In earthquake disasters, stories of death prevail, but stories of life and birth find a place for them and attract attention, and the story of Fatima Ahmed and her son in Aleppo, northern Syria, is one of these stories.
When the devastating earthquake occurred at dawn last Monday, Fatima's family fled their home in Aleppo. Soon after, she felt labor pains, and a few hours later she gave birth to her third child in a hospital.
Fatima says that the road to the hospital was difficult because “there were many deaths” before rescuers took them to safety and directed them to the hospital.
The Syrian woman calls for her newborn, whom she named Najm al-Din Mahmoud, and says that he brought her back to life.
Even after he was born, the mother and her baby faced danger after another big jolt occurred later that day as they lay in the maternity ward upstairs.
in a tent shelter
The mother and her son were left alone, unable to move, after the doctors fled in search of safety.
She said that her uncle, his wife, and their two other children (1 year old and 3 years old) were in the basement of the hospital, while her husband, the soldier, was not in Aleppo.
And she added, "I went out to meet him (hug him), and we hope that God will protect him so that the shaking goes away."
After being evacuated from their home and discharged from the hospital, the family is now living temporarily in a tent, which is part of a shelter area near the airport that the city has set aside for people displaced by the earthquake.
Although their house is still standing, they cannot return to it until they are assured that it is safe to live in.
It is worth noting that the death toll from the 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria reached 25,000 dead and 80,000 injured, most of them on the Turkish side, as of noon today.