Woman trapped in earthquake rubble felt like she was ‘born again’ during rescue

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When 37-year-old Özlem Ayna was buried in the rubble under her bedroom closet, she could hear the sounds and sounds of dogs searching the five-story apartment building.

Buildings in the southeastern Turkish city of Adıyaman collapsed around them during the first of two earthquakes that struck parts of Turkey and Syria early last week.

For hours, she screamed for help, yelling “save me” and trying to be loud even though her mouth was dry and covered in a layer of dust.

When he heard the rescuers shouting for silence, he also shouted “shut up”, because as the hours and days passed, he was frustrated and lost hope that someone would find him.

I scream very loudly from time to time. I became hoarse,” he told the CBC in an interview from his hospital bed in Diyarbakir, a Turkish city 190 kilometers east of his home in Adiyaman.

“I lost my hope.”

WATCH | A woman is rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building:

Watch the moment a woman is rescued from the rubble in Turkey

CBC News reporter Briar Stewart was on the scene as a rescue crew, with help from a Canadian team, extracted a woman who had been trapped for days under a collapsed building in Adiyaman, Turkey.

He said the rescuers finally heard him after a few days when he started banging on the rock, and that kicked off the international effort to free him.

CBC News witnessed and broadcast his rescue on Friday, 4½ days after the earthquake that left him buried in his first-floor apartment.

Rescue came six hours after the Turkish crew reached her, carefully breaking through broken concrete and rebar to reach her.

“I caught it [a rescuer’s] hands become hard,” she said. “He said: ‘Calm down, we will save you.’

“It’s like I’ve been reborn.”

The crew from BC helped

A 10-member crew from Burnaby, BC which the city search and rescue team assisted on the ground by providing guidance and specialized equipment like cameras that can extend into the wreckage and maneuver around the wreckage to determine his exact location.

Ayna, a primary school teacher, has been left bruised and suffering from kidney damage as a result of dehydration, but the head nurse of Dicle University Hospital in Diyarkabir believes she will recover and be discharged in a week.

A woman in purple scrubs and a black cardigan smiles and crosses her arms in front of her chest.  She smiled as she took a photo while standing in front of the glass door.  The hospital hallway is visible on the right.
Chief nurse Yildiz Ok Orak oversees the treatment of earthquake victim Özlem Ayna at Dicle University Hospital in Diyarbakir, Turkey. He is monitoring his kidney function but said he will be released from the hospital in about a week. (Briar Stewart/CBC)

that he has been removed [from the rubble] a few hours later, he will lose kidney function even more,” said Star Arrow Sickle.

Ayna was in a ward with 22 people who were pulled out of some of the more than 24,000 buildings that collapsed or were severely damaged by the earthquake in Turkey.

As the death toll rose above 30,000, Orak said medical staff were not following television news updates.

“We are putting all our energy into the care of our current patients.”

The building collapsed in seconds

Ayna and her family were overjoyed to have survived, but that happiness was not to be found as 80 percent of the residents in their building died in the quake.

When the magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck shortly after 4 am on February 6, Ayna said, the violent shaking brought down her apartment in seconds.

He said when he opened his eyes in bed, the wardrobe fell on his right arm and then the column fell.

WATCH | On the front lines of rescue efforts:

In the front line of the deadly earthquake | Chip

CBC’s Briar Stewart and Chris Brown take us to the front lines of rescue efforts in Turkey to talk about the next steps in the mission and what support can come from Canada.

She lay trapped in the freezing cold in her pajamas, at times shaking out of control, with nothing to do but wait and try to live.

He told CBC News that his thirst was driving him crazy. He talked about his dream that if he was free, he would set up water sources throughout the community so that no one would be without water.

After a while, when he could no longer produce saliva or swallow, he tried to lie as much as possible to conserve energy, but when the rescuers returned, he continued to scream.

Try to make contact

On Friday morning, after rescuers found him there and alive, they tried to contact him.

They propped up logs of wood to try to stabilize the concrete and prevent the floors from collapsing on the crew members.

A rescue worker in an orange jumpsuit and yellow helmet searches the concrete wall, mixed with wires, metal and people's belongings.
A rescue worker inspects a collapsed building in Adiyaman, Turkey, on Saturday. (Emrah Gurel/The Associated Press)

The searchers crawled and finally managed to reach their place, which was about seven meters away from the edge of the ruins.

She said when she saw the group of men, she cried.

He ended up passing food and water through the small hole and kept talking to her to keep her spirits up and keep her going as she tried to get out.

A CBC News crew watched as Turkish rescuers struggled to get her out because they didn’t have access to the elevator to take her wardrobe from her.

It comes from below

Eventually he went under the rubble to try to pull her out from under it.

While the crew was working, dozens of residents from Adiyaman were watching, including at least Ayna’s brother.

In the debris scattered around the building was a heart-shaped box that CBC news photographed at the time.

A pink heart-shaped box, painted with a pink, white and green floral pattern on the corner of the heart, lies among the concrete rubble.  The name 'Özlem' is in white block letters.
Among the rubble of a collapsed building in Adiyaman, this pink heart-shaped wooden box was found by CBC camera operator Dmitry Kozlov as he waited to rescue a dramatic woman. When CBC News later learned the identity of him, Özlem Ayna, the team wondered if the item was connected to him. His family has since confirmed that Özlem uses this box to hold his phone charger. (Dmitry Kozlov/CBC)

Only after the crew found the name “Özlem” printed on the box and it belonged to the woman the crew helped.

As he was dragged out in front of a cheering crowd, he was wrapped in a blanket, placed on a stretcher and taken to the hospital.

Her mother, Gülten Ayna, couldn’t believe her daughter was alive until she saw her face in the intensive care unit.

Mom stayed by his side

After the earthquake, he ran 180 kilometers from his home in Gaziantep to see his daughter’s apartment building.

When he saw that the lower floor had completely collapsed and the front facade of the upper floor had crumbled away, he thought that the princess was likely to die.

Her mother now holds her hand and barely leaves her hospital bed as she talks about how she believes her daughter has been reborn.

Gülten Anya watched a CBC News video about saving her daughter.

A group of rescue workers including members of the Burnaby Fire Department take photos after a woman was pulled alive from the rubble five days after the deadly earthquake in Adiyaman, Turkey
Rescue workers, including members of the Burnaby Urban Search and Rescue Team, wearing blue helmets, take photos after a surviving woman was pulled from the rubble five days after a deadly earthquake in Adiyaman, Turkey, on Friday. (Briar Stewart/CBC)

Ayna’s family showed her the video, but she said she could only watch half of it because she was crying so much.

Ayna and her mother spoke of their gratitude to the rescuers, including the team from Canada.

“Something happens and someone from the other corner comes and rescues you,” Ayna said.

“I can’t describe this moment. I am a humanitarian.”

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