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Alive - after 63 days under rubble (I CAN'T IMAGINE THE HORROR)
The Sydney Morning Herald/ Agence Presse ^ | 12/16/05 (Australian time) | Agence Presse

Posted on 12/15/2005 8:13:44 PM PST by paulat

Alive - after 63 days under rubble

December 16, 2005

MOST of her muscles are withered, she cannot speak and she is mentally damaged but doctors believe a Kashmiri women who survived 63 days under freezing rubble after Pakistan's deadly earthquake will live.

Naqsha Bibi, reduced to a skeleton, lies on a hospital bed in the intensive care unit set up by the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association in Muzaffarabad, the capital of quake-ravaged Pakistani Kashmir. Her two brothers and father, injured in the October 8 earthquake, were flown to a hospital in Rawalpindi near the capital Islamabad where they are under treatment.

"We were injured and were brought to a hospital in Rawalpindi by a helicopter and we had thought all along that our sister is no more," one brother, Jamilur Rehman, said.

Ms Bibi looks a virtual corpse lying on her bed in the field hospital but doctors believe she has every chance of recovering. "She has survived for 63 days under the rubble and it was nothing short of a miracle," said Dr Riaz Ahmed. "We are hopeful she will survive. She is recovering well. She is in a psychological trauma. She sometime smiles at us and she strives to utter a word but she cannot speak. We are watching her," Dr Ahmed said.

Ms Bibi migrated from Kupwara in Indian Kashmir in the early 1990s with thousands of other refugees. She had been living since then in the Kamsar refugee camp, which was destroyed by the earthquake.

Locals said they were digging into the rubble at the camp last Sunday to recover corrugated iron sheets and belongings when they saw a body in a cavity.

"When I pressed a stick into the body I saw slight movement and realised that this person may be alive," said 28-year-old Abdul Qayyum.

The people tried to give her water and food but she could not swallow anything, Mr Qayyum said. On Monday morning a German doctor, Holger Barochmeyer, who was vaccinating people in a nearby village was informed and he immediately advised shifting her to the hospital.

"She was just skin and bones when she was brought here," Mr Ahmed said. "Her jaw was tightly shut and we could not even take her temperature as the thermometer would not stay under the armpit due to wasted muscles."

Another doctor at the field hospital, Hafeezur Rehman, said more than 80 per cent of Ms Bibi's muscles were wasted. "The body is very stiff and there is no flexibility."

After physiotherapy there were signs of improvement and she started taking some liquids. "Now we have started giving her solid meals as well," he said.

Dr Barochmeyer, who works for the private medical group Caritas, said he was very happy to hear the woman was improving and getting full medical treatment. "She must have had access to water and food during the time she was under the rubble, otherwise it was not possible to survive without water and food for such a long time," he said.

Out of the 400 residents of the refugee camps, nearly 200 were killed in the quake which devastated Pakistani Kashmir and some parts of the North West Frontier Province.

It killed more than 73,000 people in Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir and left an estimated 3.5 million homeless.

Agence France Presse


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: pakistanquake; survivors
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To: getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL; DieHard the Hunter
You are the poster child for Newbies!

I had to go back and see what the Newbie said to rate such a remark. I expected a zottable, or nearly zottable offense. But now I see you meant it in a nice way. We could use more Freepers who express the sentiments in DieHard's post. What a positive addition to the forum. Thanks for pointing that out.

Welcome aboard DieHard.

81 posted on 12/16/2005 8:02:33 AM PST by BykrBayb (Impeach Judge Greer - In memory of Terri <strike>Schiavo</strike> Schindler - www.terrisfight.org)
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To: Brad's Gramma

Prayer bump


82 posted on 12/16/2005 8:04:26 AM PST by Constantine XIII
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To: anonymoussierra; STARWISE
Dear Master our King, we Lift this poor woman to Thee, O Savior, Pleading for Your Comfort to be with her, with Rest. Please Send to her Salvation, O Lord; Your Mercies, Your Healing, and Heavenly, Calming Peace. Wrap this dear Lady in Your Love, our Redeemer, and Cause her to be a Testimony to Thy Grace.

