- 4 days ago
People who Refused : to Die in History
serious history, People who refused to Die in history, when people refuse to die in history, survival stories, extreme survival stories, John Colter, Colter's Run, Leonid Rogozov, Julianne Koepke, Lansa Flight 508
serious history, People who refused to Die in history, when people refuse to die in history, survival stories, extreme survival stories, John Colter, Colter's Run, Leonid Rogozov, Julianne Koepke, Lansa Flight 508
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LearningTranscript
00:00Today we're going over extreme survival stories of people who refused to die.
00:05John Coulter
00:05It's 1809, and frontiersman John Coulter and his friend John Potts are paddling a canoe up the Jefferson River.
00:12The two men are hunting for beaver pelts on this expedition,
00:15and they both know that they have just crossed into some very dangerous territory.
00:20Just a few years earlier, Coulter was part of the legendary Lewis and Clark expedition
00:24that mapped the previously unexplored American West.
00:27While traveling in what is now Montana, the party had some not-so-friendly encounters
00:32with the native Blackfeet Indians, who have lived in this region for generations.
00:36These tribes had begun working with British fur companies
00:39and now saw the American presence in the area as bad for business.
00:43Coulter could not help but notice the demand for beaver pelts was skyrocketing,
00:47and so, in 1806, two months before the official end of the expedition,
00:51he asked to be honorably discharged, and he chose to stay out in the wilderness to try to strike it
00:57rich.
00:57But John was soon given a lesson on just how much the local tribes did not appreciate American fur trappers
01:04on their turf.
01:05In 1808, the Blackfeet had ambushed him and shot an arrow in his leg.
01:09Had the flathead and crow Indians he was traveling with not chased them away, he would have been dead.
01:14Now well aware that the Blackfeet did not want them around,
01:17the duo were doing everything they could to avoid them at all costs.
01:21Coulter and Potts continued rowing in silence, hoping that they could pass through unnoticed.
01:26But, as they turned the corner, a cold shiver ran down their spine,
01:30as hundreds of Blackfeet warriors began stepping out of the forest and onto the riverbank.
01:37The natives don't seem to be very interested in doing business,
01:40and they gesture for the men to come to them.
01:43Coulter knows they don't have a lot of options here, so he nervously brings the canoe to shore.
01:49The instant he steps onto land, the Blackfeet strip him naked and take his rifle, knife, and gear.
01:54As he watches Coulter being stripped bare,
01:57Potts begins to imagine the horrific things the Blackfeet have in store for them,
02:01and he refuses to get off the canoe.
02:03The warriors begin to lose their patience, and one of them shoots an arrow into him for his stubbornness.
02:08Potts, now bleeding, panics and grabs his rifle.
02:11He fires at one of the warriors, and instantly, the Blackfeet return,
02:15a storm of arrows that turn his body into a pincushion.
02:19Horrified, Coulter can do nothing but stand there and watch,
02:23as Potts is dragged ashore and hacked to pieces.
02:26He assumes he's next, but instead, the chief unexpectedly points to the open prairie and tells him to run.
02:34Coulter couldn't believe what was happening.
02:35He was being spared, and so he takes off, sprinting butt naked as fast as he could.
02:41He gets a few hundred yards away, when suddenly, war cries echo out in the distance behind him,
02:47and it dawns on him that he had not been set free after all.
02:51He was simply given a head start.
02:53This was a hunt, and he was their prey.
02:57Naked, alone, and now running for his life, Coulter sprints ahead.
03:01He knows that about six miles away is the Madison River.
03:04If he can just make it there, he may have a chance of getting away.
03:07Every step drives sharp rocks into his bare feet, and his legs are ripped up by shrubs.
03:12But Coulter pushes himself harder than he ever has before.
03:15His lungs burning.
03:17He keeps running until his vision starts to blur,
03:19and blood begins pouring from his nose from the sheer strain.
03:22After traveling what felt like a few miles,
03:25he stops to try to catch his breath, and turns to see if he had lost the Indians.
03:30To his horror, one warrior had caught up and found him, and was now just 20 yards away.
03:36Exhausted, and knowing he can't outrun the man, he quickly turns to fight.
03:40The Indian, who is running out of full clip towards Coulter,
03:43is startled when the naked white man suddenly whips around and aggressively raises his arms towards him.
