A woman and her 18-day-old baby have been rescued from the rubble of their home after an earthquake in Venezuela. Diana Patino, the mother, has told how her newborn baby helped her survive the horror. She said her son Juan David inspired her to stay awake and alert.
“As long as he was alive, I wanted to be alive too,” said Diana Patino. “Every now and then I would touch his nose to make sure he was breathing.”
Footage of the rescue of a mother and her 18-day-old baby has gone viral around the world. And newborn Juan David, apparently buried under the rubble in Venezuela, has become a symbol of hope. Last Wednesday, two powerful earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 struck Venezuela within a minute of each other. This caused the collapse of many high-rise buildings in various cities, including the country’s capital Caracas and the port city of La Guerra. At least 1,450 people have been confirmed dead in the earthquake so far. The USGS fears that the death toll could exceed 10,000.
Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, has described the event as the “worst natural disaster” in the country’s history. Thousands of people are still missing after the earthquake. Although rescue efforts continue, hopes of rescuing more survivors from the rubble are fading day by day.
Diana Patino told the BBC on Sunday at a clinic in Caracas that she had to hold her baby to her chest for more than 24 hours after the earthquake.
Diana was washing dishes in her eighth-floor apartment in the northern coastal area of La Guerra when the earthquake struck. Thinking it was a mild tremor, she quickly went over and grabbed her son.
Diana said, “I felt like I was flying. Then I felt like I was sinking under water and dirt. Then I fell into a hole and got stuck there. I don’t know how I managed to hold my child. Because I was flying. I hit the furniture.” Diana said she started to scream, but soon realized that no one could hear her.
“I told myself, ‘I’m not going to waste my energy screaming—I’m going to scream when I need to, when I hear someone’s voice or footsteps nearby.’ I don’t know how I stayed so calm. Because my left foot was stuck under the concrete. I couldn’t move. One side of my head was pressed against a rock,” Diana Patino said.