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Man rescued after 67 days adrift at sea describes how he survived after brother and nephew died: “I simply had no choice”
A Russian man rescued after 67 days adrift in a small inflatable boat in the Sea of Okhotsk described Wednesday how he survived by battling shivering cold and drinking rainwater.
Mikhail Pichugin, 46, had set off to watch whales with his 49-year-old brother and 15-year-old nephew. But the boat’s engine shut down on their way back on Aug. 9.
Initial efforts by emergency services to locate the trio failed. Pichugin’s brother and nephew later died, and he tied their bodies to the boat to prevent them from being washed away.
A fishing vessel spotted the boat this week and rescued Pichugin about 11 nautical miles off Kamchatka and about 540 nautical miles from its departure point.
“A boat called Angel saved me,” he said, smiling, referring to the name of the fishing boat whose crew spotted him.
RU-RTR Russian Television via AP
Speaking to reporters Wednesday from his hospital bed, Pichugin described how the boat’s engine broke down and then one of the oars broke, making the boat uncontrollable.
The phone on board was useless as there was no network coverage, but the trio used it for geolocation for a week until the phone battery and a power bank ran out. They tried unsuccessfully to attract rescuers’ attention using the few flares they had.
“A helicopter flew past close, than another one after three days, but they were useless,” Pichugin said in comments broadcast by Russian state television.
He said they collected rainwater and struggled to get warm on the sea off eastern Russia.
“There was a sleeping bag with camel wool, it was wet and didn’t dry,” he said. “You crawl under it, wiggle a little and get warm.”
They had a limited stockpile of noodles and peas and tried to catch some fish.
Russian media quoted Pichugin as saying his nephew died of hypothermia and hunger in September. His brother started behaving erratically and tried at one point to jump off the boat.
Pichugin said he survived “thanks to God’s help,” adding softly that “I simply had no choice, I had my mother and my daughter left at home.”
Doctors at the Magadan hospital said he was suffering from dehydration and hypothermia but in stable condition.
Magadan deputy governor Tatiana Savchenko said his condition was “satisfactory.”
She said the administration would pay for Pichugin to fly home and for relatives to visit.
Pichugin comes from Ulan-Ude in Siberia but was working on the far eastern island of Sakhalin as a driver.
His wife Yekaterina told RIA Novosti news agency: “It’s a kind of miracle.” She said the men had taken enough food and water to last only two weeks.
Russia’s Far Eastern Transport Prosecutor’s Office/Handout via REUTERS
Transport investigators have launched a probe into possible breaches of safety rules, raising the prospect that Pichugin could face a criminal charge and risk a jail term of up to seven years.
Russian television reported the men should have taken a satellite phone, the only means of communication in the Sea of Okhotsk.
Last year, an Australian sailor said he survived more than two months lost at sea with his dog. Tim Shaddock, 51, and his dog Bella were sailing from Mexico to French Polynesia when rough seas damaged their boat and its electronics system, leaving them adrift and cut off from the world.
AFP contributed to this report.
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How the nonprofit Stand with Trans tries to empower, support transgender youth: “Lead with love”
Laws that limit LGBTQ+ rights are being considered in 41 U.S. states, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
While more than 300,000 American teenagers identify as trans, most of them — over 280,000 — live in states that have “proposed or passed laws restricting their rights,” according to the UCLA School of Law Williams Institute.
The nonprofit organization Stand with Trans aims to help trans and nonbinary people, and their loved ones, find community and resources. Each October, the group celebrates a month of programming for Trans Empowerment Month, including support groups, education training, panels and workshops.
What is Stand with Trans?
Roz Keith founded Stand with Trans in 2015. Her son came out as transgender in 2013, when he was 13 years old. As a parent, Keith struggled to find resources.
“I knew we needed to help and support our child and we just didn’t know how. We didn’t have anyone to talk to. There were no medical resources,” Keith said, adding the process felt isolating and challenging.
“I was hitting a brick wall, and the question would be ‘Oh, a minor? Oh, a 13-year-old? No, sorry we only treat adults. We only have support groups for adults.'”
The nonprofit supports all transgender people, but primarily supports youth between the ages of 12 and 22 years old, according to their website. In addition to helping young trans individuals, the organization also provides support groups for parents.
Resources for transgender people
Keith said in an interview with “CBS Mornings” that gender-affirming care is needed by a trans person to live authentically.
“Endocrinologists deal in the business of hormones, so regardless of age, if somebody wants to medically transition that’s typically one of the things that’s high on the priority,” she said.
Keith added it also translates to finding mental health services, being allowed to choose a different name and pick pronouns that an individual identifies with.
According to a poll by The Trevor Project, an advocacy group that provides mental health support for young people, 90% of LGBTQ+ youth say their wellbeing is negatively impacted by recent politics.
More than two dozen mental and physical health associations have endorsed the need for treatments for gender dysphoria.
“I was born in the mid-80s, and there were no resources that I knew of, and so it was really challenging,” said Dubbs Weinblatt, the Trans Empowerment Month program coordinator for Stand with Trans.
Weinblatt, who is a non-binary trans person, said it wasn’t until they were in their late 20s when they learned about non-binary identity.
“People would say to me, ‘You’re my daughter. You’re my sister.’ Use words like ‘girl’ for me, and that never felt right. It always felt at odds with who I knew myself to be on the inside.”
Beyond resources, Weinblatt said positive representation is important for trans people.
“Really just more representation in the media of seeing positive representation … and really support groups that Stand with Trans has, and different programming, where I could have met other people, like ‘OK, I’m not alone in this.'”
Weinblatt offered a simple message to those hoping to support a trans person in their life.
“Lead with love and kindness, and showing that you’re open, that you’re non-judgmental creates that space for someone to trust you, to share themselves,” Weinblatt said.
