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As the water receded Ioka Fa'aliga-Fauena Yi clutched the body of her lifeless baby, said a prayer and sucked his nose.
"I was so desperate. I just put my mouth over his nose and sucked out the water. I thought I was holding a dead baby and then he coughed,"
she said.
Baby Matthew is snoring gently in his mother's arms in a makeshift tent in Saleapaga, oblivious to his own remarkable tale of survival.
Next to him is 3-year-old cousin Lau'iliu Paneta who is howling and kicking his tiny feet, arms flapping and tears streaming down his face, furious at the doctors and nurses fussing over the cut on his head.
The cousins are two of the lucky ones.
Matthew was in the front of his home crawling, his latest skill, when his grandmother noticed that the sea was quickly receding.
Mrs Fa'aliga-Fauena Yi who had been in the kitchen ran to the front and grabbed her baby son and daughter, 3-year-old Fa'atamali'i.
"I looked out the window and [the wave] was already coming it was too late to do anything," she said.
She grabbed both children, held them up close to her, turned her back to the wave and braced herself.
"I didn't want to see it coming. I just felt this incredible fear, I've never felt so scared. And when it finally hit, it was like a big piece of wood had been smacked across my back. My daughter was forced out of my arms but I managed to hold tightly on to my baby."
Seven family members were in the house at the time, including Mrs Fa'aliga-Fauena Yi's 64-year-old mother who also survived.
All the others died.
They were her brother Taeao and his three-year-old son Savelio, sister Manino and her four month-old son Viliamu, another sister Naiuli and Fa'aliga-Fauena Yi's three-year-old daughter Fa'atamali'i.
A neighbour who was visiting that morning, 65-year-old Taua Taua Sagale, also died.
"Above me and below me was all sea, I couldn't feel any solid ground and the water above seemed to go on and on.
"Around me, I could only hear people yelling: 'Lord I want to live, I want to live,' while other's screamed 'my poor children, Lord have mercy'."
After being underwater for a long period of time Mrs Fa'aliga-Fauena Yi was shocked when she suddenly gasped for air and got it.
She and her baby son slowly drifted out towards the back of the village where she managed to grab hold of a coconut tree before she looked down to see her son lifeless.
Then after she sucked the water from his nose, he was again able to breathe.
"I just sat there crying and crying. Looking out all there was now nothing I just sat there and cried because there was nothing else to do."
How you can help
Pacific Cooperation Foundation
Deposits can be made at at any Westpac branch. All the money raised will go to the Samoan Government
Red Cross
- Make a secure online donation at redcross.org.nz
- Send cheques to the Samoan Red Cross Fund, PO Box 12140, Thorndon, Wellington 6144
- Call 0900 31 100 to make an automatic $20 donation
- Make a donation at any NZ Red Cross office
ANZ bank
Make a donation at any ANZ bank branch, or donate directly to the ANZ appeal account: 01 1839 0143546 00
Oxfam
- Make a secure online donation at
Oxfam.org.nz
- Phone 0800 400 666 or make an automatic $20 donation by calling 0900 600 20
