What would you do if you were confronted with death? What gives someone the strength to survive? Is it luck, chance, instinct? In a stripped-down, simple-yet-cinematic interview style, the Biography Channel’s program, “I Survived,” allows survivors to explain, in their own words, how they overcame unbelievable circumstances – offering insight into what got them through the experience that changed their lives forever.

Steven L. Berk, M.D., Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center executive vice president, provost and School of Medicine dean, will appear on “I Survived” at 9 p.m. CDT Sunday (July 22) on the Biography Channel.

Berk is the author of the memoir, “Anatomy of a Kidnapping: A Doctor’s Story,” which tells of his true-life experience on March 6, 2005. Berk was in the midst of his typical Sunday morning routine when a dangerous criminal, armed with a shotgun, entered his home through an open garage door, kidnapping him.

An unlikely target of a violent crime, Berk was thrust into extraordinary circumstances. But it was his training as a physician and understanding of aequanimitas — the ability to stay calm and rational at all times — that enabled him to keep his family safe, to establish rapport with his kidnapper and to bring his captor to justice.

For more breaking news and experts, follow @ttuhscnews on Twitter.