The images we’ve seen on television are heart-wrenching: Collapsed buildings. Bloody and broken bodies. And — the worst — lifeless bodies pulled out of the rubble. In the midst of devastation, there are so many unbelievable stories of survival. These are the miracles of Haiti.

Almost eight days after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck and devastated so much of Port-au-Prince, a 5-year-old boy, Monley, was found alive in the midst of the ruins. He was one of many. More than one hundred people were found living and breathing, although often injured or suffering from dehydration.

The most notable miracle story is of a teenage girl who was pulled out from the rubble 15 days after the earthquake. It’s virtually unheard of. What do doctors have to say about the men, women and children who survived for so long without food and water?

Dr. Eric Weinstein, an emergency physician in Summerville, South Carolina, a member of the Disaster Preparedness and Response Committee of the American College of Emergency Physicians, had this to say about the apparent miracles,

“You can go 10, 12, 13 days without really having a problem, particularly if you’re healthy to begin with.”

Often, the most critical issue doctors have to address once survivors get to the hospital is dehydration. After going so long without water, survivors could have some organ dysfunction. The kidneys may have slowed down, and their liver and intestines may also have problems, according to Weinstein:

“Deprived of food and water, the body initially breaks down glycogen stored in the liver into glucose to fuel its most critical functions — the heart and the brain, Weinstein said. But those stores can be depleted within hours, after which the body begins to cannibalize itself — burning fat and muscle to power its critical functions.”

Beyond that, so many of the survivors are stuck underneath wood, steel, brick, or other material and unable to move for days. Without the ability to move around for even just a few hours increases the possibility of blood pooling and clotting, which increases the risk of a stroke. Some victims have another problem altogether because of the inability to move: uncontrolled bleeding. As the body consumes its platelets, which give blood the ability to clot, a victim who gets injured and bleeds could possibly bleed to death.

Some research shows that people can survive for an average of five to six days, in general. However, if they are stuck in somewhat “favorable” conditions, they can endure for up to two weeks:

“You don’t need to eat for a week or two as long as you have water,” said Dr. Michael Gerardi, a pediatric emergency specialist in Morristown, New Jersey.

There’s so much that survivors endure in order to survive even after they are rescued. Doctors may have all the medical reasons for a person found alive so long after the incident. But, if you ask me, every person found breathing underneath the ruins of the quake is a miracle.

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(Original photo by United Nations Development Programme, used under Creative Commons license.)