Baby found in tornado rubble - but mum dies

Updated 19.27 Fri Feb 08 2008
Keywords: tornado, baby, US

A baby in Tennessee has been found safe and well after being catapulted into a field by a Tornado that killed his mother.

Face down in the mud and 150 yards from where his home once stood, 11-month-old Kyson Stowell was found during the tornado clear up.

At first rescuers mistook the little tot for a baby doll that had been lost under the rubble.

David Harmon, of the Wilson County Emergency Management Agency, said: "I came across the baby - he was laying face down with his arms above his head and to me it looked like a baby doll just laying there. He was laying there motionless, wasn't moving.

"I said l it looks like a baby doll but before I could finish speaking I saw the baby move."

Amazingly, Kyson suffered only scrapes and cuts to his face. But his mother wasn't so lucky - the body of 23-year old Kerri Stowell was found later in the same field.

Dr Tom Morgan, of the Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt University, said: "Maybe he landed on something that lessened his blow. Maybe he came down against a bush or something. I think it was probably mostly luck, God's grace."

At least 59 people died in the twisters which swept across four US states this week.

© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.