Endurance In Extremity (Tales Of Stubborn Survival Or Persistence)

[WhistlingJack]

Outback 'skeleton' recalls ordeal

A "walking skeleton" who emerged from the Australian Outback after being lost for 10 weeks has recalled how he survived on leeches and frogs.

Ricky Megee, 35, stumbled out of the bush in front of a farm manager's jeep in the Northern Territory, near the Western Australia border.

Mr Megee was rescued last week and has been recovering in hospital in Darwin.

It is unclear how he became lost. He has said both that his car broke down and that he was drugged by a hitcher.

He told Britain's Times newspaper that he had been heading to take up a government employment agency job in Port Hedland, Western Australia. The paper said the agency had confirmed the story.

Mr Megee told rescuers his car had broken down.

But he told the Times he stopped his Mitsubishi Challenger on the Buntine Highway to give an Aboriginal man a lift.

Mr Megee told the paper: "The last thing I remember was driving up the road and getting a bit dazed and confused.

"The next thing was waking up, face down, in a hole. There was some plastic on me with some rocks and dirt thrown on top. What woke me was that there were four dingoes scratching the rocks to try to get at me."

After wandering for more than a week he stumbled upon a natural dam.

"I ate the leeches raw, straight out of the dam," he said. "Grasshoppers I just ate them. But the only thing I really sort of had to cook was the frogs.

"I slipped them onto a bit of wire and stuck the wire on top of my [shelter], let the sun dry them out a fair bit until they were a bit crispy and then just ate them."

Mark Clifford, who found Mr Megee near the cattle station of Birrindudu, 800km (500 miles) south-west of Katherine, said: "He is a big tall man, six foot two, six foot three, and he was just a walking skeleton basically."


Story from BBC NEWS:

Published: 2006/04/14 02:48:30 GMT

© BBC MMVI

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Bus driver ejected through window comes back, checks passengers

Last Updated Fri, 14 Apr 2006 16:59:21 EDT
CBC News

A bus driver was thrown through the windshield of his vehicle when it ran into a light standard in suburban Vancouver Friday morning, according to witnesses.

The Pacific Coach Line bus was travelling to the Vancouver ferry terminal when the accident occurred.

The Pacific Coach Line bus is towed from the accident scene. (CBC)

One of the passengers on the bus told Global TV that after the driver was ejected, he came back on the bus to check on passengers.

Officials said at least nine people were slightly injured and taken to a local hospital. The other passengers were put on another bus.

Police are investigating the cause of the accident.

www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/0 ... 60414.html

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

This sounds like the kind of series of accidents I'd get invovled in:

Crash driver staggers over cliff

By Dylan Welch
April 18, 2006 - 5:38PM

A dazed driver, who fell over a cliff after escaping a crash in Sydney, has been rescued.

Ambulance officers say they do not know exactly how long the partially disabled 60-year-old driver lay in agony at the foot of the 10-metre cliff in West Pymble.

A passer-by reported the crash about 7.30am today.

But the actual crash was not witnessed, said Inspector Nick Spelz of the NSW Ambulance Service.

"She could have been there for a long time, because you look where the car is. I mean, who would notice it?'' he told smh.com.au.

Police say the driver veered across the Comenarra Parkway near Evans Street in West Pymble and her Holden Astra crashed over a two-metre high ledge, ending up nose-first on the ground a few metres from the edge of the cliff.

Behind the ledge, the car would not have been easy to see from the road.

Inspector Spelz said: "She might have been staggering around, a bit disoriented and slipped on some leaves. It's very slippery down there."

The result was that she toppled over the edge of the cliff and landed on the rocky ground about 10 metres below.

Two ambulance officers spent two hours with her on the ground, administering morphine, as arrangements were made to winch her up.

An ambulance spokeswoman said the woman was in a stable condition with lower back injuries.

Inspector Spelz said even the woman herself, who had hit her head during the accident, couldn't say when it occurred.

"Her head did come in contact with the windscreen when the car went over ... she had no idea when it occurred.

"All she said was, emphatically, that it was an accident."

Michael Benson, 22, lives in the house next to the accident scene and said he had no idea how the woman managed to drive the car over the first ledge.

"I haven't seen many accidents here [and] never anything like this ... it's incredible, it's quite a fall."

He did say people sometimes stopped their cars near where she had crashed.

"I don't why, but some people just stop there.

"I don't know, maybe they go for a walk in the bush or something - I've seen other cars park there before."

He also said he didn't hear the crash, even though his house was only 20 metres from the site.

