'It was a miracle': the story of the mother and 18-day-old baby rescued after more than 24 hours under rubble in Venezuela

Dayana Patiño and her son had already been presumed dead, a volunteer told the press; they were rescued on Thursday in La Guaira
Merly Andreina Quintero/ BBC
While the death toll following Wednesday's strong earthquakes in Venezuela exceeds 1,400, with more than 3,200 injured and tens of thousands missing, the coastal city of La Guaira is the scene of anguish, but also of some episodes of relief and joy.
The capital of the state of the same name is one of the regions most affected by the tragedy.
But, on the morning of last Thursday (25), the tireless search of a father, accompanied by rescuers and volunteers, had a moving outcome.
After searching for 12 hours for a woman and her newborn baby, they heard the mother's voice and the child's cries in the depths of an eight-story building that had collapsed.
Dayana Patiño and her 18-day-old baby were completely buried under the rubble and they were unable to move, to the point that the mother was unable to breastfeed her child. They had already been reported dead, a volunteer told the press.
"It was possible to hear the voice of Dayana Patiño, the mother, and the baby crying since the early hours of yesterday, June 25, after 12 hours without us being able to find the mother or the baby", Merly Andreina Quintero, who participated in the search, told the press.
Venezuelan population searches for missing people after earthquake devastates country.
Getty Images
Although experts from aid agencies predict that, given the collapse of buildings, there is very little chance of finding survivors, family and friends of the missing are not giving up.
It is possible to see rescue teams and volunteers who, practically with their own hands, try to remove the rubble from dozens of collapsed buildings; residents' complaints about the government's perceived slowness in responding to the emergency; and the screams of desperate family members trying to locate their loved ones trapped under the ruins.
Workers pound collapsed structures with heavy sledgehammers and then call for silence to try to detect any signs of life beneath the rubble.
Under the guidance of rescuers, volunteers began to remove the rubble to create an access route to the mother and her baby, but were only able to reach them around 1 a.m. Friday.
A video that went viral shows the moment the baby was taken out first and handed over to his father, who was crying with emotion, amid applause and shouts of joy from those who participated in the rescue.
An hour later, they managed to remove Dayana Patiño. Mother and son were taken to a clinic in Caracas because health facilities in La Guaira were full.
"She fought to keep her baby safe," said Merly Quintero, adding that the mother protected her son by holding him tightly. "It was a miracle, because neither the mother nor the baby suffered fractures."
Although other successful rescues of trapped people have been recorded, in La Guaira and other locations hit by the earthquakes, the scenario appears increasingly bleak.
According to the head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Mark Fletcher, it is estimated that there are more than 50 thousand missing.
"It is a very, very big rescue operation complex," he told the AFP news agency, warning that the number of victims could rise significantly.
Meanwhile, family members, neighbors and volunteers continue to dig with their hands or with the tools they have at their disposal, hoping to find more people alive, while specialized national and international rescue teams arrive at the scene.
"I'm looking for my little Gael... he was only five months old," Marjosly Salazar, 40, told AFP. Her 16-year-old daughter died in the earthquake, and her baby and a cousin are still missing.
"Please, we need support here. We need machines to start lifting the columns," she said, anguished.
The sequence of earthquakes is the most intense to hit Venezuela in more than a century and comes at a time when the oil-producing country is facing more than a decade of economic collapse.
The crisis has reduced the capacity of hospitals and public services, and millions of citizens have left the country.
The country remains in a state of fragile transition, six months after the overthrow and arrest of its leader, Nicolás Maduro, by the United States.
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Source: G1