35 Freak Accidents and Situations People Actually Managed to Survive
![35 Freak Accidents and Situations People Actually Managed to Survive](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/2/2/827922_320x180.jpg)
We’ve all heard the horror stories of freak accidents and situations that should have resulted in death, but somehow the person survived. What’s even more amazing is that these people often recount their tales with a sense of humor, as if they were simply unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Below, we took a look at some of the freakiest accidents that people actually survived. Buckle up — it’s going to be a bumpy, though totally survivable, ride!
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![AN OREGON MAN PUT A NAIL GUN TO HIS OWN HEAD. A DOZEN NAILS IN THE BRAIN FAILED TO KILL HIM. Не finally went to the hospital and complained that he and ... had a headache. The nails had gone so far into his brain that the doctors couldn't even see them until they X-rayed his head. They had to remove the nails with needle-nosed pliers and a drill. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/1/6/827916.jpg)
Source: People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations
![A ROCKET-PROPELLED GRENADE IMPALED PVT. MOSS. MOUNTAIN THIS WAS SO DANGEROUS, THEY COULDN'T EXTRACT HIM. So, his commanding officer lied and said it was just shrapnel. Doctors finally sawed the fins off the rocket and pulled the tube out of him. Incredibly, the huge projectile missed his vital organs, and Moss lived. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/1/7/827917.jpg)
Source: People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations
![SABURO SAKAI'S COCKPIT EXPLODED DURING WW2. SAKAI HIMSELF WAS SHOT SQUARE IN THE FOREHEAD. This removed a chunk of his brain, blinded his right eye, and paralyzed the left half of his body. But Sakai pulled up, wiped away the blood with his scarf, and made the five-hour flight back to his base. Of the 150 pilots in his unit, he was one of just three to survive. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/1/5/827915.jpg)
Source: People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations
![JACOB MILLER GOT SHOT BETWEEN THE EYES. THIS WAS THE CIVIL WAR, AND BOTH SIDES ASSUMED HE'D DIED. But then he woke with a brand-new hole in the forehead and waddled back to the Union side. The bullet hole never really closed. He'd spend the next three decades literally sweating bullets, as pieces of the shot would occasionally make their way out from the wound. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/1/4/827914.jpg)
Source: People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations
![NAVY SEAL MIKE DAY WAS IN IRAQ'S ANBAR PROVINCE. AL-QAEDA MILITANTS SHOT HIM 27 TIMES FROM 10 FEET AWAY. Then they threw a grenade at him. With his rifle gone, Swiss cheese for armor, and a body full of new holes and shrapnel, Day pulled his sidearm and dropped all four insurgents. Не then stood up, cleared the rest of the house, and walked to his helicopter. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/1/3/827913.jpg)
Source: People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations
![EWA WISNIERSKA GOT YANKED UP WHILE PARAGLIDING. SHE WOUND UP SIX MILES ABOVE THE GROUND. That's cruising altitude for airplanes. Finally, after an hour in a storm pilots wouldn't fly a 747 through, she managed to land safely. Doctors say the only reason she survived was she passed out, which put her in a less oxygen-needy state. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/1/1/827911.jpg)
Source: People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations
![SHANNON MALLOY GOT AN UNUSUAL INJURY. DOCTORS CALL IT AN INTERNAL DECAPITATION. A car crash severed every ligament and tendon connecting her skull to her spinal cord. Her head was connected to her body only by skin and muscle tissue. She eventually recovered from the ordeal, and even avoided being paralyzed. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/1/2/827912.jpg)
Source: People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations
![CARL AKELEY'S GUN FAILED TO KILL AN ATTACKING LEOPARD. SO НЕ JAMMED HIS HAND DOWN ITS THROAT. The cat, initially surprised its dinner was doing all the work for it, soon found itself suffocating. Ignoring the pain of being partially eaten, Akeley kept right on pushing, saving himself and choking the beast from the inside. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/1/0/827910.jpg)
Source: People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations
