I actually met Juliane Koepcke once. Read her biography for a reading competition in school. Wrote her a letter, and met her a year later. Very inspiring woman
It shows you how resiliant and resourceful humans actually are. The thing that hurts people the most is their mind (or of course if they have a bad immune system and get infections, you can't really help that.
Hearing about Phineas Gage’s aftermath - My dad survived a hit and run accident while cycling to work when I was 7, he was resuscitated 3 times, had his spleen removed - but the thing that was the worst was he had such severe head trauma that the frontal lobe where personality is caused him to have a completely different personality to how he originally used to be. From my birth up to the age of 7 he was the softest most gentle man people had ever met, but after the accident he became an extremely aggressive, violent, and stubborn man. That was solely to the damage his brain/frontal lobe took from the hit. I’m still in touch with him but I have to love him at a distance, as there’s only so much I can handle before I have to “have a break” from seeing him
Someone actually survived an even bigger fall without a parachute than Juliane. Vesna Vulović, a Serbian (then Yugoslav) flight attendant survived a fall from 33,330 ft after a briefcase bomb exploded on JAT Flight 367 on January 26th, 1972. She spent days in a coma and was hospitalised for numerous months. She suffered a fractured skull, three broken vertebrae, broken legs, broken ribs, and a fractured pelvis. She was temporarily paralyzed from the waist down because of the injuries. She made a full recovery but walked with a limp. She apparently had no memories of anything. She basically became a celebrity in Yugoslavia and was considered a hero. Her final years were spent in seclusion and she struggled with survivor guilt. After divorcing, she lived alone in Belgrade in her apartment on a small pension until she passed away on December 23rd, 2016 from unknown causes. She still holds the Guinness record for the highest fall someone has survived.
That is very amazing, but not really the same thing. She most likely was in a coma on impact, or shortly after and someone rescued her. Juliane, made a physical effort to get out of her situation, which is what makes it more impactful (no pun intended). Of course, just stating what happened, not saying it's not crazy and awesome what Vesna went through, just pointing out it's two different things.
It’s almost as wild that the first woman survived 11 days in the Amazon rainforest without shelter or a weapon or anything as it is that she survived falling out of a plane.
@Socialist Republic of Vietnam I’ve since learned that she was already experienced at surviving in the Amazon prior to the crash. Still pretty wild though.
I am even more confused by how she survived the Amazon with loads of open wounds and broken bones, knowing the climate you would get a severe infection in a few days
*Just a note on the first case:* Juliane's parents were biologists working in the jungle, she had been home schooled for most of her life, learning to live in the jungle. Her knowledge about the jungle was what saved her. *EDIT:* To all of you discussing religion, could you *please tag the person* you're directing your comment towards? I'm getting a lot of notifications for (sometimes quite nasty) comments on religion and it's not doing my mental health any favors.
@melscrybxby cause if he did then why would we even exist in the first place? If he's gonna solve all of our problems then what's the reason of being here? Helping each other is our duty, not his
@ItzilzynoooThen when he gon save the millions dying from breast cancer? And the starving kids in Africa? The animals losing their home due to deforestation? You can't just say God saved her. She was smart, and lucky. This is why I'm an atheist. If God will save one person that has a death percentage rate of 99.9% and not the millions of innocent people and animals dying from things much more common then plane crashes, then he must be a terrible God. Why make us and then decide to kill of millions, but save one? If he thought it wasn't her time, was it time for the babies dying from SIDS?
@EntryPoint_Master EXACTLY LIKE THIS IS WHY IM AN ATHEIST!!! If he can save one person, why can't he save THE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE DYING OF STARVATION!?
Phineas Gage's case is fascinating, I did a childhood learning book and it was a connect the dots and it was of him. scared me so bad but after learning more about it it is very cool
I've heard the story of Rogozov's self-surgery before, but never has an animated/cartoon face so completely captured the actual photo that followed right after. A champion throughout absolutely everything 💖
My friend survived a very freak accident. Car in front kicked up a metal pole, went through her windshield and through her abdomen. She thought a rock busted her windshield and pulled over, the guy who pulled over to help looked at her in shock cause she didn't even realise she was hurt. She survived and was very lucky.
To everyone saying stuff like "cap" with big injuries like that you wouldn't feel it immediately, say if your arm got cut off it honestly might take you a minute to actually feel it due to the shock alone and that's not counting the adrenaline that's now being pumped into your veins. These kinds of things happen all the time actually
I have a miraculous story that my teacher told me about their dad. Their dad had one arm and one leg and they said that's all they ever remembered him looking like. But, it's how he lost his other arm and leg that makes me questions how he was alive after what happened. He worked at a train crossing yard and he was one of those people that hooked and unhooked train cars. One day, he had somehow gotten trapped underneath a train car and it had started moving. His arm and leg got run over by the train but he somehow survived. Honestly it's a miracle that he survived.
