A 46-year-old man was pulled out of the rubble alive Saturday evening after being buried for almost 130 hours. His ordeal and the story of other survivors who spent nearly a week trapped under debris is bringing many people to tears, a true miracle of life.
20-year-old Jiang Yuhang was pulled out at around 6 p.m. after a mammoth ten-hour effort that started on Saturday morning.(CCTV.com)
Days after the 72-hour so-called "prime time" for rescue ended, rescuers are still working relentlessly to pull-out any possible survivors from collapsed houses, schools and factories.
Their search has been non-stop, and fruitful.
In Dujiangyan City, Zhang Xiaoping was pulled from a collapsed residential building Saturday night and was immediately sent to hospital to have his legs amputated.
A fire brigade from Chongqing was on the job. They dug out a space underneath a rickety building to create a safe space both for the survivors and the rescuers.
Their dedication finally paid off when Zhang Xiaoping was extricated at about 11 p.m.
Just a few kilometers away in Yingxiu township, 20-year-old Jiang Yuhang was pulled out at around 6 p.m. after a mammoth ten-hour effort that started on Saturday morning. Jiang's mother was overwhelmed at the sight of her son.
Jiang Yuhang's mother said, "I'm thrilled to see my son. My thanks to the Shanghai brigade members, the Government, and all those who care about the disaster."
A doctor said, "Few people could survive for more than three days without water. It's been five days. There's only one word for it: a miracle! The boy will go through a detailed checkup later on."
Jiang Yuhang was later transported by air to Chengdu for further medical treatment.
Li Kecheng, a middle school teacher in Hongbai township, was buried in a cramped space in total darkness for 108 hours. The last time he saw day light was in the teachers' dorm during his lunch break the day the earthquake hit.
Li kecheng said, "In the blink of an eye, a four-story building was reduced to rubble. I'm alive thanks to a door, which protected me from the crumbling concrete. I was stuck in a crevice and then passed out for a couple of minutes. Then I freed my limbs and held up my legs like this for the rest of the time there."
Waiting to be rescued for more than four days without food or drinking water, Li survived only by taking extreme measures.
"I couldn't see anything in there. Later I felt a bottle. I peed in it and drank my own urine. Then I also found four pages of a notebook and ate them. This was all I could count on for survival until the rescue team found me."
We're now into the sixth day since the devastating earthquake, China's worst in more than 30 years. But rescuers, including more than 130,000 troops, will not relent in their search for the living. Time is pressing and their determination to save lives is unshakeable.
(CCTV May 18, 2008)