If you’re a gamer, a movie buff, or a bonafide TV-addict, chances are that someone at some
point has told you to cut it out.
“It’ll rot your brain!”
They say.
“Why don’t you spend your time doing something more valuable?”
Well, what if you told those people you weren’t just sitting around doing nothing – you
were training to save lives.
That’s right – there have been numerous insane examples of lives being saved with
vital techniques learned from video games, TV, and movies.
Here are some of the craziest, real life examples of how being an avid couch potato has saved
the day.
First, we’re off to Norway in 2007, the home of twelve-year-old Hans Jørgen Olsen.
Little Hans was a prolific player of the MMORPG World of Warcraft, one of the most popular
online games in the world.
He ate, slept, and breathed Warcraft.
For his parents, just how much time Hans was spending on the computer was probably a cause
for concern – until it saved him and his sister in a life-or-death situation.
The siblings were walking through the local woods, minding their own business, when they
ran afoul of an extremely ill-tempered and territorial moose.
Whether or not you find that scary depends on whether you’ve seen a moose up close
before.
They’re absolutely huge animals, who can run considerably faster than humans.
And while they’re not typically aggressive, when provoked they can cause devastating damage
by trampling or ramming with their antlers.
An adult moose can total a car, so for a twelve-year-old and his younger sister, the chances of surviving
a moose attack are frighteningly low.
Thankfully for both of them, Hans’ hundreds of hours clocked playing World of Warcraft
were about to save them both.
As the moose attacked him and his sister, Hans’ mind was racing.
His life wasn’t flashing before his eyes, but his WoW character’s abilities certainly
were.
Because Hans had the makings of a true hero, his first priority was getting his sister
out of the danger zone.
That’s why the “Taunt” skill came to mind.
In the game, Taunts are typically used by tanking warriors to draw mobs towards them,
sometimes in order to save weaker players.
He yelled at the moose, distracting it for just long enough to allow his sister to escape.
Now it was just Hans and the moose.
He couldn’t fight this thing, and unlike a World of Warcraft character, Hans didn’t
have a sword or any magic at his disposal.
He did, however, have one more trick up his sleeve – “Feign Death”, a technique
in the game that causes enemies to lose interest in you, saving your life.
And for Hans Jørgen Olsen, it did just that.
He played possum, and soon enough, the moose lost interest and left.
Hans had just saved his sister’s life, and his own, all because he was a devoted World
of Warcraft player.
But things are about to get a whole lot crazier, in our second example of how video games have
saved lives.
Later in 2007, twenty-eight-year-old Paxton Galvanek of Silver Spring, Maryland, saved
two lives as a first responder because of the popular PC game America’s Army.
He was travelling West on the I-40 in North Carolina when he saw an SUV on the other side
of the road get into a devastating crash – flipping five times before landing in a brutal wreck.
Upon seeing this, Paxton slammed the brakes and jumped into action.
Some background on the America’s Army game is crucial for understanding why Paxton was
ready for this situation.
Unlike your average Call of Duty game, America’s Army was literally developed by the US Military
in order to realistically simulate US combat deployment.
Paxton wanted to play as an Army Medic, and in order to qualify for that position in-game,
he had to complete a realistic training course based on real US Army Medic training.
As a result, despite not being an enlisted member of the US Military, Paxton was entering
the situation with what was practically a military level of training.
He ran over to the car and found two injured people inside.
After assessing the situation as safe, he helped the passenger – who had more minor
injuries – out of the car.
He then attended to the driver, who had a head injury and was missing two fingers from
the crash.
Paxton kept calm and approached the situation with his video game training in mind.
Paxton found a towel and applied pressure to the driver’s forehead, while instructing
him to keep his hand elevated and apply pressure to the missing fingers in order to stem the
bleeding.
Paxton was relieved from his amateur medic duties when a real army medic happened to
appear on the scene, but the medic commented on how Paxton had done a truly excellent job.
Paxton later sent a letter to the developers of America’s Army to thank them for helping
him in this situation.
Colonel Casey Wardynski, the project director behind the game, later said in a statement
“Paxton is a true hero.
We are pleased to have played a role in providing the lifesaving training that he employed so
successfully at the scene."
But it’s not just video games that can come in handy during a sudden crisis situation.
If nothing excites you more than catching a new movie, then you’re in luck, because
movies save their fair share of lives as well.
Here are some insane examples of how watching the right movies can turn even kids into heroes
and survivalists.
Take young Jacob O’Conner, a ten-year-old from Detroit, Michigan.
In July of 2017, Jacob’s life was thrust into a sudden nightmare when his two-year-old
brother Dylan found a way to open the screen door at his grandmother’s house.
The curious toddler strolled out into his grandmother’s yard and tripped, falling
into his grandma’s swimming pool and going underwater for over a minute – which is
a pretty easy way to drown, especially for someone so young.
And sadly, two-year-old Dylan O’Conner probably would have drowned right there in his grandmother’s
swimming pool…
If it wasn’t for the fact that his older brother Jacob was a big fan of the 2015 Dwayne
Johnson disaster movie, San Andreas.
The movie tells the story of a rescue chopper operator trying to save his ex-wife and daughter
in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake.
The earthquake causes other natural disasters, including a tsunami that floods the city.
In one scene, Johnson’s character performs CPR on his daughter after saving her from
a flooded building.
This particular scene was something that Jacob committed to memory – and it allowed him
to save his brother’s life.
Jacob immediately leapt into the water and pulled his brother out, before doing compressions,
exactly as he’d seen play out in the movie.
This bought the O’Conner family enough time to get Dylan to hospital, where – after
an extremely tense day – he fully recovered.
His family even reported that, upon release, Dylan was eager to get back in the pool.
And amazingly, the story doesn’t end here, either.
