Top 10 Amazing People Who Cheated Death

“Death -oh-
Death”. Everybody sing it now. The last cellphone call will be made to
us all some day, regardless. Most of us wont know when or where or in
what form. The big D has a way of creeping up and surprising the
dumbfounded or snatching the innocent. Death can cause howling and
screaming or a calm transition into the mysterious hereafter, and
sometimes “The Slayer” just seems to ignore what is most obviously a
bulls eye. The following list contains ten unbelievable but amazingly
true accounts of human beings that beat death. Some of these “cheaters
of death” are still among us (as of this posting). In no particular
order, here are some of my favorites.

10 Isidro Mejia


He’s
nail free today, but in 2004, Mejia was doing construction work on the
roof of a house when he fell. The fall didn’t kill him, but the six 3
1/2 inch nails that accidentally shot into his neck and skull certainly
should have. He survived because the nails barely missed his brain stem
and spinal cord.


9 Richard Blass


In
1968, the first mafia attempt against this canadian gangster took
place. Two hired gunmen entered a bar where he was enjoying some
drinks. Although shot at multiple times, Blass was able to escape
unscathed.
Two weeks later, Blass
was tracked by the mafia in a motel named “Le Manoir de Plaisance”, in
a Montreal suburb. The motel was set on fire and three people died, but
Blass escaped the blaze. Police investigation indicated arson as the
fire’s cause.
In October, Richard
Blass was injured by shots to the head and back after being ambushed
with his partner inside a garage. The two were able to save their lives
by driving through the garage door. Blass required hospitalization for
his wounds.
In January, 1969, a
bungled bank robbery and a shot cop, put Blass in jail. Within the
first year of serving four consecutive terms of ten years in jail,
Blass managed to escape. He was caught, thrown back in the slammer, and
escaped a second time. With a spurt of freedom, and blood in his eyes,
he set out and killed two co-conspirators in a bar, that had testified
against him. Everyone else in the bar was locked in and the place set
on fire. Three days later, Blass’ death finally came when he was shot
23 times.
During his life Blass was given the nickname, “The Cat”, because of his luck in evading death.

8 Ahad Israfil


“I
try to appreciate things a lot more. You never know what moment you
won’t be there.” In 1987, an accidental discharge of a gun blew half of
14 year old Israfil’s brains away, yet he survived and later graduated
with honors.
Doctors were able to fill the hole with a silicone block, “the flap of skin
was pulled over and hair grew back, giving him a fairly normal
appearance.” Cranioplast was used to put the “icing on the cake”
(Dayton Daily News)

7 Vesna Vulovic


It
was 26 days into 1972, when 22 year old flight attendant, Vesna Vulovic
found herself at 33,000 feet in the air and quickly descending to the
earth without a parachute. JAT Flight JU 367 had been cruising over
Srbska-Kamenice (now the Czech Republic) when an explosion occurred
(The terrorist group, Croatian National Movement was named as
responsible for the deaths of all but one) and as astonishing as it
sounds V.V. survived with a “fractured skull, two broken legs and three
broken vertebrae, which left her temporarily paralyzed from the waist
down. She regained the use of her legs after surgery and continues to
fly sporadically” She holds the Guiness World Record for the highest
freefall.

6 Ludger Sylbaris


On
the day before the Pelee eruption, Sylbaris was locked in a
single-cell, partially-under ground with stone walls, ventilated only
through a narrow grating in the door which faced away from Pelee. His
prison was the most sheltered building in the city, and it was this
fact which saved his life.
On
the day of the eruption, it grew very dark. Hot air mixed with fine
ashes entered his cell through the door grating, despite his efforts in
urinating on his clothing and stuffing it in the door. The heat lasted
only a short moment, enough to cause deep burns on his hands, arms,
legs, and back, but his clothes did not ignite, and he avoided
breathing the searing-hot air.
Superheated
steam and volcanic gases and dust, with temperatures reaching over 1000
°C. flattened the buildings in the city and the entire population
burned or suffocated to death. When I visited beautiful Martinique in
1989, and saw the jail cell, which still stands, Sylbaris was said to
be the only survivor, but in fact there was one other man and possibly
two children.
5 Shannon Malloy


Shannon
Malloy was in a car crash that caused her to be internally decapitated;
her spine was separated from her skull and all connecting ligaments and
tendons were cut loose. Despite this, she managed to survive. Shannon
had to endure several surgeries, one “fusing her skull to her spinal
cord; she suffered nerve damage that made her eyes constantly cross and
limited her speech ability. Her pelvis and ankle were severely broken,
but could not be repaired until swelling in the brain and spinal cord
reduced” (Associated Content).

