Original subtitles

Deadly falls from incredible heights.

Lightning strikes packed with devastating power.

And lethal brain injuries that should mean

certain death.

How are some people able to beat the odds

and survive the impossible?

Is it blind luck?

A combination of instinct and quick thinking?

A combination of instinct and quick thinking? Or could it even be...

Or could it even be...

Or could it even be... divine intervention?

Divine intervention?

Well, that is what we'll try and find out.

29-year-old engineer Tsutomu Yamaguchi is walking to work...

when a blinding flash,

brighter than the Sun, fills the sky.

He doesn't know it yet,

He doesn't know it yet, but the world's first atomic bomb

but the world's first atomic bomb

has just exploded over the city

has just exploded over the city with the force of 15,000 tons of TNT,

with the force of 15,000 tons of TNT,

creating a massive shockwave...

that disintegrates everything in its path.

Instinctively, Tsutomu Yamaguchi raced into a ditch

as an atomic fireball

began to pulverize almost everything in sight...

like a gigantic hand from outer space coming down,

crushing everything,

crushing everything, blowing all structures away.

Blowing all structures away.

The bomb that exploded over Hiroshima

was the most destructive force ever unleashed in history.

80,000 people died instantly,

as temperatures approaching the surface of the Sun

as temperatures approaching the surface of the Sun vaporized their bodies

vaporized their bodies

vaporized their bodies and bathed the city in lethal radiation.

And bathed the city in lethal radiation.

But, astoundingly,

despite being less than two miles from ground zero,

Mr. Yamaguchi somehow survived.

There is ash falling from the sky.

And he realizes that his eardrums have been shattered

and that he was burned

by the enormous amount of heat that came out of the blast.

He got a thousand times

the dose of radiation that we experience in one year

simply by walking on the surface of the Earth.

Anyone who was in that type of a radius

from, uh, an atomic bomb would experience

anywhere from 95% to 98% chance of dying

due to all the different dimensions of injury

due to all the different dimensions of injury that are possible.

That are possible.

Tsutomu Yamaguchi's survival

of the nuclear devastation at Hiroshima

is almost impossible to fathom.

But what's even more unbelievable is that,

But what's even more unbelievable is that, just three days later,

just three days later,

just three days later, on August 9, 1945,

on August 9, 1945,

he did it again.

Yamaguchi is from Nagasaki.

After being atomic bombed,

he wants to go back to meet his family.

So he gets on a train,

travels 186 miles from Hiroshima to Nagasaki.

Travels 186 miles from Hiroshima to Nagasaki. And then, for a second time,

And then, for a second time,

he sees this flash of light

coming from an atomic detonation...

The Nagasaki bomb.

And there's a repeat of the tragedy.

More than 75,000 people died in the Nagasaki bombing.

Yet, once again,

Tsutomu Yamaguchi walked away

from a deadly nuclear blast with only minor injuries.

Even more incredibly,

despite being exposed to a lethal dose of radiation

despite being exposed to a lethal dose of radiation for the second time in three days,

for the second time in three days,

he lived an otherwise healthy life

he lived an otherwise healthy life before finally dying at the age of 93.

Before finally dying at the age of 93.

Those two quick doses of radiation,

within three days of each other,

um, is-is absolutely terrible.

Uh, you would think it would have...

destroyed his-his body, his internal organs.

But, somehow, this man had a system

that was able to withstand it.

And so it shows that there's a lot more going on

with our bodies, and they're capable

of a lot more than we may realize.

It just takes these extraordinary circumstances

to show us that.

From a medical perspective,

it defies all of the science that we know.

There has to be another facet,

like his will to live.

And, who knows, maybe that element of will

that can't be quantified by science

had something to do with it.

Tsutomu Yamaguchi's survival would appear to defy all logic,

which is perhaps why some people attribute it to fate.

When we're thinking about survival,

fate and destiny are so interesting,

because they're beliefs that have been held

by societies as long as we've had, sort of, recorded history.

We can look at the ancient Greeks,

where a lot of the philosophies were really about

the gods on Mount Olympus sort of rolling the dice

and determining the fates for the lowly humans underneath.

