tonight we recall amazing stories of survival. a man who jumped off the golden gate bridge. >> i was falling head first at speeds close to 120 miles per hour, and i said i don't want to die. >> reporter: another man who fell 27 stories down an elevator shaft in the transamerica building. a baby girl trapped for 2-1/2 days in an 8-inch pipe. >> an injured hiker who fell

into a crack in the himalayan mountains. all of them with a second chance at life. the resent -- recent story here in the bay area of a window washer who fell and survived has brought to mind stories of survival that defied the odds. a man fell 27 stories down an elevator shaft in the transamerica pyramid. claude mann was on the scene. >> reporter: 22-year-old harold brown was in critical condition when he was rushed to mission hospital last night with multiple fractures of both feet and legs possible injuries internally from that 27 story fall. tonight authorities at the hospital are describing his condition as serious but stable. they are not commenting on reports that he may have been under the influence of drugs when he invaded the lobby yesterday. shouting that he wanted to see the man at the top.

that he wanted to see god. >> he ran past the lobby guard up and education -- lobby guard up an escalator. >> my partner benjamin took the elevator and came down the stairs where he found him on the 29th floor. he tried to talk him out of the shaft. he was climbing down the inside of a shaft down on the screen coverings and he refused to come in. he shouted to him, and then my partner went down another floor and he either fell or lost his grip. he started falling down the shaft. i was on the 11th at the time and i saw him come falling by and he fell all the way to the bottom.

>> reporter: just why brown did what he did last night is still a mystery. it's also a mystery why he survived. the plunge that distance 27 floors would normally give the body the speed of about 90 miles per hour. it's thought that it was the buckling down that slowed him down. a man heard voices that told him to take his life, after listening to those voices he jumped off the golden gate bridge. unlike other people who jump, he survived. >> reporter: no one knows how many people jump off the golden gate bridge. officials stopped releasing numbers after the number reached 1,000. only 10 have lived, only four

can walk. kevin hines is one of those four. on september 5, 2000 kevin walked on to the bridge, mentally ill, hearing mysterious voices and in the grip of an unshakable depression he had a compulsion to end his life, he was 18 years old. >> when i got here i was crying my eyes out and i just kept telling myself, you must die, you must die. a voice in my head kept saying the exact same thing. i turned around, looked at the traffic. turned back to the bay and hurdled over the bay. >> twinkle, twinkle little star. >> reporter: hines life has been lucky in some ways and unlucky to others. he was adopted by well to do san francisco couple, that loved children so much that he adopted three. the adopted children got all the love and material comfort a

child could want. kevin was sickly, a victim of allergies and terrible asthma. despite that, he made the high school football team. his teammates never knew that he was suffering from bipolar illness. he would have manic periods followed by hearing voices. doctors tried to find the right combination of drugs to help him. patrick hines remembers that dark september day. >> the prior night he was in a terrible state. and i, i even called his doctor and the next morning he woke up and he was very calm. i said i'll drive you to school. i'll pick you up and he said, i'll be fine. but you know he was very calm. >> reporter: kevin went to class but then left. went to the bridge and jumped. >> so you were in the air.

>> i was in the air. i said i don't want to die. i was falling head first at speeds over 120 miles per hour. i said i don't want to die. so i said the only way for me to survive this if at all is to get feet first. so i twisted my body in the air. got feet first, and hit the water feet first and i hat boots on. and the water i guess threaded through the boots and that took most of the impact. it didn't shatter my legs. it fracture -- it fractured a vertebrae on my back. i was conscious, i knew who i was, where i was. >> reporter: he was able to stay put for the 15 minutes that it took for a boat to reach him. by the time he got to the

hospital, kevin was not dead. he had a broken vertebrae but no spinal cord damage. and for the first time in a long time kevin wanted to live. >> they called me and said, your son just jumped off the golden gate bridge. i walked in the doors and he was in a splint. and i looked down and he said i'm sorry. he was alive. >> reporter: thanks to superb medical work, kevin can look forward to a normal life. he has his mental illness under control with medication. >> i still have problems every once in a while. i still hear voices every now and then. i can't really make out what they're saying but they're just

