A mom who was pulled from the rubble of her Venezuelan home recounted how she stayed alive for 32 hours to ensure her 18-day-old baby would survive following the devastating earthquake.
Dayana Patino and her newborn Juan David were inside their La Guaira apartment building, on the eighth floor, when the earthquake hit on Wednesday night and caused their home to collapse.
“I felt like I was flying,” Patino told the BBC. “After that, I felt like I was sinking in water and dirt, and then I fell into the pit where I remained.
“I don’t know how I didn’t let go of my baby because I was flying. I got crushed against furniture,” she added.
Patino said her leg was trapped under concrete and her temple pressed against a rock, leaving her immobile with her infant around her.
Despite the pain and shock, Patino said she had to keep herself awake for her baby, describing his cries as her “motivation to be awake and alert.”
“As long as he was alive, I was going to be alive. Every now and then, I was touching his nose for proof that he was still breathing,” she said.
The desperate mother said she reserved her voice for when she could hear someone near them, and after hours beneath the rubble, with only a small crack letting in the moonlight, she eventually heard her brother calling for her.
“From the top of my lungs, I cried out… I screamed, ‘Here I am’ with all my might, and he said, ‘I found you, and I promise you that I won’t leave until I get you out,’” Patino recalled.
A rescue team eventually arrived and pulled Patino and her baby out of the rubble, with video of the scene showing her husband, Gerson, tearing up as he embraced his son after thinking both he and his wife had perished.
“I thought they were dead. And when I saw my son, I felt like I was born again,” Gerson told the BBC, describing the rescue as “a miracle.”
The mother and son were rushed to a hospital in Caracas, where Patino is recovering from injuries to both her legs. Miraculously, little Juan suffered only minor injuries.
Patino and her son spent a total of 32 hours in the rubble before they were rescued, The Guardian reported.
Gerson, who was just outside the apartment complex when it came down, said the family lost everything in the earthquake, which claimed the lives of more than 1,400 people in Venezuela.
The natural disaster also left more than 3,100 others injured, with around 50,000 people still missing, according to Caracas.