We could look at Hinduism,

where the concept of karma has often been sort of conflated

with a model of fate.

And I think that makes sense,

given how people who survive disasters of any kind

and really, by all odds, should have died,

it's really a miracle

watching them walk out of these situations.

One of the systems of meaning

that those people will find themselves in is to say,

that those people will find themselves in is to say, "There was a plan for me."

"There was a plan for me."

Is it really possible that Tsutomu Yamaguchi

was destined to withstand the bombings

at Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

Perhaps the answer can be found by examining another survivor

who overcame impossible odds not just twice

who overcame impossible odds not just twice but an astonishing four times.

But an astonishing four times.

Deep within the bowels of the luxury liner RMS Titanic,

Arthur John Priest is shoveling coal

into the vessel's massive boilers...

when it strikes a 400-foot iceberg.

The hull rips open,

and Priest is plunged into darkness

and Priest is plunged into darkness as the boiler room instantly floods

as the boiler room instantly floods

with the icy waters of the North Atlantic.

With the icy waters of the North Atlantic. These areas where Priest was working

These areas where Priest was working

and the other firemen are working,

they're below the waterline.

They're the most vulnerable.

The water's gonna come in at a very fast rate of flooding.

The chances of survival are very slim.

Somehow, with the ship damaged,

breaking apart...

he still managed to get from below deck and escape.

And, guys in his role,

a lot of 'em didn't get to make it onto the life rafts.

So, he gets in the water

and survives 28-degree water temperatures,

these ungodly, uh, below freezing water temperatures.

Available information indicates

that Arthur John Priest swam up to 30 minutes

that Arthur John Priest swam up to 30 minutes before safely boarding a lifeboat.

Before safely boarding a lifeboat.

So, seems like a pretty remarkable feat to survive,

given the tragic loss of life involved with the Titanic.

Surviving the Titanic is incredible enough.

But what's truly remarkable about Arthur John Priest

is the fact that, over the next five years,

he endured three more catastrophic shipwrecks.

Priest survived four sinkings between 1912 and 1917.

He not only survived the Titanic,

but then he was also involved in the sinking of the Alcantara,

1916.

He next moved on to the Britannic,

which also sank in the later part of the year.

His last ship that he served upon was another hospital ship,

the Donegal...

which was torpedoed by a German U-boat

in the English Channel in 1917.

For Mr. Priest to survive all four of these shipwrecks,

it seems like something was looking out for him.

Because it definitely defies the odds.

Luck, serendipity, whatever it is,

I think our bodies and minds can take us very, very far,

but, at a certain point, you just got to...

you really got to hope for the best.

Are some people destined to cheat death?

Certain stories definitely make you wonder

whether it's possible.

However, there are those who believe

that some stories of survival are not due to fate

but rather, the remarkable healing power

of the human body.

A 25-year-old foreman named Phineas Gage

is overseeing construction on a railroad line

from Rutland to Burlington.

Suddenly, an explosive charge

set to blast away rock detonates without warning.

In the violent eruption, Phineas Gage is struck

by a three-and-a-half-foot iron rod.

The 13-pound projectile spears Gage straight through his head,

entering below his jaw and exiting

entering below his jaw and exiting out the top of his skull.

Out the top of his skull.

A nice big chunk of metal

took part of the brain with it and blew out part of his skull.

His coworkers come up and they just had

to put him on a horse, bounce him down the road

and take him not to a hospital but to a hotel,

'cause that's where the nearest doctor was.

But when the doctor

begins his examination,

he is astonished to find that Phineas Gage

is still alive.

In some ways, Phineas Gage is a strange story of resilience.

Remarkably, not only did he survive in the minutes and hours

right after the tamping rod went through his head,

he was just sort of talking like he was normal.

999 out of a thousand

other brains would have just shut down.

But even though his brain and his skull

was severely damaged,

he never loses consciousness the whole time.

And he manages to live,

and live a fairly normal rest of his life.

That's why the curious case of Phineas Gage is so unique

That's why the curious case of Phineas Gage is so unique it's still talked about to this day.

