A baby girl in Syria who was born under the rubble of her family's earthquake-shattered home has left hospital and gone to her new home with her paternal aunt's family.
Key points:
- The newborn had been at the hospital since hours after the February 6 earthquake
- The girl's mother died in the quake along with her father and four siblings
- Her paternal aunt's family adopted her and gave her a new name, Afraa, after her late mother
The girl, who had been at the hospital since hours after the February 6 earthquake, was discharged on Saturday and adopted by her aunt and uncle who gave her a new name, Afraa, after her late mother.
Afraa's mother died in the quake along with her father and four siblings.
A day after the infant arrived at the hospital, officials there named her Aya — Arabic for "a sign from God".
Afraa's story has been widely shared in news reports and people from around the world have offered to help her, with some saying they would like to adopt her. However, the relatives who took her in said that, however hard their circumstances, the best place for the infant was with family.
On Monday, Afraa was being cared for by her uncle, Khalil al-Sawadi, who was living with relatives in the town of Jinderis in northern Syria after his home was also destroyed in the earthquake.
Mr al-Sawadi and his wife have four daughters and two sons and now Afraa will be living with her cousins.
"She is one of my children now. I will not differentiate between her and my children," Mr al-Sawadi, who is also a cousin of the newborn's parents, told The Associated Press on Monday while sitting cross-legged holding Afraa and surrounded by his six children.
"She will be dearer than my children because she will keep the memory alive of her father, mother and siblings."
DNA confirms family link
Judicial officials in Afrin had taken over the case of Afraa after the girl drew international attention and some people came to the hospital claiming they were related to her although they had different family names than Afraa and her mother.
For days, Mr al-Sawadi was worried that someone might kidnap her and he visited her frequently at the hospital.
A hospital official said Afraa was handed over to her aunt's family days after a DNA test was conducted to make sure the girl and her aunt were biologically related.
"It was sad and some nurses wept," when she was taken from the hospital, said Dr Hani Maarouf who had taken care of Afraa since she was brought to the facility.
He added that the baby girl was in very good health when she was released.
Crying alerted rescue workers
Rescue workers in Jinderis discovered the dark-haired baby girl more than 10 hours after the quake as they were digging through the wreckage of the five-story apartment building where her parents lived.
Mr al-Sawadi recounted how he rushed out of his home when the earthquake happened and found that the nearby building where Afraa's family lived had been reduced to a pile of rubble.
Along with others from the area, Mr al-Sawadi said they dug through the rubble in heavy rain for hours until he grew tired and sat to rest nearby.
Shortly afterwards, someone called him to identify a dead woman whom they found under the rubble.
He told people that she was his cousin, Afraa. Then, they started hearing a child crying and frantically removed the sand that covered the baby, whose umbilical cord was still connected to her mother.
Mr al-Sawadi said he took a razor from his pocket, cut the umbilical cord and handed the girl to another cousin.
They then rushed her to a nearby hospital where he was told that the girl was in good health.
They drove to another hospital in the nearby town of Afrin, which was full and unable to take more patients.
They continued to a second hospital, which was also full, before reaching the children's hospital where she was kept until Saturday.
From 'him' to Afraa
He said during the chaos after they pulled Afraa from under the rubble, Mr al-Sawadi thought that the newborn was a boy and told the doctor to name "him" after her late father Abdullah Turki Mleihan. They later found out it was a girl.
He said that the girl was kept in hospital for nearly two weeks until the paperwork for her adoption was done.
Afraa's father, Abdullah Turki Mleihan, was originally from the village of Khsham in eastern Deir el-Zour province, but left in 2014 after the Islamic State group captured the village, Saleh al-Badran, an uncle of Afraa's father, said earlier this month.
"I will raise her in a way that she will not feel in need for anything," said Mr al-Sawadi.
Surrounded by his children, Mr al-Sawadi asked them if he should give away Afraa to the well-wishers offering to adopt her and they said in one voice: "No."
AP
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