Next time you think about offering your partner a little 'constructive criticism' about their cooking, remember the story of Yuri Ticuic.

The 69-year-old Russian will think twice about the next time he complains about his wife's cooking, after a row about soup almost proved fatal.

He nearly starved to death after storming out of his house and managing to get lost in a frozen forest for more than a month.

Ticiuc, from the tiny Siberian state of Altai on the southern border of Russia, walked out because his wife's soup was too cold, but ended up losing his way in dense woodlands. He survived by eating berries and leaves in the forest, eventually collapsing next to a haystack in a field.

He ate hay-grain from the haystack and drank snow to stay alive while lying next to the haystack.Farm workers found him crippled from frostbite and too weak to move when he called out to them.

"I walked and walked but after a few hours I didn't have any idea where I was and I couldn't find my way back," he told local media. I thought I was going to die. The temperatures were sub-zero and I was getting really weak.

"And then one day I heard voices and saw some farm workers. I called them and they managed to get me to hospital," he explained. Doctors say he is lucky to be alive, but fear they may have to amputate his legs.

"They are severely damaged from frostbite and it may not be possible to save them," said a hospital spokesman. Yuri added: "No matter what happens, that's the last time I criticise my wife's cooking. Anything is better than hay grain."