It's still talked about to this day.

By all accounts,

having an iron rod blasted through one's head

should result in certain death.

So how was it possible that Phineas Gage not only lived

but remained conscious through the ordeal?

Well, according to medical experts,

it may have had something to do

with the brain's remarkable ability

to rewire itself.

This case was what started the fascination

with understanding the different parts of the brain.

It's possible that there was some matter

It's possible that there was some matter that shot out from the brain.

That shot out from the brain.

The interesting part is,

none of the stuff that was extruded

none of the stuff that was extruded was critical enough to his function

was critical enough to his function

to stop him from surviving.

When Phineas Gage endured this accident,

it showed us that the brain is very neuroplastic.

And by that, I mean the brain does grow back.

So when there's injury, that neuroplasticity

So when there's injury, that neuroplasticity means that the brain will attempt,

means that the brain will attempt,

to the best of its ability, to engage in some form of "repair."

Is it possible that Phineas Gage's brain

was somehow able to rewire itself and keep him alive

after an iron rod tore through his skull?

Perhaps.

But some medical experts believe that he was only able to survive

because there was another factor at work: sheer luck.

And as proof, they point to the case of a woman

who also suffered a nearly fatal brain injury.

After a long day's work, research chemist Andrea Scott

heads to her car to drive home.

But when she approaches the vehicle...

three men emerge from the darkness to rob her.

As Andrea struggles for her life,

two gunshots ring out in the night.

Two gunshots ring out in the night.

I remember

being on the ground

and just getting up off the ground...

trying to leave that place.

I was shaking,

I was shaking, I was extremely cold,

I was extremely cold,

I think my whole body was in a shock.

I think my whole body was in a shock. I had no idea that I was shot.

I had no idea that I was shot.

I had no idea what bad shape I was in.

Paramedics rush Andrea to the hospital.

Incredibly, she's conscious

and aware of her surroundings for the entire ride.

It's only after she arrives at the ER

that Andrea learns the extent of her injuries.

When I was in the ER,

doctors told me I was shot twice to the back of my head.

I remember lots of doctors and lots of nurses

I remember lots of doctors and lots of nurses working really hard to get me stable.

Working really hard to get me stable.

People did not believe I would survive.

Not only did Andrea Scott survive

being shot in the head twice, she was able to walk

out of the hospital after only eight days,

with minor injuries.

But how?

There's a lot of amazing things about Mrs. Scott's story.

The bullets, of course,

after being shot at point-blank range, in her head,

traveled through the brain into the neck,

and there are so many important blood vessels.

Your carotid arteries, your jugular veins,

the artery that supplies blood to your brain

that travels up your spine.

All right there, all within a few inches.

And somehow, missed all of those.

She did have a lot of healing to go through.

Part of her face was paralyzed for a while,

she still gets severe headaches, but even after all that,

she still gets severe headaches, but even after all that, she healed up almost 100%.

She healed up almost 100%.

Extraordinary tale of survival.

Doctors told my husband

that it was a miracle,

that they don't know how it's possible

that they don't know how it's possible that I didn't end up dead.

That I didn't end up dead.

Statistically, I shouldn't be alive today.

The chances of surviving a bullet wound to the brain,

it's less than 0.1%.

We are absolutely talking about the difference of millimeters.

That's what makes this truly a remarkable case

that shows we haven't figured out everything

that shows we haven't figured out everything about blows to the brain.

About blows to the brain.

If our brains have the ability to endure catastrophic injury,

is it possible that our bodies possess other,

even more extraordinary survival capabilities?

Perhaps the answer can be found by examining the story of a man

who was struck by lightning not once, not twice,

but seven times, and lived.

Park ranger Roy Sullivan is driving south

along Skyline Drive when suddenly,

a bolt of lightning strikes him

through the open window of his truck.

Roy Sullivan was struck by lightning

driving along a mountain road.

He wasn't hurt that much.

He was lucky.

Lightning can cause all kinds of damage to a person.

It can injure one's nerves,

it can cause headaches that last, uh,

for many, many months, if not years.

