Incredible survival stories are coming out of Haiti in a daily basis. Mireille Dittmer was in the Caribbean Market building when the earthquake in Haiti hit. The rubble gathered around her and she was trapped in complete darkness in a kneeling position for five days.
Dittmer could not stand up or sit all the way down. Her knees felt intense pain over the 108 hours of her captivity. She was unable to eat or drink anything, couldn’t sleep and she said that her faith in God was the only thing that got her through. She said that she had no sense of time and thought she was in there for 12 days.
Dittmer said that eventually she could hear the voices of a man and a little girl and they were able to communicate. They tried to make noises so that rescuers could hear them. All three of them said that they could not lose their faith. See the video below for Dittmer’s story.
Haiti has approximately 9 million people and is a desperately poor country. In 2008, the mayor of Port-au-Prince stated that about 60% of the buildings there were built poorly and were unsafe under normal circumstances. An estimated 45,000 Americans were estimated to be in Haiti during the time of the January 12 earthquake.
For more incredible stories of rescue from Haiti see the links on the left.
An eye doctor from Utah, Dr. Branson Call returned Monday from Haiti after an annual trip to help the people of Haiti. Dr. Call was in Haiti when the earthquake struck and amazingly survived, even though 30 medical students in the building next door all died. For several days he was unable to contact his family or friends because there wasn’t phone service or internet. His family wasn’t even sure he was alive. He spent several days trying to help the wounded before getting onto a plane to the Dominic Republic and contacting his family, according to ABC 4.
The Salt Lake City based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has responded and said that no missionaries from the US are in Haiti, but that an immediate relief project has begun to provide aid. In Haiti, the Caribbean Area Presidency of the LDS Church also provided immediate relief to the people there. To donate to the LDS Church aid for Haiti, go to LDS.org. For more information on how the LDS Church is helping in Haiti, click here. For more ways to donate to the relief efforts in Haiti, click here.
To see a slideshow of photos of the earthquake damage in Haiti, click here.
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Comments
This is a very touching story Marci, thanks for the update. Here in San Francisco, one of our local charities has managed to get supplies through after their envoy drove from the Dominican Republic.
Your Gary Coleman story links to another person's site. Interesting.
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