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Captured soldier saved Betancourt's life

FREED Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt has told how a Colombian soldier saved her life by nursing her when she fell ill in captivity.

Corporal William Perez, 36, was captured by leftist rebels in March 1998 in the jungle of Caqueta in southern Colombia where he was stationed at the time. He had a basic knowledge of nursing because he had worked at Bogota's military hospital.

"He was my nurse in moments when I was in very bad health. I want to recognise him specially, because if it were not for William, I would not be here today," Ms Betancourt said in Bogota, grasping Corporal Perez's hand.

Corporal Perez, himself visibly sick, told how Ms Betancourt fell into such a deep depression that she could not move her arms, and at moments lost consciousness.

"She was very weak, and I had to give her a lot of serum, to feed her carefully because she could not eat anything, anything she ate she vomited," he said.

"I helped her to get up and get down because she lacked the will even to walk. She couldn't walk," he said, adding that while the rebels sometimes had medicine, they did not know how to use them.

"The guerrillas had things there but didn't know what they were, so I would ask for one thing or another and give the medicine to Ingrid," Corporal Perez said.

"Sometimes Ingrid told me she wanted to die because she saw no way out. She was very sick. In the footage you saw that scandalised the world, she was already getting better," he said.

Concerns about Ms Betancourt's health mushroomed after she appeared gaunt and depressed in a video taped in October and released publicly in November.

She became so ill earlier this year that her rebel captors took her to medical facilities in southeastern Colombia.

Colombian Ombudsman Volmar Perez said at the time that Ms Betancourt was suffering from hepatitis B and leishmaniasis, a skin disease caused by insect bites, citing sources he declined to identify.

Today, dozens of residents of the northern city of Riohacha crowded the small home of Carmen Medina, Corporal Perez's mother, to celebrate with her.

"I feel so much happiness, I don't know how to describe it," local media quoted her as saying.

Corporal Perez said today he wanted to return to the army, but never again to the nursing he was forced to do in captivity.

Corporal Perez was one of 11 soldiers and police rescued along with Ms Betancourt and three US nationals in a daring Colombian intelligence operation yesterday. Most had been held hostage for more than a decade.

All 11 exhibited symptoms of illnesses contracted in the jungle, including malaria, leishmaniasis and digestive problems.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23967102-12377,00.h...

By tasco66 on Jul 4, 2008, 05:16 in Friendly Talkzone.