The young woman who was adrift at sea for more than 20 hours was discharged from the hospital in Faro, where he had been under observation since late Sunday afternoon, a hospital source told Lusa.
The teenager was admitted to the Pediatrics Observation Service (OR) of the Faro from the Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve (CHUA), where she was admitted after being rescued from the high seas by the Air Force, on Sunday, around 18 pm, 00 miles south of Vila Real de Santo António.
The young woman disappeared around 20:00 on Saturday, pushed by the wind, while practicing 'paddle' on Coelho beach, in Monte Gordo, in the municipality of Vila Real de Santo António.
She was found alive more than 20 hours later, 25 miles (about 46 kilometers) south of Vila Real de Santo António, by a merchant ship that was sailing on its way to Tangier, in Morocco.
A Portuguese Air Force helicopter was sent to collect the young woman, who was in a high state of hypothermia, and was later transported to the hospital in Faro.
On Monday, CHUA's clinical director, Horácio Guerreiro, described the young woman's state of health as stable, without serious injuries, with only manifestations of prostration, drowsiness, some pain and a sunburn on her skin.
The young woman was in a high-vigilance Pediatrics OR unit, almost equivalent to an Intensive Care unit.
Asked by journalists if his resistance, after so many hours adrift at sea, surprised the medical team, Horácio Guerreiro replied that the situation was surprising for everyone.
«With so much time at sea, in conditions, I think, of maximum stress, it is normal for everyone to be surprised. It takes a survival instinct, self-control, not panicking. This girl is a hero, without a doubt », she said.
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