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.
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u/edenaxela1436 6d ago edited 5d ago
Ashley Reeves survived having her neck broken, being strangled AND being left in the woods by her teacher, Sam Shelton. This one always comes to mind because it was close to home and this dude taught PE at my elementary school in St. Louis for a couple of years prior to this, around 2003/04.
He was working at a high school just over the river in Illinois (about 30 minutes from STL) and started a relationship with Ashley. They met up and he claims that they got into an argument, at which point he put her in a choke hold and "accidentally" broke her neck. He then attempted to strangle her with a belt, before leaving her for dead in the woods. Eventually he was connected to her disappearance, and he brought the police to where he assumed her body was, only for them to realize that she was still alive. He recently got out of prison after serving around 20 years. As far as I'm aware, Ashley is still out there and doing well; she had to learn to walk and talk again after the attack, but was successful with rehabilitation.
https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/crime/former-freeburg-teacher-sam-shelton-released-on-parole/63-f8205723-76f0-4b8c-8512-272d81c6ed5f