Unknown

So this guy, his name's John, and John is about to die in the scariest way I can think of. Prepare to have nightmares! Now, John, he's 26, he's a smart dude, he's about to start med school.

But one day, Jon and his younger brother, who we'll call little brother John, little brother, and a bunch of their friends, they all decide to go spelunking, or cave exploring. They want to explore this local cave that people explore all the time. So they all drive over to this cave and they find the entrance.

It's not like one of those big caves you'd see in a cartoon; it's a little guy that you pretty much have to crawl into. Soon, John, little brother, and like nine of their friends descend into this little cave entrance, and they make their way into the open area. They're crawling around, exploring, and having a good time.

Then, about an hour later, they're still at it, and John, little brother, and a couple of their friends decide to check out this area called the "birth canal," which is a long, narrow tunnel that you have to crawl through. That tunnel eventually opens up into a bigger area, so they explore deeper into this cave. Jon crawls through the narrow tunnel part of the birth canal, and this passageway is really pretty tight.

As he crawls deeper into it, it gets tighter and tighter, but no matter how narrow this tunnel gets, John keeps pushing forward because he knows the larger area of the birth canal is coming up. But then, like out of nowhere, suddenly the tunnel takes a sharp downturn and bam! He slides down into an even smaller tunnel, and then kaboom!

He's stuck because Jon was never in the birth canal; he actually took a wrong turn and ended up in a dead-end tunnel. Now, he can't get out. So Jon immediately tries not to panic, but his arms are pinned in such a way that he can't use them, and to make it worse, he's upside down, so all the blood is quickly rushing to his head.

Here, let me show you a diagram I found of how he was stuck. Like, look at that! Imagine being stuck like that; that is nightmare fuel.

So Jon is scared, and he yells out for help. Little brother catches up to him, sees Jon's feet kind of sticking out of the crevice, and he tries with all his force to pull him out, but unfortunately, he can't get any leverage because he's in a narrow tunnel too. So pretty quickly, little brother crawls back out of the cave and calls 911.

He's like, "Come quick! My brother is stuck upside down in a cave! " Four hours later, the rescue team starts to arrive.

It took a while because it's late at night and this cave is way out there. Now, the first to arrive on the scene is this woman, Susie. She's small, but she's an experienced spunker, so she crawls into the cave and gets to Jon pretty quickly.

She's like, "We're going to get you out of here! " So Susie ties a rope around Jon's ankles and tries to pull him out, but she immediately realizes there is no way she can do this on her own. They bring the rope outside to the entrance of the cave, where there's room for multiple people to pull it.

So they all grab the rope and pull and pull, but the rope keeps getting caught on the rocks, and it's just not working, and they can't get him out. Even more time passes, and by this time, a whole-ass rescue team has shown up. They put their heads together and decide the only way to get Jon out is to set up a legit rope and pulley system, which means they're going to have to drill into the walls of the tunnel.

So they start drilling into the walls of this tunnel, but this process is excruciatingly slow. Not to mention, it's humid as hell in that cave. After a couple of hours of drilling, Susie, who is closest to Jon, can't do it anymore—she has to tap out.

Then another rescuer steps in, this guy Ryan. Now Ryan's in the cave, closest to Jon, and he's basically just looking at Jon's feet. He and John talk and have conversations for like hours as they wait for the team to set up this pulley system.

Meanwhile, Jon's wife, this woman Emily, is back at her in-laws' house. They've been informed that all this is going on, and she's just there waiting on that phone call from someone saying Jon is okay and he's out of the cave. But unfortunately, that call doesn't come.

So then the next morning, she and some other family members head over to the cave site, and they get there. By this time, there's over a hundred people there, all working to get Jon out, and they still can't do it. The rescue workers set up a two-way radio system so that Emily can talk to Jon, and they talk and tell each other that they love each other and whatnot.

It's a nice moment, but then even more time passes, and at this point, Jon has been in there, upside down, for 19 hours. Finally, the pulley system is ready, so Ryan secures the rope around Jon, and Susie and seven others on the ground outside count down and start pulling. They pull and pull and pull as hard as they can, and suddenly, Jon.

. . Starts to slowly rise out of the dark, and they pull again and again and again.

By the fourth pull, Jon lifts out of the crevice; he's almost out until suddenly—kaboom! A small arch in the cave crumbles, and one of those metal rings snaps forward and hits Ryan in the face so hard that it knocks him unconscious. JN immediately falls back down into the crevice, and shortly after, when Ryan regains consciousness, he's bleeding and his jaw is broken.

So, he has to leave the cave and go get medical attention. Ryan's dad comes in and takes over that spot, and then Ryan's dad ends up getting stuck in part of the tunnel, but luckily it's only for a while, and he's eventually able to get himself out. This whole time, while they're trying to get him out, the worst is happening to Jon.

His breathing starts to get more and more shallow, and little by little, he becomes less and less responsive. Being upside down in that position for so long is putting a strain on his heart. Okay, let me explain to you why this is so dangerous for Jon, because I know you're probably thinking, "Ray, so what if he's upside down?

Is it going to make him dizzy? Is it going to give him a headache? " No, it is much worse than that.

Your body is designed to function and pump blood right-side up; that's what it's always done its whole life. It is accustomed to dealing with gravity in only one direction. So when you go upside down for a long period of time, gravity causes blood to rush toward your head, which will cause your heart to work harder to pump all that blood against gravity.

This greatly increases the stress on your cardiovascular system. The human heart can actually deal with this kind of stress for a long period of time—I mean hours, I'm sure—but eventually, it's going to give out. Not to mention, all of those organs in your lower abdomen are now sitting above your lungs, meaning they can push down and put weight on your lungs, making it much harder for you to breathe.

If this sounds like torture to you, that's because it is—literally. Many cultures in the past used to hang people upside down as a form of torture; it's called inverted hanging. A normal hanging generally un-IES you instantly, but an inverted hanging is a long, painful way to die.

Anyway, the rescue team keeps trying. They drill even more holes to re-rig the pulley system so they can give it another shot, but that's taken a long time, and everyone's working their ass off to make this happen. But then, just before midnight, JN becomes completely unresponsive, and they have a paramedic crawl into the cave to check his vitals.

The paramedic determines that, sadly, Jon has passed away. He had been trapped upside down for over 27 hours until he died of cardiac arrest. Here’s what Jon looked like in real life, and the worst part is, Jon is so deep in that cave that they can't retrieve his body, so they just have to leave him there permanently.

Ultimately, they close that cave to the public forever, and they seal it shut. Eventually, they put a bronze plaque where the entrance of the cave used to be—a plaque that memorializes JN and serves as a reminder of probably the worst way to die.