While guiding a Zambezi river tour in Zimbabwe, wildlife expert Paul Templer attempted to save another guide’s life after his colleague’s canoe was attacked by a hippo. In a battle for his life, Paul suffered more than 40 puncture wounds to his body and he lost his left arm.

Aron dislodged a boulder while climbing in Eastern Wayne County, Utah, in April of 2003. The falling rock crushed his hand and pinned him against the canyon wall.  After five days of entrapment with little water and food, Aron resorted to the desperate measure of amputating his own arm with a penknife in order to save his own life.

Lance Corporal Wayne Sharrocks was on patrol in Afghanistan in 2011 when, just a few paces in front, a soldier stepped on a pressure activated improvised bomb. Despite being thrown to the ground by the force of the deafening explosion both men miraculously survived. Wayne suffered shrapnel wounds to his face and shoulder, though it was mental scars of the event that would take longest to heal.

While hiking through Sequoia National Park, Marcia suddenly plunged through several feet of compacted snow and into a fast-flowing, frigid stream, hidden beneath the ice. The currents swept her over a waterfall and 40 feet downstream, where she became trapped in a small snow cave. Battling hypothermia, she spent three hours using her hands to dig upwards through the snow.

Douglas Robertson was just 18 when his family’s boat sank after being rammed by a pod of killer whales. For six weeks they found themselves shipwrecked and adrift in a tiny lifeboat on the Pacific Ocean, without sufficient food. 

Victor was just 12 years old when he found himself on a family holiday in Thailand the day it was hit by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. Though his family was together on the beach when the wave hit, Victor was the only member of his family to survive.

Only four people who were above where the plane struck the South Tower on 9/11 survived that tragic event. Brian Clark was one of them. During his evacuation Brian became separated from the group he was with, having been distracted by a man’s desperate cries for help.

Tragically none of this group would survive, having decided to ascend to the roof. Brian was able to rescue and save the life of the trapped man, Stanley Praimnath. The two men are like brothers to this day.

In 2009 ex-Navy clearance diver Paul was on a dive off the Australian coast when he found his right arm and leg locked into the jaws of a giant bull shark. He managed to fight off the thrashing shark and swim to his team’s nearby boat, but suffered life changing injuries.