By The Survivors Club Staff
Updated Thursday, July 2, 2009

The sole survivor of a plane crash in the stormy Indian Ocean is a 13-year-old girl named Bahia who could barely swim and didn't have a life jacket.  Bahia's plane - an Airbus 310 with 153 people on board - crashed in rough weather while preparing to land in the Comorros, the tiny island nation.  Bahia was rescued after clinging to debris for around 12 hours in shark-infested waters.  She is reportedly "doing well," according to a nurse who treated her.

Bahia returned home to France on Thursday where she is recovering in an unnamed hospital.  She has cuts on her face and a fractured collarbone, according to The Guardian of London.  Bahia's father, Kassim, said he spoke with her by phone after the crash.  "Bahia was ejected, she found herself beside the plane," her father told France's RTL radio. He described her as "fragile" and said she could "barely swim".

"She is a very, very shy girl. I would never have thought she would have survived like this. I can’t say that it’s a miracle, I can say that it is God’s will," he said.

"When I had her on the phone, I asked her what happened and she said, 'Daddy, I don't know what happened, but the plane fell into the water and I found myself in the water . . . surrounded by darkness. I could not see anyone,' " Kassim said. "She could hear people talking, but in the middle of the night she couldn't see a thing. She managed to hold on to a piece of something."

Bahia was found bobbing in the ocean, according to Sergeant Said Abdilai on Europe 1 radio.  She could not grab the life ring rescuers threw to her, so Abdilai said he jumped into the sea. He said rescuers gave the trembling girl warm water with sugar.

The crash of Yemenia Flight 626 came two years after aviation officials reported faults with the plane.

Key questions and answers below, including: How often do airplane crashes have only one survivor?  Is it safe to fly an Airbus?  What's the safest seat on an airplane?

By The Survivors Club Staff
June 29, 2009

What killed TV pitchman Billy Mays?  The answer appears to be heart disease, not a bump to the head, according to the Hillsborough County (Florida) medical examiner.  The final cause of death will not be known until after toxicology results are available, Dr. Vernard Adams said at a Monday news conference.

Mays, 50, was declared dead at his home near Tampa Sunday morning after his wife Deborah found him unresponsive. The autopsy conducted this morning revealed Mays suffered from hypertensive heart disease (see below for Q&A).  "It's not uncommon to have a sudden death with this kind of disease," Adams said.

Billy Mays had told a friend before he went to sleep Saturday he was not feeling well.  "He said he was groggy, he wasn't feeling that great. He wanted to get some sleep," Todd Schnitt said. 

Hypertensive heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death associated with high blood pressure and is actually a group of disorders that include heart failure, ischemic heart disease, and left ventricular hypertrophy (excessive thickening of the heart muscle), according to WebMd. 

To calculate your risk of heart attack or heart disease in the next 10 years, click here for the Mayo Clinic's excellent tool

By The Survivors Club Staff
June 29, 2009

It's the biggest scandal to hit South Carolina in decades.  Over Father's day weekend, Governor Mark Sanford sneaks away to Argentina to visit his mistress, leaving his wife and four sons behind. 

"Am I O.K.?” Jenny Sanford, the governor's wife, told reporters as she drove away from their home the day after her husband confessed to his wandering ways.  “You know what? I have great faith and I have great friends and great family. We have a good Lord in this world, and I know I’m going to be fine. Not only will I survive, I’ll thrive.”

[When asked if he plans to resign, Governor Sanford also chose the language of survival, telling reporters "I'm just trying to survive today is what I'm trying to do."]

So, how is the governorn's wife doing?  According to Philip Rucker in The Washington Post, Jenny Sanford "seems to have drawn a new path for the aggrieved spouse of a philandering politician, an episode that has become something of a ritual in American politics."

"She is not a victim," The Post says quoting her friends, "but a survivor."

"Jenny is the hero in this story," said Cyndi Mosteller, a longtime friend and a prominent Republican operative here. "She's the hero to her children, and I think she's the hero to this state. In the midst of this tragedy, she is standing strong to who she is and what she believes in. . . . I think Jenny has not had these types of ambitions, but I think every woman in South Carolina would vote for Jenny Sanford for governor right now."

The answers may surprise you...

By Ben Sherwood
The Survivors Club
June 26, 2009

Every twenty seconds, a heart attack strikes someone in America, killing five hundred thousand a year. That's fifty-seven deaths every hour, almost one per minute. In the United States and many nations, it's the leading cause of death among adults over age forty.

The most lethal kind of heart problem--called sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) --occurs when your ticker's electrical system goes haywire and stops pumping blood to the rest of your body. SCA accounts for an estimated 325,000 deaths every year in the US and -- according to news accounts -- it appears to have killed Michael Jackson.

