The school where I got my private SEL and helicopter had this type of scenario. Instructor and a first time student are out in a C152. Engine conks out, probably due to carb ice. Instructor goes through emergency procedures for real, lines up on a good field. Engine springs back to life. "Hot diggety dog!" instructor thinks, beelines back to the home airport (about 10 miles away). Gets out of range of the field, engine quits for good. They land on the entrance ramp of a highway, bust up the 152, nobody hurt. Must have made quite an impression on the first time student, I don't know if she continued or not.
My helo instructor offered a little analysis of this accident. He said the one thing the guy did wrong was to beeline back. From 10 miles away, he would have climbed over the good field until he had a bunch of altitude. Then he would have set off. If the engine conked out during the climb, back to the field he goes, plenty of time to get off a radio call. If it conks out enroute back to home, plenty of glide distance to either get back to the field or the home airport. Easy for us to analyze it after the fact. But maybe that will help our decision making should something similar happen to us.
In a roundabout way, what I'm proposing is that getting off a pan call is less important than thinking about how you are going to safely complete the flight. Aviate, navigate, communicate. Aviate first.
As an aside, I had my only forced landing (not counting gliders) in one of the school's other C152's. Carb ice. Couldn't clear it, ended up at an airport as I had plenty of altitude and partial power rather than a dramatic engine failure. I'm not sure if the 152's are suseptible to carb ice, or if they had maintenance issues. But at least I didn't make the front page of the paper!
-- IFMU