‘At least let me see my children’ — Words that sustained a man for 8 days under Venezuela quake rubble

CARACAS, July 8 — Hernan Gil was working his shift as a security guard in the basement of a building in Venezuela on the afternoon of June 24 when he felt the earth shake.

The first tremor was short, Gil recounted in an interview with AFP from the hospital room where he was recovering after being rescued from the depths of a collapsed building.

Gil became a symbol of hope for Venezuela after he survived eight days of being buried alive by the double earthquake that devastated the north of the Caribbean country, leaving at least 3,535 dead.

“The second one was incredibly strong,” said the 43-year-old, who remembers freezing inside his guard booth, overcome with nerves.

He heard a neighbour in the parking lot say it was an earthquake, and then “everything collapsed.”

Gil felt everything crumble and stones hit the back of his head and eye.

“I lost consciousness for a moment. When I woke up, everything was dark...From then on, everything was uncertain.”

Gil couldn’t see anything or hear anyone. He tried calling the neighbour he had last seen before being swallowed by the earth, “but nothing.”

“And at that moment, despair overwhelmed me,” said Gil, who began shouting for help, but received no response.

In the darkness, partially kneeling, gasping for air and practically immobile, he suffered aftershock after aftershock.

“I felt like the wall was completely crushing me.”

‘I prayed a lot’

Despite the traumatic experience, Gil appeared in good spirits 72 hours after being freed from the hole where he was buried beneath a collapsing eight-story building.

Seated in an armchair, dressed in a blue hospital gown, with his left arm in a sling, the security guard said his faith sustained him during the harrowing hours.

“I prayed a lot. I cried out to God, and I said, ‘My God, why me? Why like this? Please, at least let me see my children.’”

Trapped in an uncomfortable position, Gil tried to lie on either side of his hole, but he couldn’t sleep.

The rocks he had fallen on bruised his legs, his nose bled, and his right eye was swollen and red, although he didn’t realise that at the time.

In those lonely hours, he thought of his wife, Gusbimar Gonzalez, who was outside looking for any sign of life.

He also thought of his children and his deceased father.

“So many memories came flooding back,” he said.

Gil lost track of time, but it was on the third day that he heard footsteps, “but very far away.”

He began to shout and call for help, and finally, he heard a response.

Gil remembers, smiling, that at that moment he thought, “Oh my God, there’s a step. There’s a glimmer of hope.”

But then began a dramatic rescue that Gil described as “a fierce struggle.”

‘I was reborn’

While rescue teams from seven countries fought to reach Gil, keep him hydrated, and maintain his spirits, the 43-year-old felt the walls continue to shift, trapping him more and more.

But when two rescuers from Chile and the United States finally reached him after more than three days of complex operations, Gil couldn’t bring himself to rejoice.

“The hardest part was getting out,” recalled Gil, whose legs had been entangled in a chair.

Gil has no doubt that it was a life-changing miracle.

“I was reborn!” he said.

Now in the hospital, Gil managed to talk to his children via video call and can’t wait to go home. But the doctors haven’t given him a discharge date.

He sleeps more easily now, but sometimes the harrowing moments he experienced underground wake him.

Accompanied day and night by his wife, Gil isn’t quite sure what comes next in his new life.

For now, all he knows is that he wants to celebrate his son’s birthday on July 15th, take some long-awaited vacations at the beach, and that he’ll never work in a basement again. — AFP