Girl, 16, survives for fortnight after Haiti earthquake

The 16-year-old was severely dehydrated and had a leg injury but was conscious when she was dragged from the bathroom of a collapsed home by French rescuers.

Darlene Etienne was saved after neighbours heard a voice in the debris of a house in Port-au-Prince.

Colonel Michel Orcel, a French doctor, said: "She will live. She is only 16 years old and she has her whole life ahead of her. We are providing the care she needs and she will be OK."

It is rare for anyone to survive more than 72 hours without water, let alone more than two weeks. But Darlene is thought to have drunk water from the bath and rescuers said she mumbled something about having a little Coca-Cola with her in the rubble.

Darlene, who was crying and in shock when she was pulled out, was trapped between a collapsed wall and a door.

Rescuer Claude Fuilla walked along the dangerously crumbled roof, heard her voice and saw a little bit of dust-covered black hair in the rubble. Clearing away some debris, he reached the young woman and saw she was alive — barely. "I don't think she could have survived even a few more hours," Mr Fuilla said.

Stephan Sadak, a member of the French rescue team, said: "She was able to survive because she wasn't crushed by the rubble and there was a space where she could lie down."

The commander of the team, Samuel Bernes, said: "She just said thank you'. She's very weak, which suggests that she's been there for 15 days. She was in a pocket surrounded by concrete."

France's ambassador to Haiti, Didier le Bret, praised the "stubbornness" of the French rescue squad. "They should not have been working any more because, officially, the rescue phase is over," he said. "But they felt that some lives still are to be saved, so we did not say they should leave the country."

International rescue teams have saved about 135 people who were buried alive when the 7.0-magnitude quake struck on 12 January. About 200,000 are thought to have died.

Haiti emergency appeal

Merlin is a member of the Disasters Emergency Committee. You can donate to the DEC Haiti appeal online at www.dec.org.uk or by calling 0370 60 60 900.

For more information about Merlin's Haiti response please go to: www.merlin.org.uk or call 020 7014 1714.