If you thought you were having a rough day, wait till you hear what these people had to go through:

Harrison Okene

In 2013, when divers had reached the wreckage of the Jacson-4 which had capsized off the coast of Nigeria, they were shocked to find a survivor in the mess. That survivor was Harrison Okene, the ship’s cook. According to media reports, Okene had been in the washroom when the Jacson-4 capsized and he was unable to reach the emergency exit hatch and then found himself trapped – his only salvation was a four square bubble of air. He stayed like that for three days till the divers reached him.

Juliane Koepcke

In 1971, Juliane Koepcke was caught in a nightmare when her plane, the LANSA Flight 508 was struck by lightning and disintegrated in mid-air. Koepcke, still strapped to her seat, crashed somewhere in the Peruvian rainforest. With a broken collarbone and innumerable bruises, the survivor trekked downstream and though she managed to keep herself hydrated, she could do nothing about the maggots who infected her arm or the numerous insects who almost devoured her alive. According to Popular Mechanics, after nine days of this gruesome torture, she found an encampment and poured gasoline on the parts of her body that the maggots had infiltrated. Lumber workers found her a few hours later and soon, she was airlifted to a hospital.

Aron Ralston

We’ve all seen 127 hours, haven’t we? The film was inspired by the story of Aron Ralston who was climbing in the Blue John Canyon in Utah when tragedy struck. Ralston got his hand stuck between two boulders and was in agony for three days, surviving on his own urine. On day six, he decided to amputate his own arm by breaking his radius and ulna. That’s not all – according to the website, he had to climb down a 65-foot wall with one hand and all this while he was bleeding profusely. Ralston lived to tell the tale and still undertakes outdoor expeditions.

(Header credits: Wikimedia Commons)