Haiti Survivor: Girl Rescued Alive After 15 Days!

It was nothing short of a miracle on Tuesday, when a 16 year old girl was pulled out alive from the rubble of a building in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. The girl named Darline, somehow managed to survive in the rubble of the St Gerard College which she had just started attending a few weeks before the earthquake struck.

Rescue workers are describing this stunning survival of the teenager, even two weeks after the quake demolished the city, as a "miracle". "I don't know how she happened to resist that long," said rescue worker JP Malaganne. They said she was happy and at the same time shocked. She was in an urgent need for medical attention after being severely dehydrated and having a leg injury. "She just said 'Thank you', she's very weak, which suggests that she's been there for 15 days," said Samuel Bernes, the head of the Haiti survivor rescue team that discovered her.

More importantly, the girl's rescue comes five days after the Haitian government officially declared an end to search and rescue operations. This sensational rescue has also given a lot of hopes to those whose near and dear ones are still missing, as they are asking for renewed search operations. Haiti has had a number of remarkable rescue and survival stories to tell. Darline is the 9th and the longest surviving victim in this list. Here are the others who defied death against all odds:

• Rico Dibrivell, 32 - found after 12 days
• Wismond Exantus, 24, recovered after 11 days
• Emmannuel Buso, 21 - saved after 10 days
• Marie Carida, 84 - rescued after 10 days
• Mendji Bahina Sanon, 11 - pulled out after 8 days
• Lozama Hotteline, 25 - trapped for 7 days
• Elisabeth Joassaint, 15 days - found alive after 7 days, half her life!
• Ena Zizi, 69 - rescued after 7 days

Meanwhile, President Rene Preval has postponed the parliamentary elections due to be held on 28 February. He added: "I don't think the time is right to hold elections now given the conditions in which people are living." As many as 200,000 people have been killed in this natural disaster of 12 January and at least 130 Haiti survivors have been discovered alive in the rubbles.