Number 5 – Forthman Murff
Forthman Murff was a lifelong lumberjack who claimed he was personally responsible for
cutting down 1,900 acres of timber. In May 1984, Murff was cutting down a tree by himself
near his home in Gattman, Mississippi, when a branch fell from 80 feet up and hit him
in the shoulder. The blow knocked him into a 10-foot ditch. Soon another branch fell
and broke his left leg and foot. Forthman was briefly knocked out. When he woke up,
he had discovered that he had fallen on his chainsaw which was still running and busy
cutting completely through his neck! The chainsaw had ripped through Murff’s windpipe, esophagus,
a lot of muscle, both external jugular veins and one internal jugular vein. The only structures
keeping his head attached to his body were the spine, carotid arteries, and the meat
of the back of his neck. Now standing on a broken leg and foot, blood began to pour into
his lungs. Murff eventually got to his car and drove half a mile to a neighbour’s house
to get help. He was eventually rushed to hospital, where he received emergency surgery to quite
literally re-attach his head. Miraculously, Murff survived and lived a perfectly normal
life, dying in 2003 at the age of 92.
Number 4 – Anatoli Bugorski
Anatoli Bugorski is a researcher at the Institute for High Energy Physics in Protvino. In July
1978, Bugorski was checking a malfunctioning piece of equipment when an accident occurred
due to failed safety mechanisms. As he was leaning over the piece of equipment, he stuck
his head through the part of the accelerator that the proton beam was running through.
He reported seeing a flash that was “brighter than a thousand suns”, but did not feel
any pain when this happened. The beam measured about 200,000 rads when it entered Bugorski’s
skull, and about 300,000 rads when it exited after colliding with the inside of his head.
Just to put that into perspective, it is believed that about 500 to 600 rads is enough to kill
a person! The left half of Bugorski’s face swelled up beyond recognition, and over the
next several days started peeling off, showing the path that the proton beam which had burned
through parts of his face, his bone, and the brain tissue underneath. Although Bugorski
survived (miraculously), he completely lost hearing in his left ear and the left half
of his face was frozen due to the destruction of nerves. Furthermore, the left half of his
face does not age.
Number 3 – Truman Duncan
This story is of a railroad switchman, Truman Duncan, who amazingly survived a horrific
injury which left him being cut in half! In 2006, Truman Duncan was riding along on the
front of a train car when all of a sudden, he slipped. Duncan could not outrun the oncoming
train and as a result, the train swept him under, ripping him in half. One leg was attached
to his upper body by just one lone muscle! The other was mashed up in the wheels. Duncan
also lost a kidney but amazingly managed to dial 911. 45 minutes later the paramedics
arrived and helped him out. Luckily Truman survived after 23 surgeries in four months.
Now that’s a story to tell!
Number 2 – Betty Lou Oliver
In July 1945, a B-25 bomber crashed into the world famous Empire State Building, in New
York City. The impact was so hard that the plane made a hole clean through the iconic
building. Oliver was at the 80th floor, working as an elevator attendant, when the B-25 bomber
crashed into the floor below. She was sent plummeting down 75 floors to the basement
of the building! Betty Lou Oliver defied all odds and survived, suffering severe burns
and breaking her pelvis, back and neck. This descent still stands as the Guinness World
Record for the longest survived elevator fall ever recorded!
Number 1 – Vesna Vulovic
Vesna Vulovic essentially cheated death when she survived a 33,000 foot descent in January,
1972. Vulovic, who was a stewardess on a Yugoslav Airlines DC-9 travelling from Copenhagen to
Belgrade, was at an altitude of 33,000 feet when a bomb in the cargo section (planted
by the Ustashe Croatian separatist group) exploded! Vulovic survived the fall by sitting
on the tail of the plane. She ended up with a fractured skull, two broken legs, and three
broken vertebrae - one of which was crushed and left her paralyzed from the waist down.
The worst thing is that she wasn’t even meant to be on the plane in the first place!
As she later stated in an interview, it was another Vesna who was supposed to be on that
flight, but she was happy with the mix-up as it allowed her to make her first trip to
Denmark. Vulovic spent several months in and out of hospitals and had several operations
which allowed her to walk again. She was the only survivor and is listed for surviving
the longest fall without a parachute.