A gardener claims he survived five days on a desert island in Rio de Janeiro by eating two lemons, charcoal and seawater before being rescued.
Nelson Nedy was rescued by authorities on Saturday after a person spotted him on a jet ski on the island. The 51-year-old suffered minor injuries and was taken to a local hospital and discharged the same day.
Nedy’s plight began last Monday when he visited Mirador do Roncador, a viewpoint on Grumari Beach.
He was standing on top of a rock looking at the waves and decided to take a step forward when a larger wave crashed and threw him into the water.
“I just hit the rock with my butt. I don’t know if I bounced, if I hit the water, if I sank,” Nedy told Brazilian news agency G1. “I tried to get off that (rock) and swam further in.”
Nelson Nedy spent five days on a desert island in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil before authorities rescued him on Saturday. The 51-year-old gardener had gone to watch waves on a Grumari beach when he was knocked over by a wave and thrown into the sea and swept away by a current before washing up on Palmas beach. Nedy recalled eating two lemons, drinking water from two found bottles and from the sea before he was spotted by people jet skiing in the area
The 51-year-old gardener thought he was going to die when he hit his head on a rock as he tried to swim away from the island on a makeshift plank made of Styrofoam and a plywood door
Firefighters escort Nelson Nedy from a helicopter before he was taken to a local hospital on Saturday
He recalled being swept away by the strong sea currents for almost two miles before being washed ashore on the uninhabited island of Palmas.
Nedy had nowhere to go and was waiting to recover after losing strength in the sea for too long.
“There was nothing. Nothing to hide, nothing to take cover,’ he said. “I had to make a decision to step in and look for another place.”
Eventually he found a cave where he slept through the night, using a soaked T-shirt to cover his head as temperatures dropped.
Nedy was up early last Tuesday and went for a walk to explore the island before it started to rain. He was climbing the rocks with an old rope someone had left behind when he suddenly spotted a makeshift tent set up by local fishermen.
Once he climbed down and found two lemons on the ground and also found two bottles of water.
“I ate them skin and all so I wouldn’t miss anything,” he said.
Nedy used a blanket left in the tent to attract the attention of the people on Grumari Beach, but felt hopeless because he was too far away.
At some point last Wednesday he tried to swim to Grumari Beach but gave up.
“I got halfway there, but the tide pulled me into the sea,” he said. “There was a time when I dropped the body and kept saying whatever God wants now, he can take me.”
Nedy swam back to the island and tried using a piece of Styrofoam and a plywood door as an escape board on Thursday. The current slammed his back against a rock and had to return because it wasn’t strong enough to support his weight.
“I drank pure salt water,” he said. “There were times I saved, I drank a little of the candy to hide the salt in the water just to wet my mouth.”
Nelson Nedy, the 51-year-old gardener who was stranded on an island in Rio de Janeiro for five days before being rescued on Saturday, recalled “drinking pure salt water”. There were times when I skimped, I drank a little of the candy to hide the salt in the water just to wet my mouth.
Nelson Nedy visited a stretch of Grumari Beach known as Mirador do Roncador last month to watch waves. He stepped onto a rock to get a glimpse of the sea when a larger wave threw him off balance and sent him into the water before a current carried him nearly two miles before reaching the coast of the island of Palmas
Nelson Nedy spent five days on the uninhabited island of Palmas in Rio de Janeiro before being rescued on Saturday
On Friday, a hungry Nedy remembered how monkeys stole coals for food, and since they didn’t get sick from it, he thought he might as well eat them.
“But it dried out my mouth even more and got stuck in the tooth,” he said.
By Saturday, Nedy had run out of the water he had in the two battles and was looking for a way to stay hydrated when he saw several people riding jet skis.
He picked up his t-shirt and waved to the group.
Nedy was flown by a fire service helicopter to a base in Guaratiba before being placed in an ambulance and taken to Lourenço Jorge Hospital in Barra da Tijuca.