Man wakes up in a shallow grave in a desert, survives on leeches and his urine after waking up

In 2006, the world hailed Australian man Ricky Megee a modern-day survival miracle after he claimed to emerge from a shallow grave in the harsh Australian outback where he endured 71 days in extreme conditions before rescue.

While the circumstances surrounding his ordeal remain controversial, Megee’s survival story continues to fascinate due to the extraordinary measures he said he took to stay alive.

Carjacked, drugged, and abandoned

According to Megee’s account, it all began in January 2006 when he claimed unknown assailants drugged him and left him for dead. He stated that he awoke buried in a shallow grave in a remote region of the Northern Territory and Western Australia border region with no clear memory of how he got there.

From that terrifying starting point, Megee says he survived by drinking his own chilled urine when no clean water was available, and by eating leeches, insects, snakes, and ants. He subsisted in the harsh and unforgiving terrain of the outback, forging rudimentary shelter, battling heat by day and freezing nights, all while his body wasted away.

Megee became a “walking skeleton”

Rescue came when station hands from Birrindudu Station discovered him approximately 500 kilometers, about 310 miles, southwest of Katherine, Northern Territory. He had lost over half his bodyweight and was described as “just a walking skeleton” by the station manager. He was flown to Royal Darwin Hospital on 5 April 2006 and treated for severe starvation, sunburn, and exposure.

However, police investigated Megee’s claims about what he said happened, but found no clear evidence of the alleged carjacking or assailants. Some also raised doubts about inconsistencies in Megee’s changing versions of how the misery began. When Megee was first found, after claiming he couldn’t remember, he reportedly told them that his car had simply broken down before changing his story to the abduction and drugging scenario. 

Meanwhile, Megee has prior drug convictions, so, as one potential Reddit explanation states, “He could also just have wandered off by his own accord if he was using drugs at the time… Since using drugs change your perception of things and make you have trouble remembering things this could be a reason why Megee gave different accounts over time.”

Still, the terrain in which Megee survived is severe, with daytime temperatures routinely in excess of 40 degrees Celsius, or about 105 degrees Farhehnheit, with nights equally as cold. No matter how he got there, survival experts have noted that his ability to locate water and sustenance in that environment was key to his unlikely survival.

Despite the doubts about his exact story, there is no question that Megee endured a remarkable trial. In the years that followed, Megee’s book Left for Dead How I Survived 71 Days in the Outback, recounts his experience. While the shallow grave remains an extraordinary claim, the broader contours of his story, from eating leeches to drinking chilled urine, are compelling.