Not to say it isn't amazing that he survived, because it really is... but there have been a fair number of people to survive being run over by a train and losing limbs. These cases, however, are unique to only these individuals
Donors saved my life. In 2021 I had Internal bleeding and in September I ended up receiving 20 units of blood. In the year 2021, in 8 out of the 12 months, I needed a total of 46 units of blood. So, whoever donates blood, I just want to thank you for saving my life.
@Random Person On BRvid I am O+ as well. It feels great being able to thank someone for their selflessness. Honestly, you guys are heroes 👏 ❤️ I am grateful for people like you.
Donated for the first time in October. I have 0+ blood so I can donate to any positive blood types. It feels good knowing I helped someone. I will definitely do it again just because of stories like this. ❤
@Damon thank you so much! The words can't express...when I finally got out of the hospital everything I saw looked so bright and so full of color. So beautiful. I told my mother I was dying. My organs were shutting down. So, I wanted to say my goodbyes before I passed again. I was scared. I am very lucky. Two Surgeries after and I'm still going. I'm stubborn and will NOT give up!!
Yo that story of Aron Ralston scared me. Dude was strong enough to cut his arm. Also the story of Dr Rogazov's story was cool. It was interesting and awe-inspiring. Like a story I heard where a nine-year-old girl helped her mother give birth.
I don't have Twitter so I'm not sure how to ask you this question so I'll ask here and hope you can give your opinion. I was in a really bad car accident when I was 15. I woke up in a field and thought I was in my bed and I'd just had a bad dream. But when I tried to stand, I saw blood all over my hands. I decided to die just like I did before. Like I did before?? I remember the ambulance ride and I remember everything from the ER...exploratory surgery, 88 stitches in my head, and a tracheotomy (sp?)...so much more. One night in ICU, I coded. I can vividly remember walking toward a stream. My mom (who died in the accident) and my dad (died 3 years earlier) was on the other side of this stream. I wanted to cross this stream to be with them but my mom kept screaming at me to get back and that it wasn't my time. Even though this is long, it's the short version. My question, do you believe in near death experiences or is this just our brain going haywire? I just want your honest opinion. Thank you.
@bros402 When you're dying, your brain sends out gamma oscillations which are associated with dreaming and memory retrieval, as well as alpha, beta and theta oscillations. These are what cause your "life to flash before your eyes". I'm not sure to what purpose exactly, whether it's to help calm the body before death, or as you say, keep the body alive, but it's interesting to know the mechanics behind it.
I am not an expert but I advise you to reach out to people who had clinically died and was resurrected, they can help you get through any trauma you have from that because it is most likely you having an out of body experience.
I could not imagine the pain Aron went through. Just thinking about having to cut my arm and snapping the bone in half with a rock just makes me feel uncomfortable. That man is a legend for taking that amount of pain and surviving to tell the tale.
Hey Dr. Mike! I got hit by a 30 mph car recently. Aside from lacerations from my arm going through the windscreen, I had no severe injuries. Since then all I can think about is how I got through unscathed. I'd like to know how I got so lucky, I wonder if these people are stuck on the same problem after surviving something like that, with so little lasting effect?
@Rhino Gaming my legs were hurt, but the main injury was my arm being shredded through the windscreen. I walked out of the hospital. But for about a week after it felt like my shins were constantly trying to snap themselves.
@Bradley Chance yano learning to cross the road again may seem easy for others in their kinds but I know first hand how that was for you!! It's a type of ptsd I think cos you can just visualize being hit again and you get that tense feeling, that just hoping like hell no one is going to drive all crazy and hit. I bet it's taken you alot of courage. Good work dude
@kassie p I get the same thing man, when I feel the wind from a car passing by, I still tense up. I've learned to cross the road again. I know that's kind of a dumb thing to relearn. I feel lucky that I was unconscious immediately, but part of me is freaked out that something happened to me, and I'll never know what it was.
