(gentle music) (water sloshes)
- Jose Alverenga was lost at sea
for 438 days and survived.
In 2012, Jose and his new first mate, Ezequiel Cordoba,
set out on a 30 hour deep sea fishing expedition
off the coast of Mexico.
Two days after leaving shore, the men were caught
in a powerful storm that blew them 50 miles out to sea.
Fortunately, Jose had a two-way radio with a weak signal.
He called his boss back on shore begging for help.
He was assured a rescue party was on its way.
Then the storm suddenly picked up
and violently pounded their boat
for five more days and nights,
shaking the 25 foot vessel as they drifted
further and further from shore.
The rescue, called off after just two days
because of the ferocious wind and rain.
Once the storm let up,
Jose and Ezequiel realized they not only didn't know
where they were, but nearly all their electrical
and motor equipment was destroyed.
Nobody was coming to save them.
Jose and Ezequiel were left floating in the Pacific Ocean
all alone.
Days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months.
Food was not plentiful, but did come their way
with the men regularly grabbing raw turtles, birds,
jellyfish and other creatures from the sea.
Remember consuming raw animals while lost at sea
is especially dangerous,
not just for the bacteria and parasites,
but also from potential toxins
created by rapidly proliferating blue-green algae
that can build up in tissues of those animals.
When it came to drinking water, they captured as much rain
as they could, but when that ran out,
they resorted to drinking turtle blood or their own urine.
This is important medical information here.
Despite Bear Grylls doing this on TV,
it is not advised to drink your own urine,
as it's rich in minerals that will only speed up
the dehydration process.
In fact, the Army survival manual states
to never use alcoholic beverages, urine, blood,
or seawater as water substitutes.
Four months into their seemingly endless drift,
Ezequiel lost all hope.
He gave up eating and succumbed to starvation.
Experts really can't say how long humans
can live without food, as it's not an ethical area to study.
But some research on individuals
participating in hunger strikes
and those trapped or buried,
gives us a rough estimate of 8 to 12 weeks.
Six days later, Jose released Ezequiel overboard,
weeping over the loss of his friend,
but he never gave up hope.
Finally, 438 days into this horrific ordeal,
Jose spotted a small patch of land on the horizon.
He decided now was his chance.
He dove overboard and swam to shore
to a tiny tropical island known as Tile islet
in the Marshall Islands, where he was spotted by two locals.
This was his first human contact in nearly a year.
He was rushed to a hospital where doctors diagnosed him
with anemia, suspected to have been caused
by the frequent consumption of raw marine animals,
leading to parasitic infection of his liver.
Jose recovered, boarded a plane, and flew 6,000 miles home.
(water sloshes)
(water gurgles)
Harrison Okene spent 60 hours trapped in an air pocket
on the ocean floor and survived.
In the middle of the night in 2013,
a tugboat off the coast of Nigeria
was on the way to an oil tanker when it capsized
in surprisingly rough seas.
Incredibly, Harrison, the boat's cook,
happened to be awake using the restroom.
Because of advanced locks on the ship doors,
meant to deter pirates,
Harrison was unable to escape the capsized vessel.
He was trapped in a small bathroom
as the ship took on water and began to sink.
Fortunately for Harrison
the door locks wound up saving his life.
As the ship sank deeper
into the grim depths of the ocean, Harrison remained safe
inside an air bubble that had been trapped inside with him.
Eventually, the sinking stopped
and Harrison realized he was now submerged
in the pitch black on the ocean floor.
Any attempt to escape the ship at this point
would result in Harrison drowning or suffering
the consequences of water pressure at 100 feet.
Quick ascension from 100 feet depth
would put him at incredibly high risk
of pulmonary barotrauma, bursting his lungs,
or decompression sickness,
where dissolved nitrogen air can bubble out
leading to joint pain, neurologic injury, or even death.
All Harrison could do was sit in a darkness and pray.
(siren blares) Above the surface,
a team had been assembled to find the wreck
and retrieved the believed to be dead crew.