4 Roy C. Sullivan


The
chances of being struck by lightning are very slim; the chances of
being struck by lightning twice (on different days) is seemingly
impossible; so what are the odds of being struck by lightning seven times? With our world record holder, Roy Sullivan, the events happened as follows:
1942
- Sullivan was hit for the first time when he was in a lookout tower.
The lightning bolt struck him in a leg and he lost a nail on his big
toe.
1969 - The second bolt hit him in his truck when he was driving
on a mountain road. It knocked him unconscious and burned his eyebrows.
1970 - The third strike burned his left shoulder while in his front yard.
1972 - The next hit happened in a ranger station. The strike set
his hair on fire. After that, he began to carry a pitcher of water with
him.
1973 - A lightning bolt hit Sullivan on the head, blasted him out of his car, and again set his hair on fire.
1974 - Sullivan was struck by the sixth bolt in a campground, injuring his ankle.
1977 - The seventh and final lightning bolt hit him when he was
fishing. Sullivan was hospitalized for burns in his chest and stomach.
His “lightning hats” are on display in New York’s and South Carolina’ s Guinness World Exhibit Hall.

3 Ann Hodges


Sylacauga,
Alabama 1954. While Hodges was napping on her living room couch, a
grapefruit-sized meteoroid crashed through her roof and ricocheted off
her large wooden console radio, before it struck her on the arm and
hip. She was badly bruised but able to walk. The Air Force arrived and
took the meteorite from her. Ann’s husband, Eugene, hired a lawyer to
get it back. Then the landlord claimed it, wanting to sell it in order
to cover the damage done to the roof. By the time the meteorite was
returned to Ann and Eugene (over a year later) public attention had
diminished and they were unable to find a buyer willing to pay much for
the 8.5 pound alien chondrite rock.
Against her husband’s wishes, Ann donated it to the Alabama Museum of
Natural History, where it can be seen today.

2 Ben Carpenter


When
crossing the street in Paw Paw, Ben Carpenter, 21 years old and
wheelchair bound, was “picked up” accidentally by a truck. He was
pushed by the semi-truck for 4 miles at 50mph, after the arms of his
wheelchair got stuck in the grill. The story goes that the driver had
stopped at a red light, and couldn’t see Carpenter crossing in front of
him. The light changed and Carpenter ended up having the ride of a
lifetime. “What I learned is that I never would want to be a Hollywood
celebrity,” he said after all the fuss being made by TV and newspapers.
“I don’t know how they do it with the TV cameras and people taking
their picture all the time. I went through it, and it was OK for a while, but a couple days was enough.” (Kalamazoo Gazette)

1 Phineas Gage


On
September 13, 1848, Gage (a railway worker) was packing a hole with
gunpowder, adding a fuse and sand, and then packing the charge down
with a large tamping iron. The gunpowder ignited and the iron bar shot
through his left cheek bone and exited out the top of his head, and was
later recovered some 30 yards from the site of the accident. Within
minutes he was up and walking. A few days later he had fungus of the
brain. A couple of weeks after, 8 fluid ounces of pus from an abscess
under his scalp was released. Damage to Gage’s frontal cortex had
resulted in a complete loss of social inhibitions, which often led to
inappropriate behavior. He was no longer the same Gage that his
friend’s and family knew. Today his skull and the iron bar that shot
through it are on display at Boston’s Warren Anatomical Museum.

azumi wrote:

4 Roy C. Sullivan


The
chances of being struck by lightning are very slim; the chances of
being struck by lightning twice (on different days) is seemingly
impossible; so what are the odds of being struck by lightning seven times? With our world record holder, Roy Sullivan, the events happened as follows:
1942
- Sullivan was hit for the first time when he was in a lookout tower.
The lightning bolt struck him in a leg and he lost a nail on his big
toe.
1969 - The second bolt hit him in his truck when he was driving
on a mountain road. It knocked him unconscious and burned his eyebrows.
1970 - The third strike burned his left shoulder while in his front yard.
1972 - The next hit happened in a ranger station. The strike set
his hair on fire. After that, he began to carry a pitcher of water with
him.
1973 - A lightning bolt hit Sullivan on the head, blasted him out of his car, and again set his hair on fire.
1974 - Sullivan was struck by the sixth bolt in a campground, injuring his ankle.
1977 - The seventh and final lightning bolt hit him when he was
fishing. Sullivan was hospitalized for burns in his chest and stomach.
His “lightning hats” are on display in New York’s and South Carolina’ s Guinness World Exhibit Hall.

LEGENDARY.