kind of annoying like they're there. for the most part though i've been depression free for about 17 months and i'm really proud of that. because i fought long and hard to make it that way. >> reporter: kevin will go back to college in the fall and wants a career in the theater. in a way committing suicide saved his life. >> it's been an amazing journey for me. i'm just glad to be here. >> last year kevin hines released a book cracked not broken, the kevin hines

jessica mcclure remained in a pipe as rescuers worked furiously to try to save her. here are two reports from the day of her rescue. >> reporter: the relief was enormous, 18 -month-old jessica mcclure free at last after more than 55 hours in a narrow well shaft. >> [ cheering and applause ] >> reporter: she fell down an abandoned well shaft while playing with other children in her aunt's lot. when it was finally successful every major television network was carrying it live and there was probably not a dry eye any

where. tony clark has the report. >> reporter: to the cheers and applause of hundreds of volunteers here in midland texas and millions around the world, 18 month old jessica mcclure was lifted to the surface friday night. there were bandages on her head and perhaps a brace on her leg. but after more than 50 hours, 22 feet below ground, this baby looked great. >> she was quickly rushed to the hospital to be checked out. but for the past three days and nights, this little doll has surprised and impressed everyone. she has cried, hummed and sung her way into the hearts of the volunteers who have come from all around to help. >> she had no -- whatever she could twist her body some what. her hands were next to her head. both doubled up like this with

the right foot next to the right side of her head. and she just, she didn't like the pulling. she told me no once. and she was griping at me, once we got close she just took out and she's out. >> reporter: it was also three days of emotional ups and downs as rescuers appeared to get close and then spent hours inching their way near her. all of that effort was paid off with just one quick glimpse of this young lady alive and on her way to the hospital. >> what this baby needs is for her mother to hold her in her arms and i think that's the best therapy this child could possibly have. >> a weary mcclure briefly left her side to accept a giant winnie the pooh from disneyland and to say a heartfelt thank you. >> thank you for all of your caring.

we love all of you. >> reporter: gifts for jessica have poured in from midland and across the country and the happy ending has left its mark on jessica's piers, the children. and here at the site of jessica's nightmare, workers cemented in a well in the backyard in midland texas. >> they were ordinary people in love with a little girl they had never met. drillers, policemen, firefighters working so hard because they loved their own children so much. bob hawk the man in the orange hat is a drilling contractor who was on a highway project when the call came. he worked outside the rescue shaft and inside always thinking about his own 2-year-

old son. today hawk returned to the site with his boy bob jr. >> i kept looking at that hole and thinking of him. i'm like i don't know how she got there but she was there. and all the time i just thought, you know it could have been my son. >> reporter: with determination, sweat and prayer, jessica was free. hoisted up in the arms of a 24- year-old paramedic steven forbes himself a father of two. >> i hear a bunch of people yelling. everybody is yelling and screaming and clapping. and when i saw the hole that she went down, i thought that you know, holly would have a hard time going and it would be a tight squeeze for her too. >> reporter: at the well site this morning, the drilling crew

left without fanfare. the impossibly tiny well was capped after being filled with concrete. the steel plate inscribed with a goodbye by the people who fell in love. >> jessica is now jessica mcclure morales the mother of two children. although she lost her left foot she has no memory of the incident. some $8,000 ended up in a trust that she was able to access when she turned 25. at the time her family said that she intended to put the money aside for her children's education. when we come back on a second look, he fell 70 feet down a deep crevase. >> i ran over there hoping i

could make it before she falls. >> and a neighbor rushes into action as a young girl teeters seven stories over the ground.

tonight we're looking at stories of survival, earlier this year an american professor fell 70 feet down a crevas. >> i fell down a hole, thankfully i didn't keep falling that way. >> reporter: trapped alone, 70 feet below the ice. professor john al was broken, bruised and fighting for his life. while conducting research, al was hiking alone when he

plunged landing on a ledge just 3 feet wide. his face bloody. al suffered several broken bones. he decided today crawl out. his camera in tow. >> early the amount of damage the body can take and still function pretty well. the pain was vulnerable let's put it that way. i was at least alive to feel the pain. >> reporter: it took about five agonizing hours all making his way to the top with an ice pick making camp where the professor was later rescued. >> i thought oh god thank god i stopped and i'm still alive because i excepted to keep going until it was over. and to hit the ledge, and catch that ice pick that saved my life. >> i have look over the edge

