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Endurance In Extremity (Tales Of Stubborn Survival Or Persistence)

Man, 80, fights bear, falls off cliff – and survives
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/o ... ?CMP=fb_gu
Octogenarian Russian shepherd kicks and headbutts animal, which tosses him off a cliff – but he lives to tell the tale

The Guardian, Thursday 31 October 2013 18.35 GMT

It is not known what species of bear the man tussled with, but brown bears are very common in the region. Photograph: Xavier Fores/Joana Roncero/Alamy
An octogenarian versus a hungry Russian bear. It was a confrontation that could have ended only one way, and yet shepherd Yusuf Alchagirov was sitting upright in bed this week and happily munching on the three traditional pies his family had baked in celebration at his survival.

The bear approached Alchagirov, 80, in a raspberry field in the southern Russian region of Kabardino-Balkaria last week, but despite his age, Alchagirov showered kicks and headbutts on the bear and managed to knock it off balance.

The bear, apparently irritated by the feisty shepherd, tossed him off a cliff and sauntered away, said Alchagirov in an interview with local television. He was hospitalised with bruises, bite wounds and four broken ribs, but was spared a mauling, and released within a few days. It is not known whether the bear suffered any lasting injuries.

"I got off easy. It would have killed me if I'd chickened out," Alchagirov said.

Bears attack humans only when they are either provoked or hungry, according to Russian experts. Over the autumn there have been a number of reports of hungry bears approaching villages in the far east of the country, after devastating floods destroyed much of their natural food sources.

In the region of Yakutia, one town witnessed six bear incursions in a month, and local authorities reported hungry animals breaking into people's houses and emptying the fridges. The bears became such a nuisance that a programme was put in place to shoot the scavenging animals.

In the most recent case, locals believed the bear was probably only playing with Alchagirov, Russian media said, and thus were not planning to track down the animal.
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All these puns! Not sure I can bear any more.
 
"An octogenarian versus a hungry Russian bear. It was a confrontation that could have ended only one way, and yet shepherd Yusuf Alchagirov was sitting upright in bed this week and happily munching on the three traditional pies his family had baked in celebration at his survival."

A hungry Russian bear writes, "Sure, his family baked them! That's why they had Daddy Bear, Mummy Bear and Baby Bear on the top!"

Quite a detailed look at at a tale some see as a political parable.
 
The old boy is hardly Goldilocks, is he? :)
 
Goldilocks, Schmouldilocks! She does not enter the picture until the early 20th Century. In Southey's version of 1837, the intruder is an old vagrant woman who is thrown from the window. No Mummy or Baby Bear either in the raw world of three property-owning bachelor grizzlies! That Wikipedia page is well worth a look. :)
 
Elderly couple found alive 12 days after car crashed into swamp
A husband and wife have been rescued in Japan, after surviving for 12 days on swamp water
Danielle Demetriou, Tokyo
12:01PM GMT 25 Nov 2013

An elderly couple in Japan survived on swamp water for 12 days after their car plunged 39 feet off a cliff leaving them stranded.
The husband, 65, was driving his 76-year-old wife in Higashiomi, Shiga prefecture, north of Kyoto, at around 7pm one evening earlier in the month when the mishap took place.
The driver reportedly swerved to avoid something he saw moving on the road, before the car crashed through a barrier and plunged into the swamp below.

Neither were seriously injured in the crash but they were unable to call for help as they did not have a mobile phone, according to Japanese media reports.

Instead, the couple stayed in the car, which was reportedly partially submerged, and survived by collecting nutrient-rich swamp water in plastic bottles and drinking it. :shock:

On at least one occasion, the husband tried to escape by crawling out of the marsh, but he reportedly returned to the car to be with his wife, who had injured her back in the accident.
The couple were eventually rescued after the husband managed crawl out of the swamp and was spotted by a passing driver who raised the alarm leading to their rescue.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... swamp.html
 
Not to be frivolous, but why is mineral water such a big deal when we could be drinking swamp water instead if it's so healthy?
 
gncxx said:
Not to be frivolous, but why is mineral water such a big deal when we could be drinking swamp water instead if it's so healthy?
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Yeah. 'Nutrient-rich' indeed. :shock:
 
But mineral water isn't a big deal because it's 'healthy'. It contains no nutrients at all, just a trace of minerals that salesmen would like to persuade you are 'good for you', although if you eat a balanced diet you probably get enough already.

