‘BRAVE ONE’

Incredible Story of How Mom, Newborn Survived Turkey Earthquake

One minute, Necla Camuz was breastfeeding her son in her home, the next, they were under rubble.

A Turkish mother has described the moment she and her newborn son were buried under rubble as an earthquake hit and how they survived for four days. Necla Camuz was feeding her 10-day-old son at their home in southern Turkey’s Hatay province when the quake, which has killed 33,000 people to date, struck. They were saved by a wardrobe which had fallen next to her and prevented a slab of concrete from crushing them. Necla was able to breastfeed her son but was unable to drink the milk herself, leaving her without food or water. She said while they were under the rubble her baby slept most of time, and fed him when he woke or cried. Initially she could hear voices and tried to yell out and use pieces of rubble to bang against the wardrobe, but her efforts failed until, after more 90 hours, she heard the sound of dogs barking. She and her baby were ultimately rescued and reunited with her husband, Irfan, and her three-year-old son, Yigit Kerim, who were separated during the quake and also miraculously survived. “I think if my baby hadn’t been strong enough to handle this, I wouldn’t have been either,” she told the BBC, revealing she named him Yagiz, meaning “brave one.”