![WILLIE FRANCIS, 16, WAS ACCUSED OF MURDER IN 1946. THE EVIDENCE WAS SLIM, BUT THEY SENT HIM TO THE CHAIR. It didn't take long for an all-white jury to convict Francis and sentence him to death. But though he was zapped with enough electricity to make the 300-pound electric chair move, Francis survived, and the machine broke down around him. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/0/9/827909.jpg)
Source: People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations
![SKYDIVER JOAN MURRAY'S PARACHUTE FAILED TO OPEN. THE FALL SHATTERED THE RIGHT SIDE OF HER BODY. She landed on a mound of 250,000 fire ants. But she survived long enough to be transferred to the hospital, where she recovered. In fact, it's even possible that her 200-plus ant stings saved her by stimulating her body to keep going. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/0/7/827907.jpg)
Source: People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations
![35 Freak Accidents and Situations People Actually Managed to Survive](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/0/8/827908.gif)
Source: 14 Horrifying Accidents You Won't Believe People Escaped
![35 Freak Accidents and Situations People Actually Managed to Survive](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/0/6/827906.gif)
Source: 14 Horrifying Accidents You Won't Believe People Escaped
![35 Freak Accidents and Situations People Actually Managed to Survive](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/0/5/827905.gif)
Source: 14 Horrifying Accidents You Won't Believe People Escaped
![35 Freak Accidents and Situations People Actually Managed to Survive](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/0/4/827904.gif)
Source: 14 Horrifying Accidents You Won't Believe People Escaped
![35 Freak Accidents and Situations People Actually Managed to Survive](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/0/3/827903.gif)
Source: 14 Horrifying Accidents You Won't Believe People Escaped
![35 Freak Accidents and Situations People Actually Managed to Survive](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/9/3/827893.gif)
Source: 14 Horrifying Accidents You Won't Believe People Escaped
![THE SS ANDREA DORIA WAS THE SAFEST SHIP IN ITALY. ANDREA GENO THEN THE SS STOCKHOLMHIT IT, KILLING FIFTY INSTANTLY. Not killed: Linda Morgan, 14. The impact propelled her bed out of her cabin, out of the Doria entirely, and all the way onto the Stockholm's damaged bow. She landed safely behind a bulkhead and was really confused when she woke up on a different boat. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/9/2/827892.jpg)
Source: People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations
![CHARLES LIGHTOLLER SANK WITH THE TITANIC. THEN THE BOILERS EXPLODED, BLOWING HIM TO THE SURFACE. Не rallied 30 survivors onto a capsized lifeboat-the very last lifeboat to be found. Не went on to survive two more shipwrecks. Then in 1918, he rammed his ship into a German submarine, sinking it and earning him a medal. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/8/8/827888.jpg)
Source: People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations
![A HIPPO CRASHED INTO PAUL TEMPLER'S KAYAK. HALF HIS BODY WAS SOON DOWN ITS THROAT. Не got out, but the hippo's tusks then impaled him 40 times. Templer struggled to the surface and was dragged to shore by another kayaker. Не owes his life to a guide who managed to seal his collapsing lung with a plastic snack wrapper. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/0/1/827901.jpg)
Source: People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations
![THE SOYUZ 5 SPACE MODULE WENT HAYWIRE ON REENTRY. IT HIT THE EARTH LIKE A METEOR. The ship's parachute failed. So did the rockets designed to soften the landing. When cosmonaut Boris Volynov got out, it was -36 degrees Fahrenheit. But when the rescue team arrived hours later, his only comment was, Is my hair gray? CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/8/3/827883.jpg)
Source: People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations
![TRUMAN DUNCAN FELL OFF A MOVING TRAIN. IT CUT HIS BODY IN HALF AT THE WAIST. aturePits It pulled him under the wheels, and he was alive and conscious as it dragged him 75 feet. Doctors don't know how he survived. Maybe the wheels' weight kept him from bleeding to death (though not very well, since he lost half the blood in his body). CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/9/6/827896.jpg)
Source: People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations
