More than a week after the magnitude-8 quake hit Sichuan, stories of miraculous rescues continue to emerge.
A 60-year-old woman was rescued at 6:45 pm yesterday from rubble in Pengzhou, Sichuan, more than 196 hours after the May 12 earthquake, Xinhua reported.
Wang Liqun, a retiree from the provincial capital of Chengdu, survived on rainwater, and was conscious when rescuers found her and rushed her to the hospital, it said.
Wang was inside a temple when the quake struck. She was hit by a falling girder, according to the rescue team.
She crept out of the temple and fell into a coma again after making it some 800 meters. Most of her body was buried in rubble when she was found yesterday.
No updates on her condition were available.
In another case, Ma Yuanjiang, a power plant executive, was rescued at around 1 am yesterday from the rubble in Wenchuan county, the epicenter, nearly 179 hours after the May 12 quake.
He was able to speak after being rescued, and began to eat a little shortly after, said Wu Geng, Ma's colleague and head of the plant, who was at the rescue site.
Ma was in a meeting when the quake ravaged the office building, and he was trapped in debris on the second floor.
The 31-year-old was pulled out by a Shanghai rescue team after more than 30 hours of effort.
Rescuers found Ma on Sunday afternoon when they were digging a hole to reach Yu Jinhua, Ma's colleague. Yu was pulled out at about 6 pm, after an amputation.
Rescuers then got water to Ma through a long straw as they tried to figure out a way to reach him.
The collapsed building left little room for maneuver and more than 100 members of the Shanghai Police and Firefighters Disaster Rescue Team, dug inch by inch.
After 30 hours, they chiseled through about 10 cement slabs, and opened a 10-m tunnel.
Ma suffered lacerations on his abdomen when he was pulled out; he was rushed to Xinqiao Hospital in Chongqing.
His internal organs were in good condition, but the left forearm had to be amputated, said doctors.
He also suffered tissue infections.
"The next 12 hours are critical. The patient managed the first half of a miracle, now we are trying to do the second," hospital president Wang Weidong said yesterday.
Questions:
1. How many hours after the earthquake was the 60-year-old woman rescued yesterday?
2. How did rescuers get water to Ma Yuanjiang?
3. How many cement slabs did rescuers chisel through to get Ma Yuanjiang out of the building in which he was trapped?
Answers:
1. 196.
2. Through a long straw.
3. 10
（英语点津 Helen 编辑）
About the broadcaster:
Jonathan Stewart is a media and journalism expert from the United States with four years of experience as a writer and instructor. He accepted a foreign expert position with chinadaily.com.cn in June 2007 following the completion of his Master of Arts degree in International Relations and Comparative Politics.
