Teen Pulled From Rubble of Nine-Story Nepali Hotel Five Days After Quake
A team of Nepali and U.S. rescue workers discovered 15-year-old Pemba Lama alive beneath the wreckage of a nine-story Kathmandu hotel Thursday, five days after the 7.9 magnitude earthquake rolled through the region, killing thousands and leveling buildings.
Medics immediately placed an IV in his Pemba’s arm and a brace around his neck, but according to initial reports, he suffered no serious injuries.
Lama, a hotel employee, told the Los Angeles Times that he was working when the earthquake hit Saturday, telling the paper, “I hurried downstairs from the cash counter when I felt the strong tremors...after that everything came crashing down.” He said he awoke hours later, buried in debris. According to the Associated Press, rescue workers found him trapped between two collapsed floors.
“There were times when I thought I was dead and then I would wake up again to find myself beneath the rubble,” he told the Times. “I survived on ghee that I found in a bottle there, scraping until the last dollop to feed myself.”
Narayan Thapa, the Nepali commander at the scene of the hotel collapse, said rescue workers were still trying to pull two more children—believed to be a six-year-old girl and a 12 or 13-year-old boy—from the hotel wreckage.
The chances of finding more survivors of the quake appear bleak, Reuters reports—the death toll has exceeded 5,500 people.
