Her umbilical cord was still attached to the placenta of her mother, Afra Abu Hadiya, who had now died
By Athena Papakosta
Residents in the city of Jedires were digging through the rubble of a home in this northwestern Syrian city until they discovered a newborn baby girl. The little girl had been born a short time before in the ruins of the deadly earthquake of 7.8 degrees on the Richter scale that hit the area in the early hours of Monday.
Her umbilical cord was still attached to the placenta of her mother, Afra Abu Hadiya, who was now deceased.
The infant is the only member of the family who survived. He was rescued early Monday afternoon, ten to twelve hours after the earthquake struck. A neighbor cut her umbilical cord and together with others rushed to transfer it to a Children’s hospital in the city of Afrin. Two days later and the little one remains in the incubator in a stable condition.
The video of her rescue went around the world thanks to Social Media. A man carries her running and holding her by the waist while the severed umbilical cord still hangs out. In the images from behind, another man with a blanket in his hands is seen running to cover the child. It was freezing in the area and the little girl’s temperature, according to the doctors, did not exceed 35 degrees Celsius.
Her tiny little body had bruises everywhere. In the eyes, on the forehead, behind the ears including a very large one behind her swollen back which the medical staff is checking.
All indications are that her mother, Abu Khadiya, was conscious during the birth and probably died shortly after giving birth to the baby. According to the estimates of doctors, who took into account the infant’s clinical picture, the baby remained in the rubble, between his mother’s legs, for at least an hour before he was found. They even say that if he had been born before the earthquake he would not have managed to survive.
Abu Hadiyya along with her husband, Abdullah Turkey Mleihan, and their four children tried to jump out of their house in the early hours of Monday but it collapsed and they couldn’t make it. All the dead were found next to the central exit of their apartment building. Their funeral took place yesterday morning in a cemetery on the outskirts of Djidires, the city in which they found refuge in 2018 after their own place of origin had fallen years before into the hands of the Islamic State.
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With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
