Remembering the miracles of the 1985 Mexico earthquake (unbelievable stories)
On September 19, 1985, an earthquake rocked Mexico City, killing thousands of people, but heroes and incredible survivors rose above the destruction.
Here are the accounts of a baby that was saved from the debris, a surgeon who is still in operation despite losing four fingers, and the rescue team that was established during the disaster.
Surgeon with toes for fingers
At 7:19 in the morning, Francisco Bucio and his closest friend, Angel, were plastic surgery students on the fourth floor of the General Hospital in the capital when the earthquake occurred.
“Suddenly the (eight-floor) building bent, collapsed and I was in complete darkness. I realized that my right arm was trapped and my hand was crushed. I thought ‘My career’s over,'” he said.
“I heard screams from those who were trapped close to me, and little by little they became silent,” Bucio recalled. “I spent four days like that.”
He was eventually located by his six brothers, who persisted in searching through the pile of debris while the rescuers gave up trying to find survivors. He lost his best friend.
His right thumb was fixed by American doctors, who also fitted him with toes in place of his other four fingers, giving him the ability to hold a scalpel.
Bucio, 58, is a plastic surgeon in Tijuana, a city that borders California. Positive reviews from pleased clients can be found on his website.
The ‘Topos’
When buildings collapsed, Adrian Perez was one of thousands of Mexicans who immediately volunteered to save lives.
He was interning as an engineer at an office in a neighborhood spared from the devastation that befell the rest of the city.
According to him, he hurried to the severely damaged Roma neighborhood “without thinking,” saying it “looked like a war zone.”
His first task was to remove gas tanks from a college that had been “squashed like a sandwhich.”
When he’d finished that, he’d crawled back in among the crumbling, broken walls to discover a young woman, trapped between bodies and broken objects, moaning.
The Topos have travelled the world to provide aid in a number of disasters, such as the massive earthquake that struck Nepal in April and the Asian tsunami that struck in 2004.
“I never thought about the risks. I was only part of the strength of the entire population that was helping, without regard for social class, other people who needed this help,” Perez said. He is still in tears when he thinks about the 1985 tragedy.
Miracle babies
When the hospital where Jesus Francisco Rodriguez Santamaria was born collapsed, a rod was driven into his small chest, and he was only four days old.
“My life was hanging by a thread when they rescued me. The rod made me cry and that’s how they heard me,” Rodriguez said.
But his mother ended up becoming one of the 6,000–20,000 people who passed away that day.
Rodriguez, who turned thirty on September 15, resides in the capital’s southern region, far from the area where his maternity hospital was situated and the area that was most severely damaged.
Although a dedicated fund was established for the kids, it was only operational until they reached college age.
After eighteen years of working at gas stations, Rodriguez recently started law school. Despite his limp from his injuries, he is still able to play football.
The survivor drew strength from the medallion of the Virgin Mary that was discovered in his closed, tiny fist upon his rescue, as well as the love of his adoptive aunt and uncle. No one is sure who placed it there.
Body Fat Helped Babies Survive Quake
The fact that twelve newborns survived for days beneath the debris from Mexico’s powerful earthquake before being rescued, according to pediatricians, is not shocking.
“We often underestimate the protective buffer that Mother Nature offers to newborns,” said Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center pediatrician Dr. Karl F. Schulze. “It is true that humans evolved from the wild, where conditions were not always ideal.”
According to medical professionals, extra body fat makes up 15% of the weight of a healthy newborn. This fat helps the baby get through the first few days of life, when the mother’s milk is scarce and not very nourishing.
According to Schulze, a baby can go up to a month without eating, so it’s normal for them to lose a little weight in the first few days of their lives.
But just like adults, babies also require water to survive, and the biggest threat the Mexico City babies faced was dehydration.
According to Schulze, if water is available, a baby will instinctively drink it. Schulze referenced a well-known instance of an Indian dump site child who survived for weeks by consuming runoff water that was rich in nutrients.
A baby’s metabolism also slows down during physical stress, so it can conserve water and energy by lying still and not moving. According to medical professionals, if a child has something covering their face or nose, it will wriggle free and into clear air.
Babies need a warm environment more than adults do.
Director of the neonatology division at the Montifiore Medical Center Dr. Alan R. Fleischman stated, “Babies don’t shiver like adults do, so they create body heat by burning sugar.” “We keep babies wrapped and dressed in extra clothes because they are delicate.”
The majority of the babies that had survived and were found in the city’s medical center complex were covered in blankets and kept in incubators.The first baby was discovered 55 hours after the catastrophe and the last a few days later.
Hypoglycemia Feared
As a result of running out of sugar, some of the babies discovered in Mexico might experience hypoglycemia, and others might experience brain damage, according to Dr. David A. Clark, a medical professor at the New York Medical College in Valhalla. Those discovered early, though, ought to recover swiftly, he added.
“An adult has unquestionably more advantages than a baby in a situation like this,” he stated. “Yet babies are more resilient than most people realize.”
The story of Bill Haast, who lived to be 100 despite his extensive snake venom injections
Bill Haast immunized himself by injecting snake venom into his blood for several years. He holds the Guinness World Record for surviving the most lethal snake bites, having been bitten over 172 times. Bill became known as "Snake Man" around the world and lived for over 100 years.
