Some people were pulled alive more than 100 hours after the earthquake. Without wounds and with an air bubble it can last 8-10 days. Cold delays dehydration
The terrible earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria shows hopeful images of people pulled alive after more than 100 hours under the rubble. The recovery scenes of the buried alive are going around the world and the race against time to save those who are still breathing the engine that is also pushing the resistance of the rescuers to a thousand.
The four basic conditions
But how long can a person resist under the rubble? It is not easy to indicate what the requirements are because sometimes the same variables are enough for one person and insufficient for another. Who young and healthy, well nourished and hydratedhas in general a better chance of surviving, up to 8-10 days as he explains Mario Balzanellipresident of the Italian Society System 118. To be able to resist they are necessary for everyone q
uunder indispensable conditions.
First of all they have to be there air spaces that allow you to breathe. A cavity, however small, can in fact allow the permanence of air, which is essential so that the subject does not suffocate, underlines Balzanelli.
The second necessary condition for survival is the maintenance of patency of the airways, which means that in the the nose and mouth must not contain debris and rubble constituting a mechanical obstacle to breathing. Finding yourself covered in dust or unable to expand your lungs normally can lead to lung inflammation, respiratory failure and death.
As a third indispensable condition not be seriously injured or crushedespecially on the chest to have the possibility to breathe: There must be no important lesions affecting the brain or other vital organs.
The fourth condition that there should be no internal bleeding, unfortunately frequent following the multiple traumas that a person can suffer in these situations. In fact, wounds could lead to pressure imbalances which, in a state of shock, weigh on an already tested heart. If all these conditions are present, Balzanelli points out, a subject can survive under the rubble for even 8-10 days.
Water and food
As for feeding, the lack of food affects much less than lack of water. The body can get its fat stores and eventually protein from the muscles, but it can’t draw its water from anything other than external sources (some earthquake survivors drank their own urine). The kidneys are the most affected organs from lack of water. Their main function is to maintain the volume and concentration of body water. Without water, the body becomes dehydrated gradually because there is no replacement of fluids lost through sweating, respiration, urine and absorption in the intestine. As dehydration increases, the blood becomes thicker, causing the kidneys to retain water, which ends up concentrating the urine they produce. This causes blood pressure to drop, resulting in less blood passing through the kidneys. Eventually no more urine is produced. Once this takes place, the person is in danger of kidney failure.
The importance of communication and the cold
The chances of survival – warns the expert – increase significantly if possible
e maintain communication with the person still under the rubble, keeping him constantly awake, and if possible hydrate him in some way, for example with the setting up of pipes to convey water or liquid nutrients. In Turkey after the earthquake it snowed but it is difficult for the few flakes to reach the buried people. Rather the temperature rigide these days are likely to send in hypothermia the people who have been buried under the rubble for many hours now, among other things caught in their sleep, therefore in pajamas. However in the absence of own water the cold makes you less dehydrated, increasing the chances of survival compared to summer. In the complex balance of survival, numerous factors therefore come into play, among which the mental one and the survival instinct of the individual are by no means secondary.
In Turkey and other earthquakes often applauded the rescue of childreneven very small: the miracle of finding them alive is favored by their small bodies, which can avoid being crushed, more likely to find a niche in the rubble so as to avoid being hit.
Record saves
Surviving even after several days of a disastrous event such as the earthquake of February 6 in Turkey and Syria is therefore possible. However, experts agree that the chances of survival begin to drop dramatically after 48 hours. And also for this reason the cases that go around the world of survivors become striking. For example, in the earthquake that hit Nepal in 2015, a 28-year-old was saved after 82 hours: he told the press that he drank his urine. Even a 4-month-old baby survived 22 hours after the same earthquake. In 2013 Reshma Begum had lived 17 days under the rubble of the collapsed building in the industrial area of Dhaka, but in that case she had some food available. Same record in South Korea in 1995: in Seoul a girl was pulled alive from the rubble 17 days after the collapse of a department store. Four days earlier another girl had been found alive and 6 days earlier another boy. In the 2001 Twin Towers collapse there were five firefighters pulled alive from a jeep that had been buried by the number one tower collapse after 50 hours. A four-year-old Turkish boy was rescued after spending 140 hours (almost 6 days) under the rubble in the 1999 earthquake. To return to Italy in Irpinia hit by the earthquake of 23 November 1980, a 72-year-old woman, a 60 and another 100, renamed “grandfather of the earthquake” survived eight days under the rubble in three different places.
February 10, 2023 (change February 10, 2023 | 1:23 pm)
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