Newborn rescued after earthquake in Syria adopted by her aunt

JINDERIS, Syria (AP) — A girl who was born under the rubble of her family’s earthquake-ravaged home has been discharged from the hospital and traveled to her new home, where she stayed Monday with her paternal aunt’s family.

The girl was in the hospital a few hours after the February 6 earthquake. She was discharged on Saturday and her aunt and uncle adopted her and gave her a new name, Afraa, in honor of her late mother.

Aphraa’s mother died in the earthquake along with her father and four siblings. The day after the baby arrived at the hospital, officials named her Aya, Arabic for “a sign from God.”

Aphraa’s story was widely covered in the news, with people from all over the world offering to help her and some saying they would like to adopt her. However, the relatives who adopted her said that, no matter how difficult their circumstances, the best place for the baby is the family.

On Monday, Afraa was cared for by her uncle Khalil al-Sawadi, who now lives with relatives in the northern Syrian city of Jinderis after his home was also destroyed by the earthquake. Al-Sawadi and his wife have four daughters and two sons, and now Afraa will live with his cousins.

“She is now one of my children. I will make no distinction between her and my children,” Al-Sawadi, who is also the first cousin of the newborn’s parents, told The Associated Press on Monday, sitting cross-legged holding Afraa surrounded by his six children. “She will be dearer to my children, because she will keep the memory of her father, mother, brothers and sisters.”

He added that a few days after the birth of Aphraa, his wife gave birth to a daughter, Attaa.

While in a hospital in the nearby city of Afrin, the director’s wife breastfed Aphraa.

Court officials in Afrin took on Afra’s case after the girl attracted international attention and several people came to the hospital claiming to be related to her, even though they had different surnames from Afra and her mother.

The story goes on

For several days, al-Sawadi was worried that someone might kidnap her and often visited her in the hospital.

A hospital employee said Aphraa was handed over to her aunt’s family a few days after a DNA test was done to make sure the girl and her aunt were biologically related.

“It was sad and some of the nurses were crying” when she was taken from the hospital, said Dr. Hani Maaruf, who has been caring for Aphraa since she was taken to the hospital. He added that the girl was in very good condition when she was released.

Rescuers in Ginderis found the dark-haired girl more than 10 hours after the quake while they were digging through the rubble of the five-story apartment building where her parents lived.

Al-Sawadi told how he ran out of the house when the earthquake hit and found that the neighboring building where the Afraa family lived had been reduced to a pile of rubble. Along with other residents of the area, al-Sawadi said they spent hours digging through the rubble in the pouring rain until he got tired and sat down to rest nearby.

Shortly after, someone called him to identify a dead woman who had been found under the rubble. He told those around her that she was his cousin, Aphraa. They then began to hear the baby crying and frantically removed the sand covering the baby, whose umbilical cord was still connected to her mother.

Al-Sawadi said he took a razor from his mountain ash, cut the umbilical cord and handed the girl over to another cousin and they rushed her to the nearest hospital where he was told the girl was healthy. They went to another hospital in the nearby city of Afrin, where they were told that it was overcrowded and could not take more patients. They went to the second hospital, which was also overcrowded, and then made it to the children’s hospital, where it remained until Saturday.

He said that during the chaos after they pulled Afraa out of the rubble, al-Sawadi thought the newborn was a boy and told the doctor to name “him” after her late father, Abdullah Turki Mleihan. Later it turned out that it was a girl.

He said that the girl was kept in the hospital for almost two weeks until the documents for her adoption were completed.

A devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake with its epicenter in the southeastern province of Haramanmaras in Turkey hit early on February 6, followed by numerous tremors. Many communities in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria have been reduced to piles of broken concrete and mangled metal. More than 44,000 people are reported to have died and the toll is expected to rise as search parties find more bodies.

The earthquake destroyed dozens of housing units in the city of Jinderis, where the Aphraa family had been living since 2018.

Afra’s father, Abdullah Turki Mleihan, was from the village of Khsham in the eastern province of Deir ez-Zor but left in 2014 after the Islamic State group took over the village, Saleh al-Badran, the father’s uncle, said earlier this month. Afraa. .

“I will raise her so that she does not need anything,” said al-Sawadi, who buys and sells cars. Surrounded by his children, al-Sawadi asked them if he should give Afraa to well-wishers offering to adopt her, and they unanimously said, “No.”

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Mru reported from Beirut.

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