“It was a great miracle.". The ``miracle babies'' who survived in the rubble of collapsed hospitals after the Mexico City earthquake in 1985 now are 3-year-olds, thriving on special attention from doctors and relatives. Milagros Guadalupe Hernandez during a visit to the Children's Hospital. The 14 newborns provided inspiration and hope to a devastated … He spends a lot of time in his bedroom with dark curtains over the window, listening to music. On their final day of waiting, Leonard had gone to another part of the city to check on family members. Rescue workers saved three girls from the ruins of the Benito Juarez Hospital in Mexico City seven days after the 8.1 earthquake. Cuevas said the babies ''were probably asleep most of the time,'' or in a state of semi-hibernation. Eventually, a search dog barked and another woman, apparently trapped nearby, yelled for help. “Life for them has not been easy.” The hospital never issued a report on the miracle babies to protect their privacy, he said. He worked for awhile at a gas station, but also at times has been “desperately unemployed,” says Leonardo. To look at the "ninos" today as they approach a quarter century of life is to see a reflection of the hopes and dreams, some fulfilled and some dashed, of the Mexican people. But, at 24, she no longer aspires to join the Mexican women’s national team, recognizing she is too old to join a major team. As Mexico marks 30 years since the 8.1-magnitude temblor on Saturday, here are the stories of a baby pulled out of the rubble, a surgeon still working despite losing four … (John Enders/GlobalPost), Hospitals in Manaus run out of oxygen amid coronavirus surge in Brazil, Brazil struggles with new COVID-19 strain; Entire Dutch government resigns over child welfare scandal; Deadly earthquake hits Indonesia, Brazil weighs COVID-19 vaccines as its death toll climbs, Trump impeached for second time; WHO delegates arrive in Wuhan; Afghan intelligence foils ISIS plot to assassinate US diplomat, UN rapporteur emphasizes responsibility to protect ‘vulnerable’ Hazaras, Hazara community demands justice for slain coal miners in Pakistan, How the Trump Administration's climate denial left its mark on the Arctic Council, Poisoned opposition leader Navalny arrested in Moscow; Migrants stopped in Guatemala; Bobi Wine's opposition party rejects Museveni win, Artist Shungudzo feels an urgency to 'use her words' to fight against racism, Claudia Rios with her soccer trophies and newspaper clippings of the "miracle babies.". The two who later died are marked in yellow. The infants embodied a stubborn determination to hold on to life, a symbol of human resiliency amid disaster. People died. They, like 400 other buildings throughout the city, simply collapsed. Evelia Alvarez Gasca, good-humored and playful, likes to sing and dance. July 5 – The Statue of Liberty is reopened to the public after celebrating its centennial and an extensive refurbishment. A team of doctors, nurses and social workers has cared for them all these years. The rescuers, helped by family members who spent days digging at the devastated hospital building, eventually found Hortensia and Milagros, but they never found the other woman. Milagros suffered mostly cuts and bruises, but she also is missing the third knuckle on her left hand from a crushed bone that never developed. “We don’t have any inheritance to give her. 1 Recommendation. She said that a fasting baby with its movements restricted would expend about 50 calories a day, which would represent a fluid loss of 3.2 ounces. Sign up for our daily newsletter TOP OF THE WORLD and get the big stories we’re tracking delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. With money donated by individuals and groups in Mexico and Europe, hospital authorities set up a trust fund whose earnings have paid for medicine and educational expenses. At least six infants, five girls and a boy, have been pulled from the debris of two hospitals. The buildings most damaged were from 6 to 15 stories in height. Mexico Earthquake 1985 Rescuers dig for survivors in the rubble of the Juarez Hospital in Mexico City after it callapsed in an earthquake in September, 1985. The youngest girl in a family of seven children, Milagros is an assistant to a building contractor and earns 200 pesos (just over $16) a day. He keeps a blog and can be reached at www.johnenders.com. Babies survived up to 9 days after the quake (the 22 miracle babies) Cite. All the “miracle babies,” like other Mexicans, are today left to cope with a national economic crisis, low wages and high unemployment, and a drug-related crime wave. ), “It was dark. Between Mexico City and the epicenter 250 miles to the southwest lie the Sierra Madre mountains dotted with remote towns. Hortensia by then could not speak. “Why keep studying? Araceli was always a good student and her mother used trust fund money to help send her to a private school for several years. Your donation directly supported the critical reporting you rely on, the consistent reporting you believe in, and the deep reporting you want to ensure survives. The life of each “miracle baby” was turned upside down and inside out. Thirty years later, it's no exaggeration to say that the disaster remains a vivid memory, but one story of a miracle baby stands out. Many, their mothers killed by the collapsing buildings, were taken in by aunts, uncles and grandparents. The mother of the fourth baby is missing and thought to be dead. The 7.1 earthquake that hit Haiti on Jan. 12 was far smaller than the 8.1 quake in Mexico, but the magnitude of the catastrophe has been far greater. More than 10,000 people were killed, 30,000 were injured, and large parts of the city were destroyed. Some babies escaped physically unscathed by the quake, while others would grapple with lifelong disabilities. But being alive is better than being dead. Her aunts have sacrificed a lot by taking Claudia into their home. Abdelrahman Abdelaleem. Mexico City: Thousands of people died in an earthquake that devastated Mexico City on September 19, 1985, but heroes and miraculous survivors emerged from the tragedy. More than four hundred buildings collapsed. He is resentful, he thinks life is unfair.”