{"id":104,"date":"2010-12-13T13:40:04","date_gmt":"2010-12-13T17:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/2010\/12\/13\/aron-ralston-the-survivor-hero\/"},"modified":"2010-12-13T13:41:32","modified_gmt":"2010-12-13T17:41:32","slug":"aron-ralston-the-survivor-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/2010\/12\/13\/aron-ralston-the-survivor-hero\/","title":{"rendered":"Aron Ralston: The Survivor Hero"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ralston.jpg\"With the premiere of the movie 127 hours the world has been reminded of the incredibly heroic story of Aron Ralston.\u00a0 Ralston's rise to heroism is perhaps one of the most pronounced illustrations of a triumphant underdog.\u00a0 Ralston was Canyoning in Blue John canyon in Utah in May of 2003 when he became trapped by a dislodged boulder that crushed his lower right arm and left him hopelessly pinned against a canyon wall.Ralston remained trapped in the Canyon for five days during which he endured a 127-hour struggle for his life.\u00a0 Having failed to inform anyone where he had gone hiking, Ralston knew his odds of being rescued were slim to none.\u00a0He was therefore forced to rely on his own recourses, ingenuity, and will to live in order to survive.\"127-hours-tlr-650\u00c3\u2014369.jpg\"While trapped in the Canyon, Ralston only had a days hike worth of food and water.\u00a0 Ralston managed to ration his recourses wisely but eventually had to resort to drinking his own urine.\u00a0 Battling extreme temperatures, sever dehydration, and an open wound, it was miraculous that Ralston kept himself alive for five days.\u00a0 By the fifth day however, Ralston had begun to loose hope.\u00a0 He carved his name, birthday and presumed date of death into a Canyon wall and videotaped a farewell to his family.Here in the darkest moments of Ralston's struggle is where his heroism was born.\u00a0 He had been attempting to chip away the boulder that was trapping his arm with a less then equipped knife he received as a free gift with a flashlight.\u00a0 Already of low quality the knife had been severely dulled by his chiseling efforts.\u00a0 Nevertheless, Ralston made the incredible decision to amputate his own arm.\u00a0 Devising a tourniquet to staunch the blood flow, Ralston managed to break both his arm bones with a rock and use the dull knife to cut through his flesh.\u00a0 Already incredibly weak, Ralston managed to stay conscious during his efforts and succeeded in severing his arm.\u00a0 After his makeshift surgery, Ralston had to hike out of the canyon, rappel down a 65-foot drop, and hike out in the sun until two hikers happened to come across him.\u00a0 Ralston was finally rescued by a helicopter six hours later thus successfully concluding the battle for his life.Since his accident, Ralston has made a full recovery and continues to mountain climb with the aid of a paraplegic device.\u00a0 Additionally, he appears as a motivational speaker and explains his near death experience as a turning point that has allowed him to better appreciate his life and the people in it.While Ralston's story is a gruesome tale it is nevertheless heroic as it reminds us of the extreme suffering an individual can endure in order to triumph in the end.The following is a trailer for the movie 127 hours:\u00a0http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jDT0wM6aDXU&NR=1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the premiere of the movie 127 hours the world has been reminded of the incredibly heroic story of Aron Ralston.\u00a0 Ralston's rise to heroism is perhaps one of the most pronounced illustrations of a triumphant underdog.\u00a0 Ralston was Canyoning in Blue John canyon in Utah in May of 2003 when he became trapped by … Continue reading Aron Ralston: The Survivor Hero<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1344,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1275],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mila"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1344"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}