Patricia Lara, the UME lieutenant who rescued two children and their mother in Turkey: "The fact that Leyla breastfed them under the rubble has saved their lives"

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At the foot of the hole through which they came back to life was Patricia Lara, medical lieutenant of the USAR team of the UME.

At

, she is the first major catastrophe that she has experienced.

But as she speaks, she seems like a doctor experienced in countless extreme situations.

She attends to us from Islahiye, 22 km from Nurdagi, in the province of Gaziantep (Turkey), the epicenter of the earthquakes, where the two children were rescued along with her mother.

"It's a miracle.

The first thing we did was give them IV, but what has saved their lives is that Leyla has been breastfeeding them, she is a lactating mother, Muslim is only two years old."

These are Patricia's explanations, on the other end of the phone, to try to make us see the extreme situation they have experienced.

The youngest of the family was still suckling and that has made it easier for the two minors to survive, Muslim and her sister Elif, six years old.

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The lieutenant spoke to Yo Dona on the ground: "I was in the hole, from where we first took the boy out and the nurse captain took him to the tent set up next to the rubble. Later the girl was rescued, who was also They took us for the first care. And it was more difficult for us to get the mother out. We were talking to her, with the translator, they were telling me how she was feeling, in case we had to intervene beforehand. And everything went well this time. After

five days stuck there, the story doesn't always end like this".

It was more than a whole day of work, they did shifts all night and they didn't manage to get them out until the next morning.

The ECU team

The Spanish rescue teams arrived in Turkey at dawn on Tuesday, February 7, a few hours after the first tremors that devastated the area.

Among the medical team, in addition to Lara, Captain

a nurse;

Captain

also a nurse, and Lieutenant Colonel

a psychologist.

According to Lieutenant Lara, the Turkish authorities assign them areas where they have to deploy, settle and start working.

The first thing they do is the technical search, with the necessary equipment,

to listen to the voices: "We ask them, with the interpreter, that if someone hears us, they should shout or knock three times, and that is how the geophone receives the signal That is where the difficult work of clearing rubble begins, very carefully, safely and very technically, you have to make butrones and avoid landslides."

Work against the clock

The medical lieutenant at another time of her work in Turkey.UME

This is the work carried out by the Army engineers, also posted to the area.

And the essential task of the dogs is added;

some are looking for possible survivors and others are dedicated to locating corpses.

"In the rescue of Leyla, Muslim and Elif, it was Corporal Isabel Espada who located them with the geophone, she detected the first sign of life", Patricia explains to us, "every hour, every day that passes there is less hope of finding survivors. They are under the rubble, it's cold, they may lack oxygen and they don't have food or can't hydrate, and many have wounds, cuts, fractures, they are bleeding to death... Every minute that passes is decisive

Holding out in that situation for more than seven days is impossible." , of magnitude 7.8 on the Richter scale.

Patricia's missions

The Spanish Army was launched in record time, and Patricia Lara, together with her colleagues, began to work against the clock to find survivors.

She, due to her youth, had not experienced anything like it.

She participated in the eviction work of the

and a year and a half later she has had to travel to the epicenter of the destruction.

He studied medicine at the Defense University Center (CUD) in Madrid.

From Zaragoza, his hometown, and after being number one in his promotion, with the best entrance grade at the General Military Academy, he moved to Alcalá de Henares to begin his health training.

When she finished, they chose a destination to complete three more years in one of the units and she chose the Military Emergency Unit, located at the Torrejón de Ardoz base (Madrid).

Her voice transmits security and maturity: "This is hard, it's a catastrophe, there are many deaths...", she confesses to Yo Dona, "but it is also true that participating in a rescue in which the lives of three people have been saved , including two children, is

other rescues

The hours continue to advance among thousands of collapsed buildings and there is no time to rest.

The team of 55 Spaniards works in collaboration with the Turkish rescuers: "The nurse captain and I were in another support. It was done with the Turkish rescue team. They were two young girls who were trapped and I had to make a tourniquet for them

avoid that they lost more blood. They are hard images to see but as long as you can help...".

Lieutenant Lara also has to be aware of her colleagues, because rescue work or removing corpses from the rubble is not easy and sometimes there are also injuries or injuries among the rescuers.

That's where she also intervenes: "Now they are looking for a body, they are dangerous areas and we have to be at the service of our colleagues."

Support and encouragement comes from Spain, they don't know when they will return, that's why the encouragement is important.

"My mother and father (also in the military) tell me that they are very proud", and he says goodbye asking that even if the days go by, they do not forget what has happened, "anything that can be helped is welcome, because it will take a

time time, many years, for all this to recover," Lieutenant Patricia Lara tells us, as a farewell, on the other end of the phone, from her camp in Islahiye (Turkey).

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