The craziest survival story I've ever heard was probably this guy who was working at a train station, working with tracks and wagons and whatnot. One day, when he was working between two wagons, they started rolling. He fell down between said wagons, with torso across the track. He was *literally cut in half* by the wheel of the wagon that was rolling over him! And I mean, literally cut in half. There was literally nothing connected between his upper and lower body. There was nobody around. He was on his own. He was in extreme and unbelievable pain. Such agony that I can't even imagine. But, he was still struggling to survive. He used his remaining strength to take his phone and call the emergency services. He told them that he was cut in half by the wagons. The emergency services did not believe him. After prodding and begging, he finally managed to convince them to come. And lo' behold! When they arrived, he was still alive, and conscious! He was rushed to the nearest hospital, and the doctors did everything they can do for him. They managed to save him. He had to live the rest of his life in a wheelchair, as half a human. I don't know if he is still alive today, but he likely is. That was the most incredible medical story I've ever heard or read. I never would have thought that someone could survive being severed from his lower body, when there's no help within earshot. His will to live was nothing less than incredible.
The russian doctor who removed his own appendix is fascinating. I almost died last year when mine actually burst, it went beyond appendicitis to full on peritonitis. If I'd gone to the hospital a day later I wouldn't have survived. Never known pain like it, I'm 35 now and I genuinely wanted my mom. That's how painful it is, if anyone here suspects they might have appendicitis please GET TO A HOSPITAL!!! Don't delay it like I did, it's the difference between a couple of days recovery from keyhole surgery or major open surgery that will keep you off your feet for at least a month. You couldn't pay me to go through that pain and misery again... thank you to our glorious NHS for saving my life that night. But this guy removing his own appendix is both fascinating and insane. It's awe inspiring
When I was a young boy I was in hospital. A patient in a side room screamed day and night. He was obviousley in great pain. I asked a nurse what was wrong with the patient in the side room and why was he constantly screaming. I said he must be in dreadful pain. The nurse said he has a good right to scream, she said he fell from a high building and a scaffolding pole had entered his rectum on the way down. I would scream to, wouldn't you?
Finally a BRvidr advocating for blood donation! I tell everyone I meet to go do it. My husband won’t listen though. I have been donating since I became old enough but the last few times I went I was turned away for low iron, and/or being too soon after having a baby
You should look at Alessandro Zanardi. He had 3 major crashes in his life, thus far: He's a motorsport legend. First he had a bad concussion, came back, later In a Crash his legs were severed, he survived to win the paralympics biking, only to get hit in 2020 by a semi truck
In Language Arts class we did a bunch of assignments and just a lot of tests and stuff. And we talked about it for like 2 or 3 months. Everyone hated it. I could talk about it for a while. We learned about what happened, the differences and similarities between him after the accident and adolescents, where it hit the brain, and some more stuff.
Mike, have you ever heard of Anatoli Bugorski? He's a retired particle physicist, and in 1978, he was working in the Soviet Union's largest particle accelerator, when the safety mechanisms failed. He took a proton beam through his brain and decided to *not* tell anyone about it until after he finished his task. He ended up deaf in his left ear, lost movement in that side of his face, and suffered seizures, but lost very little of his mental capability, and continued his studies, earning his PhD.
That happened town called Protvino 100km’s down from Moscow, where I was born and lived for 16 years. My grandfather worked at this institute that the particle accelerator belonged to (Institution of High Enegry Physics, ИФВЭ) and knew the guy
I have one I wasn't alive at this time but ive heard about it a lot. So apparently one of my brothers (I have four all older) I dont know which but im pretty sure it was the youngest Xander was biking and and his bike flipped over a rock putting the handle bar through his neck he survived it going into his neck (with a lot of blood loss he had to walk home and was somewhat far from home) and it may have gone all the way through as I said I wasn't alive so idk the small details but I do know it almost if not touched his esophagus and he is still alive and in high school (secondary school for ppl not from the states)
I was squirming in my seat listening to these stories especially the last one. Idk but when I hear horrific stories like these, I imagine myself in these scenarios. Oh so uncomfortable
I almost died due to appendicitis. Had some pain in my belly, thought it would go away, maybe I had eaten too much candy or something. In hindsight, it seems weird, but I did not have that much pain, or any other symptoms. Fast-forward 10 days. Got up in the morning, literally couldn't walk up straight. Went to my mom, she's like "alright, time to get that pain checked cause this is not normal." So we arrive at my GP, does some tests, applies some pressure on the lower right abdomen and asks if it hurts, I didn't feel a thing. Luckily, he said, "just to be sure, go in for imaging at the local hospital." I arrived, got the imaging done pretty fast. 30 minutes later, I was in surgery. The appendix had ruptured already and encapsulated in a tennis ball sized lump. Had it not... I might not have been here... Or it would have been way harder to heal. I've always had a higher pain tolerance than other people I know. But this incident just shows that having a higher pain tolerance is not necessarily a good thing. In fact, it might have killed me.
