text: This is remarkable moment a teenage boy was found alive in a collapsed building five days after the Nepal earthquake struck. Crowds cheered as Pema Lama, 15, was pulled, dazed and dusty, from the rubble of a guesthouse in Kathmandu after he became 'pancaked' between two floors when the quake hit on Saturday. He was carried out on a stretcher by medics who had placed  an IV drip into his arm and a blue brace around his neck. He appeared stunned and his eyes blinked in the sunlight. His astonishing tale of survival came as a four-month-old baby was reunited with his mother after being rescued from the rubble of their house. Scroll down for videos . Miracle survival: Pema Lama, 15, is rescued from the collapsed Hilton Hotel in Kathmandu five days after becoming trapped in the rubble during the devastating earthquake that struck the country on Saturday . Emergency medical attention: The boy was carried out in a stretcher. His face was covered in dust and medics had put an IV drop into his arm and a brace around his neck . An American disaster response team had been working for several hours to try to free the trapped boy . The rescue was a rare bit of good news in a city that has known little but despair since the earthquake hit on Saturday, leaving more than 5,500 people dead across the poverty-stricken Himalayan nation . An American disaster response team had been working for several hours to try to the 15-year-old boy from the seven-storey Hilton Guesthouse. Speaking shortly before he was rescued, Andrew Olvera, who was heading the team from the U.S. Agency for International Development, said: 'He's not too far down. 'But the floors have collapsed and he'd pancaked between them.' Twisted ropes of steel rebar were all that were holding huge concrete slabs from falling onto the scene. Two concrete floors were hanging down in front like curtains. 'The whole operation is dangerous,' he said. 'But its risk versus gain. To save a human life, we'll risk almost anything.' The boy had been 'pancaked' between two floors, according to Andrew Olvera, who is heading the team from the U.S. Agency for International Development who freed him . Twisted ropes of steel rebar were all that were holding huge concrete slabs from falling onto the teenager . Heroic effort: Members of the Nepalese Armed Police Force carry their officer as they cheer after successfully rescuing earthquake survivor Pema Lama, 15, from the collapsed Hilton Hotel in Kathmandu . Meanwhile, the mother of a baby rescued after being trapped in rubble  has told over her 'overwhelming' joy at being reunited with her child. Five-month-old Sonit Awal was pulled from the ruins of his family home after his heart-broken mother was forced to listen to his cries for 22 anguished hours. Today mother Rasmila Awal thanked 'God and the rescuers' for saving the infant from death. Mrs Awal, 35, tells MailOnline: 'I am so happy to have my baby back. I'm so happy that he is alive.' Sonish was asleep in his cot upstairs when the walls of his home came crashing down around him. His parents and older sister, aged 10, were outside when the tremor struck and desperately tried to reach him. Joy: Five-month-old Sonit Awal was pulled from the ruins of his family home after his heart-broken mother was forced to listen to his cries for 22 anguished hours . Relief: Sister Soniya Awal, 10, father Shyam Awal, 34, mother Rasmila Awal, 35, with baby Sonit Awal in front of their devastated house . Father Shyam Awal worked tirelessly with friends and neighbours to try to free the boy, digging with their bare hands through the rubble. But without the proper equipment it was impossible. The frantic mother could not sleep or eat throughout the 22-hour separation from her young son. She said: 'I could think of nothing else but trying to save my baby. I was very sad. I did not eat. I did not sleep. I could hear him crying from the ruins of our home.' However, following appeals for help, overstretched Nepalese troops arrived to finally embark on a coordinated rescue mission. Mr Awal, 34, a truck driver told MailOnline: 'The baby was saved by a cupboard. He had been lying in his bit by the side of the bed. 'When the walls fell down they knocked a cupboard over and it became wedged by the side of the bed. My son was safe with the cupboard protecting him.' Now the family are homeless and living in the street under a tarpaulin opposite their house. The once smart four-storey structure lies in ruins across the road. Rescued: This is the incredible moment that a four-month-old earthquake survivor was pulled alive from the rubble of his collapsed home following the 7.8-magnitude tremor which shattered Nepal . Saved: The baby boy, who emerged from the wreckage covered in dust, was miraculously found amid the devastation by rescue workers who heard the infant's faint cries . Second chance: The military search team had already scoured the area near to the child's home in Bhaktapur, Kathmandu, in the hope of finding the little boy. But they had moved on after believing he had not survived . Team work: The military team then found the young boy when they returned to the area for the second time . The gap showing the hole where the baby was buried alive for nearly one whole day after his home collapsed . Another survivor who was trapped under rubble next to dead bodies for 82 hours has had one of his legs amputated, it was revealed today. Rishi Khanal, 27, had just finished lunch at a hotel in Kathmandu  when the 7.8-magnitude quake caused the building to crumble around him. He became trapped with his foot crushed under rubble and stayed alive by drinking his own urine. Doctors said they were forced to amputate a leg because of damage from prolonged internal bleeding. Their survival stories are a rare bit of good news in a city that has known little but despair since the earthquake hit, leaving more than 5,500 people dead across the Himalayan nation. Today, rescuers toiled in pouring rain among the debris, but officials said the chance of finding any more survivors was bleak as the death toll neared 5,500. 