Residents excavating through the wreckage of a collapsed building in a northwest Syrian town uncovered a wailing newborn whose mom appeared to have given birth to her while trapped under the rubble of this week’s deadly earthquake, according to relatives and a doctor.
They claimed that the baby girl’s umbilical cord was still linked to her deceased mother, Afraa Abu Hadiya. According to Ramadan Sleiman, a relative, the newborn was the only member of her family to escape the building collapse Monday in Jinderis, near the Turkish border.
The pre-dawn 7.8 magnitude earthquake on Monday, followed by many aftershocks, wreaked havoc over southern Turkey and northern Syria. Thousands have died, and the death toll is rising as more corpses are uncovered. But there have also been remarkable rescues. A small child was discovered alive in Jinderis, trapped in concrete under the ruins of her house.
More than ten hours after the earthquake occurred, the newborn infant was recovered on Monday afternoon. After rescuers fished her out, a female neighbor severed the cord, and she and others took the baby to a children’s hospital in the adjacent town of Afrin, where she has been maintained in an incubator, according to Dr. Hani Maarouf, who is treating the infant.
A video of the rescue circulating on social media shows a guy lifting the baby up, her umbilical cord still hanging, and dash away as another man tosses him a blanket to wrap over her.
He stated the baby’s body temperature had dropped to 95 degrees Fahrenheit and she had injuries, including a significant one on her back, yet she was in stable condition.
Maarouf believes Abu Hadiya was awake throughout the delivery and died shortly after. Given the degree her temperature had plummeted, he guessed the baby was delivered many hours before she was discovered. He claims that if the child had been born soon before the earthquake, she would not have survived so many hours in the cold.
When the earthquake struck early Monday morning, Abu Hadiya, her husband, and their four children presumably attempted to flee their apartment building, but it fell on them. Sleiman, who came to the site shortly after the infant was discovered, said their remains were located near the building’s door.
She was discovered in front of her mother’s legs, he said. The child was discovered alive when the dust and debris were cleared.”
According to Maarouf, the infant weighed 7 pounds, which is the usual weight for a newborn, and was brought almost to term. Their main worry is the bruising on her back, and they need to evaluate whether there’s anything wrong with her spinal cord, he added, adding that she was moving her legs and arms properly.
Jinderis, a rebel-held enclave in northwest Syria, was heavily impacted by the earthquake, with scores of structures collapsing.
Abu Hadiya and her family were among the millions of Syrians who escaped from other areas of the nation to rebel-held territory. They were originally from the hamlet of Khsham in Deir el-Zour state’s eastern Deir el-Zour province, but fled in 2014 when the Islamic State group conquered their village, according to a relative identified as Saleh al-Badran.
According to Sleiman, the family relocated to Jinderis in 2018 when the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, an umbrella organization for multiple insurgency factions, took the town from US-backed Kurdish-led militants.
Abu Hadiya and the girl’s father, Abdullah Turki Mleihan, were put to rest at a cemetery on the outskirts of Jinderis on Tuesday, together with their four other children.
Baby girl born under Syria earthquake rubbleResidents digging through a collapsed building in a northwest Syrian town discovered a crying infant whose mother appears to have given birth to her while buried underneath the rubble from this week’s devastating earthquake. Her mother, sadly, did not survive.
Posted by KTLA 5 News on Tuesday, 7 February 2023
