Miracle baby survives tsunami

The Associated Press reports the death toll in the Indonesian tsunami continues to rise -- but amid the devastation comes one surprising bit of good news: An 18-month-old boy was found alive in a grove of trees, even though his nearby village was leveled.

Both of his parents died when the tsunami swept away entire villages, the AP reports. The child was found on the Pagai Selatan island. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced following the disaster, and hundreds are still missing.

The miraculous survival brings to mind the "miracle child" who was the sole passenger to survive a Tripoli jet crash in May. One hundred and three people died in the crash, and no one could explain why 9-year-old Dutch citizen Ruben van Assouw survived. The family was returning from an African-safari trip to celebrate his parents' anniversary, and the crash claimed the lives of the boy's parents and brother.

In 2009, a 13-year-old French girl was the sole survivor in an Indian Ocean plane crash that killed 152 people. She didn't know how to swim but clung to a piece of wreckage from the plane, according to CNN.

In other miracle survival stories, a 10-year-old Chinese boy accidentally fell 20 stories out of an apartment building this month; he survived after he crashed through a car and his head landed on a cushioned part of the interior.

[Rewind: Chile's trapped miners all rescued in 'miracle']

Another recent "miracle baby": The North Carolinian 17-month-old toddler who survived a gruesome household accident when he fell on a rod attached to a pressure washer that lodged itself several inches into his skull. A neurosurgeon managed to save the child, and told a local TV station the injury was so severe that he thought the child must be a "miracle baby."

Click image to see a slideshow of the tsunami's aftermath

AP

(Top photo of debris in the wake of the 7.7 magnitude quake: Reuters)

[Video: Miracle? Dog lives after being put down]

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