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13 tales of survival from around the world

These survivors experienced extraordinary circumstances; hurricanes, tornadoes, and avalanches, and lived to tell the tale.

Mother loses legs, but saves children in tornado

Scott Utterback/The Courier-Journal/AP
Stephanie Decker and prosthetist Matthew Hayden work on adjusting one of her legs at Kentucky Prosthetics & Orthotics in Louiville, Ky. Decker covered her children as a tornado that ripped through Henryville, Ind. hit their house. She lost one leg above the ankle and the other above the knee.

In March 2012, 37-year-old Stephanie Decker’s home in Henryville, Ind., was destroyed in a tornado outbreak that included 140 reported twisters, 76 confirmed landings, and 39 deaths, according to ABC News.

Ms. Decker heard the storm coming and got her son, Dominic, age 8, and daughter Reese, 5, into the basement. As the storm touched down and the house began to fall apart around them, Decker covered her children with a comforter and her body, and tried to find words to calm them.

"My daughter said, 'Mommy, I don't like this,' and I said, 'I know honey,'" Decker told reporters. "I could see the wind. I could see the window blew out and the house burst."

Decker was crushed under the rubble of her home; both children were unscathed. Knowing something was wrong with her legs she tried to use the comforter as a tourniquet while Dominic went for help.

Decker lived, though both her legs had to be amputated. She was later fitted with prosthetics. 

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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