"The first I knew was when I went out to grab some milk [at 8am] and I came back and I saw a cop car there."

www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/04/18/1145 ... ?from=top5

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Farmer drove three miles with severed hand

A farmer who accidentally sliced off his hand packed it in his lunchbox, climbed in his tractor and drove three miles home.

His wife put the severed hand in the fridge and it was later successfully reattached by surgeons in hospital.

Austrian Gerhard Frank, 64, had been using an automatic log splitter in a field three miles from his farm in the village of Steeg.

It sliced down unexpectedly, severing his handm, but Mr Frank had the presence of mind to put it in his refrigerated lunchbox.

A spokesman at Innsbruck Hospital in Austria where the severed limb was successfully reattached said that Frank acted with "remarkable calm and good sense".

www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1864052.html

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Man survives elevator ordeal with cookies


Wed Jun 14, 6:49 AM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German retiree and former elevator repair man had to survive on just a packet of biscuits while he was stuck in a broken hospital elevator for three days.

Karlheinz Schmidt, 68, who had turned up for a routine appointment at a Berlin hospital, slipped out of his wheelchair during the 80-hour ordeal in which he repeatedly pushed the elevator's alarm button without anyone hearing his call for help.

"I was lying on the floor and the elevator went up and down for a bit. I pushed the alarm button several times, but nothing happened," the daily Bild quoted Schmidt as saying. "I thought to myself ... 'Karlheinz, that's it. You're on your own now'."

Schmidt, who appeared on German television looking pale and weak, was finally discovered Monday after a nurse reported the broken lift. Schmidt's son had launched a hunt for his father but rescue workers after scouring the hospital grounds had concentrated efforts on dredging a nearby canal.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060614/od_ ... ospital_dc

 

[rynner2]

A German retiree and former elevator repair man had to survive on just a packet of biscuits while he was stuck in a broken hospital elevator for three days.

Surely that should be on the Irony thread! 8)

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Video of a guy getting knocked off his bike and landing on his feet:

www.uniquepeek.com/fusion_pages/index.php?page_id=400

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Man calls 911 after legs severed by train

11:07 PM CDT on Wednesday, June 28, 2006

By JIM DOUGLAS / WFAA-TV


Jim Douglas reports


A North Texas railroad worker whose legs were severed when he was run over by a train Sunday morning managed to make a call that may have saved his life.

While workers at Gunderson Southwest Yard in Cleburne were coupling cars, 36-year-old Truman Duncan slipped beneath the wheels of the train cars.

However, somehow Duncan managed to dial 911 and talk to an operator.

"I just got run over by the rail cars," he said in the call. "I need 911, CareFlite. I think I'm cut in two. I need everyone to hurry up now."

The recorded call captured the surprise of the 911 operator:

Operator: "Tell me where you are."

Duncan: "I'm at Gunderson Southwest."

Operator: "Someone got run over by a railcar?"

Duncan: "Yes ma'm. I'm about to pass out."

Operator: "You got ran over?"

Duncan: "Yes."

Trapped beneath the wheels, Duncan stayed on the line detailing his location and describing his condition.

"I think I'm going into sh-sh-shock," he said while on the line.

Horrified colleagues soon found him and made their own frantic calls.

"I got a guy got run over by a car," one fellow worker said in a 911 call. "I need CareFlite. I need ambulances."

The calls confirmed what Duncan told the operator; he had been cut in half.

Cleburne firefighters said they couldn't believe the man they found was the one who had made the call.

"Absolutely amazing," a firefighter said.

Firefighters used airbags to lift the rail car, but they say it was Duncan's extraordinary calm courage that got them there in time.

Duncan remained in critical condition Wednesday night, but officials said they are optimistic that he will survive.

Source

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Kitten Survives Trip Through Wood Chipper

POSTED: 5:59 pm EDT July 5, 2006
UPDATED: 11:40 pm EDT July 5, 2006

A kitten in South Florida has amazed veterinarians by surviving a trip through a working wood chipper, according to a Local 6 News report.

Doctors said they did not think the stray kitten, now named Chipper, would survive after an anonymous caller said it fell asleep inside the wood chipper before workers turned it on.

Veterinarians said when the kitten arrived at the South Dixie Animal Hospital in West Palm Beach, Fla., its neck was fractured, front legs broken and the skin on its scalp was damaged.

However, veterinarians said Chipper will survive its injuries.

"You know, this little guy was a fighter," veterinarian Dr. Salvatore Zeitlin said. "You can never count anybody or anything out. You always have to be optimistic and give it your best shot."

Local 6 News reported that the kitten still needs a skin graft on its scalp but continues to recover.

Chipper may be put up for adoption in the next couple of weeks, according to the report.

