Category: Knives Save Lives (page 4 of 5)

Over the past few months, there’s been a deadly rash of attacks from grizzly bears, brown bears, black bears and even rampaging polar bears. This should remind us that whenever you go camping or into the wilderness, you should always be prepared for anything.

Back in 2003, one amazing man demonstrated why it’s important to always be ready with a knife in your pocket.

According to the Associated Press, John Hirsch, then a 61-year-old outdoorsman, was out in his backyard tending to his flock of 15 turkeys when he was surprised by a hungry visitor.

A mangy black bear had stumbled into his Canadian backyard desperately in search of food. Once Hirsch noticed the bear was coming straight at him without stopping, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his knife. Unfortunately, the only blade he had on him was a mere 3 1/2 inches.

This is when you separate the men from the boys. Instead of being afraid and cowering in fear, Hirsch stood up to the bear with his small blade ready for battle.

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The latest addition of our Knives Save Lives series reports on how a young girl in New Orleans was nearly strangled by her seatbelt, before a passerby used a $5 pocketknife to set her free.

According to an article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Evelyn Saenz was riding in a booster seat in the back seat of her parent’s car, when somehow the seat belt became wrapped around her neck.  Evelyn’s mother, Kelly, said that her daughter was being strangled and there was little she or her husband could do.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Kelly said. “It was like (the movie) ‘Christine.’ It just locked up and, no matter how hard we pulled, we couldn’t undo it. It was like a noose and it just kept getting tighter and tighter. It was strangling her.”

The couple pulled over into a convenience store, where Evelyn’s father, Joseph, retrieved a box cutter, but it failed to cut through the belt.  Meanwhile, little Evelyn was turning blue.

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If it hadn’t been for one man’s initiative and quick access to a knife, a woman from Maine could have been burned alive in an accident late last week, which earns it a place in our Knives Save Lives series.

According to the Bangor Daily News, Laura Morgan’s 2004 Toyota Camry veered off the road and flipped on its side after crashing into a tree.

Luckily, 35-year-old Chad Curtis heard the ruckus and went to investigate. He saw the car quickly filling with smoke at the bottom of an embankment and rushed to the vehicle.

Here’s how the article described the situation:

He found Morgan hanging out the driver’s side door against her seat belt, which was making it hard for her to breathe. There was smoke coming from the ruined front of the car, but no flames yet. Curtis unfastened the lower portion of the seat belt, but the upper portion, which operates separately from the lower belt, was still tangled around Morgan.

Morgan was in and out of consciousness and people were slowly gathering around the accident, but time was sticking away with the woman still trapped in the volatile vehicle.

As he was trying to pull her out, an unidentified hero tossed Curtis a knife, which he promptly used to cut her out of the seat belt. They carried her to safety and in minutes, the car was completely engulfed in flames.

There’s no denying Chad’s action helped save her life, but without the knife of a mysterious bystander, he would have had a difficult time getting her out, which may have resulted in unimaginable ramifications.

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When you think of dangerous activities, things like skydiving, drag racing, free climbing and white-water rafting might pop into your head.

You probably don’t think something as mundane as putting on a seat belt is dangerous, but our latest installment of knives save lives is a testament that danger can strike at any moment.

In November of 2006, Kaamilya Wilson was on a routine trip in the car with her then five-year-old son David and family when disaster struck.

While putting on his seat belt, David somehow became entangled and the belt tightly wrapped around his neck. An old piece in the ABC local news featured an interview with David and his sister about the incident.

“I was trying to buckle myself and it snatched me back, so it got around my neck,” explained David.

“I was scared because he was turning colors and he couldn’t breath,” said his older sister, Alicia.

When something like that happens, panic usually sets in and it did with Kaamilya who was screaming and hollering in fear. Another passenger in the car waved down an officer passing by, but he couldn’t do anything to untangle the boy because it was too tight around his neck.

Precious time was ticking away.

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As everyone knows, animals are unpredictable and curiously mercurial. One moment they might seem like harmless creatures out in the wild and the next thing you know, they are viciously and mercilessly attacking anything within sight.

The most recent installment of Knives Save Lives, our effort to illuminate the ways knives have saved lives, demonstrated how a blade rescued campers from the clutches of a rabid mountain lion. Two other stories featured an attack by two pit bulls and a bear.

Our next story of heroic knives takes us deep into the wild of southern Africa.

