Shipwrecked mum found dead saved her children by breastfeeding them at sea

The kids are being treated in hospital

A Venezuelan mum was found dead after being shipwrecked at sea - but her two kids were saved thanks to their mother breastfeeding them while marooned in the ocean. Mariely Chacón, 40, and her two kids Jose David and Maria Beatriz, were marooned in the Atlantic ocean after a wave capsized their vessel. The family travelled from Higuerote to Tortuga Island with Chacón's husband Remis Clambor, the children's nanny Verónica Martinez, friends and crew, reports Newsweek. Chacón was 70 miles out at sea, adrift with her two children and the nanny Martinez. It is believed she drank her own urine and was able to keep her kids alive by breastfeeding them while Martinez hid in an empty icebox. The group were found by officials four days later where they confirmed that Chacón had died. Her vital organs had collapsed due to electrolyte depletion that had been caused by her dehydration and potentially accelerated by breastfeeding, reports La República. La República also quoted her father, Humberto Chacón, as saying the boat trip was "simply a family trip to entertain the children". The two children and Martinez were taken to hospital. However, Jose Javier Marcano Narvaez, Alejandro Osorio Graterol, Vianney Carolina Dos Santos Morales and Remis David Camblor are all still missing. Venezuela's National Maritime Authority INEA said: "On September 3 at 9.30am a pleasure boat called Thor left Higuerote for La Tortuga Island with the return scheduled for September 5. "Port authorities were informed on September 5 around 11pm it had failed to reach its destination or returned to the location it had left from and a search operation was launched."

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