In brief
In Caracas, a double earthquake tore through a high‑rise apartment, leaving a mother and her 18‑day‑old baby trapped beneath the debris. The infant’s steady breathing became the mother’s only hope, keeping her conscious until rescuers reached the site. The rescue, captured on video, has become a symbol of resilience amid Venezuela’s tragedy, with the family saying they will rebuild from scratch.
A mother survived a twin earthquake thanks to the breath of her 18‑day‑old baby.
On the night the twin quakes struck Caracas, Dayana Patino was doing her nightly housework on the eighth floor of a coastal apartment when the earth rattled. She quickly cradled her son, Juan David, thinking the shock was mild. Instead, the building collapsed around her and she was buried under rubble and dust, trapped for hours before rescuers reached her.
“As long as he was breathing, I kept on—every few minutes I touched his nose to make sure he was still alive,” the mother says. “He gave me reason to stay awake.”
Gerson, the husband, recalls the moment like a dream: “I saw my son and I felt like I was born again. When I saw my son, I couldn’t believe it.”
The rescue operation, documented in footage sent to the BBC, shows the couple emerging from the rubble with the baby’s face still barely visible. Authorities later confirmed that Juan David sustained only minor injuries, while Dayana suffered fractures.
Both the family and their community are grieving the loss of almost all possessions and their pet dog, yet they have vowed to begin again. “We lost almost everything, but we are here now, and we will rebuild,” Gerson said.
The earthquakes, which killed more than 1,450 people, have left Venezuela’s interim president calling the disaster “the most brutal natural catastrophe in Venezuelan history.” Search efforts are ongoing, but hope for additional survivors is falling.
