SEATTLE—
Katie Zook is one of the lucky ones who got out alive after the devastating earthquake in Haiti. She's recovering in a Florida hospital and hoping to be back home in Arlington some time soon. It will take time for her body and mind to heal, but her spirit was never broken.It was a very close call for her. Friends and strangers risked their lives and pulled katie from the wreckage. She was rushed to a hospital at the U.S. embassy in Haiti, then to Guantanamo's medical clinic, then to Florida - all within 2 days.
"Hello? I see you," says Katie Zook from her hospital bed near Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I reached her by Skype. The 22-year-old is recovering and remembering:
"I remember how dark that dark was when I was trapped," she says looking off into the distance. "I have never been in dark like that before."
Exactly two weeks ago, Katie was in Haiti volunteering as a missionary in Port Au Prince when her world crumbled.
"and there was this loud rumble like a jet headed straight for the building," she remembers, "and then the building started moving."
She had no idea of the massive devastation around her. Hurt and frantic, her co-worker Jack got out, but Katie did not.
"...and I could hear Jack screaming and every time there was an aftershock I heard everyone in the streets screaming."
For hours she was one of many trapped under the rubble, curled up in the fetal position in darkness, but then:
"I had enough room around my right arm to grab the bottle and tap it against the table, so Jack could hear the tapping, but when I yelled he couldn't hear me yelling so I gave up yelling and I just tapped..." she trails off.
The church's Haitian driver John heard the tapping too, then started praying and digging.
"He asked Jesus: 'I need to see a picture of where she is,' she remembers hearing, "when they did finally find me, he lifted me up over his stomach and he was my first gurney, then they moved me onto a suitcase, and then away."
"All emotions broke loose, terror, gratitude, worry," says Katie's dad Greg from her hospital beside.
He is beyond grateful his daughter is alive. Despite near kidney failure, collapsed lungs and a battered body:
"This arm can reach up this can only go this high," she shows us, stretching her left arm up a few inches.
Greg says Katie is getting better and getting support from across the country.
"I'm sending you all my love in this card, love Stephanie," she reads off one of a few dozen cards on her lap.
It's the same love she send back to the man who saved her life.
"I want to tell John that there is no amount of money, there's no amount of time that I could give him, to thank him for what he's done for me. I hope I have a chance to show him my gratitude in person on day."
Katie brought up "the darkness" more than once. She says even when she was pulled out it was nighttime, the air was so thick with dust she had no idea how bad the devastation was around her.
She says she hasn't had any nightmares about that yet, but she and her family live out in the country where - as she puts it - it gets really dark.
As far as her injuries, she had collapsed lungs, and cracked ribs, near kidney failure and nerve damage to her left side. Her body was so badly swollen from all that weight on top of her, doctors had to cut-open her thigh to release a lot of fluid build-up - otherwise, it could have cut-off circulation to her leg and led to amputation.
She'll have surgery on thursday to close-up those wounds and hopefully go home in a few days.
