The 71-year-old mother of Outrageous Fortune actress Robyn Malcolm was on the fifth floor of Christchurch's CTV building when Tuesday's magnitude 6.3 quake hit. She was one of 14 pulled from the building's twisted remains but
about 120 remain entombed in.
"The room just exploded as though a tornado was going through and everything started flying around," Ms Malcolm told The Age from Christchurch Hospital.
"I recall seeing things flying through the air and I must have got hit on the head, I think, at that point, and then I woke up under a pile of rubble and I had heavy concrete on my chest."
Ms Malcolm can't remember being rescued and believes the shock must have dulled the pain.
"I probably should have been feeling immense pain but to be honest I don't recall that. I just remember being grateful that I was lying on that grass with the rain on my face, looking up at the leaves in the trees thinking, 'I'm out of there and I'm safe'," she told the newspaper.
She paid tribute to the hospital staff caring for her, despite being physically knocked around by the quake and having badly damaged homes.