Joe Viljoen and his two sons, Micha and Zen, run a business out of South Africa called Brave Heart Safaris that takes amateur hunters on trips to hunt big game. Some of the species you can hunt include giraffes, hyenas, elephants, antelopes, lions and warthogs among others.

A few years back, a routine hunt for cape buffalo turned into a potentially deadly trip.

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If a human or animal is infected by rabies, the virus first enters the Central Nervous System before inflaming the brain. This inflammation invokes bouts of mania and galvanizes animals to attack anything within sight.

For a dog or raccoon, this could be dangerous, but for a mountain lion, rabies could be deadly if humans are around.

This was the situation a group of campers faced in the fall of 2004. The four campers were woken at their cabin in Northern California by a fight between their collie and a mountain lion. To scare off the mountain lion, they hastily built a fire outside.

The mountain lion disappeared and it seemed like they were safe until the lion charged out from underneath the cabin and attacked Kathleen Strehl. Mountain lions aren’t usually overtly aggressive against people, but later tests revealed this one was infected with the rabies virus. Animals with rabies are extremely vicious and voraciously persistent.

With the 60-pound beast mauling Strehl, her husband Chuck Strehl and Troy Winslow wrestled the cat off her.

This is the part of the story where having a knife handy prevented the situation from getting uglier.

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On June 5, 2003, Canadian farmer Bruce Osiowy was getting ready for another hot day in the field using his new machine that picks up rocks, which he used to have to do by hand.

To the cash crop farmer, life seemed good.

However, what started out like another day on the farm would soon turn into a harrowing 66-hour ordeal for Osiowy.

After picking up a few loads of rocks with his machine, the transport arm of the rockpicker malfunctioned.

So, he tried to release the transport arm with a wrench, but when he did, the whole thing came crashing down on his hand.

Despite screaming for help and banging a hammer against the machine, no one came to his aid. He was stuck all alone in the middle of the field on a Thursday night.

For the next two and a half days, he went without food and water. At night when it grew cold, his collie dog would curl up on top of him to keep him warm.

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In the latest installment of our series detailing how knives save lives, we take to the skies.

On May 28, 1990, passengers of a routine flight to San Antonio were going about their typical business as the plane they were on entered the cruising altitude of 35,000 feet.

Everything seemed to be going normally until a woman frantically told a flight attendant that her 89-year-old husband didn’t appear to be breathing. According to the attendant, the man looked darkish gray and wasn’t responding. His immediate diagnosis was total airway obstruction.

So, the attendant did what everyone has learned to do for someone who can’t breathe. He administered the Heimlich Maneuver and CPR, but to no avail. The man was in deep trouble.

Luckily, there were two doctors a few sets behind who sprung into action. They knew his airway was completely obstructed, and there was only one device that could save this man: a knife.

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This is the sixth post in a series that explores cases around the world in which a knife is used to save someone’s life or prevent serious injury.

You never know when something bad is going to happen. Chanda Davis was in one of these unexpected situations in her usually safe South Carolina backyard.

Earlier this month, she was outside her home with her 2-year-old daughter getting a grill ready when all of a sudden two pit bulls skulked into her backyard.

According to an interview, Davis’ daughter shouted “mommy” and when she turned around the two pit bulls were making a move toward her.

Davis instantly picked up her little girl and tossed her on the hood of the car so the pit bulls couldn’t reach.

That’s when the dogs turned on her. Luckily, Davis’ English bulldog came running to her side and the three dogs began viciously fighting one another, so Davis sprung into action.

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I think it’s obvious to say that war is dangerous. That’s where tensions are always high, lives are at risk and sheer survival is the number one priority.

So, it’s probably no surprise that in wartime situations, knives have a greater propensity to save lives than in everyday situations. However, this next story in our series Knives Save Lives shows just how carrying a knife and having a lot of luck can save a life.

It begins in October of 1993 during the Battle of Mogadishu when two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down. For anyone unfamiliar with this story, I recommend the film or book Black Hawk Down, which details the skirmish between United States military and Somali militia fighters who were loyal to the Somali president.

Navy SEAL John Gay was part of the operation to recover the crew of the helicopters. As bullets were flying, Gay valiantly carried out his mission until he was struck by an AK-47 round.

For most people, if they’re shot with a bullet in the hip, it could be devastating, but in battle, any serious injury could be fatal because of the presence of an enemy. However, Gay went relatively unscathed thanks to the presence of his Randall Bowie knife.

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