Lives saved, survivors now often face losing limbs

PORT-AU-PRINCE: For two days, Ticia Vital refused doctors' pleas to allow them to amputate her festering left leg, even as the gangrene spread and the alternative became death. But after a sleepless night filled with pain, the 19-year-old agreed - becoming one of scores of Haitians who have lost their limbs to the earthquake that has devastated millions.

In a country where life is difficult in the best of times, the prospect of a future without an arm or leg is especially dismaying.

"What will I do? How will I manage to survive on my own with just one leg?" Vital asked, lying lethargically on a metal bed frame at Renaissance Hospital, which Cuban doctors founded for eye care in 2006 and swiftly converted to a trauma unit after last Tuesday's quake.