Venezuela earthquake: Mum of newborn rescued from under rubble says baby motivated her

“I told myself I wouldn’t waste my energy; I would scream when necessary, when I heard voices or footsteps nearby,” she said.

“I don’t know how I stayed so calm because my left leg was buried under the concrete. I couldn’t move. My temples were pressed against a rock.”

Dayana said she found hope when she felt a Bible underneath her.

“My journey to survival began there,” he said.

In the darkness of the debris he could see “a pinprick of light that looked like a moon.”

He said he was saved when he heard his brother calling his name.

“I said to myself, this is my only chance. I screamed from the bottom of my lungs… I screamed at the top of my lungs, ‘Here I am’ and he said, ‘I found you, I promise I won’t leave until I get you out’.”

He kept that promise, and a delicate rescue operation followed Thursday night to pull both mother and baby from the rubble.

In the earthquake, Dayana was injured in both legs, while Juan, luckily, was only slightly injured.