Family of seven rescued after over 36 hours, baby born in rubble named Aya: Miraculous moments from Turkey, Syria quake

It’s an earthquake that has unleashed sorrow and destruction unlike any other. The death toll from Monday earthquake’s, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, has now surpassed 16,000 people and that’s only going to climb further. Images and videos from the quake-struck regions show rescuers digging with their hands, apartment blocks collapsing like pancakes and family members grieving the loss of their loved ones. If there’s one image that depicts the agony as plainly as possible is the photograph from the Turkish region of Kahramanmaraş, in which a father holds the hand of his dead teenage daughter as rescuers and civilians pick through the flattened building where she died. Sitting hunched in the rubble, Mesut Hancer holds the lifeless hand of his 15-year-old daughter, Irmak, sticking out from under a huge chunk of concrete that had toppled onto the girl’s bed, crushing her to death. [caption id=“attachment_12129812” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Mesut Hancer holds the hand of his 15-year-old daughter Irmak, who died in the earthquake in Kahramanmaras, close to the quake’s epicentre, the day after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southeast. AFP[/caption] There have been other such soul-crushing moments that come from the region. But amid this complete despair, there are also instances that bring hope, relief and instill people’s faith in god and in humanity. We bring you some of these instances. Man survives, his family doesn’t In Turkey’s Hatay, one of the places hardest-hit by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake, comes the heart-breaking tale of Abdulalim Muaini. Fleeing Syria’s civil war , Muaini reached Turkey and tied the knot with Esra, a Turkish woman. On Monday when the quake struck the area, he and his family got trapped under the debris. His legs were trapped underneath the concrete but he was conscious and able to talk to his rescuers. [caption id=“attachment_12129882” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Abdulalim Muaini lies under the rubble next to the body of his wife Esra, in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in Hatay, Turkey. Reuters[/caption] Finally, on Thursday, rescuers pulled him out of the rubble alive. But the rescue had come late for his wife and children — Mahsen, and Besira. **Also read: Dogs are being sent to Turkey and Syria after the earthquake. How will they help?** A ‘Brave’ moment Amid the wails of sadness, came the howls of happiness when an eight-year-old boy was rescued from beneath a pile of rubble where he has been stuck alone for more than two days. The boy, Yigit Cakmak, was trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building in the city of Hatay, Turkey, for 52 hours.

Eight-year-old Yigit Cakmak (C) reacts after being rescued from the site of a collapsed building, some 52 hours after a major earthquake, in Hatay, Turkey, 08 February 2023. 📸 EPA / @_erdemsahin#Turkey #Hatay #earthquake #Turkeyearthquake #epaimages pic.twitter.com/Ml3kT5WIr4

— EPA Images (@EPA_Images) February 8, 2023

Cakmak also smiled and waved as a rescuer carried him away, but after spotting his mother he was overcome with emotion, his face tearing up as they hugged. Incidentally, the name Yigit means “brave” in Turkish. One can’t help but smile seeing the emotional reunion of the boy with his parent and offering people some hope amid this pall of gloom. A baby born in the rubble It has been dubbed the ‘miracle baby’. On 7 February, a day after the quake struck, rescuers in the northwestern Syrian town of Jinderis, pulled out a newly-born baby from the rubble. When doing so, they found the infant was still tied by her umbilical cord to her mother. Khalil al-Suwadi, who was at the scene at the time, was quoted as telling AFP, “We heard a voice while we were digging. We cleared the dust and found the baby with the umbilical cord (intact) so we cut it and my cousin took her to hospital.” **Also read: Turkey, Syria earthquake: How Big Tech is coming to the rescue** The baby girl is now in a hospital, in the city of Afrin, where she is receiving care. A doctor treating the infant at the hospital estimate that the mother must have been conscious during delivery and died shortly later. He also noted that based on the baby’s temperature, she was born just hours before the quake. “If the girl had been born just before the quake, she wouldn’t have survived so many hours in the cold. Had the girl been left for an hour more, she would have died,” he said. The infant has been named Aya, according to a Telegraph report. The name ‘Aya’ translates to miracle. And no doubt, her birth and survival is nothing short of one. A rescue after 53 hours In Turkey’s Sanliurfa, a one-year-old was pulled out of the rubble alive after 53 hours.

A one-year-old baby was miraculously rescued 53 hours after earthquakes hit southern Türkiye

🕙 2 days went by. No food, no drink
🚼 Toddler is from SE Sanliurfa province
🏚️ Rescued from under 5-story building https://t.co/Pybe6lU8ec pic.twitter.com/eoiDEB4QFO

— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) February 8, 2023

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Rescuers found the baby under the debris of a five-storey building. After receiving first aid at the scene, the baby was then referred to a hospital. Seven times lucky Another miraculous moment was when responders were able to rescue a family of seven from under the rubble in a village in Syria. When the family was pulled out of the debris on Tuesday, joyous cries could be heard, in a video that has since gone viral.

A true miracle...the sounds of joy embrace the sky... joy beyond belief.
An entire family was rescued from under the rubble of their house this afternoon, Tuesday, February 7, in the village of Bisnia, west of #Idlib.#Syria #earthquake pic.twitter.com/Cb7kXLiMjT

— The White Helmets (@SyriaCivilDef) February 7, 2023

The clip shows Syria Civil Defence volunteers extracting the family from under the debris, one member at a time and including children, to cheers from the surrounding crowd. The members are then rushed to an ambulance where they are given medical aid as the cheers continue outside. Hand of hope There’s Maradona’s Hand of God, and now there’s Turkey’s ‘Hand of Hope’. A seven-year-old girl became viral after an image showed her shielding her younger brother from the falling debris.

The 7 year old girl who kept her hand on her little brother's head to protect him while they were under the rubble for 17 hours has made it safely. I see no one sharing. If she were dead, everyone would share! Share positivity... pic.twitter.com/J2sU5A5uvO

— Mohamad Safa (@mhdksafa) February 7, 2023

The image shared by United Nations representative Mohamed Safa said that both the siblings were trapped under the debris in quake-hit Syria. As they were trapped, the little girl placed her hand over her brother to protect him from the falling bits of concrete. Seventeen hours later, they were both rescued and provided with medical aid. The rescuers continue their operations with aid pouring in from all across the world. But will it be enough? With inputs from agencies Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.