Sunday, November 11, 2007

They drank their own urine

Two men, workers in a coal mine in China were trapped in the coal mine when the walls of the mine became lose and caved in. These two brothers had only a small hand tool but they knew that if they did not do any thing and wait for others to rescue them , they might not have a chance to live. so they continuously dug they way out for 130 hours with their bare hands and the pick. There was no food and water and in order to survive they had to drink their own urine.

According to a doctor, the most im;portant thing for survival besides oxygen is water in extreme conditions. Medical experts say that a human being can live for several weeks without food and only 3 days without water.

In another case, a 76 year old woman injured herself and was all alone in a quiet and deserted place. She suffered hip injury and could not walk. She was there for 13 days before she was found but she was lucky because she found a small river and drank from it.

2 young teenagers were lost in the sea. They had no food or water in their boat. They drank rain water that had collected in different parts of the boat and gargled their mouths with sea water.They ate about a hundred jelly fish. Because they did not have shelter, they got terribly sunburned and at night they were so cold that they suffered from hypothermia(body lost too much heat). After drifting in the sea for six days they were finally found. They had to be hospitalised because one of them had second degree burns.

All the above mentioned people managed to have some water to keep them alive and more imprtantly they had the will to hang on till recuers came.

(Story appeared in Sunday Times September 16 2007 L 10)