03:48He stumbles to the ground and breaks his spear.
03:50On instinct, Coulter rushes over, grabs the broken spear, and drives it into the warrior, killing him.
03:57The frontiersman takes a blanket the young Blackfoot was carrying,
04:00and as a group of warriors draws near, he takes off running again.
04:03He reaches the river, bleeding from his feet and nose, barely able to stand.
04:07He can hear the natives getting closer behind him.
04:10His legs are completely dead, and he begins desperately searching for somewhere to hide.
04:15As the voices of the warriors grow louder and louder, Coulter spots a beaver lodge, and dives into the icy
04:21water.
04:22He swims beneath the lodge, and finds a small pocket of air just big enough to keep his face above
04:27the surface.
04:40Alright, the beaver lodge was probably empty, but I thought it was funny.
04:43Anyways, when the Blackfeet arrive moments later, there is no sign of the naked white man they had been pursuing.
04:48They circle the area for hours, and Coulter does his best to remain perfectly still beneath the lodge as the
04:55freezing water numbs his entire body.
04:58After what seems like an eternity, night falls, and the sounds of the Blackfeet warriors fade into the distance.
05:05In near darkness, Coulter slips back into the river and swims a few miles downstream.
05:10He crawls ashore, shaking and half-frozen, but he is alive.
05:14For the next 11 days, with just the blanket he stole from the warrior, he keeps moving through harsh terrain,
05:20surviving on roots and berries.
05:22He forces his broken body more than 300 miles through mountains and valleys, until finally he reaches a trading fort
05:29on the Little Bighorn.
05:31As he stumbles in, he is nearly unrecognizable.
05:34He's thin, exhausted, and bleeding everywhere.
05:38But, against all odds, he lived to tell the tale.
05:42Leonid Rogozov
05:43It's September 1960, and a 26-year-old surgeon, Leonid Rogozov, steps off his ship and onto the frozen continent
05:51of Antarctica.
05:52A few months earlier, the Soviet Union had announced its 6th Antarctic Expedition, and was looking for a doctor willing
05:58to spend two years at the Novala Zarevskaya Station, one of the most remote research stations on Earth.
06:04Leonid had been studying to become a surgeon, but when he heard the news, he dropped everything and quickly applied
06:09to join the expedition.
06:10He's chosen, and is assigned to join the 13-man research team as its sole doctor.
06:15As Leonid excitedly walks to the station, he can't believe how quickly his life has changed.
06:20But he is completely unaware that soon he would be fighting for his life with nothing but a scalpel and
06:27a mirror.
06:28By January 1961, the station is fully functional, and Leonid settles into his role as the only physician for the
06:34crew.
06:34For the first few months, everything is going according to plan.
06:37And luckily, the researchers seem pretty good at keeping themselves healthy in these extreme conditions.
06:42But on the morning of April 29th, Leonid wakes up, and something is not right.
06:47He feels weak and nauseous.
06:49By midday, he's running a fever, and a sharp stabbing pain has moved to his lower right abdomen.
06:55Leonid knows that this could be very bad.
06:57These are all hallmarks of appendicitis, something that can be life-threatening if not treated immediately.
07:03So, he starts taking antibiotics, and presses ice against his abdomen.
07:07He's hoping the infection is minor, and this will be all it takes to clear it up.
07:10But by the morning of April 30th, the pain is so bad, he can barely move.
07:15His fever keeps climbing, and he begins to vomit uncontrollably.
07:19The antibiotics were not enough.
07:21This infection had progressed to the point where the outlook was now very grim.
07:26His appendix could rupture, and if it did, he would only survive hours to days without proper treatment.
07:32The nearest Soviet research station with another doctor is over 1,000 miles away.
07:37And to make things even worse, a severe blizzard had rolled in, making it impossible for any planes to land
07:44at Novola Zarevskaya to rescue him.
07:46The researchers at the station watch helplessly, as their doctor's condition continues to worsen.
07:51There's nothing they can do, and they realize they may have to helplessly watch him die.
07:56Leonid stares at the ceiling of his small room, his mind running through all of his options.
08:02In the end, he decides surgery is the only thing that can save his life, and he is the only
08:08person who can do it.
08:09He recruits three of his colleagues to help him as assistants, and he begins prepping himself for surgery.