---------
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.

Copyright 2006 by Internet Broadcasting Systems and Local6.com.

www.local6.com/news/9473489/detail.html

 

[filcee]

Fishermen survive months at sea eating birds

By Gunther Hamm Thu Aug 17, 10:26 AM ET

SAN BLAS, Mexico (Reuters) - Three Mexican fishermen have been rescued after drifting for about nine months across thousands of miles of the Pacific Ocean in a small boat, an ordeal they survived by eating raw birds and fish and drinking rain water...

more here...

 

[rynner2]

Re: Fishermen survive months at sea eating birds

By Gunther Hamm Thu Aug 17, 10:26 AM ET

SAN BLAS, Mexico (Reuters) - Three Mexican fishermen have been rescued after drifting for about nine months across thousands of miles of the Pacific Ocean in a small boat, an ordeal they survived by eating raw birds and fish and drinking rain water...

more here...

The Indie had a paragraph on this, with a picture of the men on their boat when they were discovered.

 

[rynner2]

Jogger spent four days 'stuck like glue' in mud
From Jacqui Goddard, of The Times, in Miami

A jogger survived four days stranded in waist-deep mud after getting lost and falling into a swamp during his lunchtime run.

Volunteers who had searched for Eddie Meadows, 62, since he disappeared from work last week found him “stuck like glue” in a bog, covered in insect bites and drinking fetid water to stay alive.

As rescuers approached, he looked up calmly and asked: “Do you have a phone? I want to call my wife.”

Police in Orlando, Florida, said that Mr Meadows had survived by sipping water from the swamp and avoided sun exposure because he was under a shady tree canopy and slathered in mud. He even managed to sleep where he stood, they said, with his feet immobilised by the thick muck.

“This stuff is like quicksand, you can’t get out,” said Corporal Jim Roop, of the University of Central Florida police department.

Mr Meadows vanished during his lunchbreak on Friday at the University of Central Florida’s research park in Orlando, where he works as a civilian contractor for the US Army.

His wife, Ardis, and two grown-up sons appeared on local television to plead for help in finding him and 50 volunteers armed with maps and compasses scoured the area. Soldiers also joined the hunt and police even used bloodhounds to try to pick up his scent, but there were no clues.

Finally, yesterday, Ron Eaglin, a volunteer, was combing woodland on a remote corner of the university campus when he heard noises. But at first he mistook the stricken jogger for a fellow searcher.

“I heard some sloshing off in the woods, it didn’t sound like a deer, so I yelled ‘Hello?’ and then I heard ‘Help, help, help, help,’” Mr Eaglin recalled.

“I said ‘Are you looking for Eddie Meadows?’, and he said ‘I AM Eddie Meadows’.” Mr Eaglin added: “I really thought we were looking for a body.”

Mr Meadows is in training for the Baltimore Marathon and leaves his desk every lunchtime to go for a jog around the campus. “He went up the path where he normally goes, then thought he’d find a different way to go around. But the woods are really, really dense and instead of turning back he went further and ended up in one of those swampy areas we call ‘muck’,” Corporal Roop said.

Mr Meadows asked his rescuers for water and chocolate, then in his delirium, insisted that he should finish his run, jogging a short distance before he was helped to a waiting ambulance. He was said to be recovering well.

“He was in good spirits but maybe a little disorientated,” Corporal Roop said.

“After four days, you start losing some of that hope but it turned out to be a great ending. He kept his cool and he was in good shape because he’s a marathon runner. His family were ecstatic.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 94,00.html

 

[rynner2]

Diver is found alive after 58 hours in the sea
By Richard Savill

(Filed: 06/09/2006)

A diver who was presumed drowned after he had been missing for more than two days has been found alive in waters off Guernsey.

Matthew Harvey, 35, was pulled unconscious from the sea by the crew of a passing yacht and taken to Princess Elizabeth Hospital, Guernsey, suffering from severe exhaustion.

Rescuers said his survival in the water for two nights without food was "remarkable".

His father, Dan, a retired air traffic control electronics engineer, said his son had been in the water for 58 hours. "He hasn't been able to give us the details yet but he just said to me, 'Dad, I swam and swam and swam'."

Mr Harvey, who is married, and is a social history officer with the Guernsey Museum Service, was rescued at 7pm on Monday about 200 yards from the shore.

A formal search for him ended at dusk on Sunday. He had been on a solo recreational dive near Fermain Bay and had entered the 63F (17C) water at about 9am on Saturday. He was wearing a wetsuit and rescuers said the "relatively warm" water may have been an important factor in his survival.

