Essay 4: Informative Prompt

Aron Ralston Story
Author’s Name:
Institutional Affiliation:
It is indeed true that when circumstances are tough, people are known to go to great lengths to survive. This fact is well captured in the true story of Aron Ralston. In 2002, Ralston quit his job with Intel and shifted to Colorado with the aim of pursuing his dream of mountain climbing. On 26th of April, 2003, he embarked on a hike in Utah through the Blue John Canyon. On his way down a slot canyon, a dislodged boulder crushed and trapped his right hand against the side of the canyon. No one knew about his hike, and there was no way of getting help. Having given up and assumed his worst, he tried to free himself as five days passed by as he sipped about 350ml of water and ate two burritos. The boulder weighed about 360 kgs which made his efforts futile.
After three days had passed by, he decided to amputate the arm to set himself free. At this point, he was severely dehydrated and hungry. He made tests with his forearm but realized that he lacked sufficient tools to amputate his arm. After depleting his resources on the fifth day, he started drinking his urine. He carved his last goodbyes, name, date of birth and the presumed death date into the canyon wall. His arm started to decompose because the circulation was cut off. He got the idea of breaking the bones of the arm using torque against the trapped section. He succeeded and amputated the arm in an hour (Barkham, 2010).
After freeing himself, he had to walk 8 miles to where he had left his vehicle.

On the way, he met a family that was on vacation. They gave him water and food and alerted the authorities. Four hours later, he got rescued by a helicopter and rushed to a hospital. He had lost 25% of blood and 18kgs. Even after his experience, he did not give up on his dreams and went ahead to climb mountains. His story inspired a movie that was released in 2010, named “127 hours” that depicted his experience during the hike (Hannaford, 2011).
References
Barkham, P. (2010, December 15). The extraordinary story behind Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours. Retrieved September 5, 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/dec/15/story-danny-boyles-127-hours
Hannaford, A. (2011, January 06). 127 Hours: Aron Ralston’s story of survival. Retrieved September 5, 2018, from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/8223925/127-Hours-Aron-Ralston’s-story-of-survival.html