And of course, a lightning strike can be fatal.

The blast burned off Roy's hair

and left a black burn mark on his ranger hat.

One out of every ten people struck by lightning dies.

Those who survive often suffer debilitating, lifelong injuries.

Those who survive often suffer debilitating, lifelong injuries. But somehow, Roy Sullivan

But somehow, Roy Sullivan

walked away relatively unscathed.

Though what's even more remarkable

Though what's even more remarkable is that between 1942 and 1977,

is that between 1942 and 1977,

Roy Sullivan was struck by lightning on six more occasions

and survived each and every time.

Roy Sullivan was in the Guinness Book of Records

for having been the person who was hit the most

in his lifetime by lightning.

He was dubbed the Human Lightning Rod,

He was dubbed the Human Lightning Rod, Spark Ranger and Lightning Man.

Spark Ranger and Lightning Man.

There are a number of factors that increased

Sullivan's odds of being struck.

He was outdoors,

not only on tops of mountains but on lookout towers,

moving around a lot in open spaces.

But the fact that he was hit seven times

and didn't die is incredible.

Lightning is one of the most devastating forces on Earth.

A single bolt can carry more than 100 million volts

of electricity

and is five times hotter than the surface of the Sun.

So how was Roy Sullivan able to survive

such destructive power seven times?

Well, according to some experts, it might have been because

certain people's bodies are more resistant

to being electrocuted.

The human body is not the greatest conductor

for electricity, but in these cases,

maybe there are compounds in their bloodstream that do

increase their ability to generate energy or hold energy.

For example, someone who has

a higher degree of iron in their bloodstream

could potentially conduct lightning a little bit better.

Is it possible that Roy Sullivan

possessed some physical or genetic trait

that allowed him to both attract lightning

and withstand surges of electricity

that could otherwise kill a normal human?

Perhaps a clue can be found by examining another person

who was struck by lightning multiple times

and lived to tell about it.

After a long day of competition,

bull rider Carl Mize is about to head home

when he grabs the door handle of his truck

and is instantly hit by a powerful bolt of lightning.

Right when it happened, I knew I was struck by lightning.

The-the flash of the light and the shock, you know,

that went through my arm and through my body.

It knocked me back four or five foot on my tail end.

And, uh, I just jumped up and tried to brush the mud off,

and-and got in my truck and, uh, left.

Aside from some achy muscles,

Carl was left uninjured by the experience.

And like most people, he wasn't worried about

this happening again, because he believed the old adage

that "lightning never strikes twice."

But between 1994 and 2006,

But between 1994 and 2006, Carl was struck by lightning

Carl was struck by lightning

an astonishing five more times.

For 39 years, I've worked at the University of Oklahoma

in the electrical department in the utility shop.

And we take care of all the high-voltage electricity.

So I often think there's got to be something

that, you know, attracts lightning to me,

'cause it's just unheard of to be struck that many times.

After each incident, doctors who examined Carl

were shocked to discover that his injuries were minor.

None of his internal organs suffered the kind

of significant damage normally seen

of significant damage normally seen in victims of lightning strikes.

In victims of lightning strikes.

There's not a whole lot of people

that get struck by lightning, so doctors

really treat you as a guinea pig.

They actually had a man come down

that was an electrical engineer

to measure the DC voltage in my body.

A common person has six volts DC to run your body.

Whenever they tested me, I had 1.7, uh, DC volts in my body.

I'm more, uh, conductive than a-an average person.

And it makes me wonder, and even the doctors have wondered, too,

could have that been what's kept me alive?

The notion that some individuals are born with an X factor

that allows them to avoid death is fascinating.

But what about stories of beating the odds

that are beyond scientific explanation?

For example, there are cases of people

who fell from such incredible heights

that their survival seemed to defy the laws of physics.

47 stories above the ground,

brothers Alcides and Edgar Moreno

step onto a hanging platform to wash windows.

But when they start working...

disaster strikes.

Edgar plunges 472 feet onto a fence, dying instantly.

