01 September 2023 , 12:42
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This is the tragic story of a young girl who died after being half buried in a landslide and left to die.
Omayra Sánchez Garzón was just 13-years-old when she perished in the 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 - rushed into the river valleys below the mountain and towards villages.
In total, about 25,000 people died with a total of 14 villages completely destroyed. After the lahar obliterated her home, Omayra was trapped underneath and remained in the water for three days. Rescue workers couldn't render life-saving care if they were to amputate her legs and free her.
Her plight was well documented at the time by journalists when her calm nature transformed into total agony and her eyes turned black, with relief workers nearby offering hopeless attempts at comforting her. After 60 horrific hours of suffering, she died.
Her cause of death was likely gangrene or hypothermia. Since, her death was used to propel allegations that officials failed to respond properly to the threat of the volcano.
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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. She 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.
Divers discovered that the young girl's legs were caught under a door made of bricks, with her dead aunt's arms clutched tightly around her legs and feet. But in the hours before her death Omayra remained mostly calm, despite brief periods of panic.
She ate sweet food, drank soda and spoke to journalists while singing. 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.
At one point she asked the people to leave her so they could rest. Hours later the workers returned with a pump and tried to save her, but her legs were bent under the concrete as if she was kneeling, and it was impossible to free her without severing her legs.
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, expressed her feelings about Omayra's death: "It is horrible, but we have to think about the living... I will live for my son, who only lost a finger."