On Christmas Eve 1971 a plane crashed over the Peruvian Rainforest, leaving only one survivor. The plane had mistakenly travelled through the eye of a storm, and was hit by lightning in the process. Juliane Koepecke found herself floating through the air, still strapped to her plane seat, and two miles above the canopy of the rainforest. What happened next has gone down in survivorship folklore.
Some believe the plane decided to go through the storm because the crew and all passengers were desperate to get home for the Christmas holidays. It's a bold claim that safety could have been jeopardized because of this, and no one will ever really know the thoughts of the pilots. The plane ripped into two pieces after it was struck by a bolt of lightning. At this point Juliane found herself strapped to her seat, freefalling through the air. She only heard "the whispers of the wind", shortly before a flash of light, and then nothing at all.
Next Juliane found herself lying on the jungle floor, staring up at the dense canopy. The fall broke her collarbone and caused several deep lacerations on her legs. She had also ruptured the ligaments in her knee, but would not learn of this until after her rescue. Her injuries were somewhat miraculous considering it had been a fall of 10,000 feet (2 miles) in the air.
She knew that she could not remain in the same location, and would have to get on the move in order to search for her mother and the rest of civilization. This was made difficult as a result of losing her only pair of glasses. Juliane's mother had taught her the ways of the jungle, and she knew there was a threat from snakes. Yet without her glasses she would never be able to spot one. The only saviour was a bag of sweets that was found on the jungle floor. This would be the only food for the next few days.
Weather conditions were treacherous at this time of the year in the Peruvian Rainforest. Temperatures topped out at 40° Celsius during the day and then dropped to 20° Celsius during nightfall. On top of this it was also the rainy season, which left Juliane feeling lonely and beaten. However her courage was unwavering, and against all odds she found a creek. Her instinct told her that the line of water would lead to people, so she followed it. The piranha's kept her in the deeper reaches of water, and she drifted past alligators, safe in the knowledge that they seldom attacked humans.
On one leg of the journey she found several bodies and frantically searched to see if it was her mother. However there was no sign of her mother, so the journey continued up the creek. Days had passed at this point, and the wounds in her legs had become infected by maggots. Further up creek was an abandoned boat with a can of kerosene on board. Juliane had seen her father put kerosene into her dog's wound, which can help clear the maggots, and drive the healing process. She didn't think twice about using it, and quivered when plucking the maggots from the wounds.
A group of loggers had visited an old abandoned cabin on the edge of the river that Juliane was on. They thought they had spotted a water goddess when they first laid eyes on her, due to her white, European skin. However she was able to quickly communicate in Spanish and was then urgently transferred to hospital. She would learn several days later that her mother had also survived the crash, but died as a result of her injuries several days later. She wished she could have found her, and helped her, but it was not meant to be.
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Bill Casserley is an experienced first aider, who truly believes “life is for learning”. Could you administer first aid to yourself? If not then visit the paediatric first aid certificate blog @ http://www.train-aid.co.uk for video tutorials.
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