An American yoga instructor who spent two weeks lost in the wilds of Hawaii and survived on plants and water has been found alive.
Amanda Eller, 35, was rescued on Friday beside a creek bed at the bottom of a ravine in a national forest on Maui after she was spotted by a helicopter.
She had been hiking when she vanished.
Her disappearance prompted a social media campaign to boost efforts to find her.
“Amanda has been found. She got lost and was stuck and slightly injured in the forest – way way out,” reads a posting on a “Find Amanda” Facebook page created after her disappearance on May 8.
Ms Eller, who also works as a physical therapist, has been in hospital since her rescue.
From the hospital, Amanda’s Message of Appreciation and Love to all of you. Press you may use this video (sarah haynes writing this i filmed and giving you rites now). This will be the only statement given by Amanda for a few days while she recovers. Her date and time of hospital release is unknown. She is so incredibly grateful for the coverage that you have given this and how you have played a huge part in getting her home.
Posted by Found Amanda on Saturday, May 25, 2019
A grassroots fund-raising campaign raised more than $70,000 (Dh257,000), and this allowed a helicopter to be chartered to look for her.
Ms Eller’s boyfriend was the last to see her. Police found her vehicle at a car park near a hiking trail.
“She is just as strong as we always said she would be. We knew she could make it this long,” people close to her wrote on the Facebook page, which was followed by more than 20,000 people.
During her ordeal, Ms Eller lost about seven kilograms, Javier Cantellops, one of the people who set out to search for her, told CNN. Ms Eller’s mother, Julia, said she had suffered a fractured leg.
