By David Williams and Liz Hazelton

Alive: Elisabeth Joassaint is treated by doctors after spending a week buried in the rubble of her house


A baby who was just 11 days old when the Haiti earthquake struck has become one of its most amazing survival stories.

No one believed that Elisabeth Joassaint could have lived as the family home was crushed by the weight of its upper storey.

It was a full seven days later that a French rescue team returned to the ruins to search for the baby's body - and heard faint cries.


Tender care: She had only suffered a few scratches and was reunited with her mother Michel


Incredibly, Elisabeth was alive in a tiny hollow beneath the devastation, still lying on the bed where her mother Michelene had placed her moments before the quake hit on January 12.

Yesterday Mrs Joassaint, 22, sat in the shade of a makeshift tented hospital, clutching Elisabeth and giving thanks for what she called 'a miracle and the mercy of God.'

Her husband Michelet, 47, said : 'Everybody knew the baby was dead, except the Lord. This wasn't the way Jesus wanted the baby to die.'

Mrs Joassaint said she had just fed Elisabeth and laid her down when the quake struck. She tried desperately to save her baby but was forced back as walls collapsed around her.


Relief: Elisabeth with her mother Michel who had believed she was dead for seven days

The grieving couple were living on a football field when a messenger from the French team arrived to say Elisabeth was alive and they were working to free her.

'I just cried and ran to my baby,' Mrs Joassaint said, 'I just could not believe she had been spared or that one so new to life, with so little strength, could have survived the collapsing walls with no injury at all.'


source: dailymail