Mr Harvey, who suffered an unexplained head injury, has returned home with his wife Katie. He was found close to the area where he went missing.

His father said: "He was able to recognise us and make a few jokes. When he saw his mother, he apologised to her for the trouble."

He said hopes of finding him alive had been fading until the family received a call from police to say a diver had been recovered from the sea and that they should go to the hospital.

"I had written him off mentally after 36 hours," he said.

Mr Harvey said that his son entered the water in a sheltered bay but the tide was running fast and he could not extract himself from it. The tide then reversed direction, carrying him back close to where he started from.

A Channel Islands Air Search plane; a helicopter from the island of Brecqhou, belonging to Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, owners of The Daily Telegraph; the St Peter Port lifeboat; and police divers were involved in the search in an eight-foot swell and force six winds.

Mr Harvey said the family had not panicked over his son's disappearance and had taken a "pragmatic view". However there had been a "few tears" when they were told he had been found. He said the family would be "forever indebted" to those who took part in the search and he wished to thank them "from the bottom of our hearts".

Last night, Peter Gill, the Guernsey harbour master, who co-ordinated the search, said: "It is remarkable. We had feared the worst."

He said it was not clear what had happened to Mr Harvey. One possibility was that he had been diving and when he surfaced he was hit by a passing vessel, which would not have known it had struck him. Another theory was that he had struck his head on a rock and had been washed out in the tide.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... iver06.xml

 

[rynner2]

It seems the above story is a hoax!
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewt ... 209#660209

 

[WhistlingJack]

'Hibernating' Man Survives 24 Days Without Sustenance

'Hibernation' saves Japanese man

A Japanese man has survived for 24 days in cold weather and without food and water by falling into a state of "hibernation", his doctor has said.

Mitsutaka Uchikoshi, 35, went missing on 7 October after going with friends to climb Mount Rokko, western Japan.

He had almost no pulse, his organs had been shut down and his body temperature dropped to 22C (71F) when he was found.

Medics say they are still puzzled how he survived because his metabolism was apparently almost at standstill.

Mr Uchikoshi is believed to have tripped and lost consciousness after leaving his party to descend from the mountain on his own.

"I lay down... in a grassy area, which felt good in the sunshine, and eventually I fell asleep," Mr Uchikoshi told reporters at a news conference at a hospital in Kobe, where he was treated.

"That's the last thing I remember," he said.

Mr Uchikoshi's temperature is believed to have dropped as he laid in cold weather of about 10C (50F), greatly slowing down his metabolism.

He was found by rescuers on 31 October.

"He fell into a hypothermic state at a very early stage, which is similar to hibernation," said Dr Shinichi Sato, who treated Mr Uchikoshi.

"Therefore, his brain functions were protected without being damaged and have now recovered 100%. This is what I believe happened," he said.

Mr Uchikoshi - who had been treated for severe hypothermia, multiple organ failure and blood loss - was released from hospital and returned home on Tuesday.

Professor Hirohito Shiomi, a hibernation expert at a university in Hiroshima, was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying the case was "revolutionary, if the patient truly survived at such a low body temperature over such a long period of time".

Scientists have for years suggested that human hibernation is possible, and could be used to slow cell death when treating fatal diseases.

Story from BBC NEWS:

Published: 2006/12/20 17:04:26 GMT

© BBC MMVI

 

[WhistlingJack]

Skydiver survives two-mile fall

Skydiver survives two-mile fall

A Jersey skydiver has survived a fall of more than two miles after his parachutes failed while during a jump in New Zealand's North Island.

Michael Holmes' main parachute became tangled during the 12,000ft (2.2-mile) drop in Taupo on 12 December.

The tangle then caused problems for his reserve parachute. He suffered a punctured lung and broken ankle after landing in a blackberry bush.

Mr Holmes, 25, has been parachute jumping for seven years.

He is recovering in Waikato Hospital after his fall, which saw him plunging towards the earth at more than 100mph (160km/h).

He was found unconscious by police in a blackberry bush in a conservation area in Five Mile Bay.

Mr Holmes is a cameraman who films parachute jumps for Taupo Tandem Skydiving, where he has worked for several years.

A spokesman for Taupo Fire Brigade said Mr Holmes had fallen into dense bushes and the brigade had been called to slash a path through to free him.

The accident is now being investigated by the New Zealand Parachute Industry Association.

Story from BBC NEWS:

Published: 2006/12/21 10:52:07 GMT

© BBC MMVI

 

[WhistlingJack]

Survivors of Ferry Sinking Discovered

Indonesia ferry survivors found

Twelve survivors from a ferry that sank off the coast of Indonesia last week have been found on an unmanned oil rig some 300km (186 miles) away.