Swamp water, however, probably does contain nutrients in the form of water weeds and protozoa:
Among well-known protozoans are amoebas, ciliates, paramecia, and dinoflagellates. Protozoa may live freely or as parasites, and may live as single cells or in simple colonies without any differentiation into tissues. While most are microscopic, some grow large enough to be seen unaided.

While some are known for causing disease (malaria is caused by parasitic forms), protozoans are vitally important ecologically as key links in food chains. Ubiquitous in aquatic environments and the soil, protozoans prey upon algae, bacteria, and other organisms and are themselves consumed by animals such as microinvertebrates.

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Protozoa
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(Of course, a car in the swamp may well be leaking fuel and oil, and the trapped persons probably add various unmentionable substances, so it may not be an ideal diet... ;) )
 
I live in Kiev, our taps seem to produce swamp water but we are advised not to drink it.
 
Between life and death – the power of therapeutic hypothermia

When Anna Bågenholm fell while skiing and became trapped in icy water, her body temperature plummeted and her heart stopped, but doctors were able to bring her back to life. Her extraordinary story has led to therapeutic hypothermia being used around the world
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Her extraordinary story has led to therapeutic hypothermia being introduced as a protective measure for victims of strokes, liver failure and epileptic seizures. Recent studies have also illustrated its effectiveness in newborn babies who have suffered a lack of oxygen at birth.

It is commonly used around the world in open heart operations where surgeons will cool the body down to as low as 10C, allowing them to cut off the arterial supply to the brain for up to 15 minutes without any notable brain damage.
etc
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Swedish man survived in snowed-in car for two months
Doctors say 'igloo effect' kept 44-year-old driver in northern Sweden alive despite temperatures of -30C
Lizzy Davies theguardian.com,
Sunday 19 February 2012 18.23 GMT

A Swedish man who spent two months snowed inside his car as temperatures outside dropped to -30C is "awake and able to communicate", according to the hospital treating him, where stunned doctors believe he was kept alive by the "igloo effect" of his vehicle.

The man, believed to be Peter Skyllberg, 44, who was found near the north-eastern town of Umeå on Friday by passers-by, told police he had been in the car since 19 December without food, surviving only by eating snow and staying inside his warm clothes and sleeping bag.

Dr Ulf Segerberg, the chief medical officer at Noorland's University Hospital, said he had never seen a case like it. The man had probably been kept alive, he said, by the natural warming properties of his snowed-in car which would have acted as "the equivalent of an igloo".

"This man obviously had good clothes; he's had a sleeping bag and he's been in a car that's been snowed over," said Segerberg. "Igloos usually have a temperature of a couple of degrees below 0C and if you have good clothes you would survive in those temperatures and be able to preserve your body temperature. Obviously he has managed to preserve his body temperature or he wouldn't have made it because us humans can't really stand being cooled down like reptiles, for instance, which can change the body temperature."

Two months was at the "upper limit" of what a person would be able to survive without food, added Segerberg.

Skyllberg was found emaciated and very weak by a pair of snowmobilers who thought they had found a crashed car. They dug down through about a metre of snow to see its driver lying on the back seat in his sleeping bag, according to Ebbe Nyberg, a local police officer.
"They were amazed at what they found: a man in his mid-40s huddled inside in a sleeping bag, starving and barely able to move or speak," Nyberg, working in Vaesterbotten county, was quoted as saying.

A rescuer told the local newspaper Västerbottens-Kuriren: "It's just incredible that he's alive considering that he had no food, but also since it's been really cold for some time after Christmas."

Police said temperatures around Umeå had fallen to -30C. One doctor, Stefan Branth, said Skyllberg may have survived by going into hibernation mode. "A bit like a bear that hibernates. Humans can do that. He probably had a body temperature of around 31C which the body adjusted to. Due to the low temperature, not much energy was used up."

But Segerberg said he was "sceptical" of this suggestion. "We can't lower body temperature very much. A little bit we can, but if we lower body temperatures more than just a little bit, we lose consciousness and go into a coma," he said, cautioning that it was not his area of expertise.

Skyllberg is being treated in an ordinary ward in the University Hospital, where Segerberg said he was "feeling well". It was unclear how he had come to be stranded in the deserted lane.

