Residents digging through the rubble of a collapsed building in a city in northwestern Syria discovered a newborn whose mother appeared to have given birth while trapped under the rubble of this week’s deɑdly earthquake, according to relatives and a doctor.
They claimed that the girl’s umbilical cord was still attached to her late mother, Afra Abu Hadiyya. According to a relative of Ramadan Sleiman, the newborn was the only member of her family who escaped the collapse of the building on Monday in Jinderis, near the Turkish border.
A 7.8-magnitude earthquake before dawn on Monday, followed by numerous aftershocks, wreaked havoc in southern Turkey and northern Syria. Thousands have passed away and the deɑth toll is rising as more bodies are discovered. But there were also extraordinary rescues. A small child was discovered alive in Jinderis, trapped in concrete under the rubble of his home.
More than ten hours after the earthquake, the newborn baby was found on Monday afternoon. After rescuers pulled her out, a neighbor cut the umbilical cord and she and others took the baby to a children’s hospital in the neighboring city of Afrin, where she was kept in an incubator, according to Dr. Hani Maarouf, who leads. baby.
In a video of the rescue circulating on social media, the boy is seen picking up the baby, with the umbilical cord still hanging, and walking away as another man throws a blanket over him.
He said the baby’s body temperature had dropped to 95 degrees Fahrenheit and she had injuries, including significant injuries to her back, but was in stable condition.
Maarouf believes that Abu Hadiya was awake during the birth and that he passed away shortly after giving birth. Given the speed at which her temperature had dropped, he thought the baby had been born many hours before it was discovered. He claims that if the baby had been born quickly before the earthquake, it 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 apparently tried to escape their apartment building, but it fell on them. Sleiman, who came to the site shortly after the baby was discovered, said their remains were located near the door of the building.
She was discovered at her mother’s feet, he said. The child was discovered alive when the dust and debris were cleared.
According to Maruf, the baby weighed 7 kilograms, the normal weight for a newborn, and was almost due. Their main concern is the bruise on her back and they need to assess if there is a problem with her spinal cord, he added, adding that she was able to move her legs and arms properly.
Jinderis, a rebel-held enclave in northwestern Syria, was hit hard by the earthquake, with many structures collapsing.
Abu Hadiya and her family were among millions of Syrians who fled from other parts of the country to rebel-held territory. They are originally from Khsham village in eastern Deir el-Zour province of Deir el-Zour state, but fled in 2014 when the Islamic State group captured their village, according to a relative identified as Saleh al-Badran.
According to Sleiman, the family moved to Jinderis in 2018 when the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, an umbrella organization for multiple rebel factions, took the town from US-backed Kurdish militants.
Abu Hadiya and the girl’s father, Abdullah Turki Mlejhan, were laid to rest on Tuesday at a cemetery on the outskirts of Jinderi, along with their four children.