Quake survivor: Fiance's death 'doesn't seem right'
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Adele Freedman
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(CNN) -- Americans Adele Freedman and Tobb Dell'Oro got engaged last month while vacationing in Iran shortly before a massive earthquake hit the ancient city of Bam. After being buried for hours under rubble, Dell'Oro died of internal bleeding en route to the hospital.
Freedman, a cancer survivor, has returned to the United States to recover from fractures in her ribs and vertebrae and from broken feet. She told CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien on Monday that her injuries are nothing compared to the loss of her fiance. He was among about 30,000 people killed in the devastating quake.
O'BRIEN: Obviously, [it's been] a terribly difficult time for you. Let's first start with how you are doing. What have the doctors told you about your fractures and how they expect you're going to be able to recover?
FREEDMAN: The doctors said that the Iranian doctors did exactly what they would have done had I been injured here, and that it will be a lot of hard work and rehab, but I'll be able to walk in two or three months.
O'BRIEN: Take us back to [December] 26. You were staying in a guesthouse, and suddenly the quake hits at 5 in the morning. What did it feel like? What did it sound like?
FREEDMAN: There definitely was a sound, but I don't remember it. It was all so fast, and, you know, I know that my first instinct was to get out of bed and run to the doorway, and I know that was Tobb's also. His first instinct was to come and get me and bring me to a doorway. Everything came down before we could do that. My feet were on the ground, but I was pinned to the bed.
O'BRIEN: You said Tobb was trying to get out to help you. Where did he end up when all the rubble fell on him?
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Tobb Dell'Oro and Adele Freedman on one of their adventures together
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FREEDMAN: He was in between our two beds, and, you know, I understand that he was actually standing, and I was lying down, but I know that somehow I could touch a finger of his. So while we were buried, every once in a while I would raise my index finger, and I'd rub it against one of his fingers. I don't know which one.
O'BRIEN: That must have been very comforting for you. What did you do to keep each other's spirits up? Did you talk the whole time you were under there? You were there for five hours.
FREEDMAN: We didn't talk the whole time. You don't know how much time is going by when you are lying there. I mean we were quiet a lot simply because we were worried about air, and I knew I didn't have a lot of air, and I could only breathe through my mouth and was breathing in a lot of rocks and dirt.
I know I tried to just think about breathing slowly and calmly, and the problem was my mouth kept drying. It was very hard to keep moisture. I felt I couldn't breathe with a dry mouth.
Tobb was the one who was yelling when he heard people. He could hear better than I could. Maybe his head didn't have as much around it, and he said, "Do you hear the trucks? Do you hear the trucks?" at some point. I didn't hear them.
When he heard people, he's the one that started yelling, "Help, help." When our guide came and said, "Tobb," he responded and said, "Help us. Help Adele. She can't breathe. Please dig us out." That sort of started and stopped a few times. So it was just frustrating and scary. Once our guide was there, I felt a little bit of hope we'd be rescued.
O'BRIEN: He seems like a incredibly special person, obviously putting you first in this rescue, and when you had a tough time with cancer years ago, he was the kind of person who stuck it out with you and helped you as well. I know that you didn't know that he had died until your parents came and told you in the hospital. That must have been incredibly difficult to come to terms with.
FREEDMAN: I still really haven't. I can't believe it, and it's very hard. It just -- it doesn't seem right.
O'BRIEN: Our sympathies to you. Thank you for talking to us this morning. We certainly appreciate it. I know that you plan to honor his memory in some way by maybe going back to Iran some day. We'd love to know what you end up doing.
FREEDMAN: I'm hoping to raise money to build a school in Bam just to help with, you know, rebuilding a city that's 90 percent destroyed, and thanking the Iranian people for all of the help that they provided to both Tobb and to me and for the kindness that they showed us, both before and after the earthquake.
