A distraught widow whose husband died on a sailing trip in the Amazon rainforest last month fought off vultures and subsisted on raw fish for a week before she was saved, according to a report.

Maria das Gracas Mota Bernardo was left adrift on the Rio Negro, a tributary of the Amazon River after Jose Nilson de Souza Bernardo, 68, died on board their boat.

 “After dinner, [José] went to lie down in the hammock, but the rope snapped and he was startled,” said the couple’s daughter, Cristiane, in an interview with Brazilian media.

“He got up and hit his knee. He sat down again and started fanning himself, telling my mother that he was feeling hot. She said he then stood up, screamed, and fell over. She caught him, lifted his head, and he took his last breath.”

Maria spent the next week furiously paddling after the motor stopped working on the boat.

She lived on flour and raw fish for a week and fought off vultures that swooped onto the boat.

“My mother said vultures started to perch on top of the vessel,” Cristiane said. “She hit them and they screamed. She took the tarp off the top of the awning and put it over the body because bees and mosquitoes were already sitting on his corpse.”

A Brazilian navy helicopter rescued Maria on April 4.

An autopsy is being conducted on Jose’s remains to determine the exact cause of death, according to reports.