Segerberg said that, even in a part of the world where sub-zero temperatures and heavy snow are the norm, this case was unusual. "There have been cases of people caught out in the mountains, and if they can dig themselves down in the snow they are able to survive and be found. But there must be something special in this case."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/f ... r-hospital
 
Mexico castaway dreams of home after '13-month' sea ordeal
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26010553

Swimmers in the Pacific Ocean in December 2013

Jose Ivan reportedly travelled 5,000 miles (8,000km) across the Pacific Ocean
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A Mexican castaway, who says he spent more than a year adrift in the Pacific, has pleaded to be taken home after washing up in the Marshall Islands.

"I want to get back to Mexico," Jose Ivan reportedly said as he was taken to the islands' capital, Majuro, for a medical examination.

Mr Ivan said he left Mexico with a friend for a trip in a fibre-glass boat in December 2012.

He was found by people living on the island of Ebon Atoll on Thursday.

'Bad shape'
Continue reading the main story
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Start Quote

When we got there we first found his boat, which was... grown over with shells and other sea animals”

Ola Fjeldstad
Norwegian student on Ebon Atoll
Emaciated and wearing only ragged underpants, Mr Ivan washed ashore when his boat floated onto a reef at the small, isolated island.

He apparently survived the 5,000-mile (8,000km) ordeal by catching fish, birds and turtles with his bare hands.

He said his travelling companion died at sea many months ago.

No details have emerged about how the 24ft (7m) boat ran into trouble or how his companion died.

Ola Fjeldstad, a Norwegian anthropology student on Ebon Atoll, told the BBC how the castaway was apparently discovered: "A group of us got into the boat... and went over to meet him."

Map of Marshall Islands
"And when we got there we first found his boat, which was... grown over with shells and other sea animals. It had a live baby bird, a dead turtle, some turtle shells, and fish leftovers inside."

"He was in really bad shape in terms of strength and in terms of mental health."

As he boarded a Marshall Islands patrol vessel to Majuro on Sunday, he said: "I feel bad. I am so far away. I don't know where I am or what happened."

AFP news agency reported that Mr Ivan, who only speaks Spanish, had been communicating with Ione deBrum, Ebon Atoll's mayor, by drawing pictures.

Three Mexican fishermen were rescued off the Marshall Islands in August 2006 after what they said was about nine months drifting across the Pacific Ocean.

They survived on rain water, sea birds and fish.
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It's obvious that nobody really believes him!
 
Castaway wants to return to Mexico after Pacific ordeal

Jose Ivan walks with the help of a nurse in Majuro

Jose Salvador Albarengo steps off a patrol vessel in Majuro with the help of a nurse after a 22-hour boat ride from the isolated Ebon Atoll
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A castaway, who says he spent more than a year adrift in the Pacific, has asked to be taken home, after washing ashore in the Marshall Islands.

"I want to get back to Mexico," Jose Salvador Albarengo reportedly said as he was taken to the islands' capital, Majuro, for a medical examination.

Mr Albarengo said he left Mexico with a friend for a trip in a fibre-glass boat in December 2012.

He was found by people living on the island of Ebon Atoll on Thursday.

“When we got there we first found his boat, which was... grown over with shells and other sea animals”

Ola Fjeldstad
Norwegian student on Ebon Atoll

He had initially identified himself to authorities as Jose Ivan.

The castaway told the local deputy US ambassador Norman Barth, who was acting as an interpreter for Marshall Islands authorities, that he was originally from El Salvador, but had been living in Mexico for 15 years before his epic voyage.

The US ambassador, Thomas Ambruster, who was also at that interview, told BBC Mundo: "I understand that Mexican authorities have been contacted at the Mexican embassy in Manila (Philippines) and so one of those officials is on his way, or her way, to interview him, because the boat came from Mexico and I believe there was a Mexican national on board, who unfortunately perished at sea."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26010553
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Pacific castaway Jose Salvador Alvarenga 'mulled suicide'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-26041727

Jose Salvador Alvarenga

The photomontage shows an undated picture of Mr Alvarenga taken before the alleged trip

A castaway who says he spent 13 months lost in the Pacific told reporters he thought about killing himself twice, despairing from "hunger and thirst".

In an interview to CNN Mexico, Jose Salvador Alvarenga said fear was what stopped him from suicide.

The man, who was found in the Marshall Islands, also said he kept his faith that he would get out of the situation.

Mr Alvarenga says he left Mexico with a friend for a trip in a fibre-glass boat in December 2012.

He says a fisherman colleague who was also in the 7m (24ft)-long boat died at sea.

