Pregnant woman goes into labor after being pulled from earthquake rubble — what the rescue doctor did next became the challenge of her life
The earthquakes in Venezuela have wreaked havoc and destroyed the lives of many. In the midst of the devastation, a story of hope has emerged from surgeon and aesthetic physician Dr. María Fernanda Terán, who goes by @marifeta99 on Instagram. In her post on Thursday, June 25, 2026, she revealed how she had to rescue and assist a pregnant woman during the disaster. According to Venezuelan media, @HCHTelevDigital’s X post on June 26, 2026, the woman went into labor after being pulled from the rubble, and the doctor took on the challenging responsibility of saving two lives that day.
A report from PEOPLE revealed that two earthquakes, measuring 7.1 and 7.5 in magnitude, struck back-to-back on Wednesday, June 24, 2026. Trapped under the rubble in a building in La Guaira was a pregnant woman, who went into labor and required immediate assistance. In the dark and unprecedented setting, Terán helped the patient to safety and delivered her baby. The video captures the debris and the people surrounding the mom and the doctor as the surgeon holds the newborn. Many strangers hurried over to help. “Bringing a baby into the world while the earth shakes is the biggest challenge of my life,” she wrote in her caption.
According to news reports, both mother and child are doing well and are being attended to by Terán. The surgeon shared another post on June 26, 2026, revealing that good Samaritans and rescuers were still at work, helping as many people as possible. According to data from National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez on June 27, around 1,430 people have lost their lives. 3,238 people have been injured, and thousands of families are being assisted in shelters. Doctors and rescuers work tirelessly during these devastating times, risking their lives to save patients and victims.
Informamos a la población que hasta este 27 de junio, lamentablemente contabilizamos 1.430 fallecidos, 3.238 personas heridas, 3.142 familias damnificadas que están siendo atendidas en refugios y hemos realizado más de 12 mil atenciones en zonas de desastre. pic.twitter.com/PfT6t6pqtZ
— Jorge Rodríguez (@jorgerpsuv) June 27, 2026
Some doctors go to extraordinary lengths to help patients, even when doing so puts them in danger. In another story, a Ukrainian cardiac surgeon, Dr. Borys Todurov, went above and beyond to save the life of a little girl. The girl had been battling a heart condition, and without a transplant, there was no hope. An organ was available, but with attacks across cities, there was no way to transport it to the Heart Institute in the east. The doctor himself traveled amid the firing and blasts all the way to the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in the West, conducted the surgery to retrieve the organ, and made the journey back to his patient.
While cities burned, Todurov performed the procedure on the little girl, and it was a success. “The heart is working, and the pressure is stable. We hope that (the patient) will recover and live a long and full life,” the surgeon shared. These stories are a stark reminder that medical professionals do more than perform operations and provide treatment; they fight for life when the world has given up and make a way for living even when hope seems bleak.
You can follow @marifeta99 on Instagram for more content on health and humanity.