Teen drinks own urine to survive Outback
2013-02-16 12:38
Canberra - A teenage backpacker drank contact lens fluid
and his own urine to survive three days lost in Australian Outback scrubland in
oppressive summer heat, his mother said on Saturday.
Claire Derry reached the bedside of her 18-year-old son,
Sam Derry-Woodhead, on Saturday at Longreach Hospital in northeast Australia,
where he is recovering from dehydration.
She said she feared the worst while flying from London's
Heathrow Airport to Longreach until she was told during a stopover in the east
coast city of Brisbane that searchers in a helicopter had winched her son to
safety on Friday.
"He'd survived on fluid from contact lenses and his
own urine," Derry told Ten Network TV. He was sunburned and had lost 15kg,
she said.
Derry-Woodhead became lost in scrubland while jogging on Tuesday
near Upshot Station, a cattle ranch 90km from Longreach.
He had been working at the ranch for less than two weeks
as a novice cowboy known in Australia as a jackaroo.
Temperatures reached 40°C as around 50 searchers
scoured the rugged terrain over three days.
Two searchers received medical treatment for heat stroke.
Alex Wright, who was part of the crew that rescued
Derry-Woodhead, said they were lucky to spot him through the trees 6km from
where he became lost.
"We just happened to see him as he was crossing a
clearing," Wright told Ten. "He's been dehydrated. Everything about
him, all of his features, looked very sunken."
George Thomson, another rescue crew member, said
Derry-Woodhead thanked them after being winched aboard the helicopter and asked
for a popsicle.
- AP
