American survives a maritime ordeal

By Juan Pablo Sebastián 

An extraordinary survival feat was accomplished by an American man who avoided drowning by seeking refuge among rocks in the ocean during the night and early morning, until he was rescued the following morning.

Around 1am on Sunday, Aug. 25, municipal police officers and lifeguards responded to reports of someone calling for help from the sea near Rancho Santini.

Throughout the night, a team of lifeguards and a police unit conducted a search along the coastline but failed to locate the man, as he had stopped calling out.

In the early hours of the morning, they were informed that local boatmen had found the man alive among a rocky islet just a few meters offshore. The same rescue units headed to the location to continue the search.

When the police officers and lifeguards arrived, they saw the boatmen bringing the man to shore, after which they left without providing any details.

The man was suffering from severe hypothermia and was naked. A local resident recognized him and provided a jacket to cover him.

As paramedics and police extracted him from the cliff using a thermal blanket, preparing to transport him via Red Cross ambulance, the man managed to give an officer his parents’ phone number in the United States, allowing them to be notified of the situation.

Red Cross paramedics took him to the General Hospital, and later, his family transferred him to the U.S. in stable condition, expressing their gratitude to the authorities for saving his life.

The man was identified as Brandon “N”, a 39-year-old who, in broken words, stated that he had been swept away by the waves and had kept shouting among the rocks until he grew tired and fell asleep.