Teenager survives 28 days adrift in Pacific

A Panamanian teenager who survived 28 days adrift in the Pacific Ocean has arrived home.

Dozens of people welcomed a thin Adrian Vasquez at Panama City’s airport. The 18-year-old shed some tears as his relatives hugged him before being whisked to a waiting car which took him to his home town of Rio Hato.

The teenager and two friends had left on a fishing trip on February 24 and were heading back to Rio Hato when their motor failed.

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His two friends died within three weeks but Mr Vasquez was rescued on Friday by Ecuadorean fishermen who came across his boat off the Galapagos Islands, more than 600 miles from where they had set out to fish.

Coastguard captain Hugo Espinosa’s patrol boat picked up the teenager early on Sunday. He was suffering from malnutrition and severe dehydration:

The three had grilled fish on the boat, but then their ice melted and the fish rotted. They had to toss them overboard and live off what they could catch with their net.

Oropeces Betancourt, the oldest at 24, stopped eating and drinking after two weeks, and died on March 10. The other youth, 16-year-old Fernando Osorio, died on March 15, also died apparently of dehydration, sunburn and heatstroke. Mr Vasquez then ran out of water.

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“When he was nearly dead, on March 19, it rained, and Vasquez was able to fill up with four gallons of water,” said Capt Espinosa.

He spent the next five days eating raw fish, before he was spotted by commercial fisherman.

Once aboard, Mr Vasquez asked for a telephone so he could make two calls. The first was to his mother, and the second to the manager of the hotel where he works, to explain why he had missed work.

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