I had my appendix removed 4 hours before it popped after another hospital misdiagnosed me with food poisoning 😂 The doctor was like ...are u scared I was like I'm excited. I'm 15 and this was last year
2:30 Its not all so shocking when you learn about the babies that temporarily live with anencephaly. They have nothing but a brain stem to function on- which is all you need to function on. Technically if no main vein or artery is punctured and the brain stem is in tact, said person could continue to “live” …..
i have an ostomy and i DEEPLY appreciate Dr Mike using the correct terminology! i also have had over a dozen blood transfusions and encourage people to donate especially if you know you have a rare blood type!! its life saving!!
I read that a teacup amount of Phineas Gage’s brain fell out. It didn’t say what happened but some people think that the doctor’s pet dog rushed in and scarfed it down and lived with the memory of a railroad worker for the rest of its life.
A few weeks back there was a skydiving accident in Germany, the guy become unconscious, woke up again, tried to open the parachute but it got tangled with the second one, and he literally just felt on the ground. He got discharged from the hospital the next day, only having a few bruises... Like how!?
You don`t mention the main thing about Julie - Koepcke was born in Lima, Peru, in 1954 to German parents who worked at the Museum of Natural History, Lima. She was the only child of biologist Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke and ornithologist Maria Koepcke. When Koepcke was 14, her parents left Lima to establish Panguana, a research station in the Amazon rainforest. She became a "jungle child" and learned survival techniques.
I want to give blood but I quite literally will pass out and have a panic attack. Im hoping I’ll get over it one day and manage to get myself to go through with it. As once it’s done I’ll be fine it’s just getting myself to go through it.
You are not alone. I have PTSD from needing a blood draw as a kid. The lady (who was supposedly qualified to do it) couldn't find my vein, and my mother had to pin me down for her. After at least 10 sticks in one arm, she finally called the head lab tech to do it. He got me in the other arm with one stick. Even though i was thrashing and screaming. I had a panic attack when I got my ears pierced, and would've had one when i needed an IV in hospital when i was 15, but i was already in shock from severe burns lol. Nothing to be ashamed about. Also since i have PTSD from other, much worse, closer to adult age experiences, saying i have PTSD from it sounds like an exaggeration, but any time i see a needle i have flashbacks, sweat buckets, shake, hyperventilate, etc. All the same symptoms i have with other PTSD related things. Also for like a 2 year old, me even remembering is crazy, so it was probably the worst thing my 2 year old brain had ever been through and it stuck.
I went to donate blood today. Passed out 4 times after the fact. 2 times at the centre, 1 time at the mall and 1 time at home. The nurses wasn’t checking me and my blood overflowed. I lost about 30 ml to much blood. And my body did not take it well.
I feel phineas truly had god by his side its a miracle he survived, just imagine a iron stick blasted into you skull which also went into your brain noones gonna survive that expect phineas its pure luck. Also about Aaron i feel if i were to be in his place ive give up a long time ago but he, he stayed determined at last though he broke a bone cut a whole arm off to live and tell the tales.
There was also the guy that took a musket(?) Shot to his side and it opened his side he healed but his skin fused with his organs if remember correctly, also his doctor took advantage of him to further scientific research by manipulating him into signing something i dont remember all the details as it has been a long time since i read about it but it is quite interesting.
I really appreciate people who donate blood. When I was 16 I had my appendix rupture, small intestines had fallen and had a lot of complications. Without the blood transfusion I wouldn't have made it. So thank you to everyone who donates blood. 💜
Never donated blood, but I have donated plasma. Used to do it several times a week for a whole year+ before I had kids, and then afterward I did it for six months when we ran into a bit of a hard time. Tried donating blood once, but at the time my needle phobia was so bad that I couldn't get through the initial test for anemia. Of course after my time donating plasma, I don't nearly have as bad of a reaction, but I can't donate now because of the medications I'm on.
@Maddie I also have a needle phobia, I pass out every time I get a shot or have to get my blood drawn. I’m also anemic so I don’t think mine would be any good 😭
The spike one is so crazy to me but you can lose massive parts of your brain. There was a kid born with only a brain stem and lived till like 12. Also what tool would you use I'm assuming he did not use the knife to remove the arm I would go for the saw.
