Shipwrecked Venezuelan mother died of thirst despite drinking her own URINE ...

A desperate mum-of-two drank her own urine to keep her two children alive by breastfeeding them after their boat was smashed apart by a wave during an outing with friends.

Mariely Chacon, 40, sacrificed her own life to save those of her six-year-old son and two-year-old daughter by trying to stave off dehydration so they had a fighting chance of surviving the harrowing shipwreck.

She was left adrift with her kids, found clinging to their dead mum, and their 25-year-old nanny Veronica Martinez for four days in baking temperatures after heading out on a boat trip with family and friends that turned to disaster after a huge wave smashed the vessel's hull.

They had left Higuerote in their native Venezuela for the uninhabited Caribbean island of La Tortuga off the country's north coast on September 3 aboard the vessel Thor de Higuerote, an Intermarine 229 leisure boat. 

When the craft did not arrive in La Tortuga, their absence sparked a rescue operation that led to the discovery of three of the survivors on an improvised lifeboat and their transfer to hospital.

The nanny was found in a small fridge where she had reportedly taken refuge to stay out of the sweltering heat.

Five people including Remis David Camblor, Mariely's husband and the father of the children, are still said to be missing.

The kids and nanny were rushed to hospital so they could be treated for dehydration and first-degree burns.

Officials have confirmed Mariely, who died from organ failure caused by dehydration, kept her children alive by drinking her own urine so she could breastfeed them.

A forensic medicine source quoted by

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