In the early hours of 6 February 2023, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria. In Samandağ, Hatay province, a five-storey building collapsed. On the second floor, Necla Camuz was awake feeding her second son, Yağız Ulaş, born only ten days earlier on 27 January. Within seconds they were buried.

A fallen wardrobe created a small air pocket. Necla came to with the infant still on her chest. For more than 90 hours she kept him alive by breastfeeding whenever he woke and cried. She tried to drink her own milk and could not. She struck debris against the wardrobe to make noise. She later said she did not believe she would survive — and that her son’s strength kept her going. “If my baby hadn’t been strong enough to handle this, I wouldn’t have been either. I owe my life to him.”

On the fifth day, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality firefighters working with other search teams called for silence and listened. They found the pocket. Crouched under unstable slabs, a rescuer reached in, whispering “inshallah,” and passed the baby down the line. Yağız’s eyes were open. He did not cry. Teams wrapped him at once in a shiny thermal blanket and carried him to an ambulance and field medical post. Minutes later his mother was brought out on a stretcher — pale, dazed, but conscious.

Pediatric assessment found no major fractures and no acute lung injury; primitive reflexes were intact. Mother and child were observed for 24 hours and discharged to a tent. Necla then learned that her husband İrfan and three-year-old son Yiğit Kerim had also been pulled out alive. She said she was glad Yağız was too young to remember.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu announced the rescue: a 10-day-old boy recovered with his mother 90 hours after the quake in Samandağ. The images — a newborn in gold foil under floodlights, eyes open — became one of the few moments of relief as the death toll climbed past 20,000 and winter cold closed the window for more survivors.

Yağız means “brave one.” For a few days in February 2023, that name and a thermal blanket were what the world saw of a family that should not have come out of the concrete at all.

Sources
BBC News, “Turkey-Syria earthquake: New-born and mother saved after four days in rubble” (10 Feb 2023) and “Being buried alive with my newborn son” (13 Feb 2023)
Daily Sabah, “Miracle rescue: 10-day-old baby found 90 hours after Türkiye quake” (10 Feb 2023)
NTV / IHA reports on Yağız Ulaş and Necla Camuz
Reuters, ABC News, The Independent, and People magazine contemporaneous coverage
Statements and video from Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu