Woman rescued after 7 hours adrift at sea

Le Thi Lien, 40, went out to exercise before going for a swim at a beach in Hai Phu Commune at around 5:30 a.m. on Monday. While she was in the water, the waves began to push her away. She tried to swim back, but her stamina had been exhausted. She decided to just float on her back to conserve strength and let the water float her away.

At around 12:45 p.m. the same day, Nguyen Tien Vung, 51, saw Lien drifting at sea while his fishing vessel was about two nautical miles to the east of Gianh Estuary. Fishermen quickly brought her on board and informed a border guard station.

Medics said at the point of her rescue, Lien was exhausted and panicking, but calmed down after about an hour. She was found seven kilometers away from where she had first entered the water.

At Lien’s home, her father, 74-year-old Le Tien Luc, said she has recovered and able to eat normally.

“However, her face was severely swollen, and her eyes were tearing up, so she doesn’t want to meet people,” Luc said, adding that the family had tried to look for her in every corner the same morning she went missing, but never thought she had been pushed out to sea. They even enlisted the help of social media at around 11 p.m.

Not until the afternoon did Luc get a call from border guards, saying his daughter had been rescued. He said the fact Lien was out in the open sea for seven hours and drifted seven kilometers away was “unexplainable.”