Post by Admin on Jun 12, 2023 19:12:01 GMT
The mother of four children rescued after 40 days in the Amazon jungle was alive for four days after their plane crashed.
Magdalena Mucutuy told her children to leave and find help as she lay dying.
Speaking to reporters, the children's father, Manuel Ranoque, said his eldest daughter told him their mother urged them to "get out" and save themselves.
The siblings, aged 13, nine, five, and one, were rescued and airlifted out of the jungle on Friday.
They were moved to a military hospital in the nation's capital Bogota.
How 4 children survived 40 days in hostile Colombian jungle
"The one thing that [13-year-old Lesly] has cleared up for me is that, in fact, her mother was alive for four days," Mr Ranoque told reporters outside the hospital.
"Before she died, their mum told them something like, 'You guys get out of here. You guys are going to see the kind of man your dad is, and he's going to show you the same kind of great love that I have shown you," he said.
Details have been emerging about the children's time in the jungle and their miraculous rescue - including the first things the children said when they were found.
Rescue worker Nicolás Ordóñez Gomes recalled the moment they discovered the children.
"The eldest daughter, Lesly, with the little one in her arms, ran towards me. Lesly said: 'I'm ,'" he told public broadcast channel RTVC.
"One of the two boys was lying down. He got up and said to me: 'My mum is dead.'" He said rescuers responded with "positive words, saying that we were friends, that we were sent by the family".
Mr Ordóñez said the boy replied: "I want some bread and sausage."
The children are members of the Huitoto indigenous group and their grandfather told Colombian media that their knowledge of edible fruit and seeds had been key to their survival.
The eldest child, 13-year-old Lesly, has been credited with keeping her siblings alive.
Henry Guerrero, an indigenous man who was part of the team which finally located the children, said they managed to build a small shelter.
"They had made a small tent from a tarpaulin and placed a towel on the ground. They always stayed near the river and she [Lesly] carried a small soda bottle which she used to [fill with and] carry water."
In footage released on Sunday of the children's rescue, the four siblings appeared to be emaciated from the weeks they spent fending for themselves in the wilderness.