I still don’t know much about this but the tiny amount of information I have seen gave the impression that it was the best time of the year for jungle fruit availability and that it was a near thing, with the kids maybe spending 2 weeks in the hospital, and the oldest girl seems to be pretty native so she had some basic familiarity with things.
Keeping that baby and a toddler alive, and while you are a weakening 13 and 9-year-old as the weeks then a month, and then more time goes by is quite a phenomenal accomplishment.
I’m amazed that they kept searching for them for so long