Blood donation is very important. I've been donating for a couple of years - stopped when covid stroke, and now I'm planning on returning to the habbit. I have a strange story about one time I donated blood. One time, a new nurse was taking the donation, and when she put in the needle, I felt like some has put a battery to my arm - great pain. She removed the needle after a couple of seconds when I asked her to do so. After that, I could not hold a cup with that hand for about 2 weeks, and after two weeks it took a very tight bandage at my forearm for me to be able to reasonably use the hand. After about a month ( and visiting a couple of doctors including orthopaedist and doing many exercises with that hand that the orthopaedist told me to do) most of the pain was gone, but I still didn't really feel parts of my skin on that forearm - it felt very numb. The numbness finaly went away like a year and a half ago - after almost 2 years since the donation. Although I was told what to do to regain the functions, no one ever told me WHY and HOW that happened. I was the first donor in this clinic ever to have such complications, and to this day I have no idea what happened. Is it even possible to hit a nerve there, while hitting the vein ? ( Because the blood flew as normal for the couple of seconds the needle was in ). Or what could have happened?
When I had apendacitis (13 years old) it felt like I was constipated plus dying. from 8pm to 12am I was in the fetal position. and somehow not crying. it felt like a hundred broken arms. my mom almost made me just go to sleep but my mom called her friend who was a nurse and she said to take me in to the er. and they preformed an apendectamy on me the next morning at 7, at the end of the school year, and that day I got hit in the stomach with a soccer ball I felt better the next day but I was on bed lockdown and after 2 or 3 weeks I was aloud to get out of bed and like a month after I was play soccer again. tldr my best friend almost killed me with a soccer ball and apendacitis as the worst but i got to play video games almost all night (couldnt sleep because of the pain).
Phineas gage actually knew the metal pole was gonna spark the gunpowder and was holding it over it to make sure it doesn't drop, but then someone called his name which distracted him and accidentally dropped the pole, sparked the gunpowder and caused tragedy
The human body is amazing in these extreme events. Another case I can remember is someone who was sucked into a tornado. If they hadn't been knocked unconscious by debris their body wouldn't have gone limp, which protected them from not only debris, but the fall.
Similar to this, there's a case of a British girl who literally doesn't have the mental capacity to feel fear. She's been hit by cars a lot because of this (no sense of fear around walking into roads) and because she doesn't feel fear, her body doesn't tense up. She has survived all of these with only minor injuries because her body goes limp. It kind of makes me think that the safety mechanisms that have evolved into the human body can actually make things worse because these mechanisms weren't developed for surviving our modern world.
A youtuber made a video of him explaining how he survived a freak accident He was firing a 50 caliber sniper rifle and it exploded, and his throat was damaged, his left hand if i remember so he rushed to his truck.
1:09 a couple months ago i broke ty collar bone the pain was so bad so i cant imagine how painful it would have een walking around the rainforest w a broken collarbone
We need more of these Dr. Mike!! There are countless stories in the comments that are so uplifting and bringing awareness to people who have gone through similar things.
Gonna be honest, I was always interested in Phineas Gage's story. I first found out about him maybe four years ago. It's an unnerving fascination, and I can't look at photos of him without shivering(mainly because my mind insists on trying to imagine what that was like). The human body is quite the odd and amazing machine. One person can trip and fall and have life-long repercussions, while this man had a hole in his head and completely recovered.
He didn't completely recover. He had some serious complications from the injury, including seizures. Seizures can very drastically affect your health and wellbeing. He never really got back to a normal life. And for those talking about life expectancy, be careful how you read those statistics. Life expectancy numbers are usually calculated based on when everyone dies, including babies. If you were to take infant mortality out of the equation, you'd see that there were far more people who lived to a ripe old age than we might think.
Whoever's reading this, i pray that whatever your going through gets better and whatever your struggling with or worrying about is going to be fine and that everyone have a fantastic day!
@Bad Fella If it had been a bullet following the same trajectory it would have caused a shock wave wound cavity that would turn his brain to jello and blown out the top of his skull as it exited with half his brain blowing out the hole... he would have died instantly. Go watch some videos where they shoot ballistic gel and watch the cavity expand... they usually run them in slow mo.
@Bad Fella It was a lot lower than that. Life expectancy for men in cities around that time was 25-35 years. Outside of cities was 40 years old. Life was hard back then.
@Rat I agree, the rod did not have any way to get stuck in his head, so it basically just slipped through his skull. if it was a bullet it would have gotten stuck and caused swelling and infections and massive blood loss and death very quickly.
I have a good question for you Dr Mike. As an individual with the unfortunate distinction of having HIV-1, where are we in regards to developing a cure so far? As I understand it, this isn't going super well, even if the Triumeq keeps it at bay.
I saw a video of a guy who tried to commit suicide with a shotgun and he blew his face off completely yet he maintained consciousness and lived. It was a gory sight
I donate blood when possible. And since I'm a soldier, it's usually for army drives. So I usually only get a shirt, some juice, and a donut out of it. Still do it, cause I don't need all my blood and I'll get more soon enough. Plus it usually gets my light duty for the rest of the day.