But as emergency responders arrive on the scene,

they approach the wreckage of the scaffolding

and are shocked to discover that Alcides is still alive.

Mr. Moreno actually fell

with the scaffolding and landed

onto some garbage cans in the alleyway.

Our rescue paramedics,

they thought that it was gonna be a recovery.

But when they got to him,

But when they got to him, he opened his eyes and took a breath.

He opened his eyes and took a breath.

Alcides was rushed to the hospital for surgery.

Several of his vertebrae had been crushed,

and his skull was fractured, causing his brain to swell.

He was given 24 pints of blood

and put into a drug-induced coma,

undergoing 15 more surgeries.

But on January 24, a mere seven weeks after his accident,

Alcides was discharged from the hospital.

Any fall from greater than one and a half times your own height

is considered potentially deadly.

So for someone to fall from this great a height and live,

you know, a productive life is absolutely fascinating.

Statistically, falling from a height

greater than 40 feet is almost always fatal.

So how did Alcides Moreno survive a fall

from more than ten times that high?

It's not the falling that kills you,

it's the stopping.

And so, if there is a tree, bushes,

wreckage that's between you and what you hit,

those factors contribute to survival.

And so, the main factor that caused Alcides Moreno

to survive is that platform that he was on.

He held onto that all the way down.

He didn't fall directly 47 stories

He didn't fall directly 47 stories without anything cushioning his fall.

Without anything cushioning his fall.

Is it possible that being on top of the platform

broke Alcides Moreno's fall just enough for him

to withstand a 470-foot plunge?

Perhaps the answer can be found by examining

Perhaps the answer can be found by examining the story of a woman who survived

the story of a woman who survived

the highest fall in history.

Six miles over the country of Czechoslovakia,

JAT Airlines Flight 367

is en route to Belgrade, Yugoslavia,

when a bomb detonates on board.

There are 28 people on, including crew and passengers.

There are 28 people on, including crew and passengers.

The plane breaks apart into three different parts...

The nose, the middle section, and the tail...

And it falls about 33,000 feet

into a tiny little village called Srbská Kamenice.

The plane's wreckage

slams into the ground at 150 miles per hour.

27 of the 28 people on the plane die on impact.

But against all odds,

one person survives the fiery crash:

flight attendant Vesna Vulovic.

When the rescuers come,

the plane is in all kinds of pieces

all over the mountainside, but here's her,

in the wreckage, survived, all ten fingers and toes.

She's wedged in the fuselage, her head is sticking out,

and there is another dead crew member on top of her.

She has all sorts of broken bones,

just terrible injuries, and a lot of bleeding.

She's hospitalized and she did not wake up, really,

until about three weeks later when her parents came to visit.

After a while, she wanted to return to work.

She did not have a fear of flying.

She had no memory of the crash or the aftermath.

Essentially, her memory was greeting passengers

and then seeing her parents later on in the hospital.

According to The Guinness Book of World Records,

Vesna Vulovic plummeted more than six miles,

making her fall the highest anyone has survived

making her fall the highest anyone has survived in recorded history.

In recorded history.

But what's even more extraordinary

is that she wasn't wearing a seat belt

when the plane exploded at 33,000 feet.

Vesna Vulovic was not in her seat.

It's a surprise, honestly,

that she wasn't killed immediately

from the explosion or thrown out of the aircraft

like all of the other passengers and crew.

Some people say, "Oh, she was in the back of the plane,

"the angle, maybe when she hit it went

"the angle, maybe when she hit it went like a skier would land, down at an angle, not all at once."

like a skier would land, down at an angle, not all at once."

And maybe it did, but it just seems very extraordinary

that all these things could come together to have one survivor.

The fact that someone can live through a fall from 33,000 feet

seems to defy all logic.

But maybe we have to accept that science

doesn't have all the answers when it comes to understanding

why some individuals survive the impossible.

Like the stories of people who believe

they escaped certain death with the help of a higher power.

2,400 feet below ground,

dozens of miners toil in the sweltering darkness

of the San José copper mine.

Suddenly, the Earth above them shifts

and dislodges a boulder the size of a 45-story building.

