4 Year Old Lost In The Siberian Wilderness Gets A Miracle From An Unlikely Hero

[Music] [Applause] siberia is not for the unprepared if the animals don't get you the mucky bogs and wetlands might be what do you in and while navigating that terrain you have to look out for wintry temperatures of like negative 70 degrees fahrenheit and did we mention there aren't a lot of people around to help you when you're in trouble in other words it's the last place a four-year-old and her dog would want to make their playground but that didn't stop little karina chikitova and her pooch from following her dad into the dangerous wilds anyway where she faced every challenge the rugged terrain had to offer four-year-old karina chikitova lived in a remote siberian village in the far east region called the saka republic there she shared a small home with her father mother grandmother and her dog nida like most kids her age karina was energized by a youthful curiosity that urged to explore and know and understand which was why in july of 2014 she followed her father rhodian on an expedition into a part of the siberian wilderness also known as the tyga now this decision was problematic for a few different reasons the first reason being that the taiga is very much an animal kingdom dominated by bears tigers and wolves with really sharp teeth and an appetite for people the second problem with karina's decision was that she'd not told her grandmother the person charged with watching her at the time that she would be following her dad into the bare infested wilderness in fact she hadn't even told her dead that she'd be following him so literally no one on the planet knew that this four-year-old girl was diving headstrong into the most dangerous territory on the planet no person at least karina did have a companion at her side nida the family dog that evidently was all the comfort the little girl needed but it was little comfort to her mother telena when she realized her little girl and the dog were both missing at first telena figured her youngster and the dog followed rhodian to his native village but siberia wasn't exactly flooded with quality lte so she couldn't pull out a cell phone and check instead she waited to hear from her husband in the meantime karina followed her father until she somehow managed to lose his trail her dad disappeared from view leaving her very much stranded in siberia with naida and the bears and the wolves it took four days of waiting for mother telina to learn that no her daughter was not with her husband in his home village no stranger to siberia she understood this to be a very bad thing so she alerted authorities they deployed a 100 person rescue team to head out into the siberian wilds to find her the team carried rifles to fend off bears yeah there were that many bears in the woods helicopters sliced the sky and rescue workers on foot combed through the trees and tall grass but their search proved fruitless karina was nowhere to be seen but then nine days after she went missing authorities found a clue more specifically a clue walked right up to the authorities and introduced herself nida returned home but karina was not with her what should have been a hopeful moment only seemed to confirm telina's worst thoughts if she was to hug her puppy talina said we thought this would have given her a chance to survive so when her dog came back we thought that's it even if she was alive and chances were slim now she would have definitely lost all hope but nida hadn't just wandered absent-mindedly home she seemed eager to show the desperate family and the rescue crew something important the dog headed the group of rescuers and led them into the wilderness the dog led authorities to a spot in the wilderness but none of them saw karina there naida it seemed couldn't find the exact area where she'd left the little girl authorities wondered if they were anywhere near her at all but three days later 12 days after karina first went missing rescue workers spotted a child-sized footprint on a riverbed beside a dog's print the footprint revealed karina was barefoot a crucial detail for investigators this told rescue workers that karina was likely not in the woods too many sharp sticks there would have been a nightmare on her feet this narrowed their search down considerably and the following morning they executed the new search plan and sure enough just 20 meters from where they started searching one rescue worker noticed a peculiar lump tucked away in a patch of tall grass the whole crew rushed over they found her nestled in the grass she was starving thirsty exhausted and covered in mosquito bites but nevertheless alive they brought her tea before carrying her to a car and whisking her away to a nearby hospital the child spent some time in the hospital but physicians determined there wouldn't be any lasting damage a psychologist examined her mental state and found shockingly her mind was in a good place talk about mental fortitude so how did a four-year-old survive in the siberian wilderness the little girl told reporters and her family that she survived off wild berries and river water then of course there was naida the lovable canine that gave her warmth and night and companionship in the daytime the two reunited for the first time back at home when the hospital released karina the meeting did not go as expected when karina first saw her dog she looked her in the eyes and chided why did you leave me those three days of solitude must have really affected the little girl but eventually she came to understand