Laura Wagner: 'I was hoping I would die quickly'

By Gregory Childress

gchildress@heraldsun.com; 419-6645

Chapel Hill -- A UNC student who was in Haiti during the massive earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people told an MSNBC reporter Thursday that she hoped she "would die quickly" while trapped under a house that collapsed around her.

Laura Wagner, a doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology, told the reporter that she was trapped under piles of concrete and rubble for about 90 minutes before being rescued by a friend who heard her cries, then used a hammer to chip away at the concrete until he freed her.

"I was hoping I would die quickly instead of slowly because I was stuck, but then they got me out," said Wagner, who was on the island doing doctoral field work.

Wagner, who entered the medical anthropology program in 2006, said she is from the San Francisco Bay area. Her research interests are listed as medical anthropology, human rights, gender and sexual violence, infectious disease, domestic servitude, identity formation, community-based and collaborative methods, Haiti and Haitian diaspora.

She is a 2004 graduate of Yale University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in history of science and history of medicine.

The MSNBC reporter interviewed Wagner just before she boarded a plane for Miami. She had a single bandage around her arm and a slight, but noticeable limp as she walked toward the plane.

She said she was able to e-mail friends on campus who got the word out Wednesday that she was alive and well.

Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld, associate chairman of the Anthropology Department, said the word that Wagner was safe also spread across campus through her Facebook page.

"We were very happy to hear that she was safe promptly," said Colloredo-Mansfeld.

He said Wagner's flight would take her to Miami and that she would presumably return to campus.