The aunt of a 1-year-old girl rescued at sea by the U.S. Navy says the baby's fever is gone, and she is responding well to medication after showing salmonella-like symptoms before her family's sailboat broke down.
Sariah English told The Associated Press on Monday that her niece, Lyra Kaufman, was checked by military medical personnel after being boarded onto the USS Vandegrift on Sunday morning but her illness has not been diagnosed by a physician, yet.
Sick baby rescued at sea recovering
English said her sister, Charlotte Kaufman, called her from the warship and told her that Lyra was bouncing back with new medication. The girl had salmonella before they left on their trip but was thought to have recovered.
The Kaufmans and their two children were rescued 900 miles southwest of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
The Navy warship carrying Lyra is expected to arrive midweek in San Diego.
The USS Vandegrift was moving at 20 knots or about 23 mph, though the speeds will vary, and officials do not have an exact day yet of when the Kaufmans will arrive, where their baby is expected to get further treatment, Navy spokeswoman Lt. Lenaya Rotklein said. About 200 sailors were also on board the ship.
A statement from the parents, Charlotte and Eric Kaufman, a Coast Guard-licensed captain, said their daughter, Lyra, was doing better on the Vandergrift.
Authorities have declined to identify the girl's illness, citing privacy laws. Before the family left for the trip, Lyra had salmonella poisoning, but doctors cleared her to travel after she was healthy again, Charlotte Kaufman's sister, Sariah Kay English, said.
Four California Air National Guard members parachuted into the water and reached the boat Thursday night. The crew stabilized the girl, stayed by her side and then hopped on an inflatable boat with the family to board the USS Vandegrift on Sunday morning. Authorities decided to sink the Rebel Heart because it was taking on water.
The family took only what they could carry from the broken boat - three bags - and they were disappointed to lose the sailboat they called home.
"We understand there are those who question our decision to sail with our family, but please know that this is how our family has lived for seven years, and when we departed on this journey more than a year ago, we were then and remain today confident that we prepared as well as any sailing crew could," the San Diego couple said in a statement from the USS Vandegrift.
"The ocean is one of the greatest forces of nature, and it always has the potential to overcome those who live on or near it. We are proud of our choices and our preparation," the statement said.
Source: CBS News
8 comments:
Thank goodness for our Air National Guard and the U.S. Navy for being in the position to help this family out! Glad she's feeling better.
Glad the girl is feeling better.
Great to see this kid recovering!
Awe,poor thing...happy to hear she's on the mend!
Thank goodness that Navy Ship was in the right spot to save this little girl!
Glad the Navy was there to help. Hope the child is now okay.
Thank god that girl was rescued.
I've had salmonella -- I actually had salmonella AND turistas at the same time -- in Mexico. If not for an American doctor vacationing in Puerto Vallarta at the time, I would probably have died from it. Luckily, he happened to overhear 2 nurses discussing my condition when he brought a friend into the clinic I was in who'd been injured in a boating accident. Food poisoning is a very serious matter and this little girl was very, very lucky.
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