required to replenish his water loss. He suffered damage to his liver, disabling him from digesting food and causing him to eat soup, liquids and food ground up by a blender for months. Prosperi experienced severe leg cramps for a year and his kidneys experienced permanent damage. It took almost two years for Prosperi to recover. After recovering for seven days in Algerian hospitals, Prosperi returned to Rome. He was reunited with his family and received a welcoming return home. Prosperi was interviewed as his story was told in newspaper articles and photographed with Italian dignitaries. Following his disappearance, race regulations of the Marathon des Sables were altered to ensure participants' safety was improved. Runners are now equipped with heavier and larger distress flares, to be used in cases of disorientation. Prosperi has since returned to the Marathon Des Sables six times, notably placing 13th in 2001. He has said that once he starts something, he wants to finish it. Prosperi has also expressed his love for the desert, saying he is drawn to experiencing it every year. He has stated that sport and nature are significant parts of his life and that these races allow him to experience these aspects first-hand."I feel a connection there", he said. "I love the clarity. And you see, the Sahara spared my life. Those days in the desert were my happiest." Portrayal in media Public reception to Prosperi's story is polarised, largely due to his portrayal within the media. Following his return to Italy, Prosperi was celebrated widely as the man who had come back from the dead, and was named "the Robinson Crusoe of the Sahara". Despite this, several sports physiologists have questioned the medical viability of his account, with some saying Prosperi exacerbated or staged the occurrence for fame. In 1998, Marathon Des Sables founder Patrick Bauer told Men's Journal that Prosperi's story was a fabrication, saying: "Don't listen to Mr. Prosperi, his story is a fabrication. He will have you believe he is Superman. It is physiologically impossible for a man to travel more than 200 kilometers in the desert without water. This is a supernatural act. It's possible that he got genuinely lost for a few days. But all the rest rings false. We believe that early on he was picked up by someone. And then he decided to hide out for a while. He thought he could make