A special story from South America. Brazilian fisherman Romualdo Macedo Rodriguez spent most of August surviving in a freezer without food or drink after his wooden boat sank at sea. Eleven days later he was picked up by a ship off the coast of Suriname.
“I thought my end was near, but I thank God for giving me another chance,” he told Brazilian media. Apart from hunger, thirst and intense heat, he was tormented by sharks. “I thought they were going to attack me,” says Castware. “They surrounded the freezer, but got out.”
On the eleventh day of his ordeal, he was rescued near the mouth of the Suriname River. He moved 450 kilometers, severely weakened and exposed to the sun, but survived. The confident fisherman speaks of a new birth. “It’s a miracle,” Rodriguez says. “I thought I’d never say it again, but I’m still here.”
Surinamese police arrested the man because he did not have valid travel documents in the freezer. After sixteen days he was allowed to return to his native country. This time on a plane.
Here are the images recovered from the popping freezer:
WATCH: A Brazilian fisherman spent 11 days at sea without food or water, but survived by floating in a refrigerator.
Romualdo Macedo Rodrigues, 44, left northern Brazil on a wooden boat in late July. pic.twitter.com/FHEr5b1J9H
— BNN Brazil (@BNNBRNews) September 3, 2022