After being missing for more than two years, a Colombian woman was alive by fishermen in what was dubbed as "a survival saga for the ages."
On Saturday, 46-year-old, Angelica Gaitan was found floating about 1.2 miles from Puerto Colombia by fisherman Roland Visbal.
The rescue was also caught on tape by the fisherman and is making rounds online.
According to The Sun, in the video, Visbal and his friend identified as Gustavo were seen moving their vessel towards what they initially thought was a piece of driftwood. However, when they came closer, they saw that it was a woman who was suspended in the water and raised her hands to ask for their help.
Both men can also be heard in the video trying to communicate with Gaitan who was then waterlogged both in Spanish and in English. However, due to fatigue and hypothermia from being submerged in the water for at least eight hours, Gaitan was unable to reply to them.
After some time, Visbal and Gustavo were able to retrieve the unresponsive Gaitan from the water by attaching a life preserver to a rope and throwing it towards her.
"I was born again. God did not want me to die," were said to be the first words that the victim uttered after being rescued.
However, as the fishermen tried to talk to Gaitan and offer her water to drink, the victim burst into tears from what was conceived an overflow of emotions after surviving a terrifying experience.
The pair was ultimately able to bring the victim to shore and some locals reportedly tended to her before she was taken to a local hospital.
The Backstory
After her rescue and identification, the backstory of the survivor was unveiled.
According to Fox, the woman has apparently been off the grid for more than two years and have not come in touch with her family since. Her family had no information on her whereabouts until the rescue.
Gaitan also told reported that her disappearance was the result of enduring two decades of domestic abuse that she went through at the hands of her partner back then.
She said that her partner started to physically abuse her during her first pregnancy, which got worse the second time she got pregnant. However, she is unable to get away from the man since her children were still small. She also said that she tried to report the abuse but the police only detained him for 24 hours before releasing him again, allowing the abuse to recur.
In September of 2018, an altercation with her partner led to her getting a broken face. The man also reportedly tried to kill her prompting her to run away.
She said that for six months, she stayed in Barranquilla, before deciding to seek help in a shelter for the homeless. However, she was not able to get the help she needed leading her to fall into depression.
During that time, Gaitan said that she did not want to continue her life anymore, thus, she rode a bus to the beach and jumped into the water. After that, Gaitan said that she barely remembers anything that happened next.
At the moment, police are still doing an investigation on the circumstances concerning Gaitan's disappearance as well as her rescue.
Posted by Rolando Visbal Lux on Sunday, September 27, 2020
