Shipwrecked Mother Dies Of Dehydration Breastfeeding Her Children To Keep Them Alive

A Venezuelan woman kept her children alive for four days by breastfeeding them after the boat they were on was wrecked at sea.

Newsweek reports that Mariely Chacón, 40, was on the boat earlier this month with her family and friends when a large wave split the hull. She was left adrift on a lifeboat with her two children, a 6-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl.

Despite being exposed to the hot sun, Chacón breastfed her children to keep them alive. The determined mother drank her own urine to stay hydrated.

Authorities located the children four days later, clinging to their mother’s body. Chacón’s cause of death was listed as dehydration, according to a forensic medicine source quoted in La República. Officials believe she may have become dehydrated from breastfeeding her children.

Also found alive was the family’s nanny, Verónica Martinez. She was discovered in an empty icebox and is being treated in a hospital. 

Five others remain missing. Chacón’s husband, the children’s father, is counted among the missing, along with the boat’s crew.