Miracle in Haiti: Baby Pulled from Rubble

Amid the horror in Haiti, a miracle. "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith was there after a girl named Michelle, who's almost two years old, was pulled from under the debris of a collapsed building -- five days after the massive earthquake.

And against all odds, she managed to cling to life.

Michelle endured five days of searing heat, dusty air and utter darkness.

But neighbors said they thought they heard a noise.

Capt. P.J. Parker, of Florida Task Force One, a rescue team from the Miami-Dade County area, told Smith, "We had actually met up with the French team, and they advised that they had heard cries in the area."

That unit worked side-by-side with the team from France. They couldn't hear a thing. But the dogs knew better.

"Chase and Striker alerted us on the baby's location ... and then we pulled her out," Parker says.

The dogs followed their noses and the rescue team followed the dogs, and there in a safe space was Michelle.

Her father knew it was a miracle, saying in French, "Grace of God. Grace of God!"

Because Michelle is so young, Smith points out, she still has a lot of fat. She's very dehydrated, but there are two doctors at the scene. They ran IVs, trying to hydrate her.

You can hear her cries, Smith notes -- not strong yet, but the physicians are very, very hopeful.

"She's alert," said one of them, Dr. Rudolph Moise, who's also with Florida Task Force One. "She's crying good sound. Keep crying, Michelle!"

Her prognosis, says one doctor, is "excellent. The baby will survive. She's looking good. ... All she wanted was to suck on that little water, because she's dehydrated."

He added, "I was born in this country, so Haiti is close to my heart. ... This is the biggest, biggest reward I could get."

Years from now, Smith observed, Michelle's father and neighbors will tell her what happened. She will be told of the many people who died, and she will be told she is special. For who else could have survived such an awful thing?

CBS News Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton, who helped treat Michelle, told Smith, "In pediatrics, we say children kind of tend to the extremes. They can get sick very quickly and really crash quickly, but they have amazing reserve and resiliency, and they can compensate for a long period of time. So, again, she was caught in an area where she didn't sustain any crush injury, and she was able to actually survive not only the rubble, but not have severe dehydration, which is amazing."