Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Survival skills kept her alive
'Miracle' woman discovered in forest
OFFICE OF THE FIRE COMMISSIONER PHOTO Enlarge Image
One of the abandoned buildings where Monaco took shelter while missing in the Belair forest.
A diabetic grandmother who ate wild mushrooms and drank puddle water was resting in hospital Friday after surviving nearly 48 hours lost in the bush.
Authorities feared the worst Friday morning as they began Day 3 of a search for the 66-year-old Winnipeg woman in the Belair Provincial Forest.
Nadia Monaco had not been seen since Wednesday at 9:30 a.m., when she became separated from a group picking mushrooms near Stead.
She was not dressed for the cold, wet weather, and did not have extra insulin. However, at about 8 a.m. Friday, searchers found the woman alive and well in an abandoned shed about 500 metres from where she was last spotted.
"When we met as a command staff this morning, our outlook was not positive," Manitoba Fire Commissioner Chris Jones said Friday after searchers found Monaco.
"We were actually looking at... the outcome not being what it was today," Jones said. "When we heard the news I can tell you there was a lot of silence in the command post. And we were all quite astonished with how well she fared."
Jones said Monaco was "cold, a little dehydrated but otherwise in really good spirits" when searchers found her.
Relatives said they were overjoyed the retired factory worker was all right.
"It was amazing, trust me," said Monaco's son.
He was sleeping at home in Winnipeg Friday after he'd been out looking for his mother.
Monaco was resting at the Beausejour Health Complex Friday.
Family members said they expected she'd be out of the hospital within one to two days.
Monaco declined to be interviewed but the woman's former brother-in-law, Bart Monaco, said the family was overjoyed.
He said he'd been in contact with the woman's daughter, who lives in the U.S.
She'd cried when she heard the good news, he said.
"Everybody said 'Thank God,' " he said.
RCMP spokesman Const. Miles Hiebert was similarly impressed at Monaco's condition. "(It's) nothing short of a miracle, as far as I'm concerned," he told the Free Press.
Monaco had no food other than the mushrooms she had been picking and perhaps some berries. "She had a basket of mushrooms and the basket was empty when we found her," Jones said.
Rescuers were impressed with Monaco's survivor skills.
She'd wrapped herself in some paper she found in an abandoned shed, binding it to her body with wire, to ward off the cold.
"In this case she did everything she possibly could to keep warm, to keep kind of out of the rain. And she kept herself fed and hydrated.
"It's a very good example of, if you have a bit of skills in the wilderness, how you can overcome pretty severe conditions," Jones said.
About 70 professionals and volunteers had combed the woods for Monaco on Wednesday and Thursday.
On Friday, when the search began at 6 a.m., their numbers had grown to about 100.
Two canine units were also deployed, as was a helicopter.
"They (searchers) were shouting for her and she called back to them and (they) found her," Hiebert said.
Monaco was transported by ambulance to hospital in Beausejour for examination.
"We had the family members at the scene and had her meet up with them before she left (for hospital)," said Jones.
He praised the volunteers, part of a network of 1,200 people available for such duties across the province.
"Their work cannot go unrecognized. It's volunteer -- they're not paid to do this -- and they're very compassionate about what they do," he said.
Hiebert said searchers had checked out abandoned buildings in the area more than once. But it appears that Monaco "kept moving and that's why they had so much trouble locating her."
"My message is going to be that if you do get lost in the woods... the first rule is that you stay put."
-- with files from Gabrielle Giroday
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 4, 2010 A4
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