ALONG THE CORRIDORS OF the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC), hospital workers are talking about a supposed beauty queen who survived a landslide in Mt. Province, only to discover she had lost her parents and her leg.

The dusky Kankanaey is 15-year-old Erlina Dominguez Trinidad, one of the survivors pulled out of the Oct. 8 landslide that killed 35 people in Barangay Kayan in Tadian town.

Tadian Mayor Constito Masweng said Trinidad, often referred to at the hospital as “Miss Trinidad,” is not a beauty titlist, though her small community is proud of its beautiful women.

Lately, family and friends have willingly shared her tale, Masweng said, because the community and members of the Cordillera Association of Regional Executives (CARE) are now raising funds to get her an artificial leg.

Like many residents of Kayan, members of the Trinidad household had eaten dinner early and had turned in for the night because of a power outage that accompanied Typhoon “Pepeng’s” onslaught.

“It was about 6:15 p.m. There was no electricity, so we decided to go to bed early… It (the slide) happened very suddenly. We didn’t hear anything fall or break in the dark,” Trinidad said.

The mudslide killed her parents, 62-year-old Reinaldo and 48-year-old Visitacion, and her 8-year-old sister, Vanessa.

Immobilized

Trinidad told doctors of the Department of Health that she woke up immobilized by mud. She said she had difficulty seeing anything as it was dark.

“I could not move my leg. Then, more mud came my way. I used both of my arms to protect myself [whenever debris started falling on top of me]. Then I cried out for help,” she said.

Rescuers finally dragged her out of the mud, only to lose her again when they scrambled to get her 12-year-old brother, John Vincent, who screamed from the rubble.

She said she was pulled down again by the loose earth before rescuers finally retrieved her.

At the Luis Hora Memorial Hospital in Bauko town, where Trinidad was first taken, doctors realized that the girl’s right leg and foot were crushed and had developed gangrene.

Miscommunication

Masweng said local officials had asked the Office of Civil Defense stationed at the former Wallace Air Station in La Union to airlift Trinidad, but miscommunication and bad weather scuttled the plan.

“We had to carry her to [the site where a helicopter would fetch her], but the heavy clouds prevented the [helicopter] from flying in. It turned out that the helicopter was meant for [another mission]. A second helicopter was requested on the same day, but again, it could not lift her out when the weather turned bad,” he said.

Trinidad was finally brought to the BGHMC on Oct. 12, where doctors tried to save her leg.

Jessibeth, her 29-year-old sister, cried when doctors told her that they would amputate her right leg.

Recovering

Trinidad is recovering at the hospital. Her face has bruises while her arms are covered with scars. Her siblings take turns sitting by her side, to help fight off depression.

But when the Inquirer visited her last week, the teenager said: “I am OK now [though] sometimes, my [missing] right leg stings.”

“I want to go home. I want to [resume] school,” she added.

Masweng said John Vincent had already returned to school, along with other students in Kayan.

Other victim

CARE is also raising money to buy a prosthetic right leg for Romeo Santiago Jr., 29, one of the two landslide survivors at Sitio Ambabag in Mankayan, Benguet.

On Oct. 8, Santiago was helping his father-in-law, Felix Valdez, in evacuating residents when they themselves were buried by mud. Romeo tried to outrun the mudfall that killed Valdez, but he was pinned.

He was dug out and taken to the Lutheran Memorial Hospital in Mankayan where doctors amputated his right leg.

Santiago was airlifted to the BGHMC where he has been confined since Oct. 17.

People who want to help Trinidad and Santiago may contact the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center at trunk line (074) 442-4216.