On November 13, 1985, a highly active volcano in Colombia, erupted. Glaciers melted and sent torrents of mud and detritus into the villages at its base. Thirteen-year-old Omayra Sánchez, was trapped in the muck and debris of the eruption.
Sánchez painfully called for aid workers to free her from the muck. They tried, but couldn't save her because under the debris, her legs were pinned beneath a brick door. To make it even worse, one of her family members was holding on to her legs during the disaster— Sanchez wasn't only trapped by a brick door, she was also held down by the hands of a corpse.
In the end, it became clear that it's impossible to save Sanchez without cutting off some parts of her body. And since she is in a cold muddy water, the process of amputation would be tedious and require special medical instruments.
People kept working to rescue Sanchez, but it was all to no avail. Sanchez was trapped for 60 hours before she eventually d!èd. She joked with the workers, ate sweets, sang songs, and said good bye to her mother before she eventually passed away right in front of everyone.
Her skin turned white, her eyes reddened, she began to hallucinate, and she eventually passed away, while everyone watched helplessly.
Frank Fournier, a French photographer, captured Omayra Sánchez’s last moments in a haunting, tear-jerking photograph. Fournier won the 1986 World Press Photo of the Year for the image.
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