It's almost like I'm home...
An Australian man who was lost in a Laotian jungle for 11 days without food is having his body re-built "one organ at a time", his father said today.
Queensland-based Stan Adcock said he was hopeful his 40-year-old son Hayden would make a full recovery after being rescued from a remote jungle location in central Laos and evacuated to Thailand.
"He's still in a critical conditon of course, he's not out of the woods yet, but they're working on it and they feel there will be a total recovery - well they're hoping so," Mr Adcock said.
"I'm hoping that means not only will he survive but they'll have all of his bodily functions restored, he won't be in a wheelchair or anything."
Hayden Adcock, who was born in Victoria and grew up on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, went missing after setting out on a short walk to a waterfall in a national park in Khammouane province on July 31.
The Australian embassy in Vientiane was notified he was missing on August 8 and two staff immediately travelled to the area to help coordinate search efforts.
However, heavy rain and flooding hampered efforts on the ground and it was not until a helicopter search was conducted two days later that he was found and evacuated to Bangkok.
Mr Adcock said his Hong Kong-based nephew arrived in Thailand yesterday and held the telephone to Hayden's ear so he could talk.
"They'd just taken the tube out of his throat and he's still got an oxygen mask on and they put the phone to his ear and he was able to try and talk to me," he said.
"I couldn't understand a word he said of course because the tube in the voice box had upset his throat but that was the most thrilling piece of news we'd had."
Mr Adcock said it was still early days for his son but the family was feeling positive.
"I'm thrilled that Hayden has got such a fighting spirit and that gives me a lot of confidence," he said.
"If he'd dropped his bundle or something like that that would have been hard to bear."
Hayden Adcock's mother will arrive in Bangkok tomorrow, Mr Adcock said.
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...which we knew. What we didn't know is that she's GORGEOUS!!!
(PICTURE: Kathy, ready to pop!)
(PICTURE: Hayden Adcock ... close to death when found.)
THE father of the Australian tourist who was lost in the jungle for 11 days in flood-ravaged Laos has no idea how his son survived.
"It's a good question," Stan Adcock said. "He was in pouring rain and he was covered in scratches and bruises and goodness knows what. His stomach was empty, the doctor said, so he hadn't been eating and he was pretty close to death when they found him.
"He was conscious but away with the fairies. He wasn't able to make a great deal of sense."
Mr Adcock, who lost his other son in a motor accident at age 16, is unable to find out much more because his son is still in intensive care in Bangkok General Hospital after being found on August 10.
Hayden Adcock, 40, set off for a short walk to the Tad Namsanam waterfall in the province of Khammouane on July 31.
"He's a bushwalker, he just loves that type of thing," Mr Adcock said.
"He just went out for a two-hour walk to a waterfall in the jungle and there was a second waterfall and he decided to go to that as well.
"Then the downpour of rain just washed away all the walk tracks so he became hopelessly lost.
"When he didn't return to his lodgings they went searching for him, a ground search, but that was at the wrong waterfall."
The Australian ambassador to Laos, Michele Forster, said the embassy was not told of Mr Adcock's disappearance until August 8 and sent two officials to the area. "At the time, it was raining in the village, quite cold and the conditions were very difficult," Dr Forster said. "The village community and local government had done a lot to try to find him but they had been unable to locate him."
After two days, the embassy and the Red Cross organised a helicopter search.
Mr Adcock was found at the other waterfall but the helicopter was unable to land.
It took villagers almost four hours to carry him out on a stretcher, cutting through the thick jungle.
Mr Adcock, who has worked around Australia and the world, had taken 12 months off from his job with the Tax Office to teach English in Vietnam before heading to Laos.
His father has managed to speak to him once since his rescue. "He just said it took them three hours to get where he was and that's all they'd allow him to say," he said.
Doctors took Mr Adcock off a ventilator yesterday.
"He's in critical condition but there has been slight improvement," his father said.
"Now and again he has to have a special operation. Yesterday he had an operation for bleeding in the stomach."
Dr Forster said the embassy planned to support a small tourist office with guides to lead treks to the waterfall and the surrounding jungle.
"We will be looking at different ways to support the community," Dr Forster said. "We feel deep gratitude to the local villagers and authorities that assisted us."
