10 Times People Did Horrible Things to Survive

10 Times People Did Horrible Things to Survive

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’ll be looking at the most agonizing instances in which people went to unimaginable lengths to survive the harsh conditions they found themselves in.

Ricky Megee

In 2006, Australian bailiff Ricky Megee landed in a perilous situation while driving through the Outback to start a new job. After picking up a hitchhiker, he was reportedly drugged and left for dead. When Megee regained consciousness, he had been wrapped in black plastic and buried in a shallow grave in the Outback wilderness, with dingoes clawing at him. Over the next 71 days, Megee was stranded in the harsh desert and mainly lived off eating lizards, snakes, insects and ants, and even drinking his own urine. By the time a group of local station hands found him, Megee had become “just a walking skeleton,” having lost a staggering 130 pounds, more than half his original body weight.

Joe Simpson

In 1985, British mountaineers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates became the first to scale the west face of the Siula Grande. But their historic achievement quickly turned into a nightmare. Simpson shattered his leg on the descent, forcing Yates to lower him slowly. However, Yates inadvertently dropped him over a cliff edge and was unable to pull him back up. After hanging on for over an hour, Yates had to cut the rope, sending his partner plunging over 200 feet. But Simpson miraculously survived. With a badly injured leg, no food and little water, Simpson crawled through brutal weather for three days before reaching their base camp. Though doctors said he would never climb again, Simpson was back on a mountain just two years later.

Mauro Prosperi

The Marathon des Sables, a grueling seven-day race through the Sahara Desert, is considered one of the toughest foot races in the world. Perhaps nothing exemplifies its difficulty than the story of Mauro Prosperi. In 1994, Prosperi got caught in a severe sandstorm that blew him off course, leaving him to survive alone in the extreme desert. He resorted to eating bird eggs, beetles, lizards and even bats, and when his water ran out, he drank his urine and sucked on wet wipes for hydration. As his situation grew dire, Prosperi decided to take his own life, but the severe dehydration caused his blood to clot quickly, preventing his death. He was eventually found after 10 days, having wandered nearly 200 miles off course.

Louis Zamperini

Years after representing the U.S. at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Louis Zamperini joined the Army Air Force and served as a bombardier in WWII. In 1943, during a search and rescue mission, Zamperini’s plane suffered mechanical difficulties and crashed into the ocean, killing everyone but him and two other men. For 47 days, they drifted on a raft, managing to stay alive by eating fish and birds, and fending off shark attacks. When they finally reached land, they discovered they were in enemy Japanese territory, kicking off another harrowing ordeal. Zamperini spent the next two years as a prisoner of war, where he was singled out and tortured due to his Olympic fame. He was finally released in August 1945 when the war ended.

Hugh Glass

It’s a widely told and harrowing tale of survival that even inspired an Oscar-winning film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. In 1823, while on a fur-trading expedition, Hugh Glass was mauled by a grizzly bear, leaving him severely injured. Believing he was going to die anyway, Glass was abandoned by his companions in a shallow grave. But he defied the odds. Glass regained consciousness and crawled over 200 miles through rugged terrain, driven by sheer willpower and a thirst for revenge. To stay alive, he ate raw bison meat, wild berries and roots and even used maggots to clean his wounds. Remarkably, he made it to safety and recovered, though he ultimately chose to forgive those who left him behind.

Uruguayan Flight 571 Survivors

On October 13th 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 departed Uruguay for Chile, with 45 people on board, including an amateur rugby team. Tragically, the plane crashed into the Andes mountains, killing 12 people instantly. The survivors were left stranded in the remote, snowy wilderness with barely any food. As the days passed, more lives were lost and those remaining faced a dire situation. After exhausting their limited supplies, they made the agonizing decision to consume the remains of their deceased friends to stay alive. For 72 days, they endured extreme cold, an avalanche, dehydration, malnourishment and the constant fear of death. They were ultimately rescued after two survivors managed to trek through the mountains and reach a village.

José Salvador Alvarenga

This traumatic ordeal began on November 17th 2012, when José Salvador Alvarenga embarked on a fishing trip from Mexico with a younger inexperienced companion named Ezequiel Córdoba. Not long after, their boat was hit by a storm that knocked them off course, forcing them to dump their catch in order to navigate better. Now stranded at sea, the men survived by eating raw fish and turtles, and drinking their own urine. However, after about four months, Córdoba fell into deep despair and eventually died of starvation. Alvarenga was devastated by this loss and spoke to his partner’s corpse for six days before finally letting him go overboard. In January 2014, after 438 days adrift, Alvarenga finally reached land, in surprisingly good shape given the circumstances.

Aron Ralston

In April 2003, Aron Ralston embarked on a solo expedition to the Bluejohn Canyon in Utah. During his descent, a large boulder got dislodged and trapped his arm against the canyon wall. He would spend the next five days stuck in this position, rationing his limited food and water as he faced what seemed like certain death. After exhausting his supplies and experiencing a hallucination, Ralston realized he had no choice but to amputate his own arm with a dull two-inch knife. Once free, he rappelled down a 65-foot drop and hiked several miles before being found by a family who helped get him to safety. Ralston’s incredible story of survival and determination was later depicted in the critically acclaimed film “127 hours.”

Juliane Koepcke

Born to two zoologists, Juliane Koepcke developed a passion for wildlife early on and gained survival skills in her teenage years while her parents were stationed in the Amazon rainforest. Those skills proved vital in 1971 when Koepcke and her mother were in a plane crash on their way from Lima to Iquitos, Peru. Koepcke was the sole survivor, falling 10,000 feet into the Amazon rainforest, where she had to fend for herself for 11 days alone. Despite severe injuries, including a broken collarbone, a deep gash on her arm and a swollen eye, Koepcke survived the harsh conditions of the rainforest. She was eventually discovered by a group of lumberjacks who treated her wounds with gasoline and transported her to safety.

The Donner Party

Led by brothers Jacob and George Donner, this group of American pioneers left Springfield, Illinois in the spring of 1846, bound for California. Their journey took a tragic turn when they opted for a new, untested shortcut called the Hastings Cutoff. This route led them into dangerous terrain, causing significant delays and leaving them trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains by heavy snowfalls. As the group found themselves cut off from any help, their supplies quickly dwindled and desperation began to set in. In their struggle to stay alive, the survivors resorted to the unthinkable: consuming the remains of those who succumbed to starvation and exposure. Of the 87 original members of the Donner Party, only 48 survived, forever scarred by the horrors they endured.


How far do you think you will go to survive situations like these? Let us know in the comments below.