A school girl was left to die half buried under the wreckage of her family home after a devastating landslide left her trapped for an agonising 60 hours
A school girl uttered a heartbreaking plea as she resigned to her devastating fate, half buried in the wreckage of her family home.
Omayra Sánchez Garzón was just 13-years-old when she died in a landslide caused by the 1985 eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Armero, Tolima in Colombia.
Terrifying volcanic lava mixed with ice – known as lahar – flooded into the river valleys below the mountain and towards villages. A wall of the cement-like mud obliterated Omayra’s home.
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In total, about 25,000 people died with a total of 14 villages destroyed. Young Omayra was trapped underneath the lahar from the waist down and remained in the water for three days.
Rescue workers worked desperately to help her escape but it soon became apparent that they would not be able to give her the life-saving care she neeeded if they were to amputate her legs and free her.
The teen’s calm demeanor transformed into complete agony as her eyes turned black, and relief workers, photographers and journalists all took it in turns to comfort her during her final moments, bringing her fizzy drinks and sweets.
Her tragic struggle captivated people across the world as they watched the horror unfold on television screens. Harrowing videos and images of Omayra made international news.
Omaya’s final words are said to have been caught on camera, after Colombian news channel RCN aired a video of her with bloodshot eyes as she stayed stuck in the doomed water, the Daily Mail reports.
Addressing her family, Omayra heartbreakingly said: “Pray so that I can walk, and for these people to help me. Mummy, I love you very much, daddy I love you, my brother, I love you.”
Omayra lived in the Santander neighbourhood with her parents Álvaro Enrique, a rice and sorghum collector, and María Aleida, along with her brother Álvaro Enrique and aunt María Adela Garzón. On the night of the disaster, the family lay awake, worrying about the impending eruption and volcanic ash.
Suddenly, they heard the rush of the approaching lahar and it quickly hit the concrete home. Omayra was trapped under the roof, and was only discovered when her hand was able to squeeze through a crack and was spotted by a rescue worker.
Despite their attempts to pull her out, there was nothing they could do. Each time a person pulled her, the water pooled around her, rising so that it seemed she would drown if they let her go, so rescue workers placed a tire around her body to keep her afloat.
By the third night she was hallucinating and mentioned not being late for school for her math exam. Near the end of her life, her eyes reddened, her face swelled, and her hands whitened.
While her brother survived the lahars; her father and aunt died. Her mother, who was away in Bogota for business at the time of the eruption, said after her daughter’s death: “It is horrible, but we have to think about the living… I will live for my son, who only lost a finger.”