A 3-year-old boy who was lost in the dense Amazon rain forest was found after 11 days, apparently unharmed but for dehydration and thorns in his feet and legs, police said Friday.
Neilson Oliveira Lima disappeared from his home in the rural community of Pupuai on Sept. 16, according to Amazonas state police officer Ailson Carvalho, and was found on Sept. 27 about two miles away, with thorns covering his feet and legs.
“He went in the forest following his father and he got lost. He was found by his cousin, who was out hunting,” Carvalho said in a telephone interview from Caraurai, the nearest town. “Nobody knows what he ate or how he survived.”
The boy asked for water but said nothing about his ordeal, Carvalho said.
A receptionist at a hospital in Caraurai who declined to give her name said the boy remained there Friday under observation. Evanise de Oliveira Lima, the boy’s mother, told CBN Radio she expected him to leave the hospital soon.
“In the jungle near the house, there are jaguars, hawks, snakes,” she told the radio station. “But his guardian angel and God protected my son.”