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Infant saved from rubble in Syria

Girl likely born after quake, doctor says

GHAITH ALSAYED AND BASSEM MROUE

Residents 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, relatives and a doctor said Tuesday.

The newborn girl’s umbilical cord was still connected to her mother, Afraa Abu Hadiya, who was dead, they said. The baby was the only member of her family to survive from the building collapse Monday in the small town of Jinderis, Ramadan Sleiman, a relative, told The

Associated Press.

Monday’s pre-dawn 7.8-magnitude earthquake, followed by multiple aftershocks, caused widespread destruction across southern Turkey and northern Syria. Thousands have been killed, with the toll mounting as more bodies are discovered. But dramatic rescues have also occurred. Elsewhere in Jinderis, a young girl was found alive, buried in concrete under the wreckage of her home.

The newborn was rescued Monday afternoon, more than 10 hours after the quake struck. After rescuers dug her out, a female neighbour cut the cord, and she and others rushed with the baby to a children’s hospital in the nearby town of

Afrin, where she has been on an incubator, said the doctor treating the baby, Dr. Hani Maarouf.

The baby’s body temperature had fallen to 35 C and she had bruises, including one on her back, but she is in stable condition, he said.

Abu Hadiya must have been conscious during the birth and must have died soon after, Maarouf said. He estimated the baby was born several hours before being found, given the amount her temperature had dropped. If the girl had been born just before the quake, she wouldn’t have survived so many hours in the cold, he said.

When the earthquake hit before dawn on Monday, Abu Hadiya, her husband and four children apparently tried to rush out of their apartment building, but the structure collapsed on them. Their bodies were found near the building’s entrance, said Sleiman, who arrived at the scene just after the newborn was discovered.

“She was found in front of her mother’s legs,” he said. “After the dust and rocks were removed the girl was found alive.”

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2023-02-08T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-02-08T08:00:00.0000000Z

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