The Syrian civil war has left hundreds of thousands dead, and even more wounded. But doctors in Aleppo were able save one new life on a day that killed 45.
The mother of the child, identified only as Mayissa, was injured as she was walking to the hospital to give birth. Her arm and leg were both broken, and surgeons had to remove shrapnel from her body.
Doctors had to perform a C-section to deliver the child.
However, the baby showed no signs of life when it was delivered.
In a video shot by Britain’s Channel 4 news, one of the doctors ask, ““Is the heart beating?”
“No, no, I’m sorry” another replies.
But after several minutes, the boy is heard crying. Eventually his cry echoes around the makeshift emergency room, to the visible relief of the doctors.
“The most elemental sound of all,” journalist Matt Frei says in the report. “More powerful, for a brief moment, than Aleppo’s daily cry of death.”
The footage was recorded in July and aired last Thursday.
The report was aired as part of a series documenting the suffering of civilians in Aleppo who are living under regular bombardment.
The delivery comes just days after a photo of a child -- identified as Omran Daqneesh -- sitting silently after an airstrike, was shared widely on social media.
Image: The emotional moment when the baby opened his eyes for the first time. Photograph: Channel4news/Facebook
