CNN
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The confused woman asked the rescue worker, “What day is it today?” Another 77-year-old woman was also rescued from the debris after she emerged alive 228 hours from last week’s quake, Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported Wednesday.
More than nine days after the powerful earthquake that shook Turkey and Syria, rescuers continued to drag people out of the rubble, ignoring predictions that their time for survival was over. On Wednesday, Turkey’s defense ministry released a video showing rescue workers pulling her 77-year-old woman from the rubble of Adiyaman city on Tuesday, about 212 hours after the quake struck.
Anadolu identified her as Fatma Gangol and said her family held her after she was saved.
Another woman asked, “What day is it today?” According to Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency, rescue worker Mehmet Eryilmaz said of the moment she found her mother after she survived her 228 hours under the rubble with her two children. He says: I held her hand first. We talked, chatted, calmed her down. ”
Eryilmaz also referred to further dialogue with her mother, saying she asked for water first, but did not give any without the intervention of paramedics. Erilmaz told Anadolu that the first thing she asked was, “What day is it today?”
She also told Eliirmaz that her name was Ella and that she had two children, a girl and a boy, who were pulled from the rubble with her. Anadolu reported that she was a foreigner but did not mention her nationality.
Also on Wednesday, another woman, identified as 45-year-old Melike Imamoğlu, was rescued in the rubble of Kahramammaras city after 222 hours, according to Turkish state television TRT Haber.
Earlier, a team in southern Turkey said they were still hearing the voices of trapped survivors.
Live images broadcast on CNN affiliate CNN Tak on Tuesday showed rescue workers working in two areas of the Kahramanmaras region who were trying to save the three sisters, but the sisters were killed. It is unknown whether they survived.
In the same area, a 35-year-old woman believed to have been buried for about 205 hours was rescued by paramedics, according to state broadcaster TRT Harbor. Two other brothers, two men and a woman were also rescued on Tuesday, eight days after the quake.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent in Hatay province, Turkey, said it’s rare for people to survive more than 100 hours trapped in debris. Most people he rescued within 24 hours.
However, he says the subzero temperatures in the seismic zone may be prolonging the survival of those trapped.
“Cold is a double-edged sword. He said.
“There’s not much data on how long people can survive in these conditions, but we’re seeing rescue after 200 hours.”
Meanwhile, in Syria, relief efforts are beginning to shift to recovery efforts, and UN officials are rushing to focus aid on survivors in the country through two new government-approved border crossings in Damascus.
Eleven trucks laden with UN aid crossed into northwestern Syria via the Bab al-Salaam corridor on Tuesday, the UN aid chief Martin Griffiths tweeted, adding 26 more trucks. have entered the area via the Bab al-Hawa intersection.
On both sides of the border, the World Health Organization (WHO) has stressed the need to “focus on trauma rehabilitation” when treating people affected by disasters.
WHO’s representative for Turkey, Batyr Berdyklychev, highlighted the “growing problem” of “traumatized people” and the need for psychological and mental health services in the affected areas.
“People are starting to understand what happened to them after this shocking period,” Berdyklychev said Tuesday at a press conference in the Turkish city of Adana.
The WHO is negotiating with Turkish authorities to ensure that earthquake survivors have access to mental health services, Berdyklychev added, adding that many people displaced by the quake in other parts of the country also “We’ll have to get in touch,” he said.
Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, said the “immediate priority” of the 22 emergency medical teams deployed by WHO to Turkey was “to deal with the high number of trauma patients and devastating injuries”. rice field.