08:15He orders one of the researchers to hold a mirror near his abdomen so he can see what he's doing
08:20during the surgery.
08:20He places another researcher near his tools so he can call for them as needed, and he gives the third
08:25man a shot of adrenaline and instructs the researcher to stand by and use it on him if he passes
08:30out.
08:30At 2 a.m. on May 1st, Leonid nods to his assistants, adjusts himself into a half-sitting position, and
08:37injects himself with a local anesthetic.
08:40Looking at the mirror, he picks up a scalpel and makes a 4-inch cut on his right side.
08:45He continues to cut through layers of muscle and tissue, but he struggles using the mirror to see, and eventually
08:51begins working through touch alone.
08:53He can feel the warmth of his blood seeping out over his hands as he searches for his appendix.
08:59As he's working blindly in the hole he had cut into himself, he accidentally cuts his large intestine.
09:05Leonid quickly calls for sutures, and he's forced to sew it back together before he can continue to his appendix.
09:1140 minutes have now passed, and his vision begins to blur.
09:14His head starts to spin, and he becomes nauseous.
09:18He begins to take short 30-second breaks every 4 minutes to regain his focus, using all of his concentration
09:24to not black out mid-surgery.
09:26After almost an hour of cutting and feeling around his abdomen, Leonid finally locates his appendix.
09:32But at that exact moment, he feels his heart rate slow, and his hands begin to lose sensation.
09:38He battles back through the brink of blacking out, grips his scalpel, and quickly removes his appendix.
09:44As he inspects it, he sees a dark stain at its base, and deduces that if it was not removed,
09:50it would have burst within a day.
09:51He fights through the vertigo and nausea, and sews himself back together.
09:55Nearly two hours after he had made the initial cut into himself, the surgery was completed, and Leonid, exhausted both
10:03mentally and physically, collapses on the table.
10:06Over the next few days, he continues to suffer from a high fever, and his colleagues worry that their doctor
10:11still won't make it.
10:12But on day 5, his fever finally breaks, and in two weeks, Leonid is back on his feet performing his
10:19regular duties.
10:20Operating on yourself and then continuing to do your job as if nothing had happened is, not gonna lie, kind
10:26of impressive.
10:26And I guess even the Soviet government thought so too, as Leonid was later awarded the Order of the Red
10:32Banner of Labor for his bravery and service to the Soviet state.
10:36Julianne Kopka
10:37It's December 24th, 1971, and 17-year-old Julianne Kopka is sitting next to her mother as her plane takes
10:44off into the sky.
10:45A day earlier, Julianne had graduated from high school in Lima, and now she's finally going back home to spend
10:50Christmas with her dad.
10:51Her parents were world-renowned zoologists who were living at a research station they'd established deep in the Amazon rainforest.
10:58The original plan was for Julianne to return to the research station a few days earlier, but wanting to participate
11:03in her graduation ceremony, she convinced her mother to stay with her and fly back on Christmas Eve instead.
11:09But being Christmas, all the flights out of Lima were booked solid, and the only airline with available seats was
11:14Lanza, an airline with a poor reputation for safety.
11:17Julianne's father urged his wife not to book with Lanza, but thinking this was a short one-hour flight, Julianne's
11:24mom booked the tickets, and they were now aboard Lanza Flight 508, heading home.
11:28Their plane climbs to cruising altitude, and everything seems fine.
11:32But, roughly 30 minutes after takeoff, Julianne looks out the window and sees dark clouds and flashes of lightning surrounding
11:39them.
11:40The pilot had chosen to fly directly into a thunderstorm, and soon the entire aircraft began shaking violently.
11:46The aircraft is tossed in the storm, and luggage is rattled out of the overhead bins.
11:51Passengers begin to scream with every bump as the plane moves more and more radically.
11:56Julianne holds her mother's hand tightly, but both are unable to speak out of fear.
12:00Suddenly, the panic in the cabin is drowned out by a massive bang from outside.
12:05When Julianne looks back out the window again, she sees that the plane's right wing is on fire.
12:12Terrified, she looks to her mom, who looks back at her, and calmly says,
12:16That is the end. It's all over.
12:18The plane's engines scream louder and louder as it drops into a nosedive, and within seconds, it begins to tear
12:25itself apart mid-air.