Nuclear bomb accidentally dropped on North Carolina in 196
4 January 1961: The 4241st Strategic Wing's Boeing B-52G-95-BW Stratofortress, serial number 58-0187, was on a 24-hour airborne alert mission off the United States' Atlantic Coast.
Tunnels Dug by ancient giant sloths, A South American Megafauna
For years, scientists didn’t know what caused mysterious cave networks in South America. In 2010, they learned that the caves were actually tunnels dug by ancient giant sloths
Mother who spent entire life savings for daughter’s cancer treatment won the lottery
A mother won $2 million from a $10 scratch-off lottery ticket after she spent all of her entire life savings to pay her daughter’s cancer treatment. She bought the winning ticket after her daughter’s last cancer treatment.
During the 1996 Olympic bombing, Richard Jewell falsely accused of committing the crime after saving dozens of people
Richard Jewell, an American security guard, discovered a bomb during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and assisted in the evacuation, but was later wrongfully accused and faced public scrutiny. He was cleared, but it had a lasting impact on him until his death in 2007 at the age of 44.
Did Gil Pérez Really Teleport from Manila to Mexico Overnight? The 1593 Mystery
On October 24, 1593, while performing his guard duties at Manila's Governor's Palace in the Philippines, Gil Perez stopped to lean against a wall and sleep for a while. He opened his eyes to find himself in an unusual environment. Gil was in the Plaza Mayor in Mexico City. They imprisoned Perez, but the authorities in Mexico City decided to release him and return him home.
Ancient Jericho: The First Walled City In History
The ancient city of Jericho is the world's oldest walled city, with evidence of stone fortifications dating back nearly 9000 years.
The Amazing Truth About The German U-Boat That Was Sunk By A Toilet
During WWII, a German captain and an engineer flushed the submarine's high-tech toilet incorrectly, causing the vessel to rapidly fill with water. British planes patrolling the sea attacked them as the submarine was brought to the surface. While many members of the crew were killed in the attack, the captain escaped!
How Greek prime minister in 1830’s tried to spread the potato in Greece
A Greek prime minister in 1830’s tried to spread the potato in Greece but people weren’t interested so he put armed guards in front of shipments of potatoes so people would think they were important. People later started stealing these potatoes a lot which spread the crop to all of Greece.
What Was the Beast of Gévaudan?
Between 1764 and 1767, a mysterious animal called the Beast of Gévaudan terrorized the French village called Gévaudan. It attacked and killed about 100 adults and children. While most believe it was a wolf, some say it may have been a wolf-dog hybrid, hyena or even a lion, but without any genetic evidence, the beast will remain a mystery forever.
Graves holding hands over wall, A Catholic woman and her Protestant husband grave
A protestant man and a Catholic woman who weren't allowed from being buried together in a graveyard in 19th-century Holland turned their graves into a monument showing them holding hands across the wall separating them.
How a Total Lunar Eclipse Saved Christopher Columbus in 1504
In 1504, Christopher Columbus was stranded in Jamaica with natives who refused to give him food. But he knew the date and time of an upcoming lunar eclipse. So he told the natives that his gods were angry at their treatment of him, and would provide a clear sign. Once the eclipse started, the natives raced to give him food and begged for mercy.
Franz Ferdinand’s Assassination that sparked World War I
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are shot to death by a Bosnian Serb nationalist during an official visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. The killings sparked a chain of events that led to the eruption of World War I by early August.
Why the Brooklyn Bridge Was Once Crossed by 17 Camels and 21 Elephants
On May 30, 1883, a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge was going to collapse caused a stampede, which killed at least at twleve people. To prove the bridge was safe, P.T. Barnum led a parade of 21 elephants over it.
Medals of Friendship: The Enduring Olympic Story of 1936
At the 1936 Summer Olympics, two Japanese pole vaulters named Sueo Oe and Shuhei Nishida tied for second, but they declined to compete against each other. As a result, Nishida was awarded the silver medal and Oe won a bronze medal. Upon returning to Japan, the athletes had their medals cut in half and spliced together to create new "friendship medals," which were half silver and half bronze.
Robert Odlum, the first person to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge
The first person to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge was a professional high diver who "wanted to demonstrate that people did not die simply by falling through the air, thus encouraging people to be willing to jump from a burning building into a net." He proved himself correct by safely falling 135 feet through the air and dying only when he hit the water.
The worst blizzard in recorded history: the 1972 Iran blizzard
The deadliest snowstorm ever recorded occurred in Iran in 1972. It lasted for a week, burying areas in 26 feet of snow and killing over 4,000 people, including the entire populations of three villages.
Henry Ford, The man popularizing the concept of the weekend off
Henry Ford was the first Industrial Giant to give his employees both Saturday and Sunday off in the hope of encouraging more leisurely use of automobiles and thus popularizing the concept of the "weekend."
How Sleep Deprivation Was Once Used as Torture
Sleep deprivation, long before modern interrogation techniques, was considered a “clean” and effective form of torture—leaving no physical scars, yet breaking minds with haunting silence. Victims endured days and nights without rest, leading to vivid hallucinations, disorientation, and psychological torment. This article traces the dark history of sleep deprivation as a weapon, examines the science behind its effects on the brain, and shines a light on the painful balance between human endurance and cruelty in the annals of coercion.
The Horrific story of Ariel Castro and the Cleveland abduction
Cleveland abduction victims Gina DeJesus, Michelle Knight, and Amanda Berry were forced to live in Ariel