This unfortunately didn't happen quickly,
as Harrison sat at the bottom of the ocean
for 60 hours before miraculously
the hand of a rescue diver emerged from the water.
The diver quickly assessed Harrison's condition
and things were not looking good.
After breathing the same air for nearly three days
Harrison was falling victim to carbon dioxide poisoning.
Every time he would breathe,
he would take in some of that precious trapped oxygen
but then he would expel more carbon dioxide.
In fact, experts believe that if he was trapped
for longer than 60 hours,
it would've been the carbon dioxide buildup
and toxicity that would've been the cause of his death,
rather than running out of oxygen.
Harrison eventually surfaced with the help of a diving bell,
or a mobile pocket of air, allowing for a gradual return
to the surface at a consistent pressure.
He was then placed in a decompression chamber
for three days, which allowed his body to gradually adjust
to the surface level pressures.
Harrison went on to receive his official license
and now works as a deep sea diver himself.
(water sloshes)
(upbeat music)
Fang Lang witnessed the Titanic sink
into the frigid dark depths
of the Atlantic Ocean and survived.
In April, 1912, Fang Lang boarded the RMS Titanic
headed for New York City, where he was contracted to work
as a fireman on another ship headed towards Cuba.
As the infamous story goes on April 14th at 11:40 PM
the Titanic struck an iceberg.
Over the course of just a few hours
the largest ship in history sank bringing 1500 passengers
and crew along with it, but not Fang Lang.
Fang was not lucky enough to leave the Titanic
aboard a dry lifeboat.
Instead, Fang found himself diving off the ship
and floating for his life within the bitterly cold ocean.
It's estimated the water temperature that night
was around 28 degrees Fahrenheit,
and look, despite the popularity of ice baths,
floating in freezing water post shipwreck
is incredibly deadly with immersion hypothermia setting in
after just minutes.
And 15 to 45 minutes before the brain and heart
ultimately can stop.
It's unknown exactly how long Fang
was floating in the ocean, but he held on
while passengers were lost to the cold water around him.
Eventually, a lifeboat came back and rescued Fang,
as he was on the brink of death.
Fang then sat shivering in the lifeboat
for several hours until the Carpathia rescued 700 survivors
early the next morning.
(water sloshes)
(water gurgles)
Edgar Harrell experienced one of the worst shark attacks
in recorded history and survived.
In July of 1945, 1200 men were aboard the USS Indianapolis,
sailing through the South Pacific
days before nuclear bombs would be dropped on Japan
to end World War II.
The seas were calm and the air was warm,
with Edgar lounging on the ship playing cards
with his fellow soldiers.
But beneath the surface, horror was coming.
Shortly after midnight, a Japanese submarine
fired two torpedoes at the Indianapolis,
piercing the hull and igniting stores of fuel.
A massive explosion ripped the vessel apart,
sending Edgar and 900 survivors into the ocean.
Edgar bobbed up and down in the water
as he and his fellow survivors
watched the USS Indianapolis sink in just 12 minutes.
It was not long until the men were floating in life jackets
in the pitch dark of the night with the worst yet to come.
It didn't take long for the attack to alert hundreds
if not thousands of hungry sharks to Edgar's location.
Edgar and his fellow men had nowhere to escape
and no way to defend themselves.
He watched in horror as one man after the other was pulled
under the water and eaten by the sharks.
And look, while shark attacks on humans
is a rather rare phenomenon,
they're usually lethal when medical help
cannot be immediately accessed,
as blood loss can be profuse and rapid.
And for those who avoided the sharks,
dehydration got the best of them,
with many men succumbing to drinking seawater.
Seawater is extremely salty,
containing nearly nine grams of salt per cup,
when the average person is ideally supposed to take in
two grams of salt per day.
So not only does the excess salt in the intestines
pull in water dehydrating the body cells,
but the kidneys have to make use of even more water
to rid the huge amount of salt taken in,
double the damage, no benefit.
Finally, after four and a half days of terror
an American plane spotted the floating men
and alerted the navy to their location.
Edgar and 316 men were pulled from the water,
with the total loss of life reaching nearly 900.
