Miracle survival may not be so miraculous

Pakistan: Neighbours and some relatives of a woman whose family says she was rescued alive after spending more than two months under the rubble of her quake-destroyed home are now saying the woman had been pulled out of her destroyed home two days after the earthquake and stayed there by choice.

The story of Naqsha Bibi has been making the rounds in Pakistan since earlier this week, and has been picked up by local media reports and some international news agencies.

"She was not buried in the rubble. She lived in her collapsed home," said Hafeezur Rahman, her doctor.

He said the woman's muscles had atrophied because she ate too little but she is now recovering quickly.

Relatives and neighbours in the Cumsir Refugee camp where she lived, about six kilometres north of Muzaffarabad, said earlier this week that they were surprised by the ruckus.

Bibi's cousin, Sharif ud Din, and other neighbours said the woman had been offered food daily by her neighbours, though she often refused to eat it. They finally, asked a medical team to take her to a hospital.

Bibi was taken to the field hospital in nearby Muzaffarabad looking very gaunt. Immediate family members told doctors she had been trapped under the rubble for more than 60 days, living on rotten fruit.

There have been nearly a dozen claims of miracle rescues, but none has been pulled alive from the rubble since about eight days after the earthquake.