A miraculous survival story recently unfolded in Yongzhou, Hunan, China. In Xintian County, a 13-year-old boy with intellectual disabilities and an IQ comparable to that of a two-year-old toddler was found alive five days after going missing. Rescuers discovered him on a barren mountain only 500 meters from his home.
Rescue workers found the boy in a natural pit, completely concealed by dense grass and four meters deep. When rescued, the boy was in good physical condition. The rescue team believes that the extremely cool environment inside the pit and the presence of standing water for drinking were the two key factors that miraculously saved his life.
According to Chinese media reports, the 13-year-old boy with an intellectual disability went missing on the morning of June 21 after leaving home alone. Surveillance footage showed that he was walking toward the fields by himself. As the boy also suffers from epilepsy, his family was extremely anxious upon discovering his disappearance and immediately joined police, villagers, and several volunteer professional rescue teams to conduct a grid search of the surrounding mountains and forests. However, due to steep terrain and thick vegetation, the rescue teams repeatedly used drones for low-altitude searches over the mountain in question but were unable to locate any trace of him.
At around 5 p.m. on the 25th, the Changsha Yuelu Blue Sky Rescue Team decided to try an "ancient method." Following location clues provided by the boy's family members, team members used sickles and machetes to systematically clear large swaths of suspicious, person-high grass on the mountain. After about half an hour of "weed clearing," a team member suddenly found a narrow natural pit hidden beneath the soil. Shining a strong flashlight into the hole, they were pleasantly surprised to discover the boy, missing for days, curled up at the bottom.
Tan Zhang, captain of the Blue Sky Rescue Team who participated in the on-site rescue, revealed to the media that the pit the boy had fallen into was about four meters deep. After accidentally falling in, the boy was completely unable to climb out due to his intellectual disability and weakness. However, the deep pit that had trapped him ultimately became his "natural shelter."
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