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I was saved by "Angel" and "Mongol". What helped Mikhail Pichugin wait for rescuers in cold waters?
"The patient's condition is stable. He is under the supervision of specialists, all the necessary medications and supplies are available in the department," said the hospital's chief physician, Yuri Lednev. The doctors are not bothering the man with questions too much, they understand that he will have to undergo long-term rehabilitation, including psychological rehabilitation. Meanwhile, after the patient's condition improved, Deputy Chairman of the Magadan Region Government Tatyana Savchenko came to see him. Local authorities promised to help the victims, are ready to cover the costs of returning to Ulan-Ude and even pay for air tickets if relatives plan to fly to Kolyma. However, according to Yuri Lednev, the patient needs time to regain his strength, and there is too little time to talk about a quick return to Buryatia.
This incredible story begins on August 4, when three travelers from the Sakhalin port of Moskalvo, Mikhail Pichugin, his brother Sergey and his 15-year-old son Ilya, sailed on an inflatable boat to Shantar. It all started with me going to Shantar. islands. We sailed back to the mainland, to Sakhalin. But Mikhail's 12-year-old daughter, who visited Sakhalin last summer with her father, was also going to go on the hike. But the girl did not want to see the whale and flew to Krasnoyarsk to her aunt, and this saved her.
Mikhail's 12-year-old daughter was also supposed to join him on the fateful journey to Shantar. But the girl lost her desire and flew to Krasnoyarsk.
The travelers were supposed to return north to Sakhalin on August 9. I had warm clothes, some food and water. The boat had to travel from the cape in Nikolaevsky District of Khabarovsk Krai to the port of Moskalvo in Oksky District of Sakhalin Oblast in a matter of hours. However, the travelers never reached their final destination. The search was extensive. Rescue teams from three regions worked. But in vain.
It later turned out that the catamaran's engine had stalled, causing the ship to slow down. Now I leave it to the waves and the wind. On the evening of October 14, the catamaran was discovered in the Sea of Okhotsk, 20 km from the village of Ust-Khairuzovo in Kamchatka, almost 1,000 km north of Sakhalin, where the tourists were heading. The fishermen found the boat in the dark.
Pichugin was supplied with food and water for only two weeks, and Ilya died first from exhaustion. The teenager's father spontaneously began screaming and jumping out of the boat. So Mikhail had to pull him out of the water, change his clothes and warm him up. Mikhail himself told the rescuers about this, as quoted by Kamchatka-Inform: According to Mikhail, his brother and nephew died on September 18 and 28. He remembers this date exactly and always maintains a clear mind. First, the teenager passed away, and then the father, distraught over the loss, stopped fighting. Mikhail carefully wrapped their bodies in tarpaulin and placed them on the bow of the boat.
Doctors note that Pichugin lost 50 kg, exactly half of his previous weight. They say that this is what saved him. He had such a physique. However, Pichugin himself did not agree with this and said that he survived only thanks to God's help. But how? How could he not fall into despair in the endless sea? He has not yet shared any details. But the discovery made by the fishing vessel "Angel" was not accidental.
"What if an 'angel' had saved me?" Mikhail smiled weakly as he lay on the hospital couch.
- I had a Mongol sleeping bag made of camel wool. "Wet your feet, so get in there, turn around a little and get warm." The tourist says:
The inner part of the Mongolian sleeping bag is made of 100% camel wool, which provides excellent warmth, ventilation and moisture evaporation. It can be worn comfortably at temperatures down to -35 degrees Celsius. The outer part of the bag is made of moisture-resistant fabric. Perhaps it was one of the reasons that Pichugin survived in harsh climatic conditions.
- There was no choice. “In the end, mother and daughter stayed home,” Pichugin said, admitting that he was eager to return to his family in Ulan-Ude.
The entire Pichugin family comes from Buryatia. The late Sergei was an entrepreneur, and his younger brother worked as a shift driver on Sakhalin. As Mikhail Pichugin's ex-wife Ekaterina told REN TV, the official search for the two men and boy who went missing in the Sea of Okhotsk was suspended and then resumed. Relatives wrote several statements to the prosecutor's office. Then the search resumed and then stopped again.
"I wrote a statement about where exactly to go, wrote down the address, flew there and that's it," the woman told the channel. According to her, rescue teams were sent to places they had never been before, but the search area turned out to be very large. According to her, relatives took part in the search. They came and surveyed the coast. Although more than 10 signal flares were fired, the missing person could not be found.
Mikhail Pichugin, who is in intensive care, speaks normally and thinks clearly. Investigative Committee investigators were allowed to talk to him for the first time. The family of his deceased brother and nephew do not blame him for the tragedy, although it was Mikhail who invited them to the ends of the earth.