RAMAT GAN, Israel, Aug. 21 -- Nine-year-old Shiran Franko spent some 100 hours buried in the debris of her family's summer apartment in Chinarchik, Turkey thinking she had been in a road accident. When an Israeli rescue team finally drilled a hole through one of the concrete slabs that surrounded her, she was surprised to see so many soldiers. Shiran, an Israeli citizen from Kiryat Motzkin, a town near Haifa, is back in Israel today, recovering in a hospital with her mother at her side and a new doll presented to her by Prime Minster Ehud Barak's keeping her company. Dr. Yitzhak Ashkenazi said the rescue was, 'quite a medical miracle, ' because Shiran had been without food and water for more than 110 hours, in a temperature of 35 to 40 degrees centigrade (95 to 104F). 'Almost no one lives (under such conditions) after 72 hours, especially not children...definitely not a little, skinny 9-and-a-half year old girl,' he said. Shiran's aunt, Dorit Elimelech, said the girl didn't realize what had happened to her. She thought she had been involved in an auto accident and hit a stone wall. Actually, Shiran had been in the room she shared with her brother and grandparents on the first floor of a seven-story apartment house that collapsed on them in the middle of the night. Sharin's mother, Iris, said today she screamed, 'The children!,' as the ceiling came down, killing her father. Iris was dug from the debris after 36 hours, but could hear only faint sounds.
She told her rescuers where the children's room had been, and they began to dg their way to the spot. An army spokesman in Israel said today that the yellow-helmeted rescue team at one point stopped their work and listened. It was dead silent. And then they heard Shiran. It was another hour of work before they drilled a hole through one of the two concrete slabs that luckily collapsed together at an angle, shielding her from the falling debris. The rescuers found her lying partly on a mattress, partly in a pile of cement dust. 'At first it was difficult to locate her,' the mission's chief doctor, Col. Yitzhak Ashkenazi, said. 'Then they saw her feet, went in and pulled her out.' Rescuers cradled her and brought water while the doctor washed her face and eyes with his wet hand. Someone warned not to let her drink, so she wouldn't throw up and possibly complicate her situation. Iris said that when she came over to her daughter, Shiran asked, 'Mommy, take me to the eye doctor tomorrow.' Then she asked the doctor, 'Aren't you disgusted (by me)?' 'He's not disgusted, love,' her mother answered. Shiran was rushed to a hospital in Bursa while the Israel air force readied a C-130 transport plane to fly her home. Her mother, who seemed so tough in recent days, broke down crying. 'I had lost hope,' she said. Rescuers then went about the grim task of pulling out the bodies of the other family members. 'We missed him,' Gil Weiner said of Shiran's twin brother, who was found dead near her. 'It had been possible to take him out. Maybe yesterday he was alive. Maybe.' The C-130 flew Shiran and Iris to the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan where specialists conducted a CT-scan, an ultra-sound and other tests. A hospital spokeswoman said Shiran is suffering from dehydration, fears, and 'is less communicative than this morning.' Dr. Yitzhak Ashkenazi said her rescue was, 'quite a medical miracle, ' because Shiran had been without food and water for over 110 hours, in a temperature of 35 to 40 degrees centigrade (95 to 104F). 'Almost no one lives (under such conditions) after 72 hours, especially not children...definitely not a little, skinny nine and a half years old girl,' he said. Shiran identified each family member who came to her hospital room, and knew who was who. She didn't know the woman in yellow who brought her a doll and some candy, but she wasn't expected to identify Prime Minister Barak's wife, Nava. Outside the hospital, Shiran's uncle told TV reporters: 'If God took all of (Iris') family, at least He left her with a little present.' ---
Copyright 1999 by United Press International. All rights reserved. ---
