Brutal Mercy (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories

This episode features four gripping stories of individuals facing near-certain death, only to be saved by extraordinary coincidences. From a

Key takeaways

• Sipo survived being struck by lightning in 1s946 because a second strike killed his oxen, preventing them from running him over with a plow.
• A car accident involving an ambulance in St. Helens inadvertently performed a life-saving Heimlich maneuver on a choking infant named Lisa.
• Solar flares caused 'radio skipping,' allowing a CB radio signal to travel 2,000 miles from Florida to Arizona to report a sinking yacht.
• The yacht Timberlane was rescued after a dispatcher in landlocked Arizona acted on a Mayday signal heard via short-distance radio.
• A mysterious, unidentified doctor appeared in a Louisiana hospital to successfully defibrillate a patient before vanishing without a trace.

Main topics

• Lightning strikes
• Medical emergencies
• Radio frequency phenomena

Notable quotes

Sometimes lightning does strike twice.

Conclusion

A powerful testament to the unpredictable nature of fate and the possi

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Today, I'm going to tell you four stories about people who thought their day could not get any worse, but they were wrong. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place because that's all we do, and we upload two, three, even four times every week. So if that's of interest to you, please ask the follow button to come on over and help you fix your roof. But then once they actually get up on your roof, tell them you'll be up in a second, but just take the ladder away and leave. Our first story is called Flash. Speaker 1 (0:54) On the afternoon of March 7th, 1946, a 10-year-old boy named Sipo led a team of eight oxen across an open, grassy field in the Heiveld region of South Africa. The wind was really starting to pick up, and the clouds were gathering, so Sipo knew a storm was on the way, and so what he was doing was hurrying to finish plowing this field before it hit. He was walking ahead of his oxen, steering them with a rope that was tied to a lead pair. And then behind the lead pair came three more pairs of oxen. And then beyond that was a chain going back to this really heavy plow. So basically all the oxen were working in tandem, pulling this heavy plow. And so as Sipo is leading his oxen team and plowing this field, he's looking around, he's watching for signs the storm's going to hit, you know. And then at some point he actually hears off in the distance some thunder rumbling. And then he noticed raindrops hitting the ground. So he tugged at the rope, you know, trying to get them to speed up. But the oxen were just slow. They just kept walking at their normal slow pace. Now, at first, Sipo's thinking, OK, we can get through this. We'll plow the field. It'll be slow and steady, but it looks like the storm's going to hold. But really quickly, once the rain began. it just picked up really fast. Like the drops began falling faster and faster. The thunder got more and more pronounced. And so Sipo began to wonder if maybe he ought to just abandon this and just go home and come back for this later. However, before Sipo could do anything, there was this blinding flash and then something hit him and literally threw him into the air. And then he slammed down onto the dirt really hard. And for a few seconds, everything just went black. And then slowly, things began to come back into focus, and Sipo found that he was lying flat on his back in the wet dirt. And as he lay there gasping, it dawned on him. He'd just been struck by lightning. Sipo, who was now starting to panic, tried to sit up to check himself for injuries, but his arms and legs wouldn't move. It was like he was paralyzed. And then, to his horror, He heard the sound of his oxen's hooves getting closer to him. And Sipo realized that where he'd ultimately fallen after being struck was right in their path. And if he didn't move, they were going to trample him. Sipo's like trying and trying to will him, but nothing happened. And the sound of those oxen's hooves are getting closer and closer. So finally, he just shut his eyes and accepted his fate and waited to be crushed by his own oxen. But then when the oxen literally came right up to him, despite walking effectively right over him, he didn't feel anything. And so Sipa, whose eyes were closed, you know, he's bracing for impact here. He's hearing the oxen pass over him. He opens his eyes and he sees, here are the oxen, but they're not stepping on him. It's like they're avoiding him. And so Sipo, he watches the lead pair pass over him without stepping on him. There's more to come. More oxen are coming along their way. And they too, you know, one by one, it's like they knew he was there or something, or it was just an incredible coincidence. Who knows? But they didn't step on Sipo. They all avoided him and basically spared him. And so Sipo, he doesn't know how badly hurt he is from the lightning strike. He doesn't really even know if he's going to recover here. He's currently paralyzed on the ground. But he breathed a sigh of relief after the final oxen passed by him without crushing him to death. He couldn't believe it. But then he realized there was another problem. The oxen, despite not stepping on him, were continuing to walk as if nothing had happened. They're just going right along here. And what were they pulling? The plow. And the plow, if the oxen didn't stop, was going to literally, this big metal sharp plow, was going to be pulled. right across where Sipo was laying. And there was nothing he could do. And so Sipo is in full panic mode. He can hear the sound of this huge, heavy plow crushing its way through the earth, you know, getting ready to cut right through him. And he's doing everything he can to try to move his body. But he just... can't. He's paralyzed. And he's only able to look straight ahead because that's the way he landed. And he starts to see the frame and the chain that's connected to the plow and it's moving across him. And he knows any second now this plow that's getting louder and louder is literally going to cut him in half. And there was just nothing he could do. And so once again, he found himself just accepting fate. He's about to die here. And so right as he knows he's about to be cut in half, there was this other really bright flash of light in the sky. Except this time, Sipo didn't feel himself being chucked through the air. It was just this really bright flash. And then everything went still. The plow stopped. There was just, there was no noise. Everything was still. And Sipo, he still can't move, right? He has no idea what's going on. But as he would eventually find out, there was a second lightning strike. It didn't strike Sipo. It struck his oxen and killed all of them. So they all get killed and they fall to the ground, stopping the plow literally inches from his head. Ultimately, Sipa would recover from being struck by lightning. He would actually regain feeling in his limbs. He would get up and, you know, despite the tragedy of losing all of his oxen, he would walk away and go back home. And so what we're left with at the end of the story is the idea that sometimes lightning does strike twice. Speaker 1 (6:39) This segment is brought to you by WhaleFall. You might remember a handful of years back, I told you the incredible story of Michael Packard, a lobster diver off Provincetown, Massachusetts. One