Traumafessions :: Reader David O. on Miracles (and Maggots) Still Happen

I know you hear all the time about traumafessions that have been nagging people for years, and this is no different. I was ready to submit it as a "Name that Trauma" segment but blissfully found my answer and have been able to put 36 years of hunting behind me. Being a kid in the '70s, I was obsessed with all things Bigfoot and airplane disaster movies, so I remember being thrilled to find a repeat of a movie that was based on real-life events of a horrific plane crash with one lone survivor.

The film is called MIRACLES STILL HAPPEN (1975) and tells the tale of Juliane Koepcke who was the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Peruvian rainforest. It has the usual suspense and expected terror of your typical plane crash movie, but the real excitement starts when poor Juliane has to trudge through the jungle to find help. After 10 days of solitary drudgery she finally finds some loggers who help her and eventually get her to civilization.

Right when you think all is well and you can eat your peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the unthinkable happens: They start squeezing bugs out of her wounds. The entire theme is bad enough when you consider the horror she must have experienced, but then we're subjected to live maggots in bloody wounds, and that's all she wrote folks. All I kept thinking was "I wonder if they missed one and it's still living in her system?". I have no idea if this movie is available, and I doubt I'd want to watch it again. But at least I found it and can rest easy knowing she got all the bugs out all those years ago.