In a statement, the authorities of El Salvador said they were working with their counterparts in the Marshall Islands to repatriate the Salvadoran national.

'I will get out'
He was rescued on Thursday by people living on the island of Ebon Atoll.


Video footage showed Mr Alvarenga being helped to walk off a boat
"I thought I didn't want to starve or die of thirst. It was very tough," he told CNN.

Mr Alvarenga also suggested he went adrift as his boat's engine stalled, amid strong northerly winds and a strong swell.

He said he could not get a radio signal to alert others of his situation.

Despite despairing at times, he told CNN he never believed he was going to die.

"I didn't think I was going to die. I thought: 'I will get out. I will get out.'"

Map of Marshall Islands
Wearing only ragged underpants, Mr Alvarenga washed ashore when his boat supposedly floated onto a reef at the small, isolated island.

He claims to have survived the 8,000 km (5,000-mile) ordeal by catching fish, birds and turtles with his bare hands.

Three Mexican fishermen were rescued off the Marshall Islands in August 2006 after what they said was about nine months drifting across the Pacific Ocean.

They survived on rain water, seabirds and fish.

Castaways from Kiribati, to the south, frequently find land in the Marshall islands after ordeals of weeks or months at sea in small boats.
Click to expand...
 
See. Told you. See. Told you. See. See. Told you.


See.
 
Castaway unable to return home as his health declines
A castaway who travelled 8,000 miles across the Pacific from Mexico has weakened after struggling to adapt to life on land and has been forced to delay his journey home
[Video: friends confirm his identity]
By Jonathan Pearlman, Majuro
7:34AM GMT 06 Feb 2014

As Mexican officials confirmed that his story has largely been substantiated, Jose Salvador Alvarenga, 37, gave a press conference – presumably his first of many – but required help walking and could only muster the strength to say he is “good” and to thank his “friends”. He gave only three brief comments in a shaky, faltering voice before returning to hospital.

“Thank you to the friends who have helped me along the way here,” he said.
“I am good I am good. Thank you to my friends... I do not have much else to say right now. Thank you.”

Mr Alvarenga, a shark fisherman, was discharged from hospital on Tuesday and expected to fly to El Salvador to be reunited with his parents and 14-year-old daughter Fatima on Friday. But the trip has been delayed and he will remain in the Marshall Islands until at least Monday or Tuesday, according to Mexican officials. He is severely dehydrated and is low on vitamins and minerals.

One of his doctors, Roner Mendoza, told The Telegraph that Mr Alvarenga has not been drinking enough water since arriving on land and may have been accustomed to consuming only small amounts while at sea. He also may have developed an infection after coming into contact with other people again, Dr Mendoza said.

Christian Clay, the deputy head of Mexico’s embassy in the Phillipines, arrived in the Marshall Islands on Wednesday to assist with Mr Alvarenga’s return. It was originally thought that Mr Alvarenga was Mexican because he has spent 15 years there as a fisherman, but it has since emerged that he was born in El Salvador and was in Mexico illegally.

However, Mr Alvarenga has indicated he wants to eventually return to his home in southern Mexico – and Mr Clay indicated that Mexican officials would be likely to consider his request favourably.

Mr Clay said Mr Alvarenga’s claim that he left Mexico in a 24-foot fibreglass vessel in late 2012 and survived on turtles, birds, fish, sharks and rainwater for more than a year appeared to be “true”.

“So far what he has told us has been true,” he said.
“He has given his correct name. He put us in contact with his family in El Salvador. We are trying to contact the person who he says was his boss to get his side of the story. So far what he has said has been corroborated.”

However, Mr Clay said officials are still investigating precisely how long he was afloat and the circumstances of the death of Mr Alvarenga’s shipmate. Mr Alvarenga said he set off with a 15-year-old fisherman named Ezekiel, who died four months into the voyage after struggling to digest the raw meat and refusing to eat.
“The question is how long he was at sea,” he said.
“We are trying to make contact with his [Ezekiel’s] family in Mexico. I only know that there is an ongoing investigation.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... lines.html

A tale of survival, one way or another.
 
Castaway: two Pacific islanders, a screaming naked fisherman and three omelettes
Coconut farmers describe for the first time the moment when Jose Alvarenga regained contact with humankind after drifting 6,500 miles across the ocean from Mexico – and the meal they cooked him
By Jonathan Pearlman, in Majuro, Nick Allen and Nina Lakhani in Costa Azul
9:00PM GMT 08 Feb 2014

The two coconut farmers had just finished tending the trees on their tiny and otherwise unpopulated tiny Pacific island when they were startled by what sounded like shouts.

