Four Corners: Feb 28

Next Monday Four Corners will air “The Miracle Baby of Haiti.”

First broadcast by Britain’s Channel Four, this is the story of a baby girl plucked from the rubble of the Haiti earthquake and the British doctor who made the momentous decision to evacuate her.

The story has been deliberately timed to screen following the Christchurch earthquake.

It’s just over a year since the devastating earthquake in Haiti claimed three hundred thousand lives. The injuries were appalling, the destruction enormous. An estimated 3 million men, women and children, one in three Haitians, were affected.

But amidst the horror an extraordinary story emerged, The Miracle Baby of Haiti. Tiny Landina Seignon, somehow survived several near death experiences. She was found in the rubble of the paediatric ward at La Trinite hospital in Port-au-Prince two days after the earthquake. Many patients, nurses and doctors had died after being crushed in the rubble of the building that had collapsed around them.

Médecins Sans Frontières’ volunteer and British surgeon, David Nott, found baby Landina, all alone, in an emergency field hospital. He knew that if she was to survive she would need a specialist operation on her skull, which could not be done in Haiti. With her skull burnt through, her brain was at risk of an infection that would kill her. Along with British filmmaker Inigo Gilmore, Nott evacuated her to a hospital in Britain. Her survival instincts kicked in once more. She soon began to thrive and gain weight.

But was Landina an orphan? Had any of her family survived? Was anyone looking for her? At the time of her evacuation all they had was her name. Inigo Gilmore decided to return to Haiti to try to find her family. The search through the wreckage of Haiti’s destroyed capital, led to the back streets of one of its worst slums, and to a woman who might be the baby’s mother. Was this the child she had given up for dead? This baby’s plight drew many people into her life – and changed their lives forever. But what started as a simple act of mercy would have unpredictable and profound consequences for everyone involved.

Four Corners airs Monday 28th February at 8.30pm on ABC1.