into the abyss and i knew that was not where i wanted to be. and now i'm really living. >> it takes the intervention of a concerned passer by. a girl ended up dancing on an air conditioner three stories up. bernard ran to where she was and positioned himself. >> i ran over there hoping i made it there before she falls. hoping she don't jump. when i got there she was still out there i'm hope and praying if she does fall or jump let me catch her. >> his arm was bruised but the girl was safe. >> i picked her up and i was holding her and tears were coming to my eyes. >> it's not only humans who are moved to save a child in need. a 3-year-old boy fell almost 20 feet boo the gorilla's den at

the brookhill's zoo in new york. a gorilla picked up the boy and took him to the facility. people who go over niagara falls summit a bear one in just his clothes. and one man rescued from the falls who also carried out a daredevil act from the golden gate bridge. map

we're back to a second look. the massive power of nigh niagara falls has prompted many to make the drop. taylor was one of the first to

plunge. she got in a barrel. she said quote, i would caution everyone. i would sooner walk up to a cannon knowing that it was going to blow me to pieces than make another trip down the fall. despite taylor's warning many have followed her to the fall. as mary murray reported their stunt didn't work out quite as they had hoped. >> he's going to go over the fall in a barrel. >> reporter: look closely at the bottom of your screen. what you see is two people. it took several people years to plan but the mission took just second. rescue workers dwarfed worked frantically to reach the two. >> the barrel was in an area where they were trapped in the barrel. the barrel wasn't going to

float down the river. we had to get them out. there was no other way to do it. >> they don't have any air left. >> reporter: time was running out for the people inside the barrel. the pair were equipped with oxygen that would give them enough air for not much longer than an hour. every minute counted. >> we secured the barrel to the shore. the fire department managed to pull the barrel. the one end was reachable. we then, we then leaned on to the rock. we got a line out to steve trotter and pulled him out then we got the line back in and pulled his girlfriend out on to the rock. >> reporter: shro der and companion were pulled to safety and taken to the hospital. >> will you do it again? >> no i wouldn't be back out there anymore. >> reporter: this is the second time shroder has gone over a fall and survived. but he says they did history

today. he and his girlfriend went down the fall and survived. >> would you do it again? >> no, never. >> why? >> once is enough. >> what was going through your mind when you were out there? >> just let it get out. >> reporter: but there were others who were not amused. >> i don't like to see the people who go out there and do the rescues, to risk their lives for these people. >> shroder also produced a stunt in san francisco. on advertise 29th birthday he set the world record for the longest tarzan swing off the golden gate bridge. sitting at the end of a wooden disk attached to a 176-foot long cable, he jumped off the center span of the bridge, all

in hopes that it would land him a job. >> i can't get any recognition of the stunt. i don't have enough money to go to school. the school i want to go to is so expensive. >> he was jailed and charged with trespassing. a second attempt in florida ended in disaster when the cable broke. trotter and four others were seriously injured. perhaps one of the most remarkable stories of survival in niagara falls is one of a 7- year-old. he was with his sister and a family friend, they were in aluminum vote. the boat capsized and all three were thrown into the water. rescuers were able to get to the teenage girl just a few feet before she hit the brink. the family friend went over and died. but listen to this, roger with nothing else to protect him but a life jacket managed to go over niagara falls and survive with only a minor head wound. as an adult, he credited jesus

with his survival saying it was his miracle that saved him. and that's it for this week's second look. i'm frank somerville. we'll see you again next week. oç'c'cz

(train horn honking) - prague, czech-republic is a must-stop for travelers the world over. we went by overnight train. the whole crew crammed into one small cabin. yeah, it was tight, but it was cheap, and i'm paying, so there you go. this train may not have been the best for sleep, but with a sight like prague as a wakeup call, it was totally worth it. the castle was incredible. i've never seen anything like it. i know i'm not always the most eloquent wordsmith, but mere words can't possibly do prague justice, anyway. fine, sir, your tram has arrived. when i travel, i like to dig below the surface. we're going deep. let's take the road less traveled and find the real and raw side of prague.