Local officials said the survivors, 11 men and a six-year-old boy, were brought ashore to the island of Java. Another six were found on an island.

Some 200 people have been recovered from the sea since the disaster hit in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Hundreds more remain unaccounted for, with many feared dead.

According to the BBC's Jakarta correspondent, the thin stream of survivors brought ashore each day is dwindling to a trickle.

The search has now widened to a radius of several hundred kilometres as strong winds and stormy seas carry victims far away from the site of the disaster, and also hamper rescuers.

The rescue effort is now focused on finding those survivors who have made it to dry land on their own, but officials believe time is running out for many of those spending their fifth day out at sea.

"The victim or survivor's location might be spread far away," Captain Mohammad Ramdan, one of those leading the rescue effort, said.

"Finding the survivors in the first two days has been difficult due to high waves. The sea foam also makes it difficult for us to recognise the survivors in the sea."

The group of 12 survivors were taken to hospital in Surabaya.

"I am happy I can save the life of my boy," said one of the men, Suyatno, whose six-year-old son also survived.

Other survivors spoke of harrowing experiences as they floated in life rafts waiting to be rescued.

Leopold Kafares told Reuters news agency that he had to throw bodies from his raft as people died.

"I was very sad when I had to get rid of the bodies. But I didn't know what else to do with so many dead bodies," he said.

Other survivors spoke of seeing dozens of dead bodies in the sea and washed up on beaches.

Reporters on a helicopter flight over the area described spotting three life rafts drifting in the water. All of them were empty.

The ferry, the Senopati Nusantara, was travelling from the port of Kumai, in Borneo, to Semarang in Java when it suddenly sank.

Survivors said the accident happened very quickly, raising fears many passengers had been unable to get out of the boat before it went down.

It is believed to have set sail with at least 600 people on board. But the exact number may never be known as many passengers board such ferries without a ticket, our correspondent says.

Story from BBC NEWS:

Published: 2007/01/03 15:52:48 GMT

© BBC MMVII

 

[Min Bannister]

A very plucky ducky. :shock:

BBC

A duck in the US state of Florida has survived gunshot wounds and a two-day stint in a refrigerator.

A hunter shot the duck, wounding it in the wing and leg. Believing the bird was dead, he left it in his fridge at his home in Tallahassee.

The hunter's wife got a fright when she opened the fridge and the duck lifted its head, a local veterinarian said.

Staff at the Goose Creek Animal Sanctuary who are treating the bird said it has a 75% chance of survival.

The plucky duck was taken first to a local animal hospital, and then to an animal sanctuary for more specialised treatment.

A veterinarian at the sanctuary said he thinks the duck will live, but will probably never be well enough to be released into the wild.

The veterinarian, David Hale, said the duck's low metabolism rate helped it survive its time in the refrigerator, the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper reported.

"This is an extremely tough duck with a lot of spirit to live," he said. "This shows how tough and adaptable wildlife are."

 

[Rubyait]

Saw the footage of this on the news last night. Pretty amazing.

Skydiver survives dramatic fall

Wellington - A dramatic video of a New Zealand skydiver spiralling 3 600m with an entangled parachute to the ground - where he was saved by a blackberry bush - was aired on television on Monday.

Michael Holmes made headlines after surviving the plummet during a jump over Lake Taupo on New Zealand's North Island on December 12.

Holmes, 25, filmed the fall with his helmet camera, as did a fellow parachutist, Jonathan King.

The video shows Holmes spiralling helplessly after his parachute became tangled, then trying to jettison it and switch to a back-up chute.

King's camera shows Holmes flopping like a rag doll and spinning wildly as he plunges towards the ground. Holmes's camera shows him checking his altitude meter on his left wrist as he struggles to turn on to his back to try to spot the parachute problem and correct it.




In the final seconds of his fall, Holmes waves and yells "bye" before the image of his shadow growing larger beneath him fills the screen and the picture goes black. A low moan is then heard as he tries to breathe with one lung punctured by ribs snapped on impact. His only other injury was a badly broken ankle.

Holmes said he would jump again on Wednesday if his leg was up to it, but added he had probably "used up" his share of luck and was likely to feel some twinges of apprehension before his next jump.

He said the accident had been a "million-to-one" chance, and he planned to continue making his living by skydiving.

"Friends ask if I was scared, but really I was just angry that I'd done everything exactly as I should and it hadn't worked," he said. "I was very focused on what I was doing and I remember everything. Nothing's a blur."

Holmes estimated that he had reached terminal velocity of 193km/h during the free-fall part of his flight, but the drag of the parachute had reduced his impact speed to around 128km/h.