The Survivors Club mourns the loss of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, who died of cardiac arrest today at the age of 50, according to news services.  The Survivors Club also bids farewell to Farrah Fawcett, the "Charlie's Angels" star who died today after battling anal cancer.  She was 62.

Details are sketchy about Jackson's death.  News outlets report that he was rushed to the hospital after paramedics found him unconscious and not breathing.

One thing is for sure: Survivorship isn't about living forever.  It's about living fully with the precious time you have left whether that's four months, four years or forty years.  Indeed, some of the world's most effective survivors ultimately succumb to their challenges.  Farrah Fawcett is a shining example of survivorship - living fully no matter the adversity.

Ryan O'Neal, Fawcett's longtime companion, was at her side when she died, along with close friend Alana Stewart.  The TV star - famous for posing in a red bathing suit for an iconic poster - died shortly before 9:30 a.m. in a Santa Monica hospital.

"After a long and brave battle with cancer, our beloved Farrah has passed away," O'Neal said. "Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world."

By The Survivors Club Staff
June 25, 2009

A new drug treatment for cancer has produced "highly promising results" in preliminary trials, according to new research published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.

The new cancer drug, called Olaparib, was given to 19 patients with inherited forms of advanced breast cancer, ovarian cancer and prostate cancer caused by mutations of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.  With 12 patients - among whom other treatments had failed - cancer tumors shrank or stabilized. In one case, a woman with breast cancer is still in remission two years after being one of the first to be treated with Olaparib.

Olaparib is a member of a new class of drugs called PARP inhibitors that target cancer cells but leave healthy cells relatively untouched.  NBC's science correspondent Robert Bazell calls this news "the most exciting development in cancer research in a decade or more.  In just a few years it could save thousands of lives."

By TSC Staff
June 24, 2009

Sometimes television imitates life.  And sometimes life imitates television.

Consider the remarkable story of nine-year-old Grayson Wynne who was separated from his family on a weekend hike in a forest in northern Utah.

According to the Associated Press, Grayson immediately thought about one of his favorite television shows on the Discovery Channel: Man vs. Wild. He watches with his dad and brothers and admires Bear Grylls, the survivalist who demonstrates how to overcome every kind of wildnerness adversity.

Lost in the Ashley National Forest, Grayson simply did what he learned on TV, leaving clues for searchers to find.  On Saturday, he ripped up his yellow rain coat and tied little shreds to trees.  "I just used my hands," says Grayson, who was found on Sunday after 18 hours in the woods.  "I don't know how many times I tore the thing but quite a lot."

The moment he he was reunited with his father, Grayson's first words were "Happy Father's Day."

By TSC Staff
June 22, 2009
Update 3:30 am PDT

Two rush-hour metro trains collided Monday on the Red Line in northeast Washington, DC.  At least seven people died and 75 were injured.  Crews cut the two trains apart to get people out.

The six-car trains were both headed in the same direction, according to Metro spokewoman Lisa Farbstein. One train smashed into the back of another as cars from the trailing train jack-knifed into the air and fell atop the first.  The female operator of the trailing train died.

"Obviously something went terribly wrong for two trains to be on the same track," she said.

According to The Washington Post, this is the third time in the last 15 years that two Metro trains have collided. The last was in November 2004, when a Red Line train rolled backwards down a steep stretch of track, and smashed into another train at the Woodley Park station. Twenty people were injured.

How safe is subway or commuter rail travel in the US? What can you do to stay safer?

By TSC Staff
June 22, 2009

A British veteran of World War I has officially become the world's oldest man at the age of 113 after the previous record holder in Japan died in his sleep, according to Guinness World Records.

The death of Tomoji Tanabe at the age of 113 means Henry Allingham of Britain now holds the title as the oldest man alive.  His birthdate was June 6, 1896, the same month that Henry Ford test-drove his first automobile and Guglielmo Marconi received a patent for the radio.

What is the secret of Allingham's long life? "Cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women,” he once joked.  But what's the real answer?

By TSC Staff

The Survivors Club is home to many people around the world who are going through every kind of adversity.  It's also a place to share stories about the animals we love, both wild and domestic. 

It’s definitely been a crazy week for pets.  First, there was Dyno, the week-old Cocker Spaniel puppy, flushed down the toilet in west London, England.  Then there was Rosie the cat in England who was blasted 50 times with shotgun pellets.  Finally, there was Postina, the two-pound, eight-week-old kitten, dropped in a mailbox in Boston and found among all the letters and envelopes.

All three animals survived...

Do you know a great animal survival story?

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