Lao Voices

These are hard times for Hayden Adcock, a traveler to Laos from the Sunshine Coast of Australia. Hayden survived a horrible 11 days in the thick and humid jungle of Laos and, at this moment, is fighting for his life in a hospital in Thailand.

How did this nightmare start for Hayden? The 40-year-old had just completed a six-month contract teaching English in Hanoi. He is an experienced traveler, bushwalker, with travel experience from Australia, Europe and Africa, and had decided to spend the next six months of his leave from the Australian Tax Office making his way through South-East Asia.

After leaving Hanoi he began his trek through Laos on July 31 with the ultimate goal of reaching Thailand by the end of the six months. During his stay in a village in the Khammouane province he learned of a popular waterfall and was determined to find it. He did and progressed to find a second waterfall he had been told was a little further up the track.

However, the jungle of Laos can be a very unforgiving place. Bad weather was on the way and heavy rain hit the area, washing any sign of a track. The already humid jungle became thick with foliage and began to look the same everywhere; Hayden got lost. Chased by huge lizards, Hayden fell from the rocks and was severely injured.

Desperately, he wrote his name with rocks and used other rocks to show his direction of travel but the local villagers had no way of knowing he had moved on to the second waterfall. The villagers attempted to look for the Australian but were forced back by the bad weather.

Hayden had been in the jungle for close to nine days by then and the Australian embassy organized a helicopter search. Two days later, the helicopter spotted him but could not land at the sight because the jungle was too dense. A search party arrived by foot at Hayden’s spot four hours later.

After no food for 11 days and surviving on contaminated water, Hayden was found lying on his back, covered in welts, scratches, bruises and bites and had been unable to move for three days. Flies laid eggs in his skin and maggots were feeding of his wounds. His medical condition was very severe and treatment was needed for blood poisoning, pneumonia, a collapsed lung, malnutrition and stomach ulcers.

Hayden was air lifted to Bangkok and still, at this moment, he is still fighting for his life. Today there was news that Hayden’s condition is improving slowly which  gives hope to everyone who cares about his fate. This man needs to tell this story of his incredible survival in the beautiful but sometimes deadly jungle of Laos.

Source.