Israeli aid team reunites with Nepalese woman rescued from rubble
IsraAID members meet with Krishna Devi Khadka, who was pulled to safety from collapsed hotel 5 days after quake
An Israeli-led rescue team that pulled a Nepalese woman out of the rubble in the capital Kathmandu five days after a massive earthquake leveled much of the city late last month, was reunited with the woman on Friday, some 10 days after her rescue.
Workers from the Israeli group IsraAID, along with local soldiers and a team of experts from France and Norway, worked into the night for 10 hours to pull Krishna Devi Khadka to safety on April 30.
On Friday, she met with members of the Israeli team.
“Krishna told me she remembered everything and was so grateful to our rescue team led by Eran Magen as well as the Israeli hospital staff,” said IsraAID head of mission in Nepal Yotam Polizer.
Khadka, 24, had been stuck underneath a collapsed hotel alongside three bodies and could only breathe due to an air pocket that formed alongside her, IsraAid said in a statement.
“It’s nothing short of a miracle,” said Polizer after the rescue. “It was hard to believe that anyone could have survived for that long.”
“When the young woman was finally extracted and carried away to a waiting ambulance, it was to the great relief of the large crowd that had gathered, bringing hope that others may yet be alive,” IsraAid Director Shachar Zahavi said.
Nepalese soldiers and the huge team of experts who had worked on the rescue cheered and clapped as Khadka — a rare survivor — was carried away by stretcher.
As the ambulance sped away, the team returned to the building as signs of a potential second survivor were felt, Zahavi said.
“She was injured but she was conscious and talking,” a Nepal Army major told an AFP reporter at the scene. “She has been sent to a military hospital.”
“It is as though she had been born again,” he said.
The devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Nepal on April 25, killing more that 8,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.