Incredible world record for surviving longest time without food or water – and the shocking police blunder behind it
MOST world record holders spend years preparing and planning their bid to gain a spot in the history books.
But the bloke who holds the title for surviving the longest time without food or drink didn’t even intend to stake a claim to it.
Andreas Mihavecz miraculously survived 18 hellish days without any sustenance after a scandalous police error that shocked the world.
The majority of scientists agree that humans can only last for a few days without any food or water.
A healthy person can only endure 21 days without food and just three without water – but the Austrian teen somehow defied these limits.
Andreas, regarded as a medical marvel, extraordinarily clung to life despite his horror experience of being deserted in a prison cell.
He was mistakenly taken into custody by cops in the small town of Höchst on Lake Constance following a car accident where he was the passenger.
Although he was not responsible for the crash, the then-18-year-old was hauled down to a dingy detention cell in the basement.
Bizarrely, the three officers in charge of the bricklayer’s apprentice from Bregenz forgot about locking him up.
Andreas’ was trapped in a living nightmare, where no one could hear his desperate screams for help, food and drink.
The terrified teen was left to waste away for a whopping 18 days.
His only source of water was the scarce condensation that covered the walls of the cramped cell.
Nearly three weeks after he was imprisoned, police finally checked the basement lock-up after cops complained of a strange smell.
They found the emaciated teenager on April 19, 1979, barely clinging to life.
Local media reports at the time described how Andreas had lost 24kg of weight and was rushed to hospital after police realised their epic blunder.
According to Guinness World Records, he was “close to death”.
Andreas would have been in the throes of severe dehydration, which would be wreaking havoc on his internal organs.
Professor Dileep Lobo, who researches fluids and electrolyte balance, explained to the BBC: “When thirst kicks in, your body clings to all remaining moisture.
“Your kidneys send less water to your bladder, darkening your urine.
“As you sweat less, your body temperature rises. Your blood becomes thicker and sluggish. To maintain oxygen levels, your heart rate increases.”
The teenager would have likely experienced extreme exhaustion, physical fatigue and even delirium as his kidneys struggled to cope.
The three German officers who had mistakenly arrested him insisted that they thought that one of them had already released him.
Andreas’ mother claimed she was repeatedly ignored by the force when she pressed for answers about his whereabouts.
Inspectors Markus Weber, Heinz Ceheter and Erwin Shchneider were put on trial for “gross negligence in office”, records show.
But the court proceedings did little to get to the bottom of who was responsible for the catastrophic gaffe, as each one blamed the other.
It was revealed that one of the officers had filed a missing person‘s report for Andreas just one day before the gaunt teen was found.
His frantic mother had already badgered police to investigate her son’s disappearance while he rotted away in the secluded cell.
The cop’s report was issued on a form that had been invalid for ten years and it only reached a superior officer a week later.
Despite the near-fatal fiasco, the three officers were only slapped with fines of around £1,777 each, according to the Hamburger Abendblatt.
Andreas spent several weeks recovering from his outlandish ordeal.
The Supreme Court in Vienna later awarded him around £15,996 in compensation, according to reports.
According to Guinness World Records, Andreas holds the title for the “longest survival without food and water.”
His incredible story of survival was later told in a book of German urban legends, replacing the myth with a man.
It was a modern retelling of a medieval folk talk describing a forgotten peasant trapped inside a debtor’s prison.