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MIAMI (WSVN) – A Cuban migrant found lying on a makeshift raft off Key Biscayne by a good Samaritan, who gave him water and alerted authorities, is out of the hospital.
The young man said he left Cuba with his uncle, a woman and her brother, but he wound up the sole survivor of the journey to South Florida.
“I thought about a lot of things,” he said. “I thought, ‘Am I going to make it there? Am I going to die? What is going to happen to me?’ I thought about a lot of things.”
As he walked out of Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami on Wednesday, he could be seen with both of his legs bandaged and with cuts on his hands.
He said the heat from the sun was unbearable and peeled their skin. He added that the woman’s nails were falling off, and her brother was so dehydrated, he began to cough up blood.
“Three days after we left, our raft overturned, and we lost our food and water,” he said. “She couldn’t take it anymore. She couldn’t stand the heat from the sun. It was burning her skin. She jumped into the water with her brother.”
At that point, he was left on the raft with his uncle until he was swept away.
“A piece of the raft fell, and he threw himself to grab it,” he said. “The rope was too big, and it carried him away.”
The man said he had been lying on the raft alone for several days and was not sure he was going to survive.
“I lifted my head and saw a boat,” he said. “They were recording, and I asked them for help.”
Authorities said a good Samaritan spotted him on Saturday and contacted them immediately. He was then taken to the hospital with severe injuries.
The U.S. Coast Guard has contacted U.S. Customs and Border Protection about the man’s arrival.
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