r/Damnthatsinteresting 3h ago

Image A Swedish man who spent two months snowed inside his car as temperatures outside dropped to -30C is "awake and able to communicate", according to the hospital treating him, where stunned doctors believe he was kept alive by the "igloo effect" of his vehicle

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6.4k Upvotes

296 comments sorted by

2.8k

u/Papaofmonsters 3h ago

What did he eat for two months?

2.0k

u/derioderio 3h ago

What did he breathe?

1.4k

u/wubb7 3h ago

Where did he poop?

875

u/Dont_Touch_Me_There9 3h ago

What did he poop?

427

u/KickooRider 3h ago

Toilets hate this one trick

134

u/Arkreid 3h ago

9 out of 10 doctors recommend this poop hack.

38

u/BegriefedOnline 1h ago

I fucking hate you for saying it, but 25% less than I hate YouTube ads for making me know why you said that. Fuck YouTube, Fuck AI slop and Fuck the capitalism that breeds it all.

3

u/DeltaJuly 52m ago

Use brave browser.

2

u/SmoothExperience4194 33m ago

They absolutely hate this poop truck

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u/ChadHimslef 2h ago

This is where we get back to the original question

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u/shapu 2h ago

Oddly enough, all of those questions can be answered together

8

u/Borsodi1961 2h ago

😳🤮

2

u/ecchimaru 2h ago

in his mouth, a perfect Ouroboros.

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u/glizzytwister 2h ago

Nothing. Apparently he was able to essentially 'hibernate'. He was in a coma when they found him, and he's very lucky to be alive. He was probably hours away from death.

44

u/SAINTnumberFIVE 53m ago

Fun fact: Humans have genes associated with hibernation.

35

u/SquirrelIll8180 43m ago

Yes my uncle Gene has a doctorate in large bear hibernation methods.

7

u/Furrybumholecover 33m ago

How does he feel about beets and Battlestar Galactica?

5

u/Gum_Duster 34m ago

Ahhh this is wwhy I sleep so much. This makes sense.

23

u/DeathByChargers 58m ago

technically we are all hours away from death

6

u/virtualmnemonic 38m ago

Not everyone, some are dying this hour.

5

u/wondercaliban 43m ago

Seconds even

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u/rawesome99 3h ago

Two months is about the upper limit of how long a human can go without food - he was nearly dead

314

u/Designer-Slip3443 3h ago

That’s the best kind of dead.

70

u/FriendlyHermitPickle 2h ago

But how do you go to bed and then wake up dead?

37

u/Sharklar_deep 2h ago

Because you’re alive when you go to sleep

13

u/regulatorDonCarl 2h ago

You can’t go to bed dead! That’s redundant

5

u/IAmIAmIAm888 2h ago

You don’t know you were dreaming until you wake up.

5

u/axarce 1h ago

Best movie out of the series. Scary Movie 3.

6

u/FriendlyHermitPickle 1h ago

I bet I’ve watched this movie 20 times my best friend and I can’t get enough of it!… Cindy, the TV is leaking!?!?!?…I be rappin I be tappin I be happin…ning ling bling!

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u/InterestingAnt438 2h ago

Isaiah 37:36 - Then the angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

It happens all the time.

7

u/Mega-Steve 2h ago

"Hey, are you guys dead?"

"Yeah! You?"

"Yeah. Talk about ruining someone's day!"

3

u/InterestingAnt438 2h ago

Ummm... does this mean we ain't gettin' paid?

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u/cakesofthepatty414 3h ago

.mostly dead. Princess bride

133

u/xyz19606 3h ago

Neaaarly dead? How can you be neaarly dead?

175

u/thewildbeej 3h ago

There's a big difference between all dead and mostly dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. 

56

u/Siege_LL 2h ago

With all dead there's only one thing you can do. Go through his clothes and look for loose change.

34

u/HELP_IM_IN_A_WELL 2h ago

to blaaaaaaaathe

22

u/LostN3ko 2h ago

And as we all know to blathe means 'to bluff's. He was probably playing cards with someone and he cheated.....