![JAKE GARROW WAS PLOWING SNOW ON ICE IN ONTARIO. HIS SKID LOADER PLUNGED DOWN THROUGH THE ICE. Не smashed the back window out with his elbow and swam 100 feet through pitch-black, ice-covered water. Then he had to walk a mile to the main road in soaking wet clothes with a wind chill of -22 degrees Fahrenheit to hitch a ride to the hospital. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/8/7/827887.jpg)
Source: People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations
![ALISTAIR URQUHART SURRENDERED TO JAPAN. FOR TWO YEARS IN WW2, НЕ WAS BEATEN AND STARVED. Then they took him aboard a ship ... which sank. Не was rescued and taken to Nagasaki. Urquhart was working in a coal mine when the atomic bomb hit. But he survived, and he survived a further 70 years, living in Scotland till the ripe old age of 97. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/9/4/827894.jpg)
Source: People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations
![POLICE HAVE BRUTALLY KILLED MANY PEOPLE. IN BIESSED MEMORY OF SEAN BELL au BLACK MAT PAYA POR A 13332 BUT JOSEPH GUZMAN TOOK 19 BULLETS AND SURVIVED. And that doesn't count the 31 additional bullets cops fired at him, which missed. Not only did he survive the shooting, but Joseph was also still strong enough to be described as combative when he was wheeled into the hospital. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/8/4/827884.jpg)
Source: People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations
![35 Freak Accidents and Situations People Actually Managed to Survive](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/0/2/827902.gif)
Source: 14 Horrifying Accidents You Won't Believe People Escaped
![35 Freak Accidents and Situations People Actually Managed to Survive](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/8/6/827886.gif)
Source: 14 Horrifying Accidents You Won't Believe People Escaped
![35 Freak Accidents and Situations People Actually Managed to Survive](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/0/0/827900.gif)
Source: 14 Horrifying Accidents You Won't Believe People Escaped
![35 Freak Accidents and Situations People Actually Managed to Survive](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/8/5/827885.gif)
Source: 14 Horrifying Accidents You Won't Believe People Escaped
![35 Freak Accidents and Situations People Actually Managed to Survive](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/9/0/827890.gif)
Source: 14 Horrifying Accidents You Won't Believe People Escaped
![35 Freak Accidents and Situations People Actually Managed to Survive](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/9/1/827891.gif)
Source: 14 Horrifying Accidents You Won't Believe People Escaped
![35 Freak Accidents and Situations People Actually Managed to Survive](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/9/5/827895.gif)
Source: 14 Horrifying Accidents You Won't Believe People Escaped
![35 Freak Accidents and Situations People Actually Managed to Survive](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/9/9/827899.gif)
Source: 14 Horrifying Accidents You Won't Believe People Escaped
![RODNEY FOX WAS FISHING FOR TUNA IN AUSTRALIA. A GREAT WHITE SHARK SNAPPED HIM NEARLY IN TWO. It broke half his ribs, ripping him up so much, his suit was the only thing holding his insides in. But Rodney didn't realize how much he'd been injured, so he just poked and grabbed at the shark till it moved on. Не went on to found an organization to protect sharks. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/9/7/827897.jpg)
Source: People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations
![SCIENTISTS ASSESSED THE GALERAS VOLCANO IN 1993. IT ERUPTED WHILE THEY WERE THERE. A blast of heat reduced one engineer to ash. Two others instantly turned to gas. Dr. Stanley Williams took a rock to the head, shattering his skull and sending bone fragments deep into his brain. But when rescue arrived, he was alive, and he made a full recovery. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/8/9/827889.jpg)
Source: People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations
![A TWO-YEAR-OLD FELL IN FREEZING WATER. HIS HEART STOPPED FOR AN HOUR AND 41 MINUTES. The boy's body temperature dropped to 77 degrees. Over an hour of CPR failed to resuscitate him. But then, against all probability, he came back to life. Apparently, the extreme cold preserved his brain and other organs. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/9/8/827898.jpg)
Source: People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations