Castaway José Salvador Alvarenga, Amid Doubts About Truth Of Story, Admitted To Hospital

Doctors say the health of José Salvador Alvarenga, the El Salvadoran fisherman who shoved out to sea with fishing partner Ezequiel Cordoba in Tapachula, Mexico, and turned up in the Marshall Islands 13 months later, has deteriorated after he gave statements to the press in apparent good health. CNN Mexico reports that Alvarenga checked back into a hospital on Thursday in Majuro, Marshall Islands with what doctors described as severe dehydration and vitamin deficiency, which had caused his extremities to swell. NBC reports that he’s on an IV drip and being monitored for possible infections which could arise as a result of his first contact with humans in over a year.

The 37-year-old has said that he managed to survive while adrift by drinking turtle blood and eating raw fish and sea birds. Friends and co-workers told AFP that “La Chancha” (“The Sow”), as he was known, was never much a picky eater. Alvarenga’s boss, Bellardino Rodriguez, told the site, "He wasn't picky. He ate everything. When he grabbed sardines, which we use as bait, we would tell him 'no Chancha!' But he would say with his husky voice: 'Yes, you have to try everything,'" That likely saved his life. The 24-year-old Ezequiel Cordoba wasn’t so lucky.

Alvarenga’s earlier appearance before cameras had sparked rumors that the El Salvadoran had made his story up, with Spain’s ABC pointing out that the fisherman hadn’t appeared to have lost much weight since his disappearance and his skin had not suffered particularly bad burns. The site also noted minor inconsistencies in his story, such as the date in which he had left the port in Chiapas. But the Marshall Islands official said it was “very likely,” based upon information obtained from his family and friends in El Salvador, that his story was true.