Rescuers found 2 shipwrecked children clinging to their deceased mother, who saved their lives by drinking her urine to breastfeed them

• A Venezuelan mother has died saving her children after a boat they were on capsized this month.

• As she drifted on a lifeboat for days, Mariely Chacón drank her own urine to breastfeed her children.

• Rescuers found the children, aged 2 and 6, clinging to their mother, who died of dehydration.

• Visit the Insider home page for more stories.

A Venezuelan woman has been hailed as a hero for keeping her children alive after the boat they were on capsized, leaving them all to drift in the sea for four days, Newsweek reported.

Mariely Chacón, her husband and their two children, aged 6 and 2, were on a pleasure cruise from Higuerote to Tortuga Island, Venezuela, with five other people when a big wave cracked the hull of the boat on September 3.

The incident forced the group to spend four days adrift in a small lifeboat in the scorching sun.

To keep her children alive, Chacón drank her urine, which allowed her to breastfeed them, Newsweek reported.

The children, identified as Jose David and Maria Beatriz Camblor Chacón, were found alive by rescuers earlier this week. They were found clinging to their mother, who died of dehydration.

“The deceased mother kept her children alive by breastfeeding them and drinking her own urine,” a spokesperson for the Instituto Nacional de los Espacios Acuáticos (INEA) said, according to the New York Post. “She died three or four hours before the rescue from dehydration after not drinking water for three days.”

The children’s nanny, Veronica Martinez, 25, was also found alive on the lifeboat. She was treated for first degree burns and dehydration, according to the New York Post.

The other five people, including the father of the children, have not yet been found. The INEA spokesperson said there was very little chance of finding them.

Chacón’s death shocked the nation. His funeral took place on September 11 and was broadcast on YouTube.

His father, Humberto Chacón, said the pleasure cruise was “just a family trip to keep the kids entertained,” according to Newsweek.

Read the original article on Insider