A fisherman was miraculously rescued after being stranded and spending 11 days in a freezer in the Atlantic.
We cannot imagine what Romualdo Macedo Rodrigues must have undergone but we are thankful to God for saving his life and rescuing him after 11 days.
44-year-old Romualdo, left his home in Oiapoque, Brazil, in his wooden boat at the end of July on a journey to Ilet la Mere, which is an island near French Guiana.
But fate had it that after a few days on his journey, his boat started getting filled up with water and sank. Romualdo did not know how to swim, so he climbed into a freezer that he had onboard. He was inside it for more than a week.
11 days had passed with Romualdo being in the ocean and that had caused him to become severely dehydrated and famished. But thankfully one vessel that was passing near the coast of Suriname near French Guiana spotted him and rescued him.
A video of the rescue which shows Romualdo being helped to get out of the freezer and being taken onto the Surinamese fishing boat by the crew on 11 August. He was given first aid by them and soon after the boat reached the shore, he was arrested by the police for being undocumented and kept at a prison in Paramaribo for 16 days.
When officer Luis Carlos Porto was asked about this unique case, he said, that Romualdo was extremely thin and debilitated, but his spirit was uplifted and all the wounds he suffered due to the long exposure to the sun were much better now.
Officer Porto added that Romualdo was suffering from vision problems because of the heat, salt, and light, but he was cool and in stable health. Romualdo was eventually permitted to return home.
When Romualdo was interviewed about the incident he said: “I was born again. “I thought I was going to be attacked by sharks because there are much curious fish on the high seas.”
When he was asked about the moment he was rescued by the boat, he said, he couldn’t believe it. He added that he heard a sound near him and he saw a boat near the freezer, At first, the boat wasn’t sure if anyone was there in the freezer but when they got closer, he saw them and raised his hands exclaiming, “My God, the boat. I raised my arms and asked for help.”
The ordeal has left Romualdo five kilograms (11 lbs) lighter and heavily dehydrated but he is thankful that the freezer was able to save his life. He added, “What troubled me most was the thirst,” the fisherman said. He concluded by saying, “This fridge, for me, was God. A miracle.”