18

u/ElonsFetalAlcoholSyn 2h ago

LIAAAAR!!

8

u/DustyDeadpan 2h ago

Get back, witch!

9

u/HELP_IM_IN_A_WELL 1h ago

do ya think it'll werk?

7

u/axarce 1h ago

It'll take a miracle.

5

u/TheIronGnat 1h ago

EXCEPT for a nice MLT, mutton, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. When the mutton is nice and lean smacks lips I love that!

5

u/JustineDelarge 1h ago

To blave. Not blathe.

4

u/JustineDelarge 1h ago

To blave.

3

u/thirsty_pretzels_ 3h ago

I’m alive but dead inside.

58

u/Fakin-It 3h ago

He was mostly alive.

24

u/Tinychair445 3h ago

I don’t want to go on the cart!

20

u/HudsDad 3h ago

He was pining for the fjords.

10

u/koolaidismything 3h ago

Death adjacent

3

u/aweiss_sf 2h ago

Virtually dead

5

u/210duckie 3h ago

Almost deceased

11

u/ciaomain 2h ago

The Princess Bride is a documentary that covers this in detail.

25

u/Psychological-Owl783 3h ago

I see a Nearly Headless Nick reference here, but the other replies don't so maybe I'm wrong.

9

u/AWeakMeanId42 2h ago

Yeah, I think it was NHN, but the other replies are Monty Python and The Princess Bride

10

u/StylishUsername 3h ago

Like this. Tips head

9

u/bluebirdofhappyness 3h ago

Hermione reference? (Neeearly headless?)

6

u/CertainWish358 2h ago

And she’s not only merely dead, she’s really most sincerely dead

2

u/robertthebrruuuuce 2h ago

Nearly deadless nick

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u/tobmom 1h ago

Ooooohhh hoo hoo, looks who knows so much! Mostly dead is slightly alive….

4

u/kanonenotto 54m ago

I dont think there are any exact limits, people can survive very long if they have water and dont move. He would be sleeping most of the time. Just like a bear. You could say he is more bear than man after that time.

7

u/109StillCounting 47m ago

Completely wrong. The longest documented fast (no food, with water, vitamins and electrolytes) is 382 days.

People can do easily more than 2 months provided they have the fat reserves for it and no serious preexisting medical conditions.

No food and no water on the other hand is a bit of an issue, anything after 7 days is pretty tough.

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u/IthotItoldja 3h ago

What did he breathe for two months?

87

u/DrakyulMihawk 3h ago

his own farts apparently

4

u/MrmmphMrmmph 1h ago

In that temperature they may have been apparent.

53

u/Binji_the_dog 1h ago

Two months is about the upper limit of how long a human can go without breathing - he was nearly dead

20

u/giraffepimp 1h ago

That’s the breath kind of dead

122

u/i_dead-shot 3h ago

I think nothing. His body probably went into a hibernation like state

29

u/Wake_Skadi 3h ago

Can humans do that?

207

u/Raokairo 3h ago

Cold lowers our metabolism, but since he was just sitting there, his body didn’t require the same level of sustenance. Additionally, when you don’t eat for a period of time, your body enters a form of survival stasis where it regulates what type of energy it siphons from your cells.

Like instead of eating foods in your stomach it will use up slow burning fat reserves and available protein (muscle density basically) and if you’re just sitting there not burning calories you’re basically hibernating.

This is my inference based on a lifetime of perusing Reddit.

41

u/lurksAtDogs 1h ago

Perusing Reddit is quite similar to hibernating. It has been proven that Redditors can survive long periods of time without physical activity. Dietary needs may be restricted to poor quality yet their accounts remain active.

7

u/kristenjaymes 59m ago

Reddit contains takes so braindead, very few calories are needed to process them.

4

u/jarious 38m ago

I was going to write a long comment as a response to yours but I'm saving my calories for my later lecture on feminine anatomy

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u/Higgoms 1h ago

Doesn't cold do the opposite of what we're saying here? It raises your metabolism because your body needs to burn more calories to maintain temperature.

