Buried beneath his hotel bed for five days in the rubble, two things helped teacher Tin Maung Htwe survive Myanmar Earthquake: outdated school teachings and his own urine.
Survival Instincts Kick In During Myanmar Earthquake
The headmaster of the primary school was attending a training course in Sagaing, nearest to the epicentre, when the 7.7-magnitude quake hit.
The 47-year-old recalled a decades-old school lesson to take cover under a bed if the world begins to shake.
“As soon as I went under the bed, the whole hotel fell down and was blocked. All I could afford was to say ‘save me’,” he said.
“I was shouting ‘save me, save me’.”
The Swal Taw Nann guesthouse where he was lodged was a heap of bricks and bent metal strips, the shattered husk of its top floor lying on the wreckage of those below, and Tin Maung Htwe in a ground floor room below it all.
“I felt as though I was in hell,” he said weakly, an oxygen tube running to his nose and two intravenous drips into his reduced frame.
“My body was burning hot and all I needed was water. I couldn’t get that water from anywhere.
“So I have to refill the water my body needed with fluids coming out of my body.”
‘I Am Free’ Says Myanwar Earthquake Survivor
The severity of the destruction in Sagaing, which is nearer the epicentre, is much worse than that of its neighbour Mandalay. While far lesser percentage of buildings have been blown to rubble in Mandalay.
Destructive gouges have been dug in the road to the big city choking traffic and impeding rescue workers. The Ava bridge between the two across the Irrawaddy is out. While one end of six of its 10 spans lying in the calm water.
Locals reported the Myanmar Red Cross were retrieving bodies from the location and did not anticipate finding anyone alive. But when they found him, and a Malaysian rescue team was brought in to rescue him.
A Joyous Rescue In Myanmar Earthquake
One of eight siblings, his sister Nan Yone, 50, was one of a number of his relatives who waited and watched as they labored at the site.
“I can’t describe it,” said Nan Yone of his rescue on Wednesday.
“I was dancing, crying and beating my chest because I was so happy.”
When he arrived at Sagaing’s main hospital he gave her a thumbs-up and told her: “Sister I am very good.”
“His will is very strong and I think that is why he survived,” she said on the day he was rescued.
While she talked nurses attended to her half-conscious brother on an outdoor gurney, his head lolling every now and then from side to side.
Nobody is being treated in the facility indoors, out of fear that an aftershock will destroy more.
A New Path Ahead
“I am glad I am free now, I wouldn’t be able to do anything if I was dead. I didn’t die so now I can do whatever I wish.” Tin Maung Htwe told.
He wants to go back to his work as a schoolteacher. But he added: “I am considering becoming a Buddhist monk.”