. That figure was widely disregarded by the media, however, and contrasted sharply with the official report from the Mexico City Police Department, which said 4,722 bodies had been recovered. On the morning of September 19, 1985 a magnitude 8.1 earthquake shook the ground beneath the city. Sundays are sacred,” Claudia says. The babies were identified by the hospital wrist bracelets attached after birth. For the orphaned and rescued Haitian children, their plight is not without precedent. “He has physical problems with his legs. All came from humble beginnings. At right, doctors and other medical personnel triage and work to stabilize the baby. “The hospital adopted them,” says Jose Alberto Garcia Aranda, director of the Children’s Hospital. November 26, on the STS-61-B mission Rodolfo Neri Vela became the first Mexican and second Latin American astronaut to reach into space. She later named her baby Milagros Guadalupe for the milagro, or miracle, and the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico’s patron saint. “The next day, many voices faded away.”. But her life revolves around soccer. The story you just read is freely available and accessible to everyone because readers like you support The World financially. Her mother was crushed, held down by the debris, and could not move even to feed her. Mexico City's "ninos del sismo," or the "children of the earthquake," turn 25 this September. When Jesus sees newscasts of the devastation in Haiti on the television, he quickly turns the channel. But his adoptive parents have not given up on the young man, who underwent half a dozen major surgeries to repair a knee, a hip and his crushed mouth and cheek. The effects of the quake were particularly devastating because of the type of ground upon which the city sits. A pre-event quake of magnitude 5.2 occurred on 28 May 1985. (Courtesy of the hospital), As part of the celebration in 2000, the "miracle babies," then 15, were invited to the presidential residence, where they were hosted by the then-First Lady of Mexico Marta Sahagun Fox. She later she obtained a scholarship to college, where she studied biology and chemistry as part of a pharmaceutical program. But we’ve given her an education.”, Theoretically, Claudia says, she would like to go back to school someday but can’t see any good reason to do so. MEXICO CITY, Mexico — The world came to know them as the "miracle babies" of Mexico City, more than a dozen infants pulled from rubble after the devastating 1985 earthquake. The last was in 2000 and was a sort of coming-of-age for the boys and a group “quinceanera” for the girls, all of whom were turning 15. They spent the first week of their lives buried beneath hundreds of tons of rubble without food or water, and they are doing just fine. Over the next eight days or so seven more arrived," says Dina Villanueva, a neo-natologist who headed the team of doctors, nurses and social workers that began caring for them. ''It is really little more than a ball of water.''. Their caregivers say many have come to lead successful lives, while others have struggled. Both infants are now hospitalized doing … I dedicated myself to this girl. (Courtesy of the hospital), Areceli Santamaria Romo speaks with a co-worker at the in-house pharmacy where she works at the Children's Hospital in Mexico City. Despite their traumas and injuries, the children of the earthquake today appear to be fairly typical young men and women: Some are day laborers, another a pharmacist at the hospital where she was taken as a near-dead infant. It was the biggest natural disaster in decades, in the most densely populated city in the hemisphere. For them, reminders of the catastrophe are everywhere. The 1985 Mexico City earthquake, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake that struck Mexico City on the early morning of 19 September 1985 at around 7:19 am (CST), caused the deaths of at least 10,000 people and serious damage to the Greater Mexico City Area. Their lot in life, and their challenges, are not unlike those facing the children and adults rescued in Haiti in recent weeks. Newborn babies were rescued from the wreckage after being trapped for as many as 10 days. Foreign donors provided funds to pay for their medical care and even their education. ''Their environment would have been something like a womb, I think,'', Holden said, ''something they were obviously used to.''. She had four children and didn’t want more. “As babies, how did we survive all we did? The 8.1 earthquake on September 19, 1985 brought death and destruction to Mexico City on a scale beyond the previous experience of its residents. Doctors took one of his ribs and used that bone to rebuild his face. These buildings tended to resonate most with the energetic frequency band of the lakebed motions. For me, one of those haunting events took place a little over thirty years ago in Mexico City, Mexico. July 2 – Walt Disney Pictures releases the company's 26th animated film, The Great Mouse Detective. The Associated Press MEXICO CITY — The "Miracle Children" are children no more. (John Enders/GlobalPost), A party at the Children's Hospital for the "miracle babies" for their second birthday. She refers to the doctors, nurses and others at the Children’s Hospital as “my other family.”, “It has all made me think that we live for something,” she says. Riots. Mexican newspapers