NEW YORK -- A nurse survived eight days in the wreckage of a Turkish hospital destroyed by an earthquake in 1992. A newborn was rescued after more than a week in the rubble of Mexico City's 1985 quake. Now, in China, rescuers are pulling out victims days after they were buried by a powerful earthquake.
How long can people survive trapped under piles of rubble?
A week or more under the best circumstances, some experts say. That means the victim isn't seriously hurt, was in good condition to begin with and the weather isn't too hot or too cold.
"The stronger the person was prior to being trapped or injured, the better the chances for survival," said Dr. Paul Auerbach, who teaches emergency medicine at Stanford School of Medicine.
On Friday, four days after a powerful quake struck central China, rescuers freed a nurse from the debris of a clinic in Beichuan county, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
"It really depends on the condition of the patient," said Dr. Irving (Jake) Jacoby of the University of California, San Diego. He heads a medical team that responded to the 1989 Loma Prieta quake in California, hurricane Katrina and other disasters.
Those who are trapped but relatively uninjured could survive for a week or even 10 days, and in extreme circumstances two weeks or more, he said.
Infants and the elderly are the most vulnerable, Jacoby said. Even so, there were several newborns pulled from the rubble days after Mexico's 1985 quake.
In China, the situation is getting more dire as time passes.
"Now that we're days after the earthquake, people who sustained serious injuries that caused severe organ damage or bleeding would not survive," Auerbach said.
Access to water is more important than food for those trapped for days.
"People can survive for weeks without food -- that's really not the issue," said Auerbach. "But dehydration can be severe."
How long people can live without water can depend on the temperature, how much fluid they lose, and how well they can tolerate being dehydrated, he said. A reasonable range is anywhere from three to seven days, he said.
The weather after the earthquake can also affect survival. Soon after Monday's quake in China, it rained heavily and the temperatures dropped to around 10 C.
Trapped victims could have access to some water from broken plumbing in high-rise buildings, or water that accumulates in the wreckage, noted Battalion Chief Edward Brinkley of the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department in Virginia.
Bad weather can slow rescue efforts, said Lieut. Arnold Piedrahita, a rescue specialist and spokesman for the Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue Department. If dogs are used to search for victims, the wind can make it hard to pick up a scent, he said.
-- The Associated Press
Death toll climbing from quake, cyclone
The disasters in China and Myanmar at a glance:
China's official death toll reached more than 22,000.
A powerful aftershock Friday knocked out roads and communications in some of the most quake-ravaged parts of China.
Emergency crews rescued more than 30 people who had survived up to 100 improbable hours trapped in the ruins. Tens of thousands of people are considered buried or missing throughout the disaster zone.
Chinese government officials struggled Friday to answer questions on why so many schools collapsed in this week's deadly earthquake and vowed to punish anyone responsible for shoddy construction in the buildings. Almost 7,000 schoolrooms were destroyed in the quake -- with figures still to come from the hardest-hit areas of Wenchuan and Beichuan. "Schools should never collapse, and hospitals and fire stations should never collapse. These are all civic structures that are needed in a disaster," said Roger Bilham, a professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder. "So when I hear a school has collapsed, I point the finger at politics."
Acutely aware its response to China's worst disaster in 30 years could affect Beijing's image heading into the Olympic Games, President Hu Jintao ramped up the government's public relations efforts, making his first trip to the stricken region.
The official death toll from Myanmar's cyclone nearly doubled Friday to almost 78,000, and another 56,000 people remained missing two weeks after the devastating storm. The Red Cross said it believed the total cyclone death toll may be as high as 127,990.
Myanmar's military rulers on Friday developed a tightening ring of security around Yangon, blocking aid workers, foreign diplomats and journalists from reaching cyclone-battered regions where millions need food and medicine.
The UN issued dire warnings and renewed calls for the military regime to allow international aid workers access to devastated areas. The UN and the Red Cross say 1.6 million to 2.5 million people are in urgent need of food, water and shelter.
A small tour to the disaster zone arranged for today will give diplomats their first up-close look at the effects of the cyclone and at the government relief effort.
-- The Associated Press
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