Post date: May 11, 2013 4:13:22 PM
Rescuers describe the operation to free factory worker Reshma Begum, who had been trapped under the rubble of a collapsed building for 17 days and is now recovering at a hospital.
DHAKA, BANGLADESH (MAY 11, 2013) (REUTERS) - Nineteen-year-old Reshma Begum was brought back from the dead on Friday (May 10) after rescuers at a collapsed factory in Bangladesh saw her waving an aluminium curtain rail from a gap in the ruins where she had spent 17 days trapped in a dark, tomb-like chamber.
Her brother, 33-year-old Zahidul Islam, rushed to the accident site the moment he heard her name called out on TV."Yesterday I was standing in front of a shop and watching television, and it was showing that rescue workers had found one Reshma alive and were trying to rescue her. I instantly rushed to the spot and saw the rescue workers carrying my sister from the debris and taking her to the hospital by an ambulance. I then called my younger sister to come to the cantonment hospital with her (Reshma's) picture, and then we went to the hospital with the picture and then I saw that is my sister in the hospital," recalled Islam on Saturday (May 11).
"Yes, I had talked with her. She just saw me and said 'oh, my brother,' then I cried loudly and the army soldiers took me outside the hospital," he said.
The death toll from the catastrophic factory building collapse, the world's worst industrial accident since the Bhopal disaster in India in 1984, climbed above 1,000 and more bodies might still be trapped inside as rescuers struggle to end the salvage operation.
The discovery of Begum alone and alive under the debris more than two weeks after the accident had taken rescuers by surprise.
"We were almost sure that there were nobody alive, but by the grace of God we found Reshma alive," Major General Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, head of the rescue operations, told reporters.
"During the (rescue) operation I had a talk with Reshma (through a hole). I asked her 'how are you?', she said 'I'm alright, you take your time and rescue me.' I was standing near there and my officers went into the hole and rescue her," he said.
"It is a very rare experience of my life. Never had (I) seen before what I had seen yesterday. I talked with Reshma this morning in the hospital, she spoke with me almost like a normal person," he added.
Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Morshed, a military physician, said that Begum was recovering well, adding that her kidneys and other essential organs were working normally though she was "suffering from acute dehydration."
Live televised scenes of Begum's salvation transfixed Bangladesh, where waves of grief have rolled from the disaster site to engulf far-flung villages where many of the young women and men who staffed the sewing lines were born.
In common with other relatives of the missing, Begum's family had travelled from their village to gather at a schoolground near the ruined factory in Savar, a gritty industrial suburb outside the capital Dhaka, where families kept a sombre vigil for their missing loved ones.
Hours before Begum was found, emergency crews had pulled the 1,000th corpse from the heap of rubble, twisted metal and machinery.
Begum's journey to the factory floor was typical of a generation of young Bangladeshi women who have sought to escape lives of rural drudgery by winning jobs in a burgeoning garment industry, tempted by by the prospect of regular wages even if safety standards are sometimes lax.
Islam said their family lived in a village called Koshi Gari, 414 km (259 miles) north of Dhaka. He had found a niche selling sweet fried cakes to local children, but Begum dreamed of a new life in the big city.
Three years ago, Begum moved to Dhaka, Islam said, joining several million women working in factories that supply retailers including Walmart Stores Inc,Tesco Plc and H&M .
After finding her first job she married, Islam said, but her husband began to pilfer her earnings and she soon left him.
On April 2 this year, Begum found a job at New Wave Bottoms, a garment maker on the second floor of Rana Plaza, the doomed building, which imploded a day after its owner assured nervous workers it would stand "for a century".
Hossain, the army officer, said Begum had not packed the home-made lunch that garment workers customarily prepare. She had, however, been carrying four small packets of biscuits and a bottle of water - provisions that would save her life.
Islam said the family had given up hope Begum would be found alive, and had only cherished the wish that they would finally be reunited with her remains.