[liberationtech] MEDIA: iPhone helps man survive Haiti earthquake -- Delete if not interested

[Yosem Companys]

*Buried in Haiti rubble, U.S. dad wrote goodbyes
But with iPhone info, he treated his injuries and was rescued after 65 hours
*By Mike Celizic
TODAYshow.com contributor
updated 5:48 a.m. PT, Tues., Jan. 19, 2010

** Excerpts **

Woolley had been working for Compassion International, a mission
organization, making a film about the impact of poverty on the people of
Haiti. He and a colleague, David Hames, had just returned to the Hotel
Montana in Port-au-Prince from a day of filming when the earthquake struck.

“I just saw the walls rippling and just explosive sounds all around me,”
Woolley told Vieira. “It all happened incredibly fast. David yelled out,
‘It’s an earthquake,’ and we both lunged and everything turned dark.”

Woolley had taken refuge in an elevator shaft, where he used an iPhone
first-aid app to treat a compound fracture of his leg and a cut on his head.
He had already used his digital SLR camera’s focusing light to illuminate
his surroundings, and taken pictures of the wreckage to help find a safe
place to wait to be rescued — or to die.

*Awaiting his fate
*
Woolley is nearsighted and lost his glasses in the quake. But by using the
focusing light on his camera and taking pictures, he was able to figure out
where he was and where to go. And thanks to the iPhone first-aid app he’d
downloaded, he knew how to fashion a bandage and tourniquet for his leg and
to stop the bleeding from his head wound. The app also warned him not to
fall asleep if he felt he was going into shock, so he set his cell phone’s
alarm clock to go off every 20 minutes.

And then for 65 hours, he waited for whatever fate had in store for him.
 Woolley attributes his survival and rescue by a French rescue team to
divine providence.
*
*
© 2010 MSNBC Interactive.

URL: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/34933053/ns/today-today_people/
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