The massive boulder comes crashing down,

causing the mine shaft to collapse,

and blocking the ramp that leads up to the surface.

There were 33 men in the mine

There were 33 men in the mine at the time of the accident.

At the time of the accident.

On the surface, they knew that there had been

On the surface, they knew that there had been a terrible accident.

A terrible accident.

A terrible accident. But it was not clear

But it was not clear

what that meant for the men down below.

The outside world had no idea

if they were alive or dead.

If they were alive or dead. People were really on edge,

People were really on edge,

they were watching this around the world on television.

It's really something that-that people

were following very, very closely.

Search and rescue teams

quickly began to drill into the rock

to try and free the miners, but progress was slow.

For days, the world watched in suspense

as rescuers desperately continued

to drill in search of the miners.

There was a lot of concern

about their individual health conditions.

One of these guys had an ulcer that was really bad.

One of them was a diabetic.

So there were really desperate efforts

on the part of the Chilean authorities to find them.

It was nearly impossible to find the men,

because nobody can see through the Earth.

And the maps were outdated.

And that meant, as one of the drillers said,

"We're drilling blind."

Finally, after 17 long days,

one of the rescuers' drills uncovered evidence that,

incredibly, the miners were still alive.

The miners had found some red paint

so that when the drill came down through,

they could paint on the drill to show

that "We are alive."

In the drill, they sent a note out

that said in Spanish,

"Estamos bien en el refugio, los 33."

"We are okay in the refuge, the 33 of us."

"We are okay in the refuge, the 33 of us."

And that really just changed everything.

Rescuers sent down small packages

of desperately needed supplies through the narrow hole

leading to the miners.

They also sent down

They also sent down a small digital camera.

A small digital camera.

The video paints a harrowing portrait

of the conditions the miners had been trapped in

for the previous 17 days.

Somehow, the men had survived on only a week's worth

of food and water.

These miners were trapped almost half a mile underground,

with a few cans of tuna fish.

They had to resort to drinking water

that was used for industrial purposes.

Also, they created a-a system

in which they had a democratic vote,

you know, one man, one vote.

And the majority, if they decided on something,

that was the way that they were gonna go.

Without knowing it, the Chilean miners

walked into one of the most important

survival strategies there is, which is

creating a sense of collectivism,

and leaving each of them feeling less alone

with this nightmare that they were in.

After discovering the miners were alive,

rescuers estimated that it would take months

to drill through half a mile of solid rock

to drill through half a mile of solid rock and reach the trapped men.

And reach the trapped men.

So here you are now, August 20, August 22,

and the drill operators said to the team up on top,

"We will be able to get them out by Christmas."

So, you are going to have to tell the men

that you're going to have to be down

in that mine

for three more months.

To combat their feelings of helplessness,

the trapped miners turned to their last remaining refuge:

their faith.

One of the things that really struck me

about why they were able to make it, uh, for so long,

about why they were able to make it, uh, for so long, was their religious beliefs.

Was their religious beliefs.

They really felt like prayer was one of their strategies

They really felt like prayer was one of their strategies to help them make it through this.

To help them make it through this.

Literature documents

that faith is a significant factor in survivability.

Sometimes it's individual faith,

sometimes it is faith of a community.

Sometimes it is faith of a community. The hard part is, there is no science

The hard part is, there is no science

that we have that absolutely defines it,

but faith has real tangible results for many people.

For the Chilean miners,

many of them were men of faith

as part of their day-to-day lives.

So praying together, having that collective energy,

was just enough hope to keep a person going for another day.

After 69 days,

the rescuers finally created

a hole big enough to extract the miners.

Then, as the world waited with bated breath...

Then, as the world waited with bated breath...

the men were brought up one by one.

And astonishingly,

all 33 miners made it out alive.

But perhaps what's even more incredible

is that they were rescued two months sooner

than everyone expected.

And the miners firmly believed

And the miners firmly believed that this unexpected turn of events

that this unexpected turn of events

showed that a higher power had intervened on their behalf.

The power of prayer played a crucial role

in allowing these 33 miners to make it.