Holmes was in hospital for 11 days. He hopes to resume skydiving in April. - Sapa-AP

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1 ... 174C133233

 

[GNC]

I've just watched the video footage on the D**ly M**l website and it is amazing. Some people die of a fall from a few feet, and he survived that!

 

[mindalai]

footage here. And pretty stomach churning it is.

Fancy having your fall broken by brambles though. *shudder* That looked the most painful bit to me.

 

[escargot]

"Friends ask if I was scared, but really I was just angry that I'd done everything exactly as I should and it hadn't worked,"

He then ripped a telephone book in half and ate a handful of burning cinders.

 

[MaxMolyneux]

Skydiver Survives 12,00ft plunge

daily mail

Shown here - and ONLY here - for the first time online is the amazing video from the helmet camera of British skydiver Michael Holmes.


It shows him plummeting 12,000ft to earth after both his parachutes failed, saying goodbye to the world... and hitting the ground with a sickening thud at 80mph.

Michael's friend, who jumped from the same plane, also filmed the whole event. He found his pal bleeding and unconscious - but alive.

edited by TheQuixote: fixing link

 

[ghostdog19]

Video of failed-chute skydiver surviving 12,000 ft fall

It's on the Daily Mail site. I watched it this morning and still haven't stopped thinking about it.

Should warn people that the video shows footage caught by a helmet video camera, so it's from a first person perspective of someone plummeting to the ground. It's not gruesome (you don't see shattered limbs, nothing like that), but some may find it unnerving or upsetting. Basically, unless you've fallen 12,000 feet and survived, you won't have ever seen anything quite like this.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... _id=435694

 

[cokker]

Wow, he's a lucky guy.

Landed in a good place lmao!

 

[rynner2]

Paraglider survives three days dangling upside down in a tree
(Maurizio Degli Innocenti)
Richard Owen, Rome
An Italian paraglider was recovering in hospital yesterday after crashing in high winds into a mountain forest — and hanging upside down in a tree for three days.

Antonio Montagno, 47, crashed last Thursday after launching himself from a height of 2,700ft (820m) on Monte Mignaio near Florence.

After an intensive search he was found on Sunday at a height of 1,220m in the Vallombrosa forest, dangling at the top of a giant beech tree, with his right leg trapped in the tangled ropes of his glider.

Yesterday Mr Montagno, an experienced paraglider, was in intensive care at Careggi hospital in Florence suffering from hypothermia, dehydration and kidney failure. Doctors operated on the badly damaged muscle tissue of his leg and said they were confident that he would survive.

Carlo Nozzoli, the head doctor at Careggi hospital, said that Mr Montagno had been found just in time. “People can survive three to four days without eating, but not without drinking,” he said.

Mr Montagna had been helped by the mild winter weather and because no bones were broken in the fall. Originally from Catania in Sicily, Mr Montagno, a microbiologist, lives in Tuscany with his wife Antonella and their four-year-old twins, Elisa and Davide.

Mrs Montagno told reporters that when she heard her husband was missing she vowed to “punch him on the nose when they find him, to make sure he doesn’t frighten me like this ever again”.

When she saw him grimacing in pain on the way to the hospital she had “simply given thanks that he was still alive. The twins will see their father again, and that is all that matters.” She said she had never doubted that he would be found, telling friends: “He’s probably stuck up a tree somewhere, but he’s still alive, I just know it.”

The drama began at midday on Thursday when Mr Montagno, a devotee of “extreme sports” for 20 years, took off in his paraglider alongside a fellow enthusiast.

Friends who were waiting at the base camp raised the alarm when they realised that Mr Montagno had failed to land. The search, coordinated by the Alpine Rescue Service, involved two helicopters and 200 people, including wild-boar hunters, forest rangers and civil protection volunteers.

The search was hampered by fog and it was not until Sunday that a helicopter pilot spotted the paraglider’s red and white canopy.Mr Montagno had been swept up by high winds and had opened his second parachute before crashing into the tree. Rescuers said that he was protected from the cold by his flying suit.

When one of them shouted: “Are you all right, Antonio?” he replied: “Are you going to get me down from here or not?”

He told rescuers that he had feared the branches of the tree would snap under his weight. Doctors said that he appeared confused, and there was a risk of cerebral haemorrhage after such a long period upside down.

Mr Montagno’s brother, Sebastiano, who travelled from Sicily to help the search, said: “Antonio loves adventure and has flown a lot in extreme conditions.” He said that Mr Montagno had twice been involved in accidents, once breaking a leg and on another occasion cracking a vertebra.

