Sometimes against all odds and in defiance of science, people manage to withstand experiences that really should have killed them.
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Take these five stories, for example, of people getting impaled, crushed, and literally blown up — and surviving to tell the tale. Getting impaled through the brain is usually deadly because the brain controls all sorts of things we don't think about — breathing, heartbeat, and blood pressure, for one. Yet in 1848, railroad worker Phineas Gage survived getting impaled by a 3.5-foot, 13-pound rod he was using to pack a hole with explosives.
As the 25-year-old turned to greet coworkers, an explosion in the hole shot the heavy iron rod through Gage's jaw, brain, and skull, like this. Like a javelin, the rod landed several yards away. Unlike a javelin, it was carrying a bit of brain with it. Gage lived for another 12 years, saddled with a drooping eyelid, seizures, and dramatic emotional and cognitive problems. He remains a subject of medical fascination to this day.
Moving at high speed through a hole that's far smaller than your body can result in stripped skin, dislocated joints, broken bones, and crushed or punctured organs. That's what happened to welder Matthew Lowe in 2008, when his overalls got caught in a factory machine that transports metal parts.