There's an App for That

I have had a vision of the future, it's the new iPhone commercial.

Have you ever been stuck in a massive earthquake, broken your leg, suffered a laceration to your head, lost your glasses, and had to field treat your own wounds so you could survive for 65 hours without food, water, or sleep? There's an app for that.

Wait, WHAT?!

Apple has found itself the center of controversy several times in the past few months. Most of this controversy was stemming from what can only be called laziness on the part of Apple and the iPhone App Store. After the colossal embarrassment from apps like I Am Rich and Baby Shaker Apple was due for some good PR.

Dan Woolley has about the most amazing survival story I think I have ever heard, his spectacular tale even rivals that of Aron Ralston. Woolley was filming a documentary about the current poverty level in Haiti. After returning to his hotel from a day of filming, he found himself in a magnitude 7 earthquake with nothing but his iPhone.

The dust settled and Woolley had sustained a compound fracture in his leg, a severe laceration to his head, and to top it off, Woolley is severely near sighted and he lost his glasses. Using his iPhone camera, equipped with an SLR focusing light, he took pictures of his surroundings. Using these pictures as his eyes, he was able to find his way to an elevator shaft. After reaching the elevator shaft, he used a First Aid app he had downloaded onto his phone to help him bandage his leg and head. Once he had patched himself up, Woolley continued to read about his injuries. The app informed him to keep himself awake, just in case he was suffering from shock. Woolley then set his phone alarm to go off every 20 minutes. This is how he was able to survive for 65 hours when a 6 story hotel crumbled around him.

There is even more to this amazing story and I believe even the most hardened person will be stirred emotionally by this tale's heart-warming conclusion. I truly hope that everyone reads this amazing account of survival. Not because there's such a thing as an iPhone whose battery somehow lasted longer than 6 hours, but because it demonstrates how beautiful the synergy between spirituality and technology can really be. The iPhone lasting that long alone, suggests divine intervention.


~ Kyle Jackson