A 44-year-old Brazilian fisherman was rescued alive after spending 11 days adrift inside a refrigerator in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Romualdo Rodrigues intended to spend ten days fishing alone on the high seas, in a seven-meter boat. Through cracks in the wood, water began to enter the boat and, since he could not swim, the only alternative was to take refuge in the empty refrigerator.
He lost about five kilos in the 11 days he spent at sea, without food or water, exposed to the sun during the day and the cold at night.
He was finally found by a Surinamese fishing boat on August 11, some 450 kilometers from where his boat sank.
There were sharks nearby, “I thought they were going to eat me,” said the fisherman in an interview with the Brazilian television channel TV Record. “This refrigerator, to me, was God.”
Without the strength to stand, with many sunburns and severely dehydrated, the fisherman received first aid in Suriname, but was detained for 16 days for being considered an illegal immigrant for not having documentation with him, until he was repatriated.
Source: TSF
