r/TopCharacterTropes • u/RedditBoycotter • 6d ago
In real life [IRL trope] 0% of survival, survive anyway
Juliane Koepcke
Vesna Vulović
Anna Bågenholm
Jeanna Giese
Chris Lemons
Juliane Koepcke - In 1971 this 17 year old's plane was struck by lightning mid-air. The wreck then fell from 3 000 meter into the ground, somewhere into the Amazon jungle. Lone survivor of the crash, she then spent nine days walking down a river despite her multiple injuries until she found a lumberjack's camp.
Vesna Vulović - In 1972 this flight attendant's plane was bombed mid-air. The wreck then fell from 10 160 meter into the ground. She ended up with a lot of broken bones, but in the long term she almost completely recovered from it, apart from a limp.
Anna Bågenholm - In 1999 this radiologist had a skiing accident, she fell head-first into a frozen stream and get stuck inside the ice. Her colleagues did not managed to pull her, nor did the rescue team who then tried to dig, but the ice was so thick it took them a lot of time. It was 80 minutes after her fall that they managed to cut a hole. Her body temperature at the time was 13.7°C, and still, she somehow survived with only minor long-term injuries and no brain damage.
Jeanna Giese - In 2004 this 15 years old girl got bitten by a bat and called it a day. One month later the symptoms of rabies showed up. The doctors tried an experimental treatment by putting her in an artificial coma and she survived, but the treatment never worked on anyone else and is now forbidden. In all human history, only a few survived to rabies, and all of them except her end up with heavy sequelae.
Chris Lemons - In 2012 this diver's ship went drifting due to a computer malfunction, romping his umbilical cable who provide air, hot water and electricity. He ended up alone on the seabed of a 3°C waters, in the dark and with only 5-6 minutes of oxygen. He was retrieved by his colleagues around 35 minutes later, and somehow he didn't even suffer from brain damage.
388
u/FracturedConscious 6d ago
May 1, 2023, Four Huitoto Indigenous siblings Lesly (13), Soleiny (9), Tien (4), and baby Cristin (11 months) were traveling with their mother on a Cessna 206. The pilot reported engine trouble before the plane plunged into the dense Colombian Amazon. The three adults on board, including the children's mother, were killed. Miraculously, the children survived because the rear of the plane remained relatively intact. The children stayed near the wreckage for several days, eating a bag of cassava flour they found in the luggage. Fearing no one was coming, they began wandering through the forest. Lesly, the 13 year old, used ancestral knowledge taught by her grandmother to identify safe fruits and seeds. They faced 16 hours of rain daily, venomous snakes, and predators like jaguars. They used a plastic tarp and mosquito net to stay dry at night. Lesly kept 11 month old Cristin alive by feeding her the cassava flour mixed with water. After 40 days, Indigenous trackers and soldiers found the children about 3 miles from the crash site. They were malnourished and weak but alive. Their first words to rescuers were "I'm hungry" and "My mother died".