Haitian May Have Survived 4 Weeks in Rubble

[An interesting story from Haiti; many questions to ponder. Can someone survive 4 weeks without water? Did a person bring this man water and do nothing else to rescue him? Was he hallucinating? Was it an angel or miraculous intervention? We may never know the truth, but what I found most interesting in this report is how the media covers it. - J.S.]

February 9, 2010
CNN

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- A man pulled alive from the rubble of a building in Haiti's capital Monday may have been trapped since the January 12 quake that leveled much of the city, doctors reported.

The 28-year-old man, identified as Evan Muncie, was found in the wreckage of a market where he sold rice, his family told staff at a University of Miami field hospital. He suffered from extreme dehydration and malnutrition, but did not appear to have significant crushing injuries, the doctors said.

"He was emaciated. He hadn't had anything in quite some time. He had open wounds that were festering on both of his feet," said Dr. Mike Connelly, of the university's Project Medishare.

The people who brought him to the hospital said they found the man while digging out the marketplace, Connelly said.

The man told doctors that someone was bringing him water while he was trapped, but doctors told CNN that he sounded confused and at times appeared to believe he was still under the rubble. Connelly said the man must have had some water during the past month to have survived, but Connelly wasn't sure how he would have had access to it.

"Initially, I'm sure he had his senses with him, so maybe he was able to find some kind of resources," Connelly told CNN.

The discovery came nearly a month after the magnitude-7.0 earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince on January 12. More than 200,000 deaths have been blamed on the quake.

Haiti's government declared search-and-rescue efforts over on January 23, but survivors still were being unearthed as late as January 27.