Sometimes, the human capacity to endure injuries and pain seems limitless; it appears impossible to overcome, yet we strangely triumph over it!
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An expression of the infinite endurance of humanity (Photo: CAND) |
In 1983, 18-year-old Kimberly Lotti suddenly crashed her pickup truck into a barbed wire fence in Quincy, Massachusetts. A 5 cm diameter metal pole pierced through the windshield and impaled her chest… Lotti remained conscious while rescuers cut the pole that was deeply embedded in her body. The remainder was removed at the hospital.
In 1985, motorcycle rider Richard Topps from Derbyshire, England, collided with another motorcycle, was thrown into the air, and was impaled from his chest down to his hip on a pole—where he hung helplessly for over an hour before being discovered by his brother.
Both Lotti and Topps were fortunate: their internal organs were unharmed. In 1987, a man in Colorado fell from a window and suffered even greater injuries. A metal pole pierced through his abdomen, reaching his heart. Fortunately, rescuers decided that it was best not to remove the pole since it was preventing blood from pouring out. His heart continued to beat steadily. Surgeons managed to treat the injuries.
Even more astonishing is the case of Forthman Murff, a 74-year-old lumberjack from Mississippi. In 1984, a branch fell and caused him to fall backward into his own sawmill. The blade cut through his throat but did not touch his spine or arteries. Murff remained conscious. Every few minutes, he leaned over to let blood from his lungs flow out to breathe and drove several miles to a hospital an hour away. The doctors who stitched him up couldn’t believe their eyes: his neck was almost severed!
