 Ena Zizi drinks for a bottle cap at the Hopital de la Renaissance in Port-au-Prince, Haiti Jan 18, 2010. (Andre Forget/QMI AGENCY)
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - A 69-year-old woman was found alive Tuesday — seven days after being trapped in a pile of concrete rubble near a collapsed cathedral — after rescuers heard her praying.
Ena Zizi's family said they had given up hope.
"Everyone thought she was dead," said her son Josner Joseph.
She went to a prayer meeting last Tuesday when the earthquake struck, he said.
Zizi was found in the building, once home to many priests, next to the Haitian capital’s imposing Cathedral, where the stained glass face of Christ, still intact, looks down on the site.
While the Mexican rescuers who found her rejoiced, the Indian doctor treating her two blocks away in the courtyard of the Centre Hospitalier de la Renaissance, said shortage of hospital space was limiting Zizi's chances of survival.
Dr. Dimuthu Samaranayake said she was severely dehydrated and had multiple fractures in her leg.
"Our problem is getting her into surgery, getting her into a hospital where there are facilities available for the operation we need to perform,” he said. At the moment, it's not looking like there are facilities available," he said. "The general hospital (a few streets away) is apparently not taking any more patients.it's very frustrating."
Haitian officials say the death toll from the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that destroyed much of the capital on Jan. 12 was likely to be between 100,000 and 200,000. So far, they have buried 75,000 bodies in mass graves, but stories of more miracle survivors are circulating.
With the stench of decomposing bodies hanging over Port-au-Prince, rescuers also saved two babies from the rubble of ruined buildings early Tuesday morning.
The Associated Press reported that International teams pulled two Haitian women alive from a collapsed university building, as well.
There are 52 international rescue teams in Port-au-Prince racing against time to find people alive under collapsed buildings. So far, 90 people have been saved. Tens of thousands are still believed buried.
Meanwhile, U.S. Black Hawk helicopters swooped down on Haiti’s wrecked presidential palace to deploy troops and supplies Tuesday as a huge relief operation to help earthquake survivors gained momentum.
The airborne troops in combat gear moved to secure Port-au-Prince’s nearby General Hospital, where staff have been overwhelmed by huge numbers of seriously injured patients.
Medical teams in mobile hospitals throughout the capital said they were overwhelmed by the casualties and warned of the immediate threats of tetanus and gangrene as well as the spread of measles, meningitis and other infections.
The World Health Organization said at least 13 hospitals were working in or around Port-au-Prince and that it was bringing in emergency supplies to treat 120,000 people over the next month.
“We are not past the emergency phase yet but we are starting to look at the long term,” said Margaret Aguirre of the International Medical Corps, whose staff had helped with 150 amputations so far.
“There is a risk of cholera and tetanus, and a huge need for mobile medical units,” she said.
In a bid to accelerate the arrival of aid and stem looting and violence, the UN Security Council unanimously agreed to temporarily add 2,000 UN troops and 1,500 police to the 9,000-member peacekeeping mission in Haiti.
Haiti’s Police Chief Mario Andresol said his depleted force needs the help of the peacekeepers to maintain law and order.
“Yesterday, downtown the looters simply outnumbered my guys. They could not control them,” Andresol said.
- with files from Reuters
