CHILD WARNING Omayra Sánchez (CW)

Pic of Omayra Sánchez 3 hours before her death. Had been trapped in this location with most of her body underwater for three days. Of particular note are the red eyes and white hands. Did a quick search of the site by her name and was surprised to see nothing come up.

Shit happened in Columbia after a volcano eruption. Background:

Just after 9pm at night on November 13th 1985, a volcanic eruption rapidly melted the icecap that had formed on the surrounding mountain, forming a ‘lahar’ of volcanic mud and debris that flowed down into the surrounding valleys. The tide, travelling at around 13 miles per hour, engulfed the town of Armero, killing as many as 20,000 people. It was the first time the volcano had erupted in over 100 years, which had resulted in authorities opting not to set up expensive defences and other measures that could have minimised the death toll.

Shortly after electrical power shut down and radios cut out, a lahar flooded into Armero at around 11:30pm, sweeping almost the entire town away and killing more than three-quarters of its inhabitants. Across three waves Armero was swamped by mud flows for around two hours, burying some 85% of the town. The event ultimately became the second most deadly volcanic eruption of the 20th Century, behind only the eruption of Mount Pelee on the island of Martinique in 1902.

One of the survivors was 13-year-old Omayra Sanchez, whose hand was spotted protruding from a pile of debris. Rescuers cleared much of the debris from around her, but they realised that her legs were trapped beneath the collapsed roof of her house, and they could not pull her out without severing them. The rescue was complicated by the fact that much of her body was underwater, and whenever rescuers pulled, the water flooded around her, risking death by drowning. Divers discovered that her legs were trapped beneath a brick door and her dead aunt’s arms were clinging to her.

Over the course of the next three days, she was given food and drink and even agreed to be interviewed and photographed. She was positive at first, but during the third day she started hallucinating. While rescue workers eventually retrieved a pump for use in a final attempt to rescue her, the bricks trapping her had left her in a kneeling position, meaning they were unable to extract her without severing her legs. Lacking the surgical supplies that would be required if she were to survive a double amputation, doctors agreed that their most humane option was to allow her to die. By the time French photojournalist Frank Fournier arrived on the scene and captured an iconic photograph, her eyes were red, her face swollen, and her hands whitened from the onset of gangrene and hypothermia. She died three hours later

Edit found this pic too, wasn't sure whether to include or not as the emotional distress of the girl is much clearer poor lass, but It does paint a better picture of the overall event. RIP Omayra