The family of Najwa (27), who was miraculously rescued from a house destroyed by the earthquake, cannot bear to inform her of the death of their 10-year-old son. On the 6th (local time), Najwa was rescued along with her second son, Mohammed, from among the concrete rubble in Gaziantep, southeastern Türkiye (Turkey). When Mohammed was held in the hands of rescuers, smiling at the time, Najwa and the rest of her family were unaware that her child had suffered serious injuries. However, on the 10th, four days later, Mohammed passed away from acute renal failure and brain damage.
When Najwa, who had passed out in the rubble on the 6th, woke up feeling the presence of the rescue team, her husband, Hassan (37), was dead with him and Mohammed wrapped around her. His relatives reached out into the wreckage, but Najwa, who believed his entire family was dead, refused to be rescued. His cousin Mustafa Sheikh told The Washington Post on the 11th that “Najwa shouted for her to be buried here with her husband and children.”
Fortunately, the eldest son, Munir Ibish (12), escaped through a window when the earthquake shook the house and survived. His second son, Mohammed, was also alive with his mother at the time of the rescue. However, Na-jwa, who is hospitalized with a serious leg injury, was not informed of his son’s death by his relatives. Her relatives said, “I think the shock to Najwa who has already lost her husband is too great.”
As of the 13th, the 8th day after the earthquake, the number of deaths exceeded 33,000. There are also 92,600 injured. On the 12th, in Famagusta, Cyprus Island near Turkiye, a funeral was held for a student athlete who died in an earthquake while visiting Turkiye Adiyaman for a volleyball game. The hotel building they were staying in collapsed, killing all 39 athletes, including 24 students between the ages of 11 and 14, 10 parents, 4 teachers and 1 coach. “My son dreamed of becoming a volleyball champion,” the mother of the deceased child said at her funeral. My son who died was a champion,” she cried.
The detailed story of a father who could not let go of his daughter who died after being crushed by a collapsed house in Kahramanmaras, southeastern Turkey was also conveyed. Mesut Hanzer (49) said in an interview with CNN, “After the earthquake, his youngest daughter, who was at her mother’s house, did not answer the phone. She cried and prayed to God, please stay alive,” she said. He ran right away, but the earthquake had already ruined it. “Her daughter was sleeping like an angel in her bed,” said Hanzer. “An angel sent by God returned to God again.”
Although 72 hours, the ‘golden time’ of lifesaving, have passed, news of the rescue of survivors is being reported intermittently. According to Reuters on the 13th, Siebel Kaya (40) was rescued after 170 hours in Gaziantep. Here, the rescue team also rescued three survivors who were believed to be in a mother-daughter relationship.
However, survivors are exposed to secondary disasters such as cold and infectious diseases. On the 12th, the British daily Guardian reported that survivors who lost their livelihoods due to this earthquake had no place to go, so they were sleeping in cars or fighting the cold in poor tent villages. “More than 1 million people are in temporary shelters,” Vice President Puat Oktei Türkiye said on the same day.
Abni Blut, who is currently staying with his family in a tent, said: “The situation here is at least better. I went to Izkenderun two days ago to attend the funeral of a relative who died in the earthquake, but there was not even a tent there.” Bus Assoy, who lives in his car, said, “I escaped with his young daughter, but the tent is too cold at night to stay. what do we do now I have nowhere else to go,” he said. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported on Qatar’s state-run Al Jazeera that “there are concerns about the spread of cholera in areas affected by the Syrian earthquake.”
Source: Donga