5-Year-Old Haitian Boy Miraculously Rescued After 8 Days!

Boy, 5, Alive, Pulled From Rubble In Haiti


A 5-year-old boy was pulled alive from a collapsed home Wednesday, eight days after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated Haiti.

The boy's mother was killed, and his father is missing. It was unclear whether the boy, named Monley, had access to food and water, but doctors attributed his survival to resilience and the strength of his young body.

The boy was taken to a hospital. Doctors said he had no broken bones but was suffering from severe dehydration.

The Haitian government said it has recovered 72,000 bodies since last week's earthquake.

However, the Pan American Health Organization, which is coordinating the health-sector response, has offered a preliminary estimate of 200,000 dead.

Three other quakes in the last 100 years have had greater death tolls: one in China in 1920 that killed an estimated 200,000 or more, another there in 1976 that left 255,000 people dead and the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, which caused about 228,000 deaths, the USGS said.

Meanwhile, a 5.9-magnitude aftershock rocked Haiti on Wednesday morning just as much-needed medical aid via a U.S. Navy ship reached the country.

The U.S. Geological Survey initially said the aftershock had a magnitude of 6.1, but downgraded it later.

The aftershock was the strongest to hit Haiti since the January 12 earthquake, the USGS said. The quake last week was 40 times stronger than Wednesday's aftershock, but the latest still rattled people.

Patients at a hospital near Haiti's airport in Port-au-Prince immediately started praying as the ground shook like a ship rocking back and forth. They asked for forgiveness and protection, a nurse said.

At least one injury was reported in the moments after the tremor struck at 6:03 a.m. There were no immediate reports of deaths or damage.

The aftershock was about 6.2 miles deep, with an epicenter about 35 miles (60 kilometers) west-southwest of Port-au-Prince, the USGS said.

One nonprofit organization, Save the Children, said its staff "heard already weakened structures collapsing" as a result of the aftershock.

Three million Haitians -- a third of the population -- remained in need of food, water, shelter and medical assistance, the United Nations estimated.

Some were elderly patients housed at Port-au-Prince's municipal nursing home. Patients -- many suffering from terminal illnesses or dementia -- were moved outside after the structure was destroyed and six people killed.

One doctor -- a volunteer who showed up Tuesday -- was treating them.

There are scenes of "madness" in some parts of Port-au-Prince, CNN's Ivan Watson reported from near the capital's port.

People had gathered, desperate to catch a boat to another part of the country, though there was no certainty that such vessels were coming.

Families were rowing out to sea in small, overloaded boats -- carrying up to 25 people -- to be first in line if a ferry did arrive, Watson said.

But relief workers were making strides in the arduous effort of getting aid to victims, officials said Wednesday.

"Every day we reach out further," said Lt. Gen. P.K. Keen, deputy commander of the U.S. military's Southern Command. "We are moving in the right direction."

The U.S. military said Wednesday that it plans to send an additional 4,000 sailors and Marines to Haiti.

About 11,000 U.S. service members already were in Haiti or aboard ships off the coast. The additional troops will bring to 15,000 the number of U.S. service members in or near Haiti.

The sailors and Marines are from the Nassau Amphibious Ready Group and 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, the military said. It was not immediately clear when they would arrive.

The U.S. military has delivered 200,000 bottles of water and more than 600,000 rations to Haitians, Keen said.

John Holmes, U.N. emergency relief coordinator, agreed that the situation is slowly improving.

"We are beginning to turn the corner. We are making progress," Holmes said. "But it's very frustrating that it takes so long to get as many supplies, doctors and hospitals that are needed."

The aid effort has frustrated some, with a few organizations charging that bottlenecks at the airport and mismanagement in other areas has hampered efforts to get help to the 2 million residents in Port-au-Prince who need it.

The U.S. hospital ship USNS Comfort arrived off Haiti on Wednesday, giving a boost to overloaded hospitals and clinics. The seagoing, 1,000-bed hospital carries 40 doctors, including 13 surgeons, and enough medical supplies to operate for 60 days.

Capt. Andy Johnson, the ship's medical operations director, said the ship expects to handle a minimum of 100 patients a day, the vast majority of them with orthopedic injuries suffered in collapsed buildings.

The first two patients taken on board, flown to the ship before it reached Haitian waters, were a 6-year-old boy with a crushed pelvis and 20-year-old man with a broken skull and possibly fractured cervical vertebrae. Cmdr. Tim Donahue, the ship's lead surgeon, said many of the staff have experience treating severe injuries among veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"They're not shocked by what they're seeing," Donahue said. "It's very routine for them."

The Comfort's medical staff of nearly 550 will be joined by another 350 people once the ship reaches Haiti, according to the U.S. Southern Command.

The death toll is expected to increase.

Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that at least 72,000 bodies had been recovered, not including the unknown number buried by families or collected by the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti.

It was unclear how many of the dead had been identified before burial and how many of those burials occurred in mass graves.

At least 28 Americans were confirmed dead, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday.

Outside Haiti, people have contributed more than $220 million to major U.S. relief groups, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, a newspaper covering nonprofit organizations.

Haitian President René Préval applauded the progress aid workers have made in restoring electricity and communication, clearing roads, erecting shelters, distributing food and re-establishing hospitals.

Preval credited the international community.

"Without their help, it would be impossible for us to cope with the situation," he said in an interview with CNN's Amanpour.


Sources: CNN