Incredible Snowstorm Survival Tales: A Sweet Escape and a Snow Hibernation

The stories you're about to read are extraordinary and immensely heartwarming, bound by a common thread: each person miraculously escaped freezing conditions, surviving for a substantial period through unforgiving snowstorms. "It's a miracle we made it out alive," they now testify.

Let's begin with the first story, which took place about two weeks ago:

Jerry Joren, 81, was simply eager to visit his family in Nevada, setting out from his California home on a journey that should have taken only three hours. As a retired NASA mathematician, Jerry had already calculated everything meticulously. Shortly before his departure, he heard a radio warning of an impending snowstorm in the area, but he was certain it would start after he had safely arrived.

Two hours into his drive, however, the weather took an unexpected turn as the snowstorm began. "At some point, I got stuck in the car and couldn't move forward. I tried to call for help, but I had no reception, and I had no way to fend for myself," he recalls.

While most people might have panicked in his situation, Jerry, having faced many challenges in life, chose to remain calm. "I stayed inside the car and ran the engine just twice a day to keep warm. I kept the windows closed when I could, but I had to open them to eat the snow around me, instead of drinking. I found a thin blanket in the car to cover myself with and ate some candies and croissants left in the vehicle," he recounts.

After three days, the battery died, and icy winds began blowing through the open car window, which nearly made him despair. Meanwhile, his grandson Christian, aware of his journey, grew concerned something might have happened to his grandfather and alerted rescue teams. "My grandpa is a very smart man, and I’m sure he wouldn’t have taken such a risk if he knew it was dangerous. It’s a miracle he survived in such weather," Christian told CNN.

The storm impeded rescue teams from starting their search for the stranded car, forcing them to delay the mission until the storm subsided, which extended Jerry’s ordeal by an additional week in his freezing car.

Once the vehicle was finally located using cell phone triangulation and helicopter searches, Jerry was taken to the hospital. The medical staff expressed amazement that he survived nearly two weeks in one of the region’s harshest storms without proper food.

A Swedish Miracle: Man Survives Thanks to 'Snow Coma'

In February 2013, news broke of a bizarre case involving a 45-year-old man found by hikers in a locked car buried deep in a forest's snowdrift after a severe snowstorm had passed through.

When police arrived, they could hardly believe their eyes; the man appeared lifeless, and they couldn’t imagine he had survived.

Only after receiving initial treatment with water, tea, and food, did he explain that he had been stuck in his car since December, when the snowstorm buried him, leaving him unable to move.

"I couldn't even open the window," he recalled.

"We saw a car deeply stuck in the snow and knew someone might be in need of help," said the hikers. "The location, in the middle of the forest, was too strange for us to think everything was alright. It was hard to reach, but we dug through the snow for several hours and eventually freed him. We’re glad we got there in time."

"He was in really bad condition," they continued. "He was lying in the car's backseat in a sleeping bag, extremely pale and weak, barely able to talk to us. We asked if he had eaten anything, and he replied: 'Snow'."

At the hospital where he was treated, doctors explained that in such survival situations without food and in extreme cold, the body can react with a hibernation-like coma similar to a bear's winter sleep.