Morning Headlines: Woman Who Lost Legs in Building Collapse Recounts Awful Details

The Daily News reports today on the deposition of Mariya Plekan, the woman who was trapped under the rubble of the Salvation Army thrift store for 13 hours. By the time she was rescued, her injuries were too severe to save her legs, which had to be amputated. The details she gave are haunting and hard to hear:

Plekan, who said she was conscious for the entire ordeal, recounted how she found a small hole through which she could see light and hear parts of the rescue operation above her.

“They started to move things around, then I had a hope, I had a hope that they will save me shortly. But it didn’t happen,” she said. “I was screaming, ‘Help, help.’ But nobody heard me.”

“I was praying, praying, ‘God, help me,’ so I could be found,” she said.

A search dog tracked her down.

“The dog followed my yell…And they started pulling things apart and they pulled me out. And I didn’t realize that it was night because the spotlights were on. I was so happy that I was saved. And I didn’t know that my legs were dead at that time.”

Of her amuptations, she says: “Pain, pain, pain, and that pain is still going on . . . the pain of my flesh, but as well of my soul.”

Trapped collapse victim: I remember everything [Daily News]

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