Alexi Roskov.

Has your better half ever annoyed you so much, you felt like jumping out of the window? Many men (And probably a great number of women), can attest that a relationship can be one of the most stressful aspects of life.

So when Alexi Roskov’s wife (Yekaterina Roskov) began to kick off, its little surprise he felt like jumping out of the window. The big surprise is that he actually did it. Alexi (22) fell almost 50 ft before hitting the ground- then proceeded to get up and wonder back up to his apartment.

Obviously, his wife then called an ambulance and began to chew him out for jumping in the first place.

So he jumped again.

The funniest part of this is that Mr Roskov can’t actually remember why he jumped the first time. Probably something to do with the three bottles of Vodka he downed before doing it.

The Facts:

The lethal height for a human to fall from is very hard to define. It’s generally accepted that a human can survive a fall from a second storey window, but in some people even this can be lethal. Surviving form the 5th storey is not impossible, especially if Roskov’s landing was cushioned (by snow for example).

After a certain height, the probability of death levels off as a person reaches terminal velocity. This is the point where they are falling as fast as they are going to fall because air resistance is now equal with gravity. Assuming you hit this speed if you jump from 80 feet, your chances of survival are just as good as if you jumped from 180 feet. It all depends on what sort of shape you are in, and what you land on.

Flight Sergeant Nicholas Stephen Alkemade, of the British RAF fell 18,000 feet (without a parachute), after the Lancaster Bomber he was crewing was shot down over Germany during World War II. He survived the fall relatively intact, allegedly suffering from only a sprained leg. His fall was cushioned by pine trees and snow.

Roy Sullivan

They say that lightning never strikes the same place twice. Tell that to Roy Sullivan, who was struck a total of Seven Times In his life.

He was struck in 1942, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1976 and 1977. Supposedly, he developed a case of paranoia after the third time and became convinced a higher power was out to get him. Mind you, considering the odds of being struck by lightning ONCE in 80 years are 576,000 to one, and the odds of being struck by lightning seven times are 10^25 to one, can you blame him?

Strangely it was not the lightning that killed him. He killed himself over unrequited love.

The Facts

I’m afraid I’ve mislead you somewhat here, as the odds of surviving a lightning strike are actually not all that bad. A bolt of lightning is a truly phenomenal piece of nature, a bolt lasts only a split second, but is hotter than the surface of the sun. Individual bolts are also not that large, in effect being struck by lightning is in many respects like being shot- with the added bonus that the wound is instantly cauterized.

Reports of people surviving lightning strikes abound, the most common injury is usually a burn, which while very painful and debilitating, is not usually fatal. Those who have had a direct strike land on their bodies often have holes or other full blown wounds to show for it, and if the strike passes through a vital organ, it will of course destroy it. The point is that being struck by lightening is not like being electrocuted per se (Although I wouldn’t handle electronics without a wrist strap immediately after a strike), it’s more like being shot with a high energy beam that burns through your body rather than relying on the kinetic energy of a bullet. Speaking of which…

 Anatoli Bugorski

Another Russian on the list. Bugorski was a Scientist working on a soviet particle accelerator in the late 1970’s. He was checking a malfunctioning piece of equipment in the accelerator itself when due to a failure in safety protocols, the accelerator was fired. With Bugorski directly in the line of fire.

He claims to have seen a ‘light brighter than a thousand suns’, but remembers no actual pain. The beam measured 2,000 Gray before entering his skull, and about 3,000 after leaving it (Due to the fact that the matter in his head was smashed apart at the baryonic level, produced radiation). By comparison, 500 Gray is typically enough to kill a person.

Surprisingly, not only did he survive, but considering he was blasted in the head by a proton stream moving at close to the speed of light, he did very well for himself afterwards. He completed his PhD, and has a son and wife.

He didn’t walk away totally unscathed though, his immediate injuries where a peeling of the skin on the left side of his face (Where the beam struck) and swelling. He was also paralysed down the left side of his face for life (due to his nerves being fried), and suffers occasional seizures. While his intellect remains the same, Bugorski’s intellectual stamina has dropped considerably. I.E, he can’t concentrate for very long.

The Facts

He was shot in the head by a mother####ing particle accelerator. The LHC’s baby cousin. Still let’s look at this critically.

Radiation sickness is caused by long term exposure to radiation (strangely enough), which usually results when a person is regularly exposed to radioactive materials in their environment, or if they ingest radioactive isotopes (such as the dust from DU rounds). Simple exposure to radiation is not going to cause radiation sickness. You need a prolonged exposure to a certain level of radiation before you will suffer.

Think of yourself as a bucket with a small hole in the bottom and, and radiation as water. The more full the bucket gets, the closer you are to a problem, and when it overflows, you croak. If someone tips a huge amount of water into the bucket, then yes, you’re likely to suffer from a problem. But over a short period of time, the water will trickle out of the hole in the bottom of the bucket, and as the water level (Or radiation level) drops, you are less likely to suffer.

Now, if someone pours a regular amount of water into the bucket that is greater than the amount escaping through the hole, the levels will build up over time, and eventually the bucket will overflow.

Bugorski was exposed to a massive amount of radiation, but only for a short time, so the damage was minimal. True damage by radiation sickness only results from prolonged exposure.

So, there you have it, three very impressive feats of human survival, and how they did it!

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