Ripley's Believe It Or Not
Episode #13
First aired April 5, 2000 (Rated TV-PG-V), end of 1st season
Segments:
John was three years old when he ran away from home - into the perilous Ugandan rainforest. Miraculously, a colony of chimpanzees adopted him and cared for him like family. For four years, John lived like a wild animal in the jungles of Uganda and was able to communicate with the chimps. One day, when John was 6 years old, women from a local tribe found him and put him in an orphanage. After years of learning basic human social skills, John is now a happy and healthy teenager who even sings with a choir. Don’t miss his incredible story on this week’s Ripley’s Believe it or Not!
Robot Heart Surgery
Conventional open-heart surgery is a grisly operation. Skilled surgeons must open the patient’s chest cavity by sawing through the ribcage. The heart is then stopped and the body is attached to a heart/lung machine. Recuperation from this type of surgery can last up to a year. Now, robots can perform a closed chest coronary bypass surgery without stopping the heart or cutting through the patient’s ribcage. Controlled by doctors with joysticks, the robots make just three tiny incisions in the patient’s chest. As a result, recovery time is cut to a matter of days. Meet a man who put his life in the hands of the robot and was up and around only hours after having open-heart surgery.
Sandhogs
There are unknown heroes who work 70 stories below the streets of New York City everyday, building a new water and sewer system. The Sandhogs, as they’re known, work in deep tunnels, breaking through rock that has never been seen before. On a daily basis, these men and women of New York’s Local 147 must deal with the danger of dynamite, fire, rising ground water, compressed air and falling rocks. Meet Charles Barbridge, a second-generation sandhog who risks his life everyday in order to keep the water flowing in New York City.
Volcano Chasers
Meet a couple that keeps their marriage sizzling in a most unusual way. Stephen and Donna O'Meara travel the world in search of erupting volcanoes, risking their lives to film within 10 feet of the molten lava. Believe it or not, the pair was actually married at the erupting vent of a volcano in 1987.
Ice Hotel
Believe it or Not, a hotel in Sweden is rebuilt from the ground up every year! That’s because it’s made entirely of ice. The Ice Hotel, which has a church, a movie theatre and a bar, takes about a month to build and lasts about 6 months until it melts. The rooms, which feature specially crafted ice beds, go for about $185 per night.
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