From being run over by a train to surviving an airplane crash, these stories will blow your mind. It shows us how strong and ingrained the will to survive is. While it certainly takes some luck, it's also all about knowing how to react in order to keep yourself alive in extreme circumstances. We can learn from these survivors:

Harrison Okene

Unfortunately for Harrison Okene, the cook aboard the tug-boat Jascon 4, that was the reality he faced when his world got turned upside down … literally.

The boat was working in an oilfield off the coast of Nigeria, when rough seas proved too much and capsized Jascon 4, sending it 100 feet to the bottom. While every other crew member perished, Okene found himself stranded, but alive, using the only pocket of air available to survive the flooding. Rescuers had no reason to assume anyone was alive on the sunken ship — it wasn't until divers eventually visited the ship to recover the bodies that the remarkably not-dead cook was found.

Now, when a person spends time at depth and under pressure, the nitrogen in the air they're breathing dissolves into their body tissues — the longer they're down there, the more that gets dissolved. If they surface too quickly, that nitrogen can suddenly reappear in the form of bubbles in all the wrong places, causing extreme pain and even death. With that in mind, Okene was taken to the surface in a pressurized diving bell, then confined for another two days in a decompression chamber, before he was finally allowed to never go back into a small space ever again.

Matthew Croucher

Matthew Croucher was serving with the British Royal Marines in Afghanistan in 2008, when he took part in a raid on a suspected bomb factory. During the search he felt something press against his leg — a moment later, he saw a grenade hit the floor by his feet. Croucher proved that he watched too much TV by jumping onto the grenade, which shortly after exploded.

Miraculously, no one was hurt, not even Croucher, because not long after he landed on the grenade face-first, he rolled over and pinned the grenade to the ground under his backpack and body armor, tucking his legs to his chest in the process.When the grenade exploded, the Lance Corporal was thrown across the room, his backpack shredded and ablaze, and his body armor and helmet peppered with grenade fragments. He himself, however, walked away with nothing more than a headache, a nosebleed, and probably free pints for life from all the marines who didn't jump on a grenade that day.

Truman Duncan

Truman Duncan, railway worker in Texas, who was riding on the front of a train car when he suddenly lost his grip. Despite a futile attempt to run backwards away from the onrushing train, he fell on the tracks, and was dragged under the wheels.

Despite being almost literally cut in two, he made the decision not to die. He decided to keep himself awake, keep himself talking, and he called his own ambulance too. An hour after the accident, he finally made it to a hospital, where surgeons began work on the first of 23 surgeries.

Now, despite being minus large parts of his walking mechanism, he is alive, back at work at the railyard (in an office though, no longer chasing trains), and with a story he can only tell in the company of Pinocchio.

Ron Hunt

Ron was up a ladder operating an industrial drill with an 18-inch-long bit, when suddenly the ladder fell out from under him. As he fell face-first, he actually landed directly onto the upturned bit, which had pierced his right eye socket, passed straight through his head, and come out the other side just behind his right ear.

Ron was awake and alert enough to both realize what happened and get upset about it.

According to ABC News, a surgeon called Dr. Paul Ludlow ended up removing the drill. However what started out like an actual surgical operation, ended up more like the board game Operation, because as they started trying to cut the drill, they noticed it was loose in Hunt's head, so they stopped cutting and started unscrewing. The drill was successfully removed and, despite the loss of his right eye, Ron Hunt seems none the worse for the experience.

Vesna Vulovic

In 1972, Vesna Vulovic was a flight attendant aboard an airliner that exploded over Czechoslovakia at 33,000 feet. The plane was totally destroyed, leaving Vulovic and the other passengers and crew with a really great and unobstructed view of the ground … plus the time it takes to fall six miles to appreciate it.

Vulavic was the only one left alive. When she was found, she was partially buried under debris and bodies, had broken both legs, crushed three vertebrae, and suffered a severe head injury. When they arrived at the hospital, her parents were even told that there was no hope and she would most likely die … but she didn’t.

Her amazing survival came down to how she didn't face the fall alone, but instead took the plunge attached to a piece of the aircraft, wedged between another crewmember and a food cart. When this collection of parts hit the ground, it was fortunate to hit a snow-covered slope and slide some distance before coming to a rest. This all helped to cushion and distribute the force of an otherwise-unsurvivable freefall.

Fabrice Muamba

Fabrice Muamba, a professional soccer player in the UK, was 43 minutes into a 90-minute match at a stadium in North London, when cardiac arrest stopped his heart — he collapsed on the spot.

Within seconds of his collapse, he was surrounded by medical personnel who started CPR. Also attending the game that day was Doctor Andrew Deaner, who actually worked in the nearest specialist heart unit. At 7:31 PM, 78 minutes after he collapsed, his heart was successfully restarted.

Before he reached the hospital, in an attempt to kickstart his heart, Muamba was given a total of 15 electric shocks from a defibrillator. Two days after he collapsed, he awoke in intensive care — as well as recognizing his fiancee, he was reportedly upset his collapse caused the game to be abandoned.

Salvador Alvarenga

Salvadore Alvarenga was a fisherman working in Mexico in November 2012, when he decided to head out to sea and catch some fish. Taking with him a novice deckhand named Ezequiel Córdoba, Alvarenga headed out to sea in his open-top boat. Everything was going fine, until a storm hit that was so wild, they had to cut loose their fishing lines to avoid sinking. They tried to sail the 75 miles back to land … and they almost made it. With just 15 miles left the engine cut out and wouldn't restart, and the boat was blown back, away from land, and out into the wide and empty Pacific Ocean. Alvarez wouldn't be seen again for 438 days — Córdoba just won't be seen again.

Although at first they were able to collect rainwater, for large parts of the journey they were sustained by drinking raw blood and meat from sea turtles and seabirds. The definitely-not-for-the-squeamish diet soon took take its toll on Córdoba, who ate less and less until eventually, he died.

Then on January 30 2014, alerted by seabirds and floating coconuts, Alvarenga realized he was approaching an island. Half a day later, after a journey of 5000 miles, he washed ashore on one of the most remote islands in the Pacific.

Which survival story surprised you the most? Do you think you would have been able to survive if faced with any of the above situations?

Article Source: Grunge