, banging on the rubble with sticks, but no one came. Outside, workers had already discovered over 1,000 bodies, and every day more were found.
Then, one of the rescuers noticed movement in the corner of his eye. A stick was being wiggled through a tiny crack on the second floor. He rushed over and shouted through the gap, and from inside came a faint voice crying, ‘Save me!’ After finding 1,127 dead bodies, they had found the first living one. It took an hour for them to carve out a hole big enough for Begum to squeeze through. She was the last person to be pulled from the wreckage alive.
4. Robert Evans
In 2006, Robert Evans was ice fishing in Nederland, Colorado, when two six-packs beside him exploded in the freezing cold, splattering his pants with beer. By the time he tried to stand, his pants had frozen to the ice, and firemen had to pour hot water on him to free him. Evans had already been convicted five times for drunk driving and spent 13 years living on the streets. Known as the “Ice Man” around Boulder (thanks to his beer incident), Evans became both the luckiest and unluckiest man in the world in 2008, all in one fateful night.
The night began when Evans was struck by a car. He was crossing the street on his bike when a woman hit him, sending him flying into the air. “I bounced off the car twice. I was scuffed up. Nothing serious,” he recalled to the Denver Post. After the woman sped off without stopping, Evans climbed back on his bike, pedaled to the hospital, and then made a pit stop at a liquor store for a bottle of whiskey.
Later that night, Evans decided to take a shortcut along a railroad track. Walking his bike across a narrow bridge, he noticed the lights of an approaching train. Already in the middle of the bridge, Evans chose to run toward the train, hoping to jump off the tracks in time. He didn’t make it. The train struck him, sending him flying off the bridge and into the creek below. Once again, Evans found himself at Boulder Community Hospital—his second hospital visit in just seven hours.
When police discovered that Evans had survived two accidents in one night with nothing more than a few bruises, they issued him a trespassing ticket for being on the tracks. Asked about the ordeal, Evans shrugged and said that it “wasn’t his worst.”
3. Jay Jonas
Jay Jonas, a firefighter from New York, doesn’t believe in accidents. On September 11, 2001, he didn’t find himself caught between the harsh realities of fate—he gave Atropos the finger and charged straight into the chaos. He did it because it was his duty, and walking away from that duty meant abandoning the lives of those trapped inside the burning towers.
The morning he received the call about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center, Jonas was in the Chinatown firehouse, eating breakfast. In the blink of an eye, disbelief turned into shock, but before it could settle in, he was already on his feet, grabbing his gear, and rallying the men of Ladder Company 6 to the truck. Moments later, they arrived at the scene of devastation at the north tower. The air was thick with smoke. People were burned, screaming, and crying. Debris and chunks of metal rained down like the flames of Armageddon. As they moved through the lobby, they passed two people trapped in an elevator shaft, their bodies mangled by the flammable vapor from jet fuel. They were unrecognizable, barely human.
But Jonas wasn’t stopping in the lobby. His destination was the 80th floor, where the most desperate cries for help were coming from. For Jonas and his crew, that was the place that needed them the most. With 45 kilograms (100 lb) of gear weighing them down, and a stream of panicked, fleeing people crowding the halls, Ladder Company 6 ascended floor after floor. They stopped every 10 stories to catch their breath. Some people cheered them on as they passed, others broke open vending machine glass to offer them water. The suits didn’t allow them to sweat properly, and after 20 floors, some of Jonas’s men were dangerously close to overheating. But they pressed on to the 27th floor, just as the south tower collapsed.
Through a window, they saw the south tower crumble, its million tons of debris rushing past them so close they could almost touch it. At that moment, Jonas realized just how precarious their situation was. With his crew’s safety in mind, he ordered them to descend. They continued helping anyone they could, even carrying a woman all the way from the 20th floor. By now, it was a race against time, and Jonas was well aware of the urgency. They reached the fourth floor, almost feeling the fresh air when they heard the first muffled explosion. Then came another, and another. The building was collapsing around them.
Incredibly, Jay Jonas survived. Amid the collapse of 110 floors, they were lucky enough to be in a stairwell that remained intact. After three hours of choking on dust and smoke, Jonas and his team—along with the woman they had carried down from the 20th floor—emerged alive. They were among the last survivors found that day.
2. Austin Hatch
Even at the tender age of eight, Austin Hatch realized his life would never be the same. That summer, he was returning from a family trip with his parents, little brother, and older sister when tragedy struck. They were flying in a small plane piloted by Austin’s father when an engine failure caused the plane to crash just outside Fort Wayne, Indiana. Upon impact, the fuel tank exploded, filling the cabin with flames. In a heroic act, Austin’s father managed to throw his young son from the burning plane before narrowly escaping himself. Sadly, no one else survived the crash.
Eight years later, in 2011, life was starting to feel somewhat normal again. Though Austin had lost his mother and siblings in the crash, he still had his father—the man who was present at every basketball game, practice session, and who helped him with homework every night. By now, Austin was a standout basketball player in high school, with aspirations of playing for the University of Michigan. His father had remarried Kimberly Neal, a kind woman who embraced Austin as her own. When Austin received his acceptance letter to the University of Michigan, the family wanted to celebrate and decided to fly to Walloon Lake for the weekend.
But fate had other plans, and once again, disaster struck. As it had happened eight years earlier, something went wrong with the plane. It crashed near Charlevoix, Michigan. Austin was the only survivor of the wreck.
Austin endured severe brain damage so catastrophic that doctors believed he wouldn’t survive. After two months in a coma and another two years of recovery, Austin never stopped fighting. He pushed through it because it was what his father would have wanted, and there was no way he was going to let him down. As for his dream of playing basketball at Michigan? By February 2015, Austin Hatch was officially on the Michigan Wolverines roster. And in his eyes, that was just the beginning.
1. Jose Salvador Alvarenga
On January 30, 2014, two women looked on in disbelief as a naked man with a wild, scraggly beard ran towards them across the beach. They lived on the Ebon Atoll, a remote island located at the southern tip of the Marshall Islands, deep in the northern Pacific Ocean, and hundreds of miles away from any other land. It wasn’t a place where strangers typically appeared, and certainly not one as peculiar as this. The island has a single phone line, and it would take two full days for a boat to arrive to take this odd, naked man away. The story he told them next was beyond belief.
The man introduced himself as Jose Salvador Alvarenga, a fisherman who had departed from Costa Azul, Mexico, on December 21, 2012. He and his companion, a young man named Ezequiel Cordova, had planned to return that evening, but their engine failed, and a storm carried them far off course. What followed was a harrowing 13-month journey, where he drifted nearly 10,000 kilometers (6,000 mi) across the Pacific Ocean. After several months, Cordova died, leaving Alvarenga to survive alone in the tiny boat. He caught turtles, fish, and small sharks for food, drank rainwater and turtle blood for hydration, and somehow managed to survive for over a year.
Though many have questioned the tale, numerous details seem to corroborate it. In December 2012, officials in Costa Azul did launch an extensive search for a boat matching the description of the one Alvarenga was found on in the Marshall Islands. Fishermen in the town also recalled seeing Alvarenga around the docks in the days leading up to his departure on that fateful day.
