Sandy Oehler’s experience with cancer reset her priorities in a big way.
The 44-year-old former retail manager, wife and mother was diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer in 2003.
Oehler is one of the lucky ones. Only 15 percent of overall lung cancer patients survive treatment and a little less than half of the people [...]

When Max Silberg was born, blood from his mother’s umbilical cord was donated to Rhonda Kottke — which helped save her from leukemia.
(Sun-Times)
Doctors used the newborns’ umbilical cord blood to treat Kottke’s leukemia, and the Chicago woman has been cancer-free for 4½ years.
Umbilical cord blood usually is discarded, along with the rest of the afterbirth. [...]

On Christmas Eve 1971, a Peruvian airliner was struck by lightning in an area of heavy turbulence at 21,000 feet and crashed into a the Amazon. Miraculously, a German teenager survived the crashed and walked out of the jungle nine days later.
The LANSA (Lineas Aereas Nacionales Airlines) Lockheed Electra L-188 had taken off from the [...]

In the quarter-century Dave and June Boon have lived in Colorado, they have spent countless days backcountry skiing. The Boons’ first encounter with an avalanche, however, didn’t come until Saturday morning, when a slide ripped down Berthoud Pass and swept their Honda Accord and another vehicle off of Hwy. 40.
“It’s ironic that our first experience [...]

2003: Columbia shuttle disintegrates killing seven
The US space shuttle Columbia has broken up as it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere killing all seven astronauts on board.
This is the first time there has been an accident on landing in the 42 years of space flight.
President George Bush told a nation in shock: “The Columbia is lost. There [...]