{"id":278778,"date":"2026-06-29T18:02:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T14:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/?p=278778"},"modified":"2026-06-30T11:55:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T07:55:13","slug":"mom-rescued-from-venezuela-earthquake-rubble-with-newborn-says-baby-helped-her-survive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/news\/278778\/","title":{"rendered":"Mom rescued from Venezuela earthquake rubble with newborn says baby helped her survive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A mother who was pulled from the rubble of her wrecked home in Venezuela with her 18-day-old baby has told the BBC<\/a> of how her son helped keep her alive.<\/p>\n

Dayana Patino said her son Juan David gave her “motivation to be awake and alert.”<\/p>\n

“As long as he was alive, I was going to be alive. Every now and then I was touching his nose for proof that he was still breathing,” she said.<\/p>\n

She had been doing the washing up in her eighth-floor apartment in the northern coastal region of La Guaira when the earthquakes hit. She instantly rushed to cradle her son, thinking it would be “only a light tremor.”<\/p>\n

“I felt like I was flying. After that, I felt like I was sinking in water and dirt, and then I fell into the pit where I remained. I don’t know how I didn’t let go of my baby because I was flying. I got crushed against furniture,” she said.<\/p>\n

Instantly, she said she started to scream but soon realized that no one could hear her.<\/p>\n

“I said to myself I’m not going to waste my energy – I’m going to scream when it’s needed, when I hear voices or steps nearby,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know how I kept so calm because my left leg was trapped under concrete. I couldn’t move. My temple was pressed against a rock.”<\/p>\n

According to her account, she later heard her brother calling out to her.<\/p>\n

“I said to myself, this is my only chance. From the top of my lungs I cried out… I screamed, ‘Here I am’ with all my might, and he said, ‘I found you, and I promise you that I won’t leave until I get you out,'” Dayana says.<\/p>\n

And her brother kept his promise.<\/p>\n

Footage of the rescue has been shared around the world, with Juan David becoming a symbol of hope in Venezuela, which has been devastated by the twin earthquakes that hit the country on Wednesday – killing at least 1,450 people.<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands more are missing in what the country’s interim president has described as the “most brutal natural catastrophe” in Venezuela’s history.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"