It's even been said that God was the 34th miner.

Um, several of the men who were trapped down there said that.

They really felt like their belief in God

They really felt like their belief in God was why they were rescued.

Was why they were rescued.

When faced with a life-or-death scenario,

some people choose to appeal to a higher power

to help them survive.

But there are others who react much differently.

When pushed to the limit, they tap into abilities

they didn't even know they had.

Here, in this protected reserve

in the shadow of Mount Kilauea,

tech industry executive Dewey Gaedcke

heads out for an evening hike.

But as he walks through the 523-square-mile park,

he becomes lost.

And when he's unable to find the road

And when he's unable to find the road where he parked his car,

where he parked his car,

Dewey's hike transforms into a grueling fight for survival.

Clouds came over and covered up the moon,

so it got darker, it got windier...

and I completely missed the road.

And that's what really messed me up.

And that's what really messed me up. I expected only an hour and a half hike,

I expected only an hour and a half hike,

so I really wasn't well prepared.

So I really wasn't well prepared. I brought a flashlight,

I brought a flashlight,

a digital video camera, tennis shoes, and that was it.

Miles from his car and hopelessly lost

within a 330,000-acre maze of razor-sharp lava rocks,

Dewey quickly realizes that if he's to have

any hope of rescue,

he first needs to keep himself alive.

I was exhausted, I was stressed,

I had a cut that looked like it might be getting infected.

So I was worried about gangrene.

I hadn't brought water, uh, so I was already starting

to get a little bit dehydrated after being out there that long.

To get a little bit dehydrated after being out there that long. I walked all night.

I walked all night.

Well, it's some very late hour.

Well, it's some very late hour. I'm dehydrated and I'm lost.

I'm dehydrated and I'm lost.

I'm not a survival expert,

but I've always been insanely curious,

and friends have called me MacGyver since high school.

And friends have called me MacGyver since high school. I'm good at studying things,

I'm good at studying things,

and, uh, I'm good at figuring out

how different pieces can be used together.

In the morning, I built a debris shelter,

so I-I had something to sleep in at night.

And I had built rain catches,

so I'd woken up with plenty of fresh water.

I talked to my camera every day, leaving messages for my kids.

I talked to my camera every day, leaving messages for my kids. I just want to say to my little girls,

I just want to say to my little girls,

I love you guys so much.

And I'm doing my best to get home to see you.

My primary hope of getting rescued was from the sky,

so I had already broken the mirror off

of my video camera and was using that to try to reflect the sun

to signal that I'm in an emergency.

At that point, I was actually starting

to feel fairly confident I was very likely to get rescued.

And then I heard a helicopter.

On his fifth day of being stranded and alone,

a commercial tour helicopter found and rescued Dewey.

After his rescue, local officials informed Dewey

that no one had ever survived

more than three days lost in the park.

So, how did a tech industry executive

with no survival experience manage to endure five?

Well, according to experts, it was primarily

because of Dewey's ability to remain calm

and focus on solutions in the face of adversity.

Well, I just finished my, uh, second-generation rain catch.

When a person is in a survival situation,

one of the questions is whether a person is able

to tap into something in their mind

that they didn't know they had.

That they didn't know they had. There are people who have a mix

There are people who have a mix

of resilience, adaptability, knowledge,

an ability to sort of center and stay calm and focused.

Some of the more common attributes

of survivors is people that don't focus

on all the terrible things that are going on around them.

They automatically assume everything's gonna be okay.

There were multiple times where I was scared,

but I don't believe I ever panicked.

In retrospect, looking back,

I can really see how impactful it was and how necessary it was.

So this experience taught me that not only

could I function well, I could actually use

my emotions to serve me under pressure.

And I didn't know I was capable of that.

Are we fascinated by stories of individuals

who cheat death because we believe, or maybe we hope,

that we could survive under similar circumstances?

Of course, the only way to find out

is to actually be thrust into a perilous situation ourselves.

So, perhaps it's better for us that the reason

why some people live through the impossible

why some people live through the impossible remains... unexplained.

Remains... unexplained.

Remains... unexplained.

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