Intrigued, the husband and wife stepped outside their palm hut and were confronted by the extraordinary sight of a naked white man stumbling across the neighbouring speck of land, clutching a knife and screaming wildly in a foreign language.
It was the moment when Jose Salvador Alvarenga, a castaway who had apparently been at sea for more than 14 months, finally regained contact with humankind in one of the most remote spots on the planet.

Amy Libokmeto, 38, and Russell Laikedrik, 49, described that remarkable encounter for the first time in an exclusive interview with The Telegraph.
Despite his savage appearance and his knife, the figure they were faced by was weak and shaking and the couple immediately realised that he must have washed ashore.
But they could never have dreamt that the man with the wild hair and unkempt beard was a 37-year-old shark fisherman who had not seen land since drifting 6,500 miles across the Pacific from Mexico.

“We saw a man, naked, screaming,” said Ms Libokmeto, speaking from the only telephone on Ebon atoll, the southernmost tip of the Marshall Islands. “We knew he wasn’t a local because of the colour of his skin and hair. He was limping and swaying at every step.
“The other island is so close that we could see his face and he was rocking left to right and about to collapse. I thought he maybe fell overboard from a ship and swam ashore.”

The couple made their way across the shallow strip of coral and urged him by sign language to drop the knife. Exhausted, he collapsed into the sand.
The two helped the stranger to his feet and walked him towards their home, but he stopped to clasp his hands together and give thanks to God in what they would later learn was Spanish.

Despite the tropical heat, the man was shivering and clearly incredibly weak. They brought him a T-shirt and shorts, gave him water and made a fire to warm him.

Mr Laikedrik began to cook pancakes. “From my perspective he looked like he was starving,” his wife said. “When we were feeding him, he was not satisfied with one pancake. Then we gave him another and another. We gave him three pancakes.”

During that first meal, Mr Alvarenga tried to explain to the couple how he had arrived. “He showed with sign language that he came in with a boat. He pointed to the ocean side of the island. We knew what he was saying and I told my husband to go and find his boat.”

When the castaway’s strength had recovered, she and her husband took him by boat to the main island in the atoll. A Norwegian researcher used the only solar-powered phone to alert authorities in Majuro, the capital of the Pacific country of 60,000, and from there the first word of his incredible story was relayed to a disbelieving world.

The remarkable tale of survival and endurance is so outlandish that it prompted inevitable scepticism, yet there seems to be no other explanation that is not even more implausible.

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... ettes.html
 
El Salvador castaway Alvarenga finally arrives home

A castaway from El Salvador - who says he spent more than a year adrift in the Pacific - has finally arrived home.
Jose Salvador Alvarenga, 37, was met by family members and officials after flying from the US. [The photo shows him in a wheelchair.]

He was found washed up two weeks ago in the Marshall Islands. He says he left Mexico for a trip in a boat in December 2012 with a friend who died on board.
He apparently survived the 8,000km (5,000-mile) ordeal by catching fish, birds and turtles with his bare hands.
For fluids, he claimed to have drunk urine, rainwater and the blood of birds.

Mr Alvarenga was rescued on 30 January by people living on the island of Ebon Atoll.
He was found dehydrated and suffering from back pain and swollen joints.

Mr Alvarenga landed at El Salvador's international airport, near the capital San Salvador, at about 20:00 local time on Tuesday (02:00 GMT Wednesday) after flying from Los Angeles.
"We are happy he is coming back after so much time," his cousin Marisol Alvarenga was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
"He could have died. But thanks to God my cousin is a warrior, because I don't know what would have happened to another person," she added.

At the airport's VIP lounge, Mr Alvarenga was met by El Salvador's foreign minister and other government officials.
Dozens of journalists also gathered at the airport.

On his way from the Marshall Islands Mr Alvarenga had long stopovers in Hawaii and Los Angeles, where doctors had checked his health and ability to continue the trip.

Mr Alvarenga will now undergo further checks before a decision is taken whether he should stay overnight in a local hospital or can return to his coast fishing village of Garita Palmera.

The family of his younger friend say they want to speak to Mr Alvarenga to find out more about how their son died, and what happened to his body.
Known as Ezequiel, he is believed to have starved after being unable to eat raw birds and fish.

...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26148287
 
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