Help those who Care for her to Know Thy Compassion, that they may Bring to her Blessings Divine.

Bestow Upon Naqsha Your Tenderest Mercies, as we Pray in our Jesus' Name, amen.

83 posted on 12/16/2005 9:11:23 AM PST by Kitty Mittens
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To: getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL; BykrBayb; All

> Welcome to FR!

Gee, thanks! I really like it here: nice people, stimulating conversation.

Merry Christmas to you all


84 posted on 12/16/2005 10:35:23 AM PST by DieHard the Hunter (I am the Chieftain of my Clan. I bow to nobody. Get out of my way.)
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To: Salvation

Prayers sent.


85 posted on 12/16/2005 1:07:07 PM PST by Bigg Red (Do not trust Democrats with national security!)
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To: DieHard the Hunter
And a very Merry Christmas to you!
86 posted on 12/16/2005 2:03:37 PM PST by BykrBayb (Impeach Judge Greer - In memory of Terri <strike>Schiavo</strike> Schindler - www.terrisfight.org)
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To: Baraonda

Thanks, Baronda...it is NOT impossible if she had water and at least a small amount of food.


87 posted on 12/16/2005 6:59:19 PM PST by paulat
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To: BykrBayb; DieHard the Hunter

I should have also mentioned that I read his FReep page. It says a lot about him.


88 posted on 12/16/2005 8:15:30 PM PST by getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL (Undocumented border patrol agent.)
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To: KeepUSfree; paulat; geopyg
Crow, anyone?

http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=68318

Neighbours and relatives claim 63-day quake survivor is a fake Cumsir Camp: Neighbours and relatives of a woman who was recently pulled out alive from the debris of her collapsed home 63 days after the October 8 earthquake, have claimed that the whole case was fake. Sharif ud Din, the cousin of Naqsha Bibi, whose story has been the centre of attraction for the media since she was rescued by a relief team of Shabab-e-Milli and Al-Khidmat, has said that she was pulled from under her home two days after the October 8 earthquake. Relatives and neighbours at the Cumsir Refugee Camp where she lived, about six kilometres north of Muzaffarabad, said earlier this week that they were surprised by the hullabaloo. “She was not buried in the rubble,” Sharif ud Din said. Her neighbours said that Naqsha Bibi was offered food daily, though she often refused to eat it. Finally, they asked a medical team to take her to a hospital.
89 posted on 12/17/2005 3:37:38 AM PST by Reform4Bush
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To: Reform4Bush
Crow, anyone?

What a nasty, ugly way to post a message!!

I will believe it when a CREDIBLE news org reports it...and when that happens I will make a new post. I am NEVER embarassed to make a correction, because FReepers want the truth.

Why don't you post it yourself?

90 posted on 12/17/2005 9:34:49 AM PST by paulat
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To: This Just In

I lift her up to God. May this woman be healed and know she is loved...


91 posted on 12/17/2005 10:34:06 AM PST by dandelion
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To: paulat
Crow, anyone?

What a nasty, ugly way to post a message!! I will believe it when a CREDIBLE news org reports it...and when that happens I will make a new post. I am NEVER embarassed to make a correction, because FReepers want the truth. Why don't you post it yourself?

Click on your own link. The story has changed. I guess in a way you've already posted a correction.

Honestly I'm surprised so many believed it without questioning the circumstances. Either the story was bogus, or this woman's relatives didn't really care for her.
92 posted on 12/17/2005 3:19:34 PM PST by Reform4Bush
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To: paulat
We need to get her DNA and spread it around the gene pool.

If the temperature is 75 degrees my wife is "dying of heat" and if it's at 65 degrees she is "freezing to death".
93 posted on 12/17/2005 3:25:25 PM PST by oldbrowser (Release the Barrett Report)
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To: Larry Lucido

Not that broad.


94 posted on 12/17/2005 3:46:33 PM PST by steelcurtain
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