The EF-5 Joplin tornado; survivor Steven Weersing in Netflix’s “Twister: Caught in the Storm”. Photo:
Courtesy of Netflix
The EF-5 tornado that ripped through Joplin, Mo., in 2011 killed 158 people, but another deadly threat lurked in the shadows: a rare and potentially deadly fungus. Now, nearly 14 years later, a man who survived both is opening up about the near-fatal ordeal.
Netflix’s new documentary The Twister: Caught in the Storm, which premiered on Wednesday, March 19, reintroduces audiences to Steven Weersing, who was 16 when he and his friends were caught in the tornado while driving through Joplin. He said the car was tossed around by the twister before “it just got flung and floated off.”
At one point, Steven — who earned the nickname “Miracle Boy” after his story reached the press — was “sucked out of the car” and went “flying inside of the tornado.” He said his life flashed before his eyes before he eventually landed on the ground.
Luckily Steven survived, and his friends eventually came to his rescue. But conquering the tornado was only half the battle.
More than a dozen people who survived the historic twister were infected with zygomycosis, which causes body tissue to necrotize or turn black after pieces of tissue die. Steven was one of them.
Steven Weersing, who survived the Joplin tornado in 2011 and the fungus that the twister helped spread. Courtesy of Netflix
“Steven had about a 5% chance of survival,” said his friend Doug. “I was afraid I was going to lose my friend.
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“The fungus was just taking over me,” Steven recalled in the documentary. “They cut a little piece of me off and then, it didn’t grow back to it, so they just started cutting everything off of me.”
In the end, he had several body parts removed — including his right nipple, a number of ribs as well as part of his lung and liver and even a piece of his heart.
Damage from the 2011 Joplin twister. Courtesy of Netflix
Nearly half of the people who had the infection from the Joplin tornado died, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.
Steven spent four months in the hospital before he went home. He said the experience helped him heal some family wounds, especially with his father.
Damage from the 2011 Joplin twister. Courtesy of Netflix
“My dad did a lot to help me through my whole stay,” Steven explained, recalling how his father would visit him each and every day.
On the other side of the ordeal, Steven said that he learned an valuable lesson.
“Love is all you really need. You don’t need nothing in life but just family,” he said. “And I didn’t really ever take advantage of it until the tornado.”
The Twister: Caught in the Storm is streaming now on Netflix.
