CNN’s Campbell Brown fights back tears at news that rescued Haitian girl has died

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The grim stories of loss coming out of Haiti are taking a toll on the journalists reporting the mounting sorrows. Fox News correspondent Steve Harrigan broke down Thursday as he talked about a woman who lost all five of her children. Tonight, CNN anchor Campbell Brown was overcome by the news that a girl whose rescue was covered by the network had died.

The story began Thursday, when CNN correspondent Ivan Watson reported on the Herculean efforts to save an 11-year-old girl pinned under the rubble in Port-au-Prince. (See his report above.) His camera captured the anguished look in her eyes as she lay under piles of concrete, moaning as rescuers tried to free her from a large piece of metal pinning her leg down. Ultimately, she was freed after rescuers managed to find a generator to power an electric saw and cut her out.

Tonight, Watson told Campbell Brown the sad coda to the story: that while the girl made it to a first aid station, doctors there didn’’t have the necessary equipment to treat her wounds. Her family was unable to get her to a hospital in time and she died.

‘It’s pretty heartbreaking,’ he said, repeating the child’s last words in French: ‘Mother, don’t let me die.’

As Watson concluded, Brown visibly struggled to contain her emotions. ‘Ah, OK,’ she said, fighting back tears. ‘Many, many hearts breaking for this little girl, Ivan.’

-- Matea Gold