Quake survivor amazes doctors
By Zulfikar Ali
BBC News, Kamsar camp, Pakistan-administered Kashmir
Naqsha's muscles have stiffened in the foetal position she was
found in
Doctors say it is a miracle.
Naqsha Bibi, 40, was recovered alive from the debris of a collapsed house in
Pakistan-administered Kashmir on 10 December. The unexpected rescue came more
than two months after the 8 October earthquake destroyed large parts of Indian
and Pakistan-administered Kashmir and northern areas in Pakistan. Naqsha
Bibi, now under hospital treatment, is suffering from muscle stiffness and is
so weak that she can barely talk. She weighs under 35kg - about half the
weight of an average woman her size. But since being brought to Muzaffarabad,
the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, she has been put on a liquid
diet and is showing signs of recovery. Doctors say that on Tuesday morning
she gave them a smile. Rescue "We were not even looking for her," says Faiz
Din, her cousin who found her. Faiz Din, Naqsha's cousin,
accidentally found her in the debris
Naqsha Bibi and her family are residents of the Kamsar refugee camp some six
kilometres from Muzaffarabad. The camp was set up in 1990 for people from
Indian-controlled Kashmir trapped on this side when borders were closed amid
rising tensions between Pakistan and India. Her family included a brother and
their father - their mother had died before they entered Pakistan-administered
territory. Faiz Din says both her father's legs were broken in the earthquake
and he was flown to Islamabad aboard a rescue helicopter within a week after
the quake. Her brother went with their father as an attendant. "At that
time, we thought Naqsha had either fallen down the hill or gone to live in some
relief camp in the city," says Faiz Din. Part of the hill that houses the
Kamsar camp had collapsed into the river below. Anyone who was not found
immediately was thought to have fallen with the crumbling hillside and died.
"Frankly, we were all so busy taking care of our own families
that no one was thinking of the house next door," Faiz Din says. Trapped
It seems that Naqsha was trapped in her kitchen when her small house collapsed
around her. Naqsha is on a liquid diet but too weak to talk
The space where she was found was not even big enough for her to stretch her
arms or legs. Over the 63 days that she spent in this grave of sorts - her
muscles frozen in a crouching position. Even on the hospital bed now, she
maintains her embryonic position and doctors say she will need extensive
physiotherapy to return to her normal self again. What remains a mystery - at
least till Naqsha Bibi is able to tell her story - is how she managed to
survive for so long. Faiz Din says there were some traces of food, most of it
rotting, in the kitchen when he found her. The air in the tiny space was
fresh, which implies that some airway must have remained open through the
debris. And there was a trickle of water on one side of the kitchen, probably
from one of several tiny streams that dot the Kamsar area. "We started
clearing the debris of her house on 10 December, mainly to pull the iron sheets
off the collapsed roof to build ourselves a shelter," says Faiz Din. "But as
we cleared one side of the house, some of the debris fell away exposing the
cavity where she was holed up." Misfortune Naqsha's nightmare, however, was
not immediately over. Naqsha's collapsed house where she was
stuck in the kitchen
"We first thought she was dead but she opened her eyes as we were pulling her
out," says Faiz. Naqsha was unable to respond to repeated offerings of food
and water. Apparently, her condition convinced her rescuers that she was on
the verge of death. That was why Faiz Din didn't take her to a doctor
immediately despite being so close to Muzaffarabad. "We thought she was going
to die any moment," he says. "So we just put her inside a tent and let her
be." Two days later when a team of German doctors visited the Kamsar camp,
they were told about Naqsha Bibi. They contacted the Pakistan Islamic Medical
Association (PIMA) who sent Dr Hafeezur Rehman to bring Naqsha to Muzaffarabad.
Miracle At Muzaffarabad's PIMA medical camp, Naqsha was examined by a
Danish doctor of Pakistani origin, Mariam Bashir. "She seemed to be
physically stable but in shock," Dr Bashir told the BBC. Part
of Kamsar camp had collapsed into the river below
The first challenge for the doctors was to feed her. Starting
intravenously, they moved within hours to a liquid diet and were greatly
encouraged by her body's response to nutrition. On 13 December, a
psychiatrist spent three hours with her checking her responses and said she was
able to understand most of his requests. But she was still unable to carry
out even simple tasks such as sticking out her tongue or speaking. PIMA now
plans to bring in a physiotherapist to help revive her limbs which are still
stiff. Most of the doctors are now convinced that given the right treatment
Naqsha may be able to lead a normal life once again. Dr Abdul Hamid was one
of the doctors treating Naqsha. When asked how someone could possibly survive
for such a long time, he said, "medical science may struggle to accept it but
there are miracles in this world, you know."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4525710.stm
Life returning to Pakistan miracle quake survivor
MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (AFP) - Most of her muscles are withered, she cannot
speak and she is mentally damaged but doctors believe the Kashmiri woman who
survived 63 days under freezing rubble after Pakistan's deadly earthquake will
live
Naqsha Bibi, a 40-year-old 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, was quoted as saying.
Unmarried Naqsha looks a virtual corpse lying on her bed in the field
hospital but doctors are hopeful she has every chance of recovering.
"She has survived for 63 days under the rubble and it was nothing short of a
miracle," said doctor Riaz Ahmed.
"We are hopeful she will survive." Ahmed told AFP. "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."
Naqsha migrated from Kupwara in Indian Kashmir in the early 1990s along with
thousands of other refugees. She had been living since then in Kamsar refugee
camp, which was destroyed by the earthquake.
Locals said they were digging into the rubble at the camp on 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, Qayyum said.
On Monday morning a German doctor 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," 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
percent of Naqsha'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 starting giving her solid meals as well," he said.
The German doctor Holger Barochmeyer, who works for 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 told reporters in
Muzaffarabad. 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.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051214/wl_sthasia_afp/quakesasiapakistansurvivor
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