“When he gets out of hospital I’m going to tell him to give up gliding and get a mountain bike. I don’t suppose for a moment he’ll pay the slightest attention.”

Last year 80 paragliding accidents were recorded in Italy, many involving turbulence and collisions with telephone and power lines.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 474801.ece

 

[QuaziWashboard]

It shows him plummeting 12,000ft to earth after both his parachutes failed, saying goodbye to the world... and hitting the ground with a sickening thud at 80mph.

Prediction time.
I predict that in the future sometime, someone's going to attempt to do this very same thing, but for fun. Maybe they'll have a giant air bag or lots of cardboard boxes to land on like professional stuntmen use when jumping from a building, but it'll happen, and then it'll catch on, and all the dangerous sports enthusiasts will be ditching their parachutes in favour of the 'new' thrill.
Did anyone see the episode of Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel a while ago where they say that during WW2 someone fell from a plane without a parachute onto a railway station that, as it happened, was being blown up by saboteur's at the very instant that he hit it? Apparently the upwards force of the explosion slowed down his fall enough for him to survive.

 

[rynner2]

A few months back I dislocated and broke my shoulder
- so I really sympathise with this man:

MAN SPENDS THREE NIGHTS ON CLIFF LEDGE

11:00 - 10 March 2007
A man survived three nights exposed on a narrow ledge in atrocious storm conditions with severe injuries after falling 200ft down a cliff.

Angelo Quaglia was airlifted to safety on Monday after breaking his arm and dislocating a shoulder when he tumbled down Salcombe Cliff in South Devon last Friday evening.

The 39-year-old administration officer from Ottery St Mary, in East Devon, was also suffering from hypothermia and is still recovering in hospital.

He was only discovered when walkers raised the alarm on Sunday afternoon when they noticed his moped had been unattended at a National Trust car park at Salcombe Hill.

In foul weather, police and coastguard teams scoured the coast east of Sidmouth looking for him.

A coastguard helicopter from Lee on Solent, in Hampshire, was drafted in.

Because of 70mph winds and torrential rain, it was decided it was too risky to send climbers down the cliff.

With infra-red imaging equipment malfunctioning because of the rain, the search was abandoned until daybreak.

When emergency services resumed the search on Monday morning, a police helicopter carrying out a sweep of the area spotted the man in a thicket on a ledge 200 feet down the cliff face with a 50ft sheer drop to sea below him.

Portland Coastguard helicopter was called and the man was winched to safety at 11.45am.

Mr Quaglia's landlady Ann Forth said she had grown increasingly concerned about him when he did not return on Friday evening after leaving on his moped that afternoon.

She said: "It's amazing he survived so long down the cliff.

"I think he may have gone to look at the MSC Napoli - but I'm not sure. I was very concerned about him.

"I've still not been able to speak to him - I believe he's still due to have an operation on a broken arm."

Phil Foggitt, manager of recycling firm Otter Rotters where Mr Quaglia works, was just as concerned. He said: "It's incredible he was down the cliff three days. I couldn't believe it."

Mr Quaglia was airlifted to Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester where a spokesman said he was in stable condition.

A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesman said: "A 39-year-old man is being kept in hospital due to a number of fractures suspected to have been caused during his fall. The injuries are not life threatening."

Sidmouth lifeboat was unable to launch to take part in Sunday's search for Mr Quaglia because of the storm.

Coxswain Simon Sparrow said: "There must have been a force seven to eight southerly wind.

"It had been blowing all day and it was also high water."

The storm which Mr Quaglia had endured on the cliff face on Saturday and Sunday claimed three lives in other parts of the Westcountry, including schoolgirl Charlotte Shaw, 14, who died after being swept away by a swollen river on Dartmoor while training for the annual Ten Tors event.

Patricia Evans, 53, and Stephen Tickell, 42, were killed when they were washed off Mullion harbour wall in Cornwall during gale force winds on Sunday afternoon.

http://tinyurl.com/2qc5oj

I knew Salcombe in South Devon well, but Salcombe cliff is in a quite different place
- ain't geography confusing?!

 

[WhistlingJack]

Shipwrecked Africans Cling to Tuna Nets for 24 Hours

From The Times

May 28, 2007

Shipwrecked Africans saved after clinging to tuna nets for 24 hours

Paul Bompard in Rome



Twenty-seven migrants spent a day at sea holding on to buoys around a giant tuna net as the Maltese and Libyan governments argued over who should save them from drowning.

They were picked up eventually by an Italian patrol vessel. The men – Africans of various nationalities – had paid for a passage from Libya to Europe in an open boat that foundered on Friday night.

