A team of international rescuers pulled a man alive from a collapsed building in Venezuela on Thursday, eight days after the country was rocked by twin 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes.
Hernan Gil, 43, was working as a night watch guard at an seven-story building in Catia La Mar when part of it collapsed, trapping him in his security booth beneath the rubble.
“When we found him, he asked us not to tell his wife that he was alive, just in case he wouldn’t make it,” Costa Rican Red Cross rescuer Minyar Collado told the Associated Press.
But, she added, “We were never going to leave him there.”
Gil’s wife, Gusbimar Gonzalez, was elated by the news on Thursday.
“I am completely surprised. It’s the first time I’ve seen so many countries come together like this for a single cause, to save one person,” she told AFP. “This is truly a miracle.”
“He wasn’t hurt, he has no trauma, he managed to hide under a table and a chair,” she added.
Rescue took 3 days
Rescuers from Venezuela, Chile, the United States, Portugal, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Mexico worked around the clock for three days in order to rescue him.
They used a telescopic camera to communicate with him, provided water via a hose, and inserted a tube through the rubble to supply oxygen.
These measures helped him stay alive for far longer than the 48- to 72-hour threshold that most rescuers give to find survivors of such disasters.
“It wasn’t easy to reach the exact spot where the victim was located,” Cristian Vera, the leader of the Chilean rescue team, told AFP.
Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez hailed the news on social media. It comes as her government faces criticism for what some citizens are calling a slow and inadequate response to the earthquakes.
“We celebrate the greatness of humanity, when it is united for a single purpose: to save another, she said.
“Thank you to our rescuers and to the support of the international rescuers.”
More to follow…
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