When the tale of Jacob’s daring rescue went viral and became a national story, Dwayne
Johnson himself took notice.
Johnson was inspired by the story – and by Jacob’s bravery – so he reached out
to the O’Conner family to arrange a set visit for his latest movie.
Jacob O’Conner received a hero’s welcome and a heart-warming hug from the Hollywood
star on the set of Skyscraper later that year.
Now, almost drowning is one thing – but imagine being attacked by a swarm of enraged
bees, and then accidentally impaling yourself through the face with a meat skewer while
trying to escape.
And what’s more, there’s nobody there to help you on this one.
This is exactly what happened to eleven-year-old Xavier Cunningham of Harrisonville, Missouri,
in February of 2019.
From undergoing these horrific injuries at such a young age with nobody there to help,
you’d think that young Xavier would be done for.
But he had an unlikely ally in his greatest moment of danger: Marvel Superhero Black Panther.
Let’s go back to the beginning.
Xavier was playing in the treehouse in his backyard, when suddenly he heard a furious
buzzing all around him: He was being attacked by a swarm of bees.
Naturally, Xavier panicked, and tried to get out of the enclosed treehouse as quickly as
possible.
However, on the way out he lost his footing and fell four feet below.
Xavier landed face-first on a meat skewer that was laying in his backyard.
The skewer passed through his face, all the way through to the back of his skull.
Scientists at the University of Kansas Hospital said that the fact the skewer missed all of
Xavier’s vital nerves and brain stem was a “one in a million” miracle.
But Xavier’s struggle wasn’t over yet.
He needed to get inside and get help for his horrific injuries, but he had this skewer
sticking out of his face!
Every natural instinct told him to get this agonising thing out of him, but he didn’t
give into those urges.
Why?
Because Xavier Cunningham was a huge fan of Black Panther, and he remembered how that
movie ended.
At the end of the movie, Black Panther stabs the villain, Erik Killmonger, with a dagger.
Killmonger only dies when he removes the dagger, causing catastrophic blood loss.
It was remembering this moment in the movie that saved Xavier from experiencing the same
fate.
Instead, he was found and taken to hospital, where he underwent several hours of surgery
to successfully remove the skewer.
If Xavier hadn’t seen Black Panther, and tried to remove the skewer himself, he probably
wouldn’t have been so lucky.
And if you think that’s nuts, imagine if a movie about a murderous psychopath actually
saved you from falling victim to one?
That’s exactly what happened to one fan of the classic John Carpenter slasher movie
Halloween, in which mask-wearing maniac Michael Myers stalks embattled babysitter Laurie Strode,
played by Jamie Lee Curtis.
At the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con, Curtis was approached by a tearful fan who told her how
watching the movie had saved his life some years before.
He recounted being in a terrifying home-invasion situation, where an unknown intruder was trying
to break in.
The fan said, “I was scared out of my mind and out of nowhere this thought came inside
of me, ‘What would Jamie Lee Curtis do?'”
And acting on this thought saved his life.
Inspired by the events of the movie, he grabbed a knitting needle as a defensive weapon, and
ran – screaming – to the neighbour’s house.
The intruder fled, and he was saved.
The fan then shared a tearful hug with Curtis, forever grateful for making the movie that
saved his life.
Finally, for two of the craziest stories of all, we move to the world of television.
As it turns out, the small screen can have a huge impact on the lives of the people who
watch it.
One great example is the story of Theresa Booth, a mother from Saint Martin, Minnesota.
In April of 2007, she and her baby, Emily, underwent a total nightmare when they hit
an icy patch on the road and careened off into a nearby body of water.
The car was filling up fast, and no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t open
the doors.
Needless to say, things were looking bleak for the Booths.
They would have frozen and drowned right there, were it not for Theresa Booth being an avid
MythBusters fan.
From watching an episode of MythBusters, she knew that she had to wait for the car to fill
entirely – equalising the pressure – before she could open the door.
And that’s exactly what she did, allowing her and baby Emily to safely escape the car
and live to tell their amazing tale.
Finally, the most amazing and unbelievable real tale of all.
If you’ve listened to the successful Dirty John podcast, or watched the Eric Bana Netflix
movie adaptation, you’ll be familiar with the plight of Terra Newell.
She and her family had been stalked, harassed, and abused by her deranged step-father, John
Meehan.
However, one day in 2016, things boiled over into truly horrific circumstances.
John attempted to kidnap and murder Terra out of spite.
As Terra attempted to get into her car, John attacked her, grabbing her from behind.
John clearly had dark intentions – In his vehicle, he had a so-called “kidnap kit.”
This kit included a backpack, camouflage duct tape, 13 cable ties, six knives, a passport,
and a vial of injectable testosterone.
He covered her mouth and tried to drag her away to a horrible demise.
But thankfully, Terra had one trick up her sleeve that John didn’t account for: She
had an extensive knowledge of The Walking Dead.
Taking a cue from the zombie mega-hit, she sank her teeth into John’s hand, freeing
her mouth and instigating a brawl where he attempted to stab her to death.
But Terra got incredibly lucky, and managed to wrestle the blade from John’s hand.
Now that she was the one holding the weapon, she didn’t hesitate.
Knowing from the show that to truly kill a zombie (or crazed kidnapper) you have to go
for the head.
Channelling Rick Grimes, she took the knife and stabbed it into John’s eye, finally
killing him.
The Walking Dead had allowed her to walk away alive, in this last amazing example of how
the games you play, and the movies and TV you watch, really can save your life.
Did you know that watching The Infographics Show can also save your life?
Why not learn some survival tactics of your own from videos like “Surviving 72 Hours
In a Forest Alone (CHALLENGE & EXPERIMENT)” and “What You Should Do To Survive In The
Wilderness.”
You never know when you’ll need it.