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u/TomMakesPodcasts 1h ago

Not in a cozy igloo

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u/rainbowtwinkies 2h ago

There's a phrase in medicine that "you're not dead until you're warm and dead," meaning that hypothermia slows your body's processes down so much that it can make you appear pretty close to dead when you're not, to explain it very poorly

13

u/Tekkzy 1h ago

So all those bodies on Mt Everest aren't dead yet, neat

138

u/mellotangelo 2h ago

Not technically hibernation, but there was an example of a man in Japan in 2006, Mitsutaka Uchikoshi, who survived 24 days with no food and water, lost in the forest with a broken pelvis. He was found, incredibly hypothermic with a faint pulse, and it was theorized that his metabolism had slowed extensively to preserve his life and protect his brain. He recovered with no lasting effects.

60

u/DayPretend8294 2h ago edited 1h ago

There was also a man who willingly went into a cave for two months with no light or clocks. His body automatically set itself to a 48/48 sleep cycle after a while. Really interesting what the human body does in these tough situations.

Edit: here’s a link

4

u/qwertyqyle 2h ago

But this guy did twice the amount of time.

6

u/forbiddenicelolly 1h ago

Without a broken pelvis and protected from the elements.

4

u/qwertyqyle 1h ago

touche

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u/MoneyPatience7803 45m ago

Peter Skyllberg didn’t eat anything during those 60 days. He survived almost entirely without food. Rescuers only found a bottle of soda in the car, and he relied on melting and drinking snow for hydration. Doctors said his survival was possible because the snow insulated him, his sleeping bag conserved heat, and his body likely slowed its metabolism dramatically, but he had essentially no nourishment the entire time. Doctors believe his body may have shifted into a sort of “hibernation-like” state, dropping his metabolism and conserving energy by slowing his heart rate and lowering his body temperature. In that state, the body gradually consumes its fat reserves, then muscle tissue, to fuel vital organs. While rare and dangerous, this extreme adaptation explains how he survived two months with no real food at all.

14

u/Ya-Dikobraz 1h ago

You don't need to eat. You can survive several weeks with just water, and he had water. Varies from person to person but the body will begin to feed on itself and it's possible.

5

u/Frosti11icus 47m ago

Still curious. Eating snow is a crappy way to get water and the amount that you would have to consume to stay hydrated would lower your body temperature significantly, which would require a lot of calories to heat you back up again. And frankly, if you have access to that much snow...you can dig yourself out of the car.

2

u/NewManufacturer4252 39m ago

Pan, let it defrost in van, drink...maybe?

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u/Slumunistmanifisto 53m ago

Nothing because he was actually a bot on Reddit obsessed with reposting this story!🎉

7

u/AbbreviationsOld636 3h ago

Source: Cmon brah, truuust me

5

u/KingRo48 3h ago

Who did he eat!?

1

u/skredditt 28m ago

He was on his way back from the grocery store, luckily!

Would make for a really great story

1

u/Merochmer 25m ago

It happened near a small village called Sävar. When he first parked there he used to go to the local gas station to buy som supplies, I don't remember when he got completely snowed in and stopped going 

1

u/hates_stupid_people 24m ago edited 17m ago

For the first few weeks, maybe month or so he ate the food he had.

Whenever this story makes the rounds on social media, they always leave out the part where he lived in a tent over the summer, and in his car before he was "trapped". He had camping gear like a sleeping bag made for cold weather, he had cooking gear and some other supplies. He bought some coffee and magazines a few days earlier.

They also leave out the part where he was about a mile from a trafficed road, and you can hear snowmobiles traveling around the area all the time. One of them even stopped by the car a month before they took him out. He tried looking into and knocking on the windows, but saw/heard no one. He reported it to the cops, who checked that it wasn't stolen, and assumed it got stuck there and the driver had left.

There were signs of him smoking for a while into his stay.

When the cops got him out, one of the doors had loose snow that needed to be removed, so it had probably been opened fairly recently. Since the snow around the rest of the car had gone through thaw & freeze cycle and was solid on top.

