MAJURO, Marshall Islands, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Jose Salvador Alvarenga, who says he survived 13 months at sea before washing up in the Marshall Islands, moved from a hospital to a hotel Friday.
Alvarenga was hospitalized Thursday, CNN reported. But he was released to a hotel in Majuro, capital of the Marshall Islands, a day later.
Dr. Franklin House, a retired U.S. physician, told CNN Alvarenga may be suffering from scurvy. House, who is not the doctor in charge of Alvarenga's treatment, said the man has complained of pain in his kidneys since he arrived in the islands.
Alvarenga, a Dominican who had been living illegally in Mexico, said he went fishing for shark in late 2012 with another man. They got caught in a storm and then lost their engines, and he survived for 13 months on a diet of raw fish and turtles.
The other man, Ezequiel Cordova, 23, refused to eat raw meat and died after about four weeks, Alvarenga said.
Officials say Alvarenga's story, improbable as it sounds, appears to be true. Cordova disappeared in December 2012.
Cordova's mother said she wants to talk to Alvarenga to find out exactly what happened.
"My brother was kind, he was responsible for my mother," Cordova's brother told CNN. "In fact, he worked in the sea because of her. He wanted to improve himself. He didn't want to be poor, like us."
