Woman alive after 17 days under collapsed building
Source: Agencies |
May 11, 2013, Saturday
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A SEAMSTRESS buried for 17 days in the wreckage of a collapsed garment factory building in Bangladesh was rescued yesterday, a miraculous moment set against the unimaginable horror of more than 1,000 bodies recovered so far.
Reshma Begum was in such good shape she was able to walk, according to one rescuer. She said she survived on dried food and bottled water. She was discovered near a Muslim prayer room in the basement of the eight-story Rana Plaza building, where crews have been focused on recovering bodies, not rescuing survivors, since late last month.
"I heard voices of the rescue workers for the past several days. I kept hitting the wreckage with sticks and rods just to attract their attention," she told Somoy TV from her hospital bed as doctors and nurses milled about, giving her saline and checking her condition.
"No one heard me. It was so bad for me. I never dreamed I'd see the daylight again," she said.
"There was some dried food around me. I ate the dried food for 15 days. The last two days I had nothing but water. I used to drink only a limited quantity of water to save it. I had some bottles of water around me," she said.
She finally got the crews' attention when she took a steel pipe and began banging it, said Abdur Razzak, an officer with the military's engineering department who first spotted her in the wreckage. The workers ran into the dark rubble, eventually getting flashlights, to free her, he said.
They ordered the cranes and bulldozers to immediately stop and used handsaws and welding and drilling equipment to cut through the iron rod and debris still trapping her. They gave her water, oxygen and saline as they worked to free her.
When Begum was freed after 40 minutes, the crowd erupted in wild cheers. Soldiers and men in hard hats carried Begum, wearing a pink outfit with a violet scarf, on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance, which took her to a military hospital. But her rescuers said she was in amazingly good condition despite her ordeal.
Doctors at the hospital told Bangladeshi television that Begum was out of danger and her kidney and liver functions were fine.
Begum said she was working on the second floor when the building began collapsing around her. She raced down to the basement, where she became trapped by the wreckage in a pocket that allowed her to survive.
Begum told rescuers there were no more survivors in her area. Workers began tearing through the nearby rubble anyway, hoping to find someone else alive.
"Reshma told me there were three others with her. They died. She did not see anybody else alive there," said Major General Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, head of the local military units. The bodies were eventually recovered from another section of the building not far from Begum.
Begum's sister Asma said she and her mother kept a vigil for the seamstress, who is from the rural Dinajpur district, 270 kilometers north of Dhaka. She said they had been losing hope amid the endless string of grim days, when only scores of dead bodies were removed from the rubble.
"We got her back just when we had lost all our hope to find her alive," she said.
Begum survived for more than two weeks in temperatures that touched the mid-30s Celsius, scrounging for whatever food she could find.
More than 2,500 people were rescued in the immediate aftermath of the April 24 disaster, but crews had recovered several hundred bodies without finding a survivor before Begum emerged. The last survivor had been found on April 28, and even her story ended tragically. As workers tried to free Shahin Akter, a fire broke out and she died of smoke inhalation.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called Begum in hospital, and the rescued woman began crying on the phone. She told Hasina: "I am fine, please pray for me."
The death toll from the disaster soared past 1,000 yesterday, with officials confirming that 1,045 bodies had been recovered from the rubble.
The chairman of Enam Medical College and Hospital, which took in many survivors after the collapse, said that of the more than 1,700 people treated there, 75 remained with serious injuries.
Reshma Begum was in such good shape she was able to walk, according to one rescuer. She said she survived on dried food and bottled water. She was discovered near a Muslim prayer room in the basement of the eight-story Rana Plaza building, where crews have been focused on recovering bodies, not rescuing survivors, since late last month.
"I heard voices of the rescue workers for the past several days. I kept hitting the wreckage with sticks and rods just to attract their attention," she told Somoy TV from her hospital bed as doctors and nurses milled about, giving her saline and checking her condition.
"No one heard me. It was so bad for me. I never dreamed I'd see the daylight again," she said.
"There was some dried food around me. I ate the dried food for 15 days. The last two days I had nothing but water. I used to drink only a limited quantity of water to save it. I had some bottles of water around me," she said.
She finally got the crews' attention when she took a steel pipe and began banging it, said Abdur Razzak, an officer with the military's engineering department who first spotted her in the wreckage. The workers ran into the dark rubble, eventually getting flashlights, to free her, he said.
They ordered the cranes and bulldozers to immediately stop and used handsaws and welding and drilling equipment to cut through the iron rod and debris still trapping her. They gave her water, oxygen and saline as they worked to free her.
When Begum was freed after 40 minutes, the crowd erupted in wild cheers. Soldiers and men in hard hats carried Begum, wearing a pink outfit with a violet scarf, on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance, which took her to a military hospital. But her rescuers said she was in amazingly good condition despite her ordeal.
Doctors at the hospital told Bangladeshi television that Begum was out of danger and her kidney and liver functions were fine.
Begum said she was working on the second floor when the building began collapsing around her. She raced down to the basement, where she became trapped by the wreckage in a pocket that allowed her to survive.
Begum told rescuers there were no more survivors in her area. Workers began tearing through the nearby rubble anyway, hoping to find someone else alive.
"Reshma told me there were three others with her. They died. She did not see anybody else alive there," said Major General Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, head of the local military units. The bodies were eventually recovered from another section of the building not far from Begum.
Begum's sister Asma said she and her mother kept a vigil for the seamstress, who is from the rural Dinajpur district, 270 kilometers north of Dhaka. She said they had been losing hope amid the endless string of grim days, when only scores of dead bodies were removed from the rubble.
"We got her back just when we had lost all our hope to find her alive," she said.
Begum survived for more than two weeks in temperatures that touched the mid-30s Celsius, scrounging for whatever food she could find.
More than 2,500 people were rescued in the immediate aftermath of the April 24 disaster, but crews had recovered several hundred bodies without finding a survivor before Begum emerged. The last survivor had been found on April 28, and even her story ended tragically. As workers tried to free Shahin Akter, a fire broke out and she died of smoke inhalation.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called Begum in hospital, and the rescued woman began crying on the phone. She told Hasina: "I am fine, please pray for me."
The death toll from the disaster soared past 1,000 yesterday, with officials confirming that 1,045 bodies had been recovered from the rubble.
The chairman of Enam Medical College and Hospital, which took in many survivors after the collapse, said that of the more than 1,700 people treated there, 75 remained with serious injuries.
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