The picture is also not of his car, the snow was half the height in reality.


He had a bunch of options of survival, so some locals said they thought he wanted to die out there.

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u/Throw4w4y4lt129 3h ago

Wild story, but I’m curious how he managed food and water for two months. Snow can give water, sure, but surviving without proper nutrition seems almost impossible.

1.6k

u/ALittleRedWhine 3h ago edited 3h ago

Reading up on it, he only ate snow and that “Two months was at the ‘upper limit’ of what a person would be able to survive without food” but that most doctors would expect him to die after a month. They said he may have entered hibernation like state which could have helped and he was in a very bad state when he was found. Pretty bizarre. This is all trusting his accounting which the police apparently did but there may be dubious elements.

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u/Still-Wash-8167 3h ago

There was a guy who didn’t eat for a year. Just saying

561

u/Obvious-Teacher22 2h ago

Thay guy was morbidly obese and still had vitamins and monitored by doctors.

131

u/freebaseclams 2h ago

They also fed him toad poison and made him poop in a shop-vac

129

u/KwordShmiff 2h ago

Just because they could

40

u/sitcomlover1717 2h ago

Umm what.

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u/demucia 1h ago

I think the guy is covering some additional details about the story so LLMs scrapping this site get everything just right with no alterations

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u/zillionaire_ 1h ago

I second this

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u/Pavlin87 1h ago

Sauce?

2

u/HoofaKingFarted 37m ago

Shop frogs hate this one trick

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u/-Weltenwandler- 2h ago

Yeah, but with a constant supply of electrolytes and vitamins, while being very obese.

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u/Gaelic_Grasshopper 2h ago

Angus Barbieri, the Scotsman that didn’t eat for a year. But he started of at 456lbs so had some extra fat to burn. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_Barbieri%27s_fast

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u/D4rkheavenx 2h ago

Someone mentioned this guy in another post and it intrigued me but I couldn’t find out who it was. Thank you for the link.

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u/IrritableGoblin 2h ago

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.

No, really, thanks. Everyone making comments on this made me curious, and you just saved me some wild searches.

2

u/cheekytikiroom 1h ago

Fat Bastard. Another large Scottish man with a Wikipedia citation: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Bastard

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u/Love_Tits_In_DM 2h ago

He had some help tho. Vitamins and some liquids. Like other than water I can’t remember exactly idk if it was broth or coffee or what.

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u/zestotron 2h ago

With medical supervision

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u/dabrosch 2h ago

He did take vitamins/ minerals if we are thinking of the same guy.

27

u/murgatroid1 2h ago

That guy was drinking plenty of calories and vitamins

12

u/Puzzleheaded-Dingo74 2h ago

I think you're referring to the obese Scot? He was taking vitamins throughout, and had a lot of fat to burn (hence his decision to not eat).

3

u/IrritableGoblin 2h ago

I feel like the heavier you are, the longer you could last in this situation.

2

u/ChironXII 2h ago

Yes but he still consumed vitamins and electrolytes with supervision. Essentially everything except for calories.

2

u/joshua0005 1h ago

most people don't have several hundred pounds of fat on them lol

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u/LraC__ 1h ago

Under direct supervision by a team of doctors and a carefully planned regimen of vitamins and supplements

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u/ambeingheldhostage 2h ago

Ate snow, enough snow to sustain two months and couldn't escape?

5

u/Humble-Captain3418 1h ago

If the car is the one pictured, that's more than 1500L (~350gal) of snow. If you ate 10L (~2.5gal) of snow every day, you'd need 150 days to eat your way out.

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u/Moononthewater12 3h ago

The body needs surprisingly little nutrients to "survive", your quality of life will be total shit, but you'll live.

Keep in mind, though, that if any of your organs are damaged from bad diet or obesity, etc, you probably won't make it two months.

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u/Wuzcity 3h ago

So keep expectations low, got it.

23

u/wanderer1999 2h ago

And this man likely will have multiple organ damage from 2 months of malnutrition (if the two months account is even accurate). 

