Man shot in head sneezes out bullet Gunshot victim Darco Sangermano stunned doctors by sneezing out a bullet that had hit him in the head.
Mr Sangermano, 28, who is expected to make a full recovery, then said he felt no pain other than a strong headache. ‘This was a very strange case and the first of its kind I am aware of,’ said Prof Sid Berrone, who carried out a ‘tidy-up operation’ on Mr Sangermano before sending him home. ‘He was a very lucky man – he could have been easily killed.’
Mr Sangermano was hit by the stray bullet as revellers fired into the air on New Year’s Eve. The .22-calibre round entered the right side of his head, passed behind his eye, hit a bone in his nose and finally lodged in his nostril, before being sneezed out in hospital. The incident happened in Naples, Italy, where two other people were hit and one was killed in similar incidents.
Mr Sangermano’s girlfriend, of Turin, who asked not to be named, said: ‘We were walking when all of a sudden there were some bangs and he said he felt a pain to his head – he was covered in blood.’
Factory worker survives being dragged through five-inch gap in machinery that broke his back, pelvis, arm, hips and ribs
24 March 2011
A factory worker was dragged through a five-inch gap in a steel processing machine - and lived to tell the tale. As father-of-one Matthew Lowe went through the machine, his back was broken in two places, his pelvis was shattered, both hips and several ribs were fractured and his stomach and bowel were ruptured. The only sound Matthew heard as his body was torn apart was his right arm snapping.
He was so badly hurt in the accident that his partner was told to 'expect the worst' when she arrived at the hospital where he was taken. But two years after the near-death experience, Matthew's only visible sign of injury is a weakened right arm. Yesterday, Matthew, from Birdwell, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, said: 'I still don't know how I didn't die. As the machine dragged me through I just relaxed because I knew I couldn't do anything and I thought that was the end for me.'
Astonishingly, the machine dragged him all the way through, before depositing him on the floor with his clothes in tatters.
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I'm sure he didn't feel too lucky at the time, but that's some story...
Spanish quake: TV reporter's near miss
A Spanish reporter has a lucky escape when a large piece of masonry falls from the church near where he is standing.
Deep Sleep: Hole Nearly Swallows Gran's Bed
July 22, 2011
Sky News
A grandmother in Guatemala City has had a lucky escape after a huge sinkhole suddenly opened up under her bed as she slept. Inocenta Hernandez woke up on July 18 to discover she was lying just inches above a 12m (40ft) deep sinkhole.
Mrs Hernandez was startled by a large booming sound which she thought was a gas explosion outside. The sound was actually the earth under her bed imploding to create a deep and almost perfectly circular hole. If the pit had been a few metres larger it may have swallowed the pensioner as she slept.
The 65-year-old said: "My son was crying because you never expect something like that in the bedroom. When they raised the bed and I stood by this big hole my son then said that we have to call the firefighters because they need to come. Thanks to God and the holy Mary that nothing bad happened, it was an accident."
In the weeks before the pit appeared neighbours had reported hearing strange sounds coming from the earth and now fear further implosions. Guatemala's national disaster relief agency have come to Mrs Hernandez's home to investigate the sinkhole and determine if there are any risks to residents in the area.
Investigator David De Leon said: "The whole city rests on volcanic material which means that some areas are not stable." Sinkholes, formed by the natural process of erosion, can be gradual but are often sudden. Guatemala City is especially prone to them.
Tourists rescued after 17 hours in Alpine cable car Emergency helicopters rescued 20 people on Saturday who had been trapped for 17 hours overnight on an Alpine cable car near Germany's most famous castle.
13 Aug 2011
telegraph.co.uk
Helicopter crews lifted the cable car operator and 19 tourists to safety early on Saturday from a gondola suspended 330 feet above the ground on Tegelberg mountain in southern Germany. The cable car that climbs the mountain was halted on Friday after a paraglider tandem flight crashed into its cables, but strong winds hindered a swift rescue, police said.
A mountain rescue specialist was lowered into the gondola late on Friday, however, providing enough food and clothing to keep the trapped tourists warm and fed through the night. He also stayed with the tourists, who ranged from age four to 75. The 6,170-foot Tegelberg is within sight of one of Germany's most popular tourist attractions, Neuschwanstein Castle, which is often viewed as the inspiration for one of Walt Disney's fairy tale castles.
Those inside the 130 square foot gondola were "tense, but remained calm," thanks to a permanent radio link with rescue forces, said emergency services spokesman Roland Ampenberger. "What helps people in such a situation the most is information. It gives them a sense of safety," he said.
The entire rescue operation took about two hours, and more than 200 emergency personnel were on site, Bavaria's mountain rescue service said. The incident also blocked Tegelberg's second gondola, but that cable car was halted only 230 feet above ground and its 30 passengers were roped down to safety Friday evening, it said. Emergency services also airlifted some 130 people trapped at the mountain's top Friday back to the nearby village of Schwangau.
The two paragliders – a 54-year-old pilot and a 35-year-old passenger – were rescued by helicopter on Friday and suffered only minor injuries. Police have opened an investigation.
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They're focussing on thsoe in the cable-car, but the paragliders are the lucky bastards and no doubt!
Amazing survival of 50mph motorcyclist knocked out by low-flying pigeon… whose bike then accelerated to 140mph while he was UNCONSCIOUS
1st September 2011
A motorcyclist survived an extraordinary crash after he was knocked out by a low-flying pigeon, accidentally hit the throttle on his bike and accelerated to 140mph - while unconscious.
Matthew Brealy, 38, collapsed when the bird smashed through his helmet visor and shattered his glasses as he drove along a stretch of road. But he remained on the powerful 1,000 cc Suzuki GSXR which was sent hurtling a further 200 yards before it ploughed into an oak tree. The bike disintegrated on impact.
Mr Brealy, from Whittington Moor, in Chesterfield, suffered two skull fractures with bleeding to his brain, a broken leg, cracked ribs and a fractured hand following the crash in April. He spent ten weeks in Sheffield's Northern General Hospital where his hand was re-wired and a titanium rod was inserted in his leg. The veteran biker, who runs an electrical business, is now learning to walk again with help from his pregnant wife Emma.
He had been out with a friend and was travelling at around 50 mph on a road between Caenby Corner and Retford, in Nottinghamshire, when he was struck by the bird. ‘It smashed through my helmet visor and even smashed the lens of my glasses,' he said. 'I was doing about 50 mph at the time and the impact knocked me unconscious. It appears that I collapsed on the front of my bike and at the same time I hit the throttle so the bike just accelerated out of control. Police told me afterwards they estimated that the bike had gone from 50 mph to around 140 mph in a matter of seconds but thankfully for me it happened on a straight road which is why I probably didn't fall off the machine.
‘My bike hit an oak tree with a glancing blow, I was thrown clear and the machine was smashed to pieces under the impact. Police confirmed a pigeon was the cause of the accident. My visor was left with a hole in it and I was covered in pigeon blood and feathers.’
A farmer who came across the wreckage blocked the road with his combined harvester and paramedics treated the injured motorcyclist by the roadside for an hour before he was taken to hospital by air ambulance.
‘There's no doubt it was a bizarre, freak accident and I am aware that I am lucky to be arrive,’ he added. ‘I am 99 per cent back to normal but I have had to learn to walk again but with the support of my wife Emma, my family I was determined to get on my feet again and back to work.’
he's very lucky to be "arrive"! I love typos in articles, they are becoming more and more frequent these days. Anyhow, this guy should truly win the award for "Lucky Bastard of the Year".
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