(water sloshes)
(water gurgles)
Scott Cassell was attacked by a swarm of Humboldt squid
and survived.
During a video shoot, expert nature documentarian,
Scott Cassell, was swimming in the Pacific Ocean
holding a large camera hoping to capture footage
of Humboldt squid, otherwise known in Mexico
as diablo rojo, the red devil.
Along with being beautiful, elegant swimmers,
the Humboldt squid are also known to be quite aggressive,
or at least have been in the past,
in the presence of shiny cameras invading their territory.
Not to mention, new research has confirmed they engaged
in coordinated hunting, or hunting in packs.
Shortly after hitting the water, Scott was attacked
by a violent Humboldt squid, who wrapped its tentacles
around his arms and began to pull.
Another squid launched at Scott's camera
and pulled it as hard as it could,
dislocating Scott's shoulder.
A shoulder dislocation in a situation like this
is incredibly dangerous,
given the fact the arm becomes difficult,
if not impossible to move, limiting mobility in the water.
Remember, while dislocation is a joint issue,
it can also come with torn ligaments and or tendons.
These squids also have sharp beaks, which they use to eat,
and Scott could feel them ripping through his wetsuit
and breaking his skin.
Two more squids grabbed Scott by the legs
and began pulling him deeper underwater,
causing his eardrum to explode.
Middle ear barotrauma, also known as middle ear squeeze,
is when there's an uncontrolled or rapid descent
that increases pressure in the middle ear,
pushing the tympanic membrane so much so
that it can lead to rupture or even hemorrhage.
This can be prevented by equalizing the pressure
using a Valsalva maneuver to open the eustachian tube,
but only when going slowly.
Scott fought for his life, thrashing at the squid,
and tearing them off his body one by one.
Finally free, Scott began to swim to the surface,
but not before a final squid torpedoed his wrist,
breaking it in five places.
Scott emerged from the water and screamed for help
as a squid chased him from below.
He raced onto the boat seconds before the squid
could make a second attack to pull him under.
Scott survived and continues to work
as one of the world's leading marine videographers.
(water sloshes) (gentle music)
Michael Packard was eaten by a humpback whale and survived.
Just a few years ago, Michael Packard,
a lifelong lobster fisherman,
was sailing off the coast of Massachusetts.
When you think of lobster fishing, you might be thinking
of those hardcore ships in Alaska
that throw giant cages into the ocean, but not Michael.
Michael does it the old fashioned way.
He geared up, dropped his own body into the ocean,
sinking to the ocean floor to scoop up lobsters by hand.
While slowly walking up the sandy ocean floor
looking for his catch of the day,
Michael became the catch himself.
Out of nowhere, Michael felt like he was hit by a truck
and suddenly his whole world went black.
Michael was completely disoriented.
He was upside down in the dark
and somehow traveling quickly through the water.
After a few moments, Michael realized
that he'd been swallowed
by something far bigger than himself.
He became filled with terror upon realizing
he could be in the mouth of a shark,
but he didn't feel any sharp teeth.
Instead, Michael was inside the mouth of a humpback whale,
which on average can be 50 feet long and weigh over 35 tons.
Fortunately for Michael,
while a humpback is large enough to put you in its mouth,
a humpback's throat is much smaller than a person.
The humpback knew this too,
and after feeling Michael's scratch and claw
inside its mouth, decided it didn't like the taste
of New England lobster fishermen.
The whale surfaced and spat Michael out into the sunlight.
Michael was taken to the hospital
and treated for soft tissue injuries.
I'm not gonna lie, while we do have ICD-10 codes
for many illnesses,
I'm not sure if swallowed by humpback whale is one of them.
Although struck by orca is.
Michael has been very open about this unusual experience
and has said he apologizes to the whale
for getting in its way.
- I'm sorry that I got in his way.
He was probably more freaked out than I was.
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- I actually pulled a medical prank on other doctors,
I couldn't stop laughing.
Click here to check that out.
Enjoy that story, and as always, stay happy and healthy.
(bright upbeat music)