are calling them ''miracle babies,'' and doctors can only guess at the reasons they survived at all. "We began receiving victims within hours, nine at first. On September 19, 1985, at 7:18 in the morning, the residents of Mexico City were jolted awake by an 8.1-magnitude earthquake, one of the strongest to ever hit the area. The Mexico City earthquake was the most catastrophic in the country's history. Perhaps as many as 20 times as many people died in Haiti as in Mexico City, and the Haiti quake brought an entire country to its knees, while Mexico’s economy, infrastructure and society appeared far more resilient. “To me, it’s like paying the hospital back. The a baby girl and beat out bolsa S born last Thursday just minutes before the earthquake. His aunt Graciela Rodriguez and her husband Leonardo — who later became Jesus’ adopted parents — waited for days outside the hospital for news. The LIII Legislature Congress of Mexico begins its inauguration. To … John Enders covered the aftermath of the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City for the Oregonian newspaper. Cuevas said another factor contributing to the babies` survival was the layer of special fat beneath the skin of newborns, which probably helped insulate them during the cool, rainy nights and supplied them with calories during the day. One interesting characteristic was that many buildings had their upper floors collapse, leaving the lower floors relatively undamaged. And then just an hour and a half later another rescue an eight day old baby boy and still alive after spending five days under the ruins. In the early years, the hospital provided free, government-paid medical and dental care, including multiple internal and reconstructive surgeries, for the babies. But it didn’t start out that way. There are doctors, college graduates driving taxis all over Mexico.”, “She was always underweight,” says Norma Lucia Vinas, the team's other doctor, about Araceli Santamaria Romo, who is perhaps the most outwardly successful of the “ninos del sismo.”. A couple in Mexico City are celebrating the “miracle” birth of their son, whose arrival coincided with Tuesday’s 7.1 magnitude earthquake. I was relating to my daughter-in-law the story about the newborn babies that survived the collapse of the hospitals where they were born after a devastating earthquake struck Mexico City in 1985. J.B. Pritzker gives a coronavirus update, After Twitter outcry, 5 women detail Chris D’Elia’s alleged sexual improprieties. They are four babies who were buried alive just hours after their birth when the Juarez Hospital in central Mexico City collapsed during the first of two killer earthquakes last week. She was born at the Juarez Hospital on Sept. 17, 1985, and arrived at the Children’s Hospital with a broken left ankle, a severe laceration over her left eye and multiple abrasions. With both of his thighs strapped into prostheses and a warm smile on his face, Victor Hernandez has grown up with strength, grace and optimism. She loves going to work at the Children’s Hospital. Among the most remarkable rescues was that of 58 newborn babies, pulled alive from the wreckage of a maternity ward three days after the earthquake struck. We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. So she shared her saliva with the baby and “prayed and prayed” to the Virgin of Guadalupe. They seem now to represent not just hope, but proof that, while the scars of the tragedy would forever alter their lives, the people of Mexico City eventually would recover from the devastation. Newborn babies seem so helpless and fragile but in some respects they are more resilient than adults. There were voices. She started playing in the streets with an all-boys neighborhood team at age 5, and since 17 she has played on an all-female team called the Pumas, or Panthers. “For me, soccer is everything. "He’s the only son we had.”. That did not prevent Mexican TV stations and newspapers from focusing on members of the group during anniversaries of the quake each September, with a theme that might be called, “One more year of life for the miracle babies.” Early on, the group’s caregivers facilitated celebrations, sponsoring birthday parties, masses and other gatherings. She hopes to pursue a master’s degree. They were in the maternity section of the General Hospital, and rescuers found them four days later. He's a happy person, he says, despite the 1985 earthquake. (Courtesy of the hospital), Group picture from September 2000 of most of the surviving "miracle babies," then 15, and their doctors and nurses, taken at the Children's Hospital where they have received treatment, counseling and other support for years. The 8.1-magnitude quake struck Mexico City on Sept. 19, 1985, followed by a 7.5-magnitude aftershock one day later. Two reasons are the resonance in the lakebed sediments and the long duration of the shaking. “When we started school, everyone knew us. Want to see what's on deck? The Children’s Hospital, next door to the General Hospital, somehow escaped major structural damage and the rescued children began arriving there almost immediately. https://www.pri.org/stories/2010-02-05/miracle-babies-mexico-city-25-years-later An eight-story structure wrenched from its foundation by the Sept. 19, 1985, earthquake in Mexico City. ''I think that is part of the answer, that a fasting baby does not lose much,'' Holden said. Three of the four have lost their mothers; one was found lying on her dead mother`s breast. At least 106 people shot, 14 fatally, in Chicago weekend violence, Watch live: Gov. Richard Sennott photographed the earthquake aftermath for the Boston Herald. Miles to the Virgin of Guadalupe that bone to rebuild his face Claudia into their home, she. 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