Turkey Earthquake, Miraculous Survivor Found Amid Building Debris

Umbilical Cord Baby Safely Rescued "Condition Stable"
Hope Raised by Rescue News from Debris

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoon Seul-gi] On the 6th (local time), a massive earthquake struck T?rkiye and Syria, causing large-scale casualties, while news of survivors is gradually emerging.

A newborn baby was rescued from the site of the earthquake damage in Syria. Photo by AP and Yonhap News.

According to the Associated Press on the 7th (local time), rescue workers saved a newborn baby from the collapse site of a five-story residential building in Jindiris, a small town near the T?rkiye border in Syria, the previous day.

The rescue scene of this newborn girl attracted attention as it spread on social media (SNS) the day before. A 9-second video posted on SNS showed a man holding a newborn baby running out hurriedly from behind an excavator clearing the ruins. At the time of discovery, the newborn's umbilical cord was still attached to her deceased mother.

The baby was rescued 10 hours after the earthquake occurred, but her health condition is relatively good. Her weight is also at the average newborn level of 3.175 kg. Dr. Hani Marouf, who works at this hospital, told the AP that judging by the baby's condition, she was likely born in the rubble about three hours before being rescued, adding, "The rescued newborn girl's health condition is relatively good." However, the doctor explained that when the baby arrived at the hospital, she had bruises and scratches on various parts of her body, and her body temperature had dropped to 35 degrees Celsius.

The baby's relative, Ramadan Suleiman, said that this newborn was the only survivor in the family. He explained that the baby's mother, Abu Hadiya, tried to get out of the apartment with her husband and four children when the earthquake struck, but the building collapsed instantly, burying them all in the rubble.

On the 6th (local time), rescuers are saving a girl from a collapsed building in Diyarbakır, southeastern Turkey. Photo by Reuters·Yonhap News

In the same village in Syria, a 7-year-old girl was dramatically rescued. A video released on SNS by the Syrian civil rescue team, the "White Helmets," showed a rescuer saving a young girl from between collapsed concrete and rebar. As the rubble was cleared, the girl named "Nua" blinked her eyes in surprise, covered in concrete dust. The rescuers wiped the dust off her and safely rescued her. Nua's father was also present during the rescue and reassured her by saying, "Daddy is here, so don't be afraid."

On the 8th, in Kahramanmara?, T?rkiye, a 3-year-old boy named Arif Khan was rescued from the debris of an apartment building. It was 43 hours after the earthquake occurred. The Turkish news agency DHA broadcast the rescue live, and when the boy was saved, his father burst into tears of relief. The child was then transported to the hospital with his father.

While news of survivors brings hope, the local rescue efforts are reported to be progressing slowly. The first 72 hours after a natural disaster are called the "golden time" when survival chances are highest, but rescue operations are facing difficulties due to the wide affected area, weather conditions, and aftershocks. The World Health Organization (WHO) predicted that the death toll from this earthquake could exceed 20,000 in the worst-case scenario, and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) also expressed concerns that more than 10,000 deaths could occur.