CHINA:JIA XUEJIAO, clutching a fluffy dog, is in some pain and woozy from drugs but she's alive, when most of the people in her hometown of Yinqiu are dead or missing.
"The mountain fell on us. The village was like hell. I was buried in debris and I felt very desperate. It was classmates who dug me up. I was in the worst place. It took two days for them to get me free," says the 18-year-old student, her bed packed with provisions.
Yinqiu, in Wenchuan county, lies at the epicentre of last week's earthquake and only 2,400 of the town's 11,000 residents have been found alive so far.
Relief is starting to arrive by road, but meaningful supplies can still only reach the town by river.
Xuejiao was airlifted out to Huaxi hospital in Sichuan's provincial capital, and is now waiting to be moved from the intensive care unit to a regular ward.
"It took a long time for rescuers to get to Wenchuan, so everyone had to dig each other out. Our village is all gone now, we are almost out of food and water there too," she said.
The confirmed death toll from the earthquake has risen to 41,353, with 32,666 missing. Five million are homeless.
"She was dug out on May 14th. Her left leg was seriously injured, the skin is all gone on the lower part and they had to take skin from the upper thigh for a graft," says her "big brother", Wang Quangui. Because of the one child policy, many youngsters in China have no real siblings and often refer to their cousins as "brother" or "sister".
"We cannot get back to our homes - they're gone. Our parents are all still there, they are safe. But way too many of our friends and other relatives are gone. Too, too many," said Wang ( 23).
At the entrance to the hospital there is a row of tents, where doctors examine the patients being brought in from all over the quake zone, including hundreds of orphans. They take samples from the wounds for a quick diagnosis to see if the patient is infected, and they are sent to different parts of the hospital thereafter.
The nature of the disaster means there are a disturbing number of amputations. Most of the patients seem to be either young children or the elderly, the most vulnerable age groups because the quake hit at 2.28pm, when they were in school or napping.
"My daughter Yaoyao was on the fifth floor of the Shifeng Yinhua Middle School when the earthquake struck and she fell down through all five floors.
She was the only survivor in the school. She was stuck for 35 hours, and they had to amputate her legs below the knee to get her out. She has a serious infection in the upper part of her leg," said Yaoyao's mother, Ren Yuanci.
The family have set up a temporary quarters in the hallway outside the intensive care unit in the hospital and are living on instant noodles and bottled water.
"She's very brave. We all cried when she was dug out but she hasn't cried yet, not once. I want to thank the army who brought her here. The village is gone, our house is gone, all collapsed. We live here right now," said Ren.
Liu Hongli (18) was dug up after 36 hours in the ruins of the Dongqi Middle School in the town of Hanwang, where hundreds of children perished. They too have set up camp outside the ICU.
"My little girl is very seriously ill. She has internal injuries and her legs are badly wounded," said Hongli's father, Liu Gang.
"We drove 10 minutes to get to the school and tried to dig her out. I found her in the ruins, then called the rescue team over and they helped me to dig her out," said Liu.
Hongli's mother Cao Qinghua says she is the farming couple's only child.
"The doctor in Deyang said we might have to amputate one of her legs, but another doctor did a diagnosis and said we didn't. We brought her here and we're very happy she could keep her leg," said Cao. The family comes from Mianzhu, which was badly damaged by the quake.
The whole facility has the feel of a field hospital, as ambulances rush in an out ferrying the injured.
The ICU is also home to Wang Youqiong, a woman in her 60s who was rescued this week after being buried in Pengzhou for 197 hours. She was caught between two large slabs, and drank rainwater to survive.
During the days when there was no rain, she was kept going by two dogs, who licked her lips to give her moisture.
"We're very busy. Up to now they've brought about 1,600 patients into this building alone and there are 2,000 in the hospital. We don't have constant numbers, people come through this hospital for treatment. Some of us surgeons haven't been home since the earthquake," said Dr Li Chen.