CNN
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“How is my mom and everybody?” the person on the stretcher asks, talking calmly right into a cellphone. Crying in disbelief, his good friend replies: “Everyone seems to be nicely… they’re all ready for you… I’m coming to you.”
This was the emotional trade that adopted the rescue of Mustafa Avci, 33, who was pulled from the rubble of a collapsed constructing in Turkey’s southern Hatay province 261 hours after a robust 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the area on February 6.
On Friday, Turkish Well being Minister Fahrettin Koca launched a video displaying the telephone name between Avci and his good friend, in a robust reminder that even now – 11 days after the quake struck – discovering survivors towards the percentages stays doable.
The rescue of Avci late on Thursday night time got here because the demise toll throughout Turkey and Syria rose to at the very least 43,885 individuals, in accordance with official figures.
Within the video, Avci could be seen sporting a neck brace and seems wide-eyed with hope as he asks: “Did everybody escape okay…? Let me hear their voices if for a second.”
His good friend sobs again: “I’m driving… I’m coming to you… Brother, I’m coming.”
Avci then kisses the hand of the rescuer who’s holding the telephone and thanks him. “Might God be proud of you a thousand occasions,” he says.
Koca, the minister, stated each Avci and a second man, Mehmet Ali Sakiroglu, 26, have been rescued across the identical time from beneath the ruins of a personal hospital constructing.
Sakiroglu had been on the hospital for a check-up when the quake struck, his father instructed CNN affiliate CNN Turk.
The 2 males have been discovered when a rescue staff noticed a leg dangling from a pile of rubble after a machine operator cleared the floor particles.
The boys have been taken to Hatay’s makeshift hospital for remedy, the well being minister stated.
CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who’s in southern Turkey, stated it was uncommon for individuals to outlive greater than 100 hours trapped in rubble and most profitable rescues often occurred inside 24 hours.
“These are exceptional tales and folks stand up… in these conditions,” he stated.
The rescue of the 2 males follows that of a 13-year-old boy named Mustafa in Antakya, Hatay province, on Wednesday – 228 hours after the quake struck.
Mustafa’s survival was “definitely a miracle,” rescue employee Özer Aydinli instructed Gupta in an interview on Thursday.
Aydinli stated he thought his fellow rescue employees have been “hallucinating,” and he assumed the boy had “died together with his eyes open.” However the youngster cried out, “Brother! I don’t really feel my legs. Save me!”
A crew of greater than 70 individuals then rushed over to assist.
“Even now, we get tears in our eyes sometimes,” Aydinli stated, referring to the boy’s rescue. “He’s fairly nicely and aware. Hopefully, he’ll get higher.”
Rescue groups are nonetheless making an attempt to entry hard-to-reach areas of Turkey and Syria, however the variety of individuals being discovered alive is dwindling.
In the meantime, although donations are pouring in from everywhere in the world, many survivors have been left homeless in near-freezing winter temperatures with an absence of entry to fundamental requirements.
“Loads of lives have been saved, lots of people have been pulled from rubble by their neighbors, by their buddies, by their sons, daughters, moms, fathers. Frontline well being employees have completed superb work in each international locations,” the World Well being Group’s (WHO) emergencies director, Mike Ryan, instructed a briefing in Geneva on Wednesday.
WHO stated it was notably involved for individuals in northwestern Syria, a rebel-held area with little entry to help. The United Nations’ well being company stated it had requested Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to open extra border crossing factors with Turkey to permit assist in.
“It’s clear that the zone of biggest concern in the meanwhile is the world of northwestern Syria,” Ryan stated.
Delivering assist to Syria has been restricted by restrictions on the cross-border mechanism agreed by the UN Safety Council decision in 2014 to permit assist to cross 4 locations on the Turkey-Syria border.
“The influence of the earthquake in areas of Syria managed by the federal government is critical, however the companies are there and there’s entry to these individuals,” Ryan stated. “We’ve to recollect right here that in Syria, we’ve had 10 years of battle. The well being system is amazingly fragile. Individuals have been by way of hell.”
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