On March 18, 1944, a Finnish ski patrol was ambushed by Russian soldiers. Whilst fleeing from the Russians, one exhausted Finnish soldier, Aimo Koivunen, was carrying his entire squad’s supply of Pervitin. Pervitin was a methamphetamine drug supplied to German and Finnish soldiers during World War II to help them stay alert and focused during long stretches of combat.
Aimo was running out of steam, and the mittens he wore prevented him from fishing out an individual pill, so he took an entire 30-man patrol’s supply of Pervictin as a single dose.
Aimo slipped in and out of drug-induced delirium. During his hazy confusion, he had somehow been separated from his entire squad, escaped pursuing Russian troops, and survived laying in a ditch for several days after stepping on a landmine. The only foods he managed to eat were pine buds and a raw bird he managed to catch.
By the time he was found, he had travelled 400 kilometres. He was taken to a Finnish hospital, where staff recorded his heart rate at 200 beats per minute and weighed him in at 43 kilograms (94 pounds).
Aimo Koivunen died in 1989, aged 72.
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