Newspapers in Portugal speak of a miracle: a girl missing in the sea has been rescued alive around 20 hours after she disappeared about 45 kilometers off the Algarve coast in the south of the country.
The 17-year-old was spotted on a paddle board by the crew of a Dutch freighter last night and taken on board, Portuguese media reported today, citing the authorities.
The exhausted and severely hypothermic teenager was taken to the hospital by helicopter, but she is now doing well under the circumstances, it said.
“We found her in a severely hypothermic state. She was only in a bikini and had to survive the whole night on the board,” said Afonso Martins, the port captain of Vila Real de Santo Antonio.
Drifted off while stand up paddling
The teenager disappeared on Saturday when she was carried away by the strong wind while stand-up paddling on the beach on the border with Spain, according to the community, among other things. Her father jumped into the water to help her, but didn’t have a chance because of the strong wind. She held out on her board in the sea in strong waves.
“Miracles in the Algarve” was the headline not only in the newspaper “Jornal de Noticias”. A spokesman for the University Hospital in Faro, where the young woman was treated, said that “everyone was surprised” at the hospital too. “It takes a great survival instinct, a self-control, not to panic. This girl is a heroine.”
