The 48-year-old woman Lillian Ip had driven off on a short trip over a week ago, travelling through dense bush in the State of Victoria. Unfortunately she took a wrong turn at one point and hit a dead-end with her vehicle getting stuck in the mud.

After being stranded for five nights, she was rescued by emergency services of Victoria on Friday as they flew overhead as part of the search. She was found around 60km away from the nearest town. Due to health issues she was unable to walk far, so stayed with her car, according to the Victoria police.

She was carrying no water but had a few snacks and candy that helped her last 5 days.  Fortunately she was carrying a bottle of wine as a gift for her mother. She is a teetotaler but she was able to survive by drinking wine to hydrate herself and rationing the wine each time she felt thirsty. The choice she made of drinking small sips of wine made her last out the 5 days and save her life.

“She used great common sense to stay with her car and not wander off into bushland, which assisted in police being able to find her.” Lilian was taken to hospital to be treated for dehydration, but has since returned home to Melbourne.

This unfortunate incidence brings to mind another benefit of wine for emergency. One may not survive without water for 5 days but she has given a new perspective – how to survive when there is no water but wine.

Reportedly, the lady does not drink alcohol but does smoke-this could have been traumatic but of course would not kill her. It was natural for her to ask for water when she was rescued by the two police officers and also a cigarette.

That wine helped her save life is not difficult to understand. Decades ago when the per capita wine drinking in Europe was at its peak with 50-60 liters consumed annually in countries like Italy, France and Spain, one of the primary reasons was that water used to be contaminated and the quaffable wine with lower alcohol than today, was an excellent substitute. Many people have told me that they would not drink water for days and lived only on wine during and in-between meals.

This is not to suggest that wine should become a regular substitute for water which is a basic requirement for the body, though the water content of wine helps one stay hydrated. I would not recommend replacing water with wine. But one of the side benefits that has been highlighted in this mishap is that wine can be a life saver in an emergency. I wonder if the lady starts drinking wine now but if you are a teetotaler, delWine or I would not recommend start drinking wine now.

The unprecedented coverage of the instance in the global media including Social Media also underlines the value the system assigns to each human life in a developed country like Australia, unlike in a developing country like India (though many people already call it a developed society based on the strength of the economy) where dozens die somewhere or the other under natural or unnatural calamities every day and the response to such instances remains blasé.

We wish the lady good health and hope that she liked the taste and starts drinking wine regularly but in moderation.

Subhash Arora