The boy is now in stable condition after arriving at hospital on Monday with bruises, lacerations and hypothermia. [Source: BBC News]
A baby girl was rescued by rescuers from under the rubble of a building in northwestern Syria that was destroyed by Monday’s earthquake.
His mother went into labor soon after the disaster and delivered before she died, a relative said. His father, four brothers and an aunt were also killed.
Dramatic footage showed a man carrying the little girl, covered in dust, after she was pulled from the debris in Jindayris.
A doctor at a hospital in nearby Afrin said he was now in stable condition.
The building where his family lived was one of about 50 destroyed by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Jindayris, an opposition-controlled city in Idlib province near the Turkish border.
The boy’s uncle, Khalil al-Suwadi, said relatives rushed to the scene when they learned of the collapse.
“We heard a voice while we were digging,” he told AFP news agency on Tuesday. “We cleaned up the dust and found the baby with the umbilical cord [intact]so we cut it out and my cousin took her to the hospital.
Pediatrician Hani Maarouf said the little girl arrived at her hospital in poor condition, with “several bruises and lacerations all over her body”.
“She also arrived with hypothermia from the bitter cold. We had to warm her up and give her calcium,” she added.
She was photographed lying in an incubator and hooked up to an IV, while a joint funeral was being held for her mother Afraa, father Abdullah and her four siblings.
They are among 1,800 people known to have been killed by the earthquake in Syria, according to the Damascus-based government and the White Helmets, whose volunteer first responders operate in opposition-controlled areas.
Another 4,500 people were killed in Turkey, where it was the epicenter.
The White Helmets have so far reported 1,020 deaths, but have warned the figure is expected to “rise dramatically”.
“Time is running out. Hundreds still trapped under rubble. Every second could mean saving a life,” they tweeted on Tuesday.
“We call on all humanitarian organizations and international bodies to provide material support and assistance to organizations responding to this disaster.”
The UN has promised to use “all means” possible to get aid to people in the northwest, but said deliveries had been temporarily halted due to damaged roads and other logistical problems.
He also urged governments not to politicize aid delivery when so many are in desperate need of it.
A United Nations Security Council agreement authorizes the use of only one border crossing for deliveries from Turkey to the northwest. All other deliveries are expected to go through Damascus, although the government has facilitated only a small amount of cross-line aid in the past.
Even before the earthquake struck, 4.1 million people in the northwest – mostly women and children – relied on humanitarian aid to survive.