12:27Passengers are flown into the open sky, and when Julianne opens her eyes, the cabin is gone.
12:32Wind is ripping past her as she falls towards the rainforest below, still strapped into her bench seat.
12:38As the tree line accelerates towards her, she passes out.
12:42When she opens her eyes, it's the next morning.
12:45She was unconscious while it happened, but the rainforest canopy and the airplane seats she was strapped into had broken
12:50her fall,
12:51just enough to keep her from dying on impact.
12:54Somehow, she is still alive.
12:57She immediately calls out for her mother, but nobody answers.
13:01As she tries to stand, her head begins to spin from a brutal concussion.
13:05She stumbles through the wreckage, desperately searching for other passengers, but she is completely alone.
13:11As she checks herself, she realizes her collarbone is broken.
13:15She also has a deep gash along her right arm, her badly wounded knee, and an injured eye.
13:20To make matters worse, she's lost her glasses, and being short-sighted meant she was now nearly blind to the
13:26dangers lurking around her in the rainforest.
13:29But there was one thing that Julianne had that perhaps no one else who may have survived the crash had.
13:35During the 18 months she lived with her parents in the Amazon before high school,
13:38she learned the basics of how to survive in the jungle.
13:42She remembered that the best chance of survival in a situation like this was to find a river,
13:46because if she followed it long enough, it would eventually lead her to people.
13:50As she moves through the scattered wreckage, she finds a bag of sweets.
13:53With that as her only food, Julianne pushes forward through the thick jungle.
13:57For days, she hobbled through the rainforest alone,
14:00the calls of the animals around her providing an eerie soundtrack to her hike of desperation.
14:04At night, the cold winds leave her shivering as she curls up in a bush to try to sleep.
14:09As the days pass, the wound on her arm becomes infected,
14:13and botfly maggots start eating into her open flesh.
14:16On the fourth day, she finds a stream and begins to follow it.
14:20As she turns a corner, she sees something that sends shivers down her spine.
14:25In front of her are three dead passengers from her flight,
14:29all still strapped to their seats with their heads buried into the ground.
14:32It's the first time Julianne had ever seen a dead body, and she is initially frozen in fear.
14:38She works up the courage to approach the bodies to check the woman,
14:41dreading the idea that this could be her mom,
14:44but finds that the corpse's toenails are painted, something her mother never did.
14:48Staring at the passengers, the last bits of hope she was holding onto begin to slip away.
14:53She gathers herself and forces onward.
14:56The sound of moving water grows louder, and the creek suddenly opens into a wide river.
15:01She knows that if she continues to walk along the river, she could maybe find her way out.
15:05But after ten days of stumbling through the forest, she is reaching her limit.
15:10Her bag of sweets ran out days ago, and now she was so weak she could barely stand.
15:16Just as she is about to give up, she spots a small boat tied to the riverbank.
15:21Using the last of her energy, she makes her way to the boat.
15:24She notices a narrow path leading into the trees, and it takes her to a small hut.
15:28She's saved!
15:30But when she gets there, no one is there!
15:32By now, the maggots in her arm were nearly one inch long.
15:36She remembered something her father did for one of their pets in the past,
15:40and she finds a can of gasoline in the hut.
15:42She sucks the gas out of the can and spits it onto her wound.
15:46The pain is excruciating, as the maggots try to burrow deeper into the wound to escape the fuel,
15:52but she is able to pluck 30 of them out of her arm.
15:56Exhausted, Julianne falls to the ground inside the hut and falls asleep.
16:00The next morning, she wakes to the sound of voices and runs outside.
16:04When the men see Julianne, they are terrified and initially think she's a half-dolphin water goddess,
16:10but speaking in Spanish, she explains to them what happened.
16:13She was on the flight that crashed, and she is all alone.
16:16They treat her wounds, feed her, and the next day, bring her back to civilization.
16:22Julianne is soon reunited with her father, and learns that her mother is still missing.
16:26Officials continue to search for her mother, but her body is eventually found in January.
16:31She had also survived the plane crash, but was too injured to move,
16:35and died a few days after the incident in the jungle.
16:38Of the 92 people aboard Lanza Flight 508, Julianne was the only survivor,
16:43and, in fact, she's still alive today.
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