Soon after their boat went down they were spotted by the Maltese tug Boudafel, which was towing a huge tuna-breeding plant towards Spain.

The men said that the tug threw them a line and began towing them, ahead of the plant. When their boat sank the men grabbed the steel cable connecting the breeder to the tug and worked their way on to buoys that formed a floating circle, about 60 yards across, supporting the system of nets below the surface.

The tug was ordered by her owners not to take the men on board because that would have interrupted her voyage.

The men were transferred after 24 hours to the Italian naval vessel Orione, which was in the area searching for another boatload of migrants that had become known as the "phantom boat".

She was an open boat, crammed with 53 men, women and children, sighted and photographed from the air last Monday about 90 miles (145km) south of Malta. Her engine had stopped and it looked as if she was in difficulty, but contact was lost.

At first it was thought that the tuna buoy survivors had been on that boat, but it became clear that there was no connection. The authorities now fear that the occupants of the "phantom boat" are dead.

The 27 migrants told Italian authorities that their engine broke down several days after leaving Libya on Sunday last week.

The decision not to take the survivors on board the tug may have been prompted by the experience of the Spanish trawler Francisco Catalina. She rescued 51 "illegals" and then stood off Malta for a week because the Valletta authorities refused her permission to enter harbour. Her captain was told at the weekend that he could not land them there.

Malta, which in recent weeks has had to deal with several illegal landings, contacted the Libyan Government about the shipwrecked immigrants but, after many hours, diplomatic negotiations broke down and Valletta called on other European states to intervene.

The men were located by Italian navy reconnaissance aircraft about 65 miles north of Tripoli and 100 miles southeast of the Italian island of Lampedusa. According to a navy spokesman, the 1,580-tonne Orione sent ahead her helicopter to drop lifejackets and arrived on the scene in the early evening to take the men on board.

They landed yesterday at Lampedusa, where there is a permanent detention centre to cope with the flow of illegal migrants who land either directly on the island or are picked up by Italian patrol vessels.

Lampedusa, which is only 80 miles from the African coast, is the southernmost fragment of the European Union. Laura Boldrini, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said: "This episode shows that, to save lives at sea, a joint effort, and an assumption of responsibility, is needed on the part of all the Mediterranean nations."

Since the start of the year, 3,149 people have arrived illegally on the Italian coast, a significant drop from last year. However, there has been an increase in recent weeks in the number of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean, and authorities say that the warm weather and calm seas have played a role.

Last year more than 31,000 people, mainly from Africa, landed illegally on the Canary Islands, seen as an outpost for entry into the European Union. That was six times the number in 2005. Many others died on the journey.

But tighter maritime surveillance and bad weather conditions have led to a sharp drop in arrivals this year in the Spanish archipelago.

Perilous waters

August 2006 About 50 people die when a 10m (33ft) boat carrying 120 people capsizes 15km (10 miles) from the island of Lampedusa

July 2006 Fourteen malnourished immigrants rescued from a ship spotted near the island report that 13 companions died of starvation during the crossing from North Africa

September 2005 Eleven bodies are washed up on Sicilian beaches after the crew of the trawler smuggling them to Italy tells them to jump overboard when the vessel runs aground

October 2003 Italian sailors find 70 corpses and 15 emaciated survivors, mostly Somalis, on a broken-down boat drifting near Lampedusa

June 2003 200 illegal immigrants are presumed drowned, and only 41 rescued after their boat capsizes close to the Tunisian coast

© Copyright 2007 Times Newspapers Ltd

 

[WhistlingJack]

South African Baby Survives Latrine Horror

SA baby survives latrine horror

A newborn baby dumped into a long-drop latrine in South Africa has been saved after spending a night in the cold pit.

"This is the first time in 13 years that I've taken out a live baby," policeman Jack Haskins said.

The rescuers sank a hole parallel to the toilet and then tunnelled across to reach the baby at a depth of 1.5m.

The child, whose early morning cries had raised the alarm, was covered in maggots. The mother, 23, has been charged with attempted murder.

The overnight temperature had dropped to 8C, during the southern hemisphere winter.

The umbilical cord and placenta were still attached to the little boy, which is what the maggots were feeding on, the South African Press Association reports.

"The paramedics and I stood around like proud fathers," Mr Haskins is quoted as saying by the Beeld newspaper.

The baby, who is recovering in Grey's Hospital in Pietermaritzburg, has been nicknamed Quarter Jack by the rescue team.

"My son's name is Half Jack," Mr Haskins told The Mercury newspaper.

Story from BBC NEWS:

Published: 2007/05/30 11:30:26 GMT

© BBC MMVII