The Colombian 13 year-old spoke heart-wrenching final words after trying to survive a disaster for over 60 hours
Warning: This article contains content some readers may find upsetting
A 13-year-old girl had the most heartbreaking final words right before she died following a deadly landslide.
Omayra Sánchez Garzón became the face of a disaster in 1985 as she suffered for hours before succumbing to her injuries in a harrowing event in Colombia.
The 1985 eruption of Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Armero, saw an estimated 25,000 people lose their lives, ultimately 14 different villages utterly devastated.
But it wasn’t lava flow that cause the issues but the mudslide and landslides that followed after the eruption. One of which destroyed the home of Omayra.
A volatile mixture of volcanic lava and ice, known as lahar, gushed into the river valleys below and towards the nearby villages.
Omayra Sánchez Garzón became the face of a disaster in 1985 as she suffered for hours before succumbing to her injuries.(Wikimedia Commons)
This resulted in Omayra being trapped underneath the remnants of her family home for three whole days.
In addition to this, bystanders could only watch in anguish as rescue efforts had proved hopeless and the 13-year-old lost her fight for survival as she lay trapped underneath the roof of her own home, pinned underwater by concrete and debris.
Divers could not find a way to free her from the concrete without completely shattering her legs, but they had no resources to give her life-saving care if they amputated them.
The image proved particularly haunting and spread around the world as it showed Omayra in a terrible state.
Journalists, photographers, TV crews, Red Cross workers and emergency officials had gathered around her and attempted to make her as comfortable as possible, hoping for a miracle or eleventh hour rescue.
On the third day, Omayra had begun hallucinating and she told the stunned people that she couldn’t be late for school as she had a maths test.
Rescue attempt of Omayra following the landslide (Pool BOUVET/DUCLOS/HIRES/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
Her eyes had now become so bloodshot that they appeared black, while her hands had whitened and her face had swelled.
Omayra final words were a loving dote to her family, speaking directly to a camera she said: “Mommy, I love you so much, daddy I love you, brother I love you.”
She died on November 16, 1985, and it is believed she died as a result of gangrene or hypothermia.
While the landslide killed Omayra’s father and aunt, her brother survived only losing a finger. Her mother, happened to be in Bogota at the time of eruption.
She later said 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.”
The Colombian government were heavily criticized for their lack of preparation amid the threat of the volcano in wake of Omayra’s death.