Deaf-mute Vietnamese woman, 79, survives four days lost in jungle in second miracle rescue

The elderly woman, B.T.C., was found in a thicket nearly eight kilometers from her home in Ban Thac Hamlet, Yen Hoa Commune, Tuyen Quang Province, at around 4:00 pm on Wednesday, after spending four days and three nights lost in the jungle, according to local authorities.

When rescuers found C., she was exhausted and suffering from low blood sugar after going without food for four days, Hoang Van Thuan, head of the hamlet, said.

"We prepared milk, water and food for her. When we found her, her blood sugar had dropped, and she regained consciousness after drinking two cartons of milk," Thuan said.

Yen Hoa police received a report from her family on October 20 that she had left home on October 18 and had not returned.

Police mobilized search teams and coordinated with police from neighboring communes and local forces to look for her.

Her relatives and local residents also searched for her, with villagers beginning to comb the surrounding jungle on the morning of October 19.

As she could neither speak nor hear, she was unable to call out for help, Thuan said.

He believed that she had taken a wrong turn onto a logging road in a tree plantation and wandered deep into the jungle, unable to find her way out.

The elderly woman is cared for by a nephew adopted by her late elder brother, who had no children of his own, according to local authorities.

The nephew's family is classified as poor and faces severe financial hardship.

This was not the first time C. had gone missing and ended up far from home, Thuan said.

Several years ago, the woman went missing and was eventually found more than 100 kilometers from her home, in what was then Ha Giang Province, which was merged into Tuyen Quang on July 1, 2025 under a national administrative restructuring, he recounted.