‘I started screaming that he’s alive!’: Man who got lost on hike in Puerto Rico found safe

By Adam Rife

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    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (WDJT) — A Pewaukee family vacationing in Puerto Rico is finally breathing a sigh of relief after their missing loved one was finally found safe.

Sixty-four-year-old Abdur Rahman went missing Sunday, Feb. 23, while on a rainforest hike.

His family, and dozens of rescuers, searched for him day and night.

He was finally located, alive and safe, on Tuesday, Feb. 25. Rahman was recovering in a Puerto Rican hospital Tuesday night. But his daughter told us she was close to thinking he was going to die.

Three extended families were on vacation in Puerto Rico. They went on a hike Sunday through a dense tropical rainforest.

A few of them took a side trail to take photos from a lookout spot. But not everyone made it back to the main trail.

Rahman’s daughter, Mehreen Asra, told us from Puerto Rico, “I never thought we’d find him alive.”

Fazal Hunzai is Mehreen’s husband and Rahman’s son-in-law. When Rahman did not return to the group, Hunzai said, “I told my wife, ‘Can you please call 911 right away. Because it sounds like he’s missing.'”

Hunzai said he knew right away something was wrong.

“I said, ‘Hey, where’s your dad?’ ‘He was ahead of us, I thought he was with you.’ I said, ‘No.’ Then my mind clicked.”

Moments earlier, Fazal himself had taken the wrong path. He worried his father-in-law had done the same. “Then I started running down the right trail. I run, run, run, run almost an hour.”

Police and rescuers responded immediately. They used search dogs and thermal imaging drones. But there was still no sign of Rahman.

The minutes turned into hours. “It was dark. It got dark very easy,” Hunzai said.

When it got too dark, police suspended the search.

Hunzai told us, “The police guy, he said, ‘You guys stay here. I don’t want you to come in, and I don’t want you to get hurt and then we have to look for you guys.”

They returned at 5 a.m. Sunday morning, searching all trails for any clues.

Asra said, “When we didn’t find him for 24 hours, I thought he fell somewhere and he passed away.”

After an entire day of searching, they again had to stop in the darkness.

Despite a heart condition, Rahman was fit, an avid hiker.

But the family’s hopes were slipping as the third day dawned.

Asra said, “We almost gave up.”

Finally, there came a message on the rescue radio: Abdur had been found, alive.

Hunzai recalled hearing an officer: “He said, ‘Yes, he is alive.’ I jumped like a little baby, hugging, like a piggyback hug, the police officer.”

Then Mehreen heard the news. “Then he said it again and I started screaming that he’s alive!”

Mehreen and Fazal got to see Abdur briefly. “His first words was, ‘I’m hungry,'” according to Hunzai.

Then Rahman was taken to the hospital.

He told his family he had not eaten since he went missing, and good water had been hard to find in the rainforest.

Asra told us, “I just came from inside; my dad was saying that wherever he was, that area was raining continuously throughout the night. He never slept in the last two days.”

The site where Rahman was found was a 15-hour walk from where he had been last seen.

But he suffered no major injuries. Asra said her father got some IVs Tuesday and a CT scan, and he will likely be discharged Wednesday with just a few scrapes.

She said he wants to go hiking again as soon as he’s able.

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