The new life now has a name. Born under the rubble of the catastrophic earthquake that stroke Syria, she will be called Aya, Arabic for “a sign from God”.
Aya's mother died right after giving birth under the fallen bricks of the houses. With her parents and all her siblings killed, Aya will be adopted by her great-uncle, Salah al-Badran, who will take her in once she is released from the hospital.
However, his own house in the northwest Syrian town of Jenderis was destroyed, too. He and his family managed to escape the one-storey building, but now he and his household of 11 people are living in a tent, he told the Associated Press.
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Residents digging through a collapsed building in a northwest Syrian town discovered crying infant whose umbilical cord was still connected to her mother, Afraa Abu Hadiya. The baby was the only member of her family to survive the building collapse Monday in the small town of Jinderis, next to the Turkish border, Ramadan Sleiman.
Video of the rescue circulating on social media shows the moments after the baby was removed from the rubble, as a man lifts her up, her umbilical cord still dangling, and rushes away as another man throws him a blanket to wrap her in.
The baby’s body temperature had fallen to 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) and she had bruises, including a large one on her back, but she is in stable condition, he said.
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Abu Hadiya must have been conscious during the birth and must have died soon after, Maarouf said. He estimated the baby was born several hours before being found, given the amount her temperature had dropped. If the girl had been born just before the quake, she wouldn’t have survived so many hours in the cold, he said.
“Had the girl been left for an hour more, she would have died,” he said.
(with AP inputs)
