Man survives despite being stuck in car for 2 months

[Smeghead]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17088173

Umeå, Sweden

A man on a snowmobile found what he thought was a deserted car along a small forest road outside of Umeå. But upon further inspection found a man in the car.
The man said to have been stuck in teh car for about 2 months, surviving on snow.

Ok, while this is an incredable story of survival, it does raise so many questions that has yet to be answered.

He was less then a mile away from a big raod, if his car was stuck howcome he just didn't walk back? even in deep snow that seems like a better idea then staying in the car.

If he couldn't get the doors open from all the snow, why couldn't he get out through the windows? he clearly managed to get them open since he did get the snow he ate, was he too fat to get out that way?

[the_lone_bard]

I'm guessing he got their driving down a very long, rather deserted road, and when it broke down, didn't know how close he was, so probably gets out, goes for a walk for awhile, then get's freezing and returns to the car un-awaret hat if he just dealt with it for an hour or so, he'd have been found.

[Dutch guy]

It might not make sense because YOU know there was a road nearby. He probably didn't know that. Basic survival strategy in those kind of circumstances, wait somewhere they can find you. Especially if you have inadequate protection for cold environments (Which is quite likely if he was just on a car-trip and not expecting to having to hike through snow). Hypothermia is a bitch and kills fast. Also, even if he knew there was a road a mile away theres still the matter of getting there. Navigation is hard in wooded and hilly landscape, even with a map. He probably wouldn't have been able to walk in a straight line even if he wanted to, further adding to the complexities.

Staying put is not really that stupid of a move if you think about it. (Also, I do suspect he had at least something to eat with him in the car. )

[Alja-Markir]

I call massive fucking bullshit.

There are so many stupid problems with this story.

~Alja~

[Duckay]

The article actually says "by drinking melted snow", so that's not really the criticism to go for. (ETA: I see you edited that part out, probably because of this same thought. Now this comment just looks random and out of place.)

Still, the whole thing seems either remarkable to the point of miraculous, or suspect.

[empath]

(Also, I do suspect he had at least someONE to eat with him in the car. )

FTFY.



But yeah, I'm guessing he had SOMETHING to subsist on for the first while, and then, as the temperature dropped (buried wouldn't allow the smothered engine to run) he got really fucking lucky and hypothermia skipped over him allowing him to enter a sort of cryogenic hibernation the article hinted at. You see that with people who get trapped in icy water - kid falls through the ice on a river and is submerged for ten or fifteen minutes while people struggle to get him out, but is barely alive and gets successfully resuscitated.

...or he could have spent the last couple of months building this alibi to the murder of the person he hid in the woods, and put himself on a strict near-starvation diet to survive but weaken to the point of making his story plausible, for one alternative.

[Avistew]

It's possible. You can survive for a long time without eating, especially if you don't do any effort, and if he was drinking melted snow it wouldn't be so cold as to cause more dehydration that it prevented, provided he let it warm up enough.

From the article it sounds like all he did was sleep curled up in his sleeping bag. I can believe that his body went into super conservation mode and that it allowed him to survive that long.

[Metcarfre]

Very few details in the article. Could be the man had some kind of disability preventing him from trekking out.

[Smeghead]

The major road he was less then a mile away from was the E4, one of the biggest and most trafficed in the country. You can hear it from that distance, and apparently he had just turned off it and in on the deserted road where he got stuck.

As for the lack of details, well they don't have much to go on yet seeing as how the man is the only one who can tell anything and he haven't beeen able to utter more then a few words since he was so weak when found. I'll update this story when we get told something new.

[Lorithad]

Right now, I have the image in my head of a really fat guy getting a really bad idea for a diet program.

I'm a terrible person.

[Smeghead]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17095605

Did the guy live in the car before he got stuck? I mean just check out all the stuff he have in it.

[Duckay]

That's not much worse than my sister's car. And she just drives places a lot and isn't very tidy.

[Cybertrash]

Heh, interestingly enough it turns out that my coworker knows this guy's younger brother.

Oh Sweden, y u so small country?

[Avistew]

How did the brother react? Was he relieved they found his brother? I mean if he went missing for two months they must have been worried.

[Cybertrash]

How did the brother react? Was he relieved they found his brother? I mean if he went missing for two months they must have been worried.

My coworker didn't say, it sounded that it was just an acquintance rather than a close friend or somesuch.

[plummeting_sloth]

Maybe this is all incredibly subtle viral marketing. Was the make of the car mentioned a lot?

"Not going anywhere for awhile? Why not be in a Volvo?"

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

An obese man survived without eating food for a year and was only given water and vital vitamins. Your body has a lot of stored food. It starts by consuming all carbohydrate based molecules, then body fat and finally protein (the body itself). If you don't dehydrate you can survive without food for a very long time (if you have the adequet body mass). Early humans probably had to go periods without food during harsh winters. Storing body fat used to be an evolutionary benefit. Now it's not.

[plummeting_sloth]

Until the Great Famine strikes us... then the bastards have a few month heads start.

[Geoff_B]

No, it just means there's more to go round.

[sdhonda]

[Smeghead]

nice. I was also thinking something like that. You are gonna be very bored

[plummeting_sloth]

Maybe dig you way out slowly with a series of tic-tac-toe games against your delusional self.