A four-year-old who wandered kilometers toward the Tsavo East National Park was on Monday 5, rescued after spending six days in the wilderness.
According to Roan Carr-Hartley, a pilot from Sheldrick Wildlife Trust who spotted the boy from his chopper, the entire incident was a miracle.
Hartley explained that all odds were against the child, who was alone in the vast wilderness packed with wild animals.
“Four hours of scanning revealed nothing but hyenas and jackals, then I saw a tiny boy surrounded by endless wilderness. I was in shock that he was still alive and walking,” Carr-Hartley stated.
A collage of pilot Roan Carr-Hartley and an aerial view of the four-year-old who was found six days after disappearing into the Tsavo wilderness.SHELDRICK WILDLIFE TRUST
He noted that the area was relatively dry and that a child of his age would have easily died of dehydration were it not for the storm on the fourth day of his disappearance.
The heavy rainfall enabled the child to remain hydrated but bottled any chances of the search party finding him.
“In the absence of fresh tracks and a general area to narrow down the search, nothing more could be done from the air,” the pilot wrote.
On the fifth day, Carr-Hartley received a call from the local chief alerting him that footprints had been spotted 15 kilometres from the village
He quickly got on the plane and went out to the coordinates he was given, and just as he was about to leave the area, he noticed an object take cover in the bushes.
“Off my left wing, I saw a tiny figure below me. The boy initially cowered away from the plane, then began darting under bushes and trees, stumbling as he walked.
The pilot made several circumnavigations to alert the search party that he had found the boy. However, the long trek away from home had taken a toll on the child who spent nights in the cold alone.
“The boy was covered in mosquito bites and scratches from the bristling thorn bushes. His feet were blistered and riddled with thorns and cuts,” Carr-Hartley.
Two doctors administered first aid to the boy who is currently in hospital receiving medical attention.