'I was certain I was going to die': Rishi Khanal is carried out of a collapsed hotel in Kathmandu on a stretcher after being trapped under rubble for 82 hours following the earthquake that struck Nepal four days ago . Relief: Mr Khanal said he was surrounded by dead bodies. But he kept banging on the rubble all around him and eventually this brought a French rescue team that extracted him after an operation lasting many hours . While rescue teams were out in the capital Kathmandu despite the rain, helicopters could not fly to the worst-hit areas in the countryside of the impoverished Himalayan nation. 'There may not be any more survivors,' said Rameshwor Dandal, chief of the disaster management centre at Nepal's home ministry. 'The rain is adding to the problems. Nature seems to be against us.' Anger over the slow pace of the rescue flared yesterday with protests outside parliament. Villagers blocked trucks carrying supplies, demanding the government do more to hasten the distribution of aid that has flooded into the country but has been slow to reach those in need. An official from Nepal's home ministry said the number of confirmed deaths from Saturday's 7.8 magnitude earthquake had risen to 5,489 by Thursday morning. Almost 11,000 were injured, and more than 80 were also killed in neighbouring India and Tibet. Many people have been sleeping in the open after the quake - the United Nations has said 600,000 houses were destroyed or damaged. Workers excavate bodies as they take part in a rescue operation at Kolache-2 in Bhaktapur near Kathmandu . Countries and organisations around the world have rushed to help Nepal, where the massive 7.8 magnitude quake has killed around 5,000 people . A Nepalese woman holds her baby in front of the wreckage of a house destroyed by the quake in Gorkha . Lives ruined: People sort through the rubble of buildings which collapsed in Sathighar, north of Kathmandu . It has said eight million people have been affected, with at least two million in need of tents, water, food and medicines over the next three months. Dandal said foreign rescue teams had told him that their work is almost done because there is little chance of finding any survivors. Nepal is appealing to foreign governments for more helicopters. There are currently about 20 Nepali army, private and Indian army helicopters involved in rescue operations, according to Laxmi Prasad Dhakal, a home ministry official. China is expected to send helicopters today, he said. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala has told Reuters the death toll could reach 10,000, with information on casualties and damage from far-flung villages and towns yet to come in. Nepalese soldiers use lime powder as a prevention measure against disease at a  tent site in Kathmandu . People walk past a collapsed building in the UNESCO world heritage site of Bhaktapur outside Kathmandu . That would surpass the 8,500 who died in a 1934 earthquake, the last disaster on this scale to hit the nation of 28 million people sandwiched between India and China. In Kathmandu and other cities, hospitals quickly overflowed with injured soon after the quake, with many being treated out in the open or not at all. Guna Raj, who works for a Kathmandu-based NGO specialising in providing sanitation, said there have been outbreaks of diarrhoea in relief camps because of a shortage of toilets and clean water. 'In the next few days or weeks I am sure there will be an outbreak of epidemics,' said Raj, who is involved in the relief effort. Tensions between foreigners and Nepalis desperate for relief surfaced, rescuers said, as fresh avalanches were reported in several areas. Members of Israeli search-and-rescue group Magnus said hundreds of tourists, including about 100 Israelis, were airlifted out of Langtang in Rasuwa district, a popular trekking area north of Kathmandu hit by an avalanche on Tuesday. But at least two foreigners, whose nationalities were as yet unknown, were found dead, the home ministry said. Fights had broken out there because of food shortages, Magnus team member Amit Rubin said. One of the trekkers said there had also been scuffles over places on the rescue helicopters. The quake also triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest that killed at least 18 climbers and guides, including four foreigners, the worst disaster on the world's highest peak.
target: Crowds cheered as Pema Lama was pulled, dazed and dusty, from rubble .
  Placed on stretcher with an IV drip in his arm and a brace around his neck .
  Comes as mother is reunited with baby rescued after 22 hours in rubble .
  Medic said teenager became 'pancaked' between two floors when quake hit .
  Another survivor rescued after 82 hours has had one of his legs amputated .