Since devastating earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria, bringing down buildings and burying thousands of people inside the homes where they slept, rescue and recovery activities have been ongoing around-the-clock in both countries.
However, rescue personnel know there isn't much time left to save those who might still be alive.
In southern Turkey and northern Syria, rescuers and volunteers are sifting through piles of crumbling concrete to locate anyone who may have survived beneath collapsed structures.
Stories from survivors of loss and hope despite the odds are emerging as the death toll approaches the tens of thousands.
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An infant who was purportedly born in the ruins of a building in Syria is now in the rebel-held northwest town of Jinderes. The baby girl's mother, who did not survive, was discovered with the baby's umbilical cord still attached.
She is now at a medical facility in Afrin, where she is receiving treatment, a four-year-old child was discovered trapped beneath shattered concrete blocks and bent rebar in the same destroyed city. In a video published by Syrian Civil Defence, better known as the White Helmets, an unnamed volunteer tried to console the youngster while removing the surrounding rubble.
The United Nations children's agency is preparing for the sad loss of young lives, despite the encouraging nature of these stories.
The past two days have been difficult for the family that managed to leave their houses, but there is appreciation.
Osama Abdel Hamid, from the hamlet of Azmarin in Syria's Idlib region, stated, "God gave me a new lease on life."
When a vigorous, protracted shaking awakened them, he, his wife, and his four children slept in their flat. As they fled the flat, "the entire building crashed down on us before we reached the door of the building," he claimed.
They were protected from the worst of the collapse's impact by a wooden door. Though they all have head injuries, he, his wife, and three kids are all doing well at a hospital nearby Darkush.
He told the Associated Press many of his neighbors weren't as fortunate as his family.
