Woman Survives 38 Hours in Sea without Lifejacket

Liberty_of_the_Seas_La_Spezia_(_Royal_Caribbean_International)A woman survives nearly two days without lifejacket in jellyfish-infested water after falling overboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship.

The 32-year-old Chinese woman, known only by her surname Fan, is from Shanghai. She was on a five-day cruise from Shanghai to South Korea and Japan, local media reports.

The incident happened on Wednesday night. The tourist was enjoying the view on the deck, when she leaned over the rail to look at the sea, lost her balance and accidently fell forward into the sea. She called for help but no one was on deck that late.

Fan reportedly fell from the fourth deck, which is the height of a seven-floor building and according to Chinese media, the woman was lucky to survive that initial fall.

Her parents were with her aboard the cruise ship but they did not realize her missing until more than 10 hours later. They tried to check the surveillance cameras aboard to find out what happened to her. More tan 100 volunteers searched the ship and a police officer told her parents there was little chance of survival as she had fallen from 65 feet into the water. Her father refused to believe she was alive until he spoke to her on the phone.

Fan says she is a very good swimmer as she graduated from a sports university and started swimming from the age of five. The woman survived by keeping herself afloat even after falling asleep. She managed to swim out of the way of approaching large ships. She was finally rescued by fishermen on Friday morning and taken to a local hospital. The woman survived after not eating or drinking for more than 38 hours and only suffered blisters from jellyfish stings.