Unbelievable Survivors: Beating the Odds in Life-Threatening Situations

Imagine experiencing heart-stopping events like driving off a cliff, being swallowed by a whale, or falling into a deadly dam. Feeling queasy yet? Sure, freak accidents happen all the time, but some people manage to beat the odds and live to tell the tale. Without further ado, here are some of the luckiest survivors of the impossible.

Margaret Gwyer, a British national from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, was just 26 when she married Reverend Herbert Gwyer on April 15, 1915. Less than a month later, they boarded the RMS Lusitania in New York bound for Liverpool. On May 7, just six days after departure, a German submarine torpedoed the ship while Margaret and Herbert were dining. Panic ensued as the ship began to list. Herbert got Margaret into a lifeboat with three women and a baby, but she quickly climbed back on deck, fearing the smokestacks would fall on them. Herbert rowed away in another boat, and Margaret, now on a deck slipping underwater, was sucked into a whirlpool and into a smokestack. Miraculously, an explosion in the boiler room below blew her out of the funnel and back to the surface, where a lifeboat rescued her. Covered in soot, Margaret reunited with her sobbing husband, who initially didn't recognize her. Displaying remarkable humor, she remarked, "Never mind, we've lost those awful wedding presents."

Beck Weathers, a 49-year-old pathologist from Texas, decided to climb Mount Everest in 1996. At 28,000 feet, he started losing his vision due to a recent corneal operation, and his guide left him to wait while the group continued. In the perilous "Death Zone," a blizzard hit, dropping temperatures to 90 degrees below zero. Weathers tried to descend alone but was overtaken by the storm. When help arrived, he was frozen and left for dead. However, he awoke from his coma, walked back to camp, and was airlifted to Kathmandu, where he lost his right arm and nose but survived to become a motivational speaker.

Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, two British climbers, faced a near-tragedy in 1985 after becoming the first to scale the West Face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. During their descent, Simpson fell and broke his leg. Yates attempted to lower him down by rope, but in a snowstorm and unable to communicate, Yates had to cut the rope, believing Simpson was dead. Simpson had fallen into a cavern but managed to crawl six miles back to base camp, reuniting with Yates, who was about to leave. Remarkably, Simpson held no bitterness, understanding the impossible decision Yates had to make.

Would you cut the rope to save yourself if it meant sacrificing a friend?