Rescues in Turkey defy forecasts and time 2:56
(CNN)
-- First screams... then more piercing screams... and then "father, father" is heard, over and over again.
A 4-year-old girl, Gada Ayyan, and her father, Ahmet Ayyan, have been reunited after being buried under a pile of rubble that was once their home in southern Turkey.
They were trapped together when their home collapsed in the February 6 earthquake, now known to have killed more than 45,000 people.
They both then faced a separate agonizing days as Gada was rescued and taken to the hospital.
“When it started to shake, I grabbed my daughter and my whole family started running out,” Ahmet said.
"The building collapsed on top of all of us."
His wife and son did not make it out alive.
Ahmet heard the screams of his son being trapped.
He had his daughter by his side.
She was lying on his leg and they were both trapped unable to move.
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The rubble was up to his neck.
On the fourth day under the rubble, according to what he said, he was losing hope.
He was in pain.
His foot was badly damaged.
But his daughter didn't let him lose hope of saving himself.
“My daughter told me over and over again dad, don't cry.
Just relax.
They are coming to our rescue,” Ahmet said.
She told him to look towards the shining light.
And from below and to the side they began to hear voices.
They were being rescued.
Gada was the first to be pulled out with barely a scratch.
Half an hour later they were able to get Ahmet out.
But she was placed in the care of social services while he was sent to hospital.
Ahmet and Gada survived after being engulfed by rubble after the earthquake.
When he lost track of his daughter, he knew he would see her again if it was the last thing he did.
He went on Facebook and Instagram, flashed her photo, and begged anyone to help him find her.
Finally, it was a relative who found out that social services had a healthy girl without parents.
“She kept me alive,” he said of the girl's constant breathing for days under the rubble.
"That is my girl.
She is my hero.
She is my hero "
Now, they will have to deal with the loss of Gada's mother and 7-year-old brother, but Ahmet and his daughter have each other to love and care for and that is enough, he said.
'Please help me find my mother'
Meanwhile, 14-year-old Can Gürsoy in the city of Konya says that in order to achieve closure he needs to see his mother again.
He was buried in a collapsed building with his family.
He and his sister made it out alive.
His mother has not yet been found in the crushed house.
"All I ask is that you help me find my mother Şükran Erden," he told CNN.
The teenager has a black eye and a bruised foot, but is otherwise physically fine.
But the psychological trauma of being trapped for 24 hours in a confined space can haunt you for a while.
“I remember the collapsing building.
I remember passing out after a part of the building fell on my eye," Can said.
“It was so hard to breathe in there.
And there was something that crushed my leg and made me suffer.
He tried everything to get someone's attention.
She had her phone in her hand for a few minutes and managed to write a message on her family's WhatsApp chat.
He then tried to call emergency services, but none of them connected and no one could hear him scream.
What saved him was a curtain.
Pulling on it caught the attention of rescuers.
And not long after that, he was pulled out of the rubble.
Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu was found dead under the rubble of the earthquake in Turkey
Can normally spends his time playing video games or basketball (he's a huge Los Angeles Lakers fan).
But now, his heart is set on seeing his mother again.
Since her body has not been found, he hopes beyond all hope that she has been rescued and that she is in a hospital somewhere.
He says it was the thought of love from his mother and from his family and friends that kept him sane while he was buried, and he hopes that same love is strong enough to bring her back to him somehow.
Rescuers are still searching for survivors;
three more were found this Saturday.
But almost two weeks after the earthquake, soon there will be no more happy reunions.
Earthquake in TurkeyTurkey
