Bruna Damaris Sant’Anna da Silva was missing for three days off the coast of Ilhabela, Brazil, after a jet ski on which she and a friend were travelling capsized
A woman who was left adrift at sea for nearly two days was left “confused, cold and asking for water” after she was pulled out into the ocean by a vicious current.
Bruna Damaris Sant’Anna da Silva, 26, disappeared on May 24 while taking a jet ski ride with Dheorge Bernardino, in Ilhabela, an archipelago off the coast of Sao Paolo, in Brazil. Their disappearance triggered a massive search fronted by local emergency services, who are yet to recover Mr Bernardino, and were unable to locate Ms da Silva until she was found in a miracle encounter.
Two fishermen have revealed the shock moment they came upon the desperate woman, a second-year nursing student from São Sebastião, after she had been missing for three days, saying she was gasping for water and heavily wrinkled by the sea.
Speaking to Brazilian publication Rede Vanguarda, father-and-son duo Alex Quintino and Allan de Oliveira Quintino dos Santos said they were flagged down by da Silva while out at sea with their dog Adelaide. The woman, they said, started waving when she saw their boat, and the two pulled her from the sea.
Alex said she appeared confused and cold, and immediately asked the fishermen for water after she was rescued from the sea on Tuesday.
He said: “She asked for water. The first thing we did was get water. We wrapped her in a blanket. Her hands and feet were already wrinkled from being in the water for so long.” The family had left aboard their boat, the Quilombo de Caçandoca, in Ubatuba, and had planned to make four fishing trawls before returning home.
Allan had mused before the two left home that it was possible they could find the young woman, and he eventually identified her, approaching with the boat.
The fishermen said they had believed she was carried out to an area far from the coast by a strong current, making it difficult for authorities to find her. Alex said: “The current pulled her way out. If I hadn’t found her there, I don’t think anyone else would have found her.”
The family rushed Ms da Silva to an intensive care unit at the Governador Mário Covas Júnior Municipal Hospital in Ilhabela, which she has since left due to improvement in her condition. Despite ditching a fishing trawl to help the woman return home, neither father nor son said they regret helping her back to dry land.
Alex said: “Saving a life is rewarding. We don’t think about tomorrow. God knows what He’s doing.” Bruna’s partner, Beatriz Luz, told Rede Vanguarda the woman disappeared while travelling to a gathering held on a speedboat.
She added that she had never ridden a jet ski before she disappeared alongside Mr Bernardino, who remains missing after the two capsized last week.
