Nadia Bloom: 'I Thought I Was Never Going To Be Found Out There'
April 26, 2010— -- The 11-year-old girl who was missing for four days described how she survived the dangerous Florida swamp and said she was scared and worried no one would ever find her.
"I really wanted to see nature and take pictures. But I didn't know I was going to get lost," Nadia Bloom told "GMA" today.
Nadia disappeared April 9 after she asked her parents if she could go on a bike ride. For four days, police and volunteers canvassed the surrounding area until she was found by volunteer searcher James King April 13.
Nadia tried to signal a helicopter from the swamp but said she kept missing it and was "excited" when she saw King.
"I thought I was never going to be found out there. But it turned out I was, and that was the exciting part," Nadia said.
Nadia has Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, but her parents said that was not likely a factor in her disappearance.
"She's not going to wander off, necessarily," Nadia's mother, Tanya Bloom, said last week. "This wasn't because of that [the Asperger's]. This was because she was curious."
Nadia described the animals she saw in the swamp, including lizards, a snake, an eagle, hawks and owls, saying they were "kind of cool."
The 11-year-old said she ate plants and slept in a hollow log, under a bush or on a tree stump at night.
"I tried to eat a fern but it was so gross that I spit it out. ... There were these plants, and they have spongy insides, and you can eat them and they're green. I ate those," Nadia said.
Nadia's mother said getting through those four days was "very very difficult" for the family.
"There were moments that we were hopeful with either news, or just encouraged by friends and family. We had a great support community out there," Tanya Bloom said. "But there were also times when it was really hard to hold onto that help, especially when it became dark, which seemed to come really really quickly. The night time was probably the worst."
Family members relied on their faith to help them through the ordeal, Tanya Bloom told Robin Roberts.
