Syria Earthquake: With Her Parents Dead, Thousands Offer To Adopt Baby Rescued From Rubble

The baby named Aya - meaning miracle in Arabic - was still connected to her mother by her umbilical cord when she was rescued. Her parents and all four siblings died following the earthquake.

A newborn girl lies inside an incubator as part of her medical checkup at a children's hospital in the Syrian town of Afrin. Aya, the so-called 'miracle baby', was rescued from underneath a destroyed house, with her umbilical cord still tied to her dead mother, following a deadly earthquake that tore the Turkish-Syrian border.

Source : Getty Images

New Delhi: A newborn baby girl born under the rubble of a collapsed building in north-west Syria has thousands willing to adopt her after the earthquake killed her immediate family on Monday.

According to a report by the BBC, the baby named Aya - meaning miracle in Arabic - was still connected to her mother by her umbilical cord when she was rescued. Her parents and all four siblings died after the earthquake hit the town of Jindayris.

She is now in hospital. "She arrived on Monday in such a bad state, she had bumps, and bruises, she was cold and barely breathing," said Hani Marouf, the pediatrician looking after her, as quoted by the BBC.

She is now said to be in stable condition.

A viral video showed a man sprinting from the debris of a building, holding a baby covered in dust. Several videos of such rescue efforts have surfaced on social media.

Pulling a two-month-old baby alive after three days under the rubble in Turkey pic.twitter.com/1ePEIkZiDH

— Muhammad Smiry 🇵🇸 (@MuhammadSmiry) February 8, 2023

As per the report, a distant relative identified as Khalil al-Suwadi was there when Aya was pulled to safety. He brought the newborn to Dr. Marouf in the Syrian city of Afrin.

Thousands on social media asked for details expressing their willingness to adopt her.

BBC quoted a Kuwaiti TV anchor as saying, "I'm ready to take care of and adopt this child... if legal procedures allow me to."

The hospital manager, Khalid Attiah, was reported saying that he has received dozens of calls from people all over the world wanting to adopt baby Aya.

The report quoted Dr Attiah, who has a daughter just four months older than her, as saying, "I won't allow anyone to adopt her now. Until her distant family return, I'm treating her like one of my own."

Dr Attiah's wife is currently breastfeeding her alongside their own daughter.

In Aya's hometown Jindayris, the locals continue to search through the debris of collapsed buildings for loved ones.

A journalist Mohammed al-Adnan told the BBC, "The situation is a disaster. There are so many people under the rubble. There are still people we haven't got out yet."

According to him, nearly 90% of the town had been destroyed and most of the help had come from local people.

Rescuers from the White Helmets organisation, familiar with pulling people out of rubble for over a decade during Syria's civil war, are extending help in Jindayris.

"The rescuers can end up being victims too because of how unstable the building is," said Mohammed al-Kamel, as per the BBC.

Syria has reported more than 3,000 deaths due to the earthquake, excluding those who have died in opposition-held areas of the country.