PodcastTurkey's quake survivor boy relearns walking with prosthetic legs
One year passed since Turkey's deadliest earthquake which also injured more than 107,000 people. The government has not disclosed the number of individuals who became disabled, leaving stories of those grappling with relearning daily tasks after sustaining severe injuries outside the frame.
Reuters
When a devastating earthquake struck Turkey in the early hours of Feb. 6, 2023, the five-storey building in Hatay where 13-year-old Mehmet Koç lived collapsed, burying him in rubble and killing his older brother Emre, 14, and his mother Didem.
Mehmet survived. But it took 76 hours before rescuers could pull him from the mound of concrete and twisted metal that remained of his home. Later in hospital, doctors determined that his legs were so badly crushed and injured, both needed to be amputated just below the hip.
Hearing of the earthquake in London where he lived and worked, Mehmet's father, Hasan, caught the next available flight to Turkey and travelled to Hatay, in the southeast, desperate for news of his family.
The 58-year-old encountered a scene of utter destruction in the city and learned his wife and elder son had not survived, but Mehmet was alive and trapped. He stood vigil by the rubble with other relatives.