what her dog did for her it was naida who rescued me karina said sometime later i was really really really scared but when we were going to sleep i hugged her and together we were warm karina's story gripped everyone watching and locals even erected a statue of the girl in her pooch to celebrate their strength and will to survive not bad for a four-year-old girl and her dog huh in the end karina made a full recovery and by 2018 attended a ballet boarding school 350 miles away from the village she'd wandered away from all those years ago her teachers believe she had the talent to compete in russia's competitive ballet scene when she just started her classes karina was very reserved a boarding school leader said she's changed so much and became a lot more open sociable friendly and independent she made many friends who love her lots but even as she danced like an expert and earned friends with her exuberant personality she would never forget the friend that made it all possible nida the loyal canine thanks to an abundance of technologies and other people we can easily pinpoint our exact locations in this day and age it's hard to get truly lost though some places like rural siberia are not so wi-fi rich fifteen-year-old svetlana avai lived her entire life in the gaiden peninsula a frigid place in northern siberia svetlana dreamed of a life outside of the continuous routine with her family like many others she and her family herded reindeer to make a living though not the most exciting profession shepherding instilled svetlana with deep confidence when it came to navigating siberia's tough terrain while she was stuck at home svetlana wished she were with her brother he spent the summer at a different camp some distance away presumably living it up and having all the funds that lana wasn't allowed to have but of course he wasn't that far away just four miles svetlana figured she could make that journey in no time at all and that whatever her brother was up to had to be more exciting than sitting around with her family and some reindeer so svetlana set off to visit her brother she was traveling alone and without any kind of navigation aids but she wasn't worried she knew the terrain like the back of her hand so surely going a bit further wouldn't pose a problem several hours passed and svetlana started to panic she should have made it to her brother by now and yet she stood in the middle of the wilderness with no people or buildings in sight she began to feel dizzy meanwhile her family back home grew concerned svetlana had never gone out alone for such a long time her uncle ivan knowing that time was precious organized a search party of family members and neighbors they had to find her but ivan understood the vast scope of the siberian region they could surmise the rough direction in which savatlana had headed but that knowledge only went so far she could have gotten lost and switched to any other heading and that was precisely what happened after a rough night out on the tundra svetlana couldn't make heads or tails of where she was before she could head back home however another issue pressed on her mind survival svetlana felt certain help was on the way but realized it could be a while until anyone arrived with a bit of luck she located some cloudberries they were half frozen and unripe but they were food as more time passed vetlana kept moving she continuously looked over her shoulder for she knew dangerous beasts lived out in the tundra arctic wolves would usually go after stray reindeer but they would gladly accept a lost girl as their meal night fell again and again although daytime temperatures could sometimes reach 80 degrees fahrenheit the night air dropped far below freezing svetlana shivered herself to sleep as she fought to stay alive svetlana grew so weak that she could no longer walk nevertheless the will to survive kept her going praying that some help would arrive soon she began to crawl on her hands and knees she didn't have much time left her uncle ivan continued the search but there wasn't any traces of lana who went missing over two weeks before he had spotted some brown bears though could a bear have hunted her down and dragged her off to its den this made ivan walked around an area just seven miles from their home then without warning he spotted a figure on the horizon it ambled toward him without thinking he ran towards the shape and hoped for a miracle it was svetlana though her body was battered and bruised and she was emotionally spent somehow she stayed alive ivan resisted the urge to scold her for acting so foolishly and arranged for a physician to examine his niece living in such a remote part of the gaiden peninsula svetlana did not have access to a full medical staff in the immediate vicinity of her home a helicopter arrived to carry her to a hospital once aboard she shared her incredible story nobody could quite believe house vetlana scraped together the bare essentials out of the wilderness though still just a girl she managed to evade the tundra's many hazards while knowing how to take advantage of its biggest asset plenty of fresh water amazingly svetlana seemed pretty healthy though she had no shelter and barely any food over the course of two weeks her vinyls were pretty steady doctors found no sign that her life was in danger but just as a precaution svetlana's family kept her in the hospital in tozowski to fully recuperate they gave thanks that she survived such an ordeal and hoped that after her harrowing adventure svetlana wouldn't mind spending time at home again