Luckiest Man in the World

Survivor of Near-Death Experiences Wins the Lottery

Franco Selak refuses to take a plane or even a train. That's because this Croatian music teacher had survived numerous near death experiences and doesn't want to take any sort of risk. He's survived an airplane crash, a train "flying" into a cold river, among other incidents. Throw in a million dollar lottery ticket, and he's the luckiest man in the world.

I am the luckiest man in the world. I'm 76 years old, and I've already spent eight of my nine lives. I'm currently enjoying life number nine in Croatia as a retired music professor. Every week, I'm just happy that my luck appears to be holding.

My first lucky escape happened on the very first day of my life, June 3, 1929. My father and mother, who was seven months pregnant, went on a one-day fishing trip in a tiny boat. While my father was fishing, my mother unexpectedly gave birth.

It was a miracle I stayed alive because my father, in a panic, washed me, a newborn baby, in the cold seawater. It took hours before we got back to a hospital. I was already stiff from cold an exposure, but the doctors were able to save me. Near Death Experiences

I led a fairly normal life for the next 30 years, but while the1960s were a decade of trouble for me. I survived one accident after another, starting with the train crash in January, 1962.

The train slipped from the track and we ended up in a cold water river. I managed to break the thick glass on the train window while under the icy cold water. I still had enough strength to save an old woman but I lost consciousness while swimming to the shore of the river. Luckily, people from a nearby village saved me and the woman I pulled from the wreckage. Seventeen people died in the crash.

A year later, I spent my third life. That was the first and the last time that I've traveled on an airplane. It was a flight from the Croatian capital Zagreb to the Adriatic port of Rijeka. The airplane reportedly touched hit the top of a mountain, although I only remember the airplane's back door blowing open before I fell through.

Newspapers later reported that I fell for 850 meters before landing in a large heap of hay. I was in coma in a hospital for three days before I woke up. Doctors told me I was a phenomenon. This time, 20 people died.

In 1968 I was a music teacher in a primary school. On a school trip, the bus ended up in the river after falling from a four-meter-high bridge. Both the driver and I luckily survived. The real miracle was that we dropped off 25 kids minutes before the accident.

Lives 6 and 7 went were used up by my car in the 1970s. I survived a burning car not once but twice. Both times, my wife and I escaped from the burning car in the nick of time, just as the flames were about to engulf us.

Life Number 8: The last big accident (knock on wood!) I experienced was in 1994 when I became a refugee from the war. I was driving my car close to Karlobag in western Croatia when a UN peacekeeper crashed into me with an armoured vehicle.

Somehow, I fell out of the car before it rolled into a 150 meter deep hole and exploded. I broke three ribs and injured my hip, a small price to pay for my life.

Winning the Lottery

While luck saved my life numerous times, I was tired of only having nearly dying.

In 2002, my type of luck changed for the better. I won a million US dollars in the Croatian national lottery. I've bought a house, and built a small chapel to thank God for all my lucky escapes and one big win, and I've also given a lot of things to all the people I love.