HEADLINES:
R/€ 
|
Young man rescued 27 days after Haiti quake
February 09, 2010 Edition 2
PORT-AU-PRINCE: An apparent earthquake survivor has been dug out of rubble 27 days after Port-au-Prince was demolished.
The young man was trapped but not crushed under a building in the January 12 quake. Doctors treating him after yesterday's rescue "believed the veracity" of his story.
The man must have had some access to water but was weak and not coherent after his apparent ordeal.
His family said they had not seen him since the day of the earthquake.
If the story is confirmed, the man would be by far the longest surviving victim dug out from the rubble after Haiti's earthquake.
Meanwhile, the UN warned yesterday that it would cut off shipments of free medicine to Haitian hospitals that charge patients, saying it had learned that some were levying fees for drugs.
When the earthquake struck, authorities decided to make all medical care free. More than 200 international medical relief groups have sent teams to help and millions of dollars of donated medicine has been flown in.
UN officials said they had information that about a dozen hospitals - public and private - had begun charging patients for medicine.
They said that any hospital found levying fees for medicine would be cut off.
Haiti now has about 90 hospitals, including public and private hospitals and field hospitals, set up in the quake's aftermath. - Sapa-dpa
© 1999 - 2010 Cape Argus & Independent Online (Pty) Ltd. All rights reserved.