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A Haitian girl is rescued by a French team after being in the rubble more than two weeks in Port-au-Prince - Source: Reuters -
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A teenage girl was pulled alive from under a collapsed house in
Port-au-Prince, 15 days after Haiti's devastating earthquake.
She was severely dehydrated and had a leg injury but was conscious
when she was dragged out of the rubble by French and Haitian
rescuers, and they said they expected her to survive.
"I don't know how she happened to resist that long. It's a
miracle," said rescue worker JP Malaganne.
He said the girl, named Darline and believed to be 16, was happy,
shocked and crying.
Someone heard her voice and urged local Red Cross and civil
protection workers to send rescuers to the site, said Stephan
Sadak, a member of the French rescue team.
The girl was trapped between a collapsed wall and a door in the
remains of her home near a school in Haiti's coastal capital, which
was devastated by a January 12 earthquake.
"She was able to survive because she wasn't crushed by the rubble
and there was a space where she could lie down," Sadak said.
Rescuers did not know if she had water or food with her. "It's
possible she may have had something, but not much," Sadak
said.
One man fed her candy as rescuers neared her and a throng of
neighbors cheered as she was pulled free 90 minutes after they
arrived.
"We are the best team in the world!" the elated crew shouted in
French after she was taken away by ambulance to a field
hospital.
More than 130 people have been rescued from the rubble since the
quake hit, surprising experts who believed they would not find so
many survivors.
"It's not at all usual. It's exceptional," said Sadak.
Haitians are still appealing to search teams to go to new
sites.