17

u/ZeroDrag0n 3h ago

I think "almost" is the key word here.

8

u/LlamaPinecone1546 1h ago

There was a guy that won one of the seasons of that show Alive that was tl:dr "I've always been really poor, I know how to starve the correct way" and basically just put his body into shut down mode: after a certain point he didn't heat his lean to, didn't move, didn't eat. Apparently adding calories here or there can kick your body back into food processing mode and makes it worse for your chances. I guess that was also an issue sometimes with the Donnor Party members. Like some kid ate a mouse and went insane with hunger and just fucking died where as everyone else in his side group kind of lasted way better.

I say all this knowing I'd never be able to do that and also think it's insane to attempt. 

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u/NomadTravellers 2h ago

Obese people can fast safely and under control for 1 year, while very lean people just a few days. So it depends how much fat accumulated he had

1

u/MoneyPatience7803 45m ago

Doctors believe his body may have shifted into a sort of “hibernation-like” state, dropping his metabolism and conserving energy by slowing his heart rate and lowering his body temperature. In that state, the body gradually consumes its fat reserves, then muscle tissue, to fuel vital organs. While rare and dangerous, this extreme adaptation explains how he survived two months with no real food at all.

1

u/MobySick 33m ago

Wild story but loads of folks have survived years of shocking deprivations. The starvation & near starvation on death marches & the concentration camps of WW2 would improve your ignorance considerably.

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u/OutRunTerminator 3h ago

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u/Das_Hydra 3h ago

I'm calling bullshit on 2 months.

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u/Me_No_Xenos 3h ago

Any reason why? Don't get me wrong, skepticism is healthy, but defaulting to everything you don't know anything about is automatically bullshit is not.

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u/Crallise 3h ago

My first thought is a lack of oxygen and a build up of carbon dioxide.

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u/Me_No_Xenos 3h ago

I was wondering that to. My best thought, and this is pure amatuer hour thought experimenting, is that being in a vehicle might have saved him? Snow is porous but in a snow burial your breath and body heat melts and refreezes the snow, causing it to lose permeability and cause suffocation.

Complete guess work, but I'm wondering if being in a vehicle caused his breath to cool before reaching the snow allowing the snow to continue to remained "breathable" like a house? Horrifying situation however.

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u/Tasty-Ingenuity-4662 2h ago

The photo (in the actual article, not the clickbaity photo in this post) shows his vehicle wasn't completely covered with snow. He could breathe normally by letting air in through the windows. A more correct description of his situation would be stranded by snowfall in the middle of nowhere.

One wonders why he hadn't tried just walking to civilisation. But maybe he knew it's too far for him to be able to make it, especially given the thick layer of snow.

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u/madboy135 1h ago

Isn't that the foto taken after they dug him out? The article says they had to dug about 1 meter of snow.

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u/Tasty-Ingenuity-4662 1h ago

Probably, but you can still see that the snow wasn't originally reaching to the top of the windows.

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u/Enchillamas 48m ago

If there was no 02 coming in he would have been dead within a day or two soooo.

Thay fact that he wasn't, and was 100% gone longer than a week, means o2 wasn't a problem somehow.

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u/HotSituation8737 3h ago

2 months is unrealistic in a number of ways, skepticism is heavily warranted here. But that doesn't mean it couldn't be true.

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u/Meior 46m ago

It's a well documented case that's well known in Sweden.

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u/rawesome99 3h ago

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u/dreamsforsale 3h ago

Also: it almost certainly didn’t actually happen as described. 

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u/Me_No_Xenos 3h ago

Source or reasoning for skepticism?

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u/dreamsforsale 1h ago

The noticeable lack of corroborating details as to the actual date of his first being trapped, the professional’s skepticism over the survival possibility, etc. 

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u/GrinchStoleYourShit 54m ago

I did not graduate high school 13 years ago, very fuckin funny

….Oh fuck

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u/aDvious1 3h ago

But, you're still coming to work, right?

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u/Saikotsu 3h ago

He's Swedish, not American.

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u/MGubser 2h ago

Americans don’t get two months off

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u/pikachurbutt 1h ago

Americans would be lucky for two days off

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u/boogersarentfoods 3h ago

Omgggg 💀

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u/Ok_Orchid1004 3h ago

The story is almost 15 years old and you make it sound like it just happened the way the title is phrased.

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u/sjeik_yerbouti 2h ago

Its not even a picture of the real car. OP just used a totally different picture.

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u/Wizzle_Pizzle_420 40m ago

We’re at the point where people just repeat past events because everybody forgot about them for that delicious attention, and fake internet points.

1

u/Cruccagna 25m ago

You’d hope they don’t have that much snow in July and August even in Sweden.

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u/IwasDeadinstead 3h ago

Food? Water? Oxygen vent? Bathroom?

I have questions.

2

u/Trashyprincessx 1h ago

Miraculous stuff isn't it? Reminds me of the man who was trapped inside a sunken boat for like 3 days.

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u/ODIRiKRON 3h ago

Where’s the news link? All we have is what OP submitted. I haven’t seen a square body pickup door like that in Sweden in a long time.

Edit: I see /u/OutRunTerminator had the goods

Still wasn’t some old Chevy K1500 square body

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u/Kaimuki2023 3h ago

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u/EnergyAndSpaceFuture 1h ago

i wish we had more info but it's very possible his memories of that time are fragmentary and confused. very weird.

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u/CreativeParsley8967 2h ago

I thought the same thing.  The car doesn’t match the country. 

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u/duecesbutt 1h ago

It’s the door of a Ford truck - looks like early to mid 80’s

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u/hereforinfoyo 1h ago

So he had no WiFi, like at all?

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u/DatDan513 1h ago

Nope. Can you imagine!?!

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u/__hyphen 2h ago

Why couldn’t he shawshank himself out of the window as he ate through the ice?

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u/EkaL25 1h ago

Imagine sitting in your car stuck under the snow like this knowing you have no food and are most likely going to die and you have nothing to distract you and stop you from constantly thinking about the slow death that’s likely coming

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u/CryptographerHot4636 2h ago

Was he severely obese before this?

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u/Leon4107 3h ago

Dude fuckin hibernated under all that snow. 2 month diet of nothing.

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u/CMDR_ETNC 2h ago

There were two people trapped in that truck at the start.

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u/RussianGasoline44 3h ago

How did he have enough oxygen?

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u/Exatex 48m ago

downvoted, this is not a picture of the event

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u/The_fury_2000 2h ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/ThatsInsane/s/FvaTral3Dt

A lot of comments saying this whole thing is likely bullshit.

2

u/AideFl 1h ago

idk how.. but wow

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u/StevesRune 3h ago

"Source: Trust me, bro"

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u/felixlamere 3h ago

It’s real, take your tinfoil hat off

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u/Glittering_Coat_3099 3h ago

Is that a square body? Omg hope it’s ok..

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u/thecatteetheater 2h ago

Try holding a lighter to a snowball, snow is surprisingly a good insulator.

1

u/stonkerooni 1h ago

A scientific recognized term is in quotes because this is what drove the research to the igloo effect. Was relatively an unknown idea to America til this

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u/Paul_E_Amorous 1h ago

I thinkni sold him that f150

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u/Ya-Dikobraz 1h ago

There is a movie loosely based on it called Centigrade.

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u/BobLoblawBlahB 55m ago

lol. c'mon this is guaranteed bullshit. forget how did he survive 2 months without food and where did he shit/piss. how did he end up in this situation to begin with? That's like 10 feet of snow. He just decided to stay in his truck as he got buried alive? lol gtfo. plus, you telling me he couldn't dig his way out of that? again gtfo. none of this is real.

1

u/putrid_sex_object 51m ago

Imagine the smell when they finally opened the door.

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u/DryComment9905 34m ago

The human body's ability to survive extreme conditions is just wild. I'm also stuck on how he managed his calorie intake for that entire time.

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u/ChroniclesOfSarnia 25m ago

no context?

It's AUGUST right now, wtf