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Today's Paper | December 23, 2024

Published 13 Dec, 2005 12:00am

AJK woman found alive 63 days after quake

MUZAFFARABAD, Dec 12: A Kashmiri woman was brought to a charity field hospital in a precarious condition here on Monday after she was rescued from the rubble on Sunday, 63 days after the devastating earthquake.

The 45-year-old woman was buried alive in the Kamsar refugee camp, some five kilometres north of here, on the morning of Oct 8, according to Dr Hafeezur Rehman, a physician at the Pakistan Islami Medical Association (PIMA) hospital.

He said residents of the camp found her on Sunday evening as they were digging in search of missing bodies.

Refugees referred the woman to a German team after they were unable to feed her and the team, which visited the area on Monday for vaccinations, handed her over to PIMA officials.

However, confusion prevailed as nobody from the camp was available to say anything about the recovery.

Dr Abdul Hamid, another physician at the PIMA hospital, told Dawn by telephone that the woman, identified as Naqsha Bibi, weighed only 25 kilograms, and had been admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit.

“She is very feeble because of dehydration and muscle wastage. She has also lost her speech,” he said.

“We are administering fluids. We have also given her some milk orally,” Dr Hamid said, adding that her condition was improving.

Asked if anybody could survive for such a long time without food and water, he replied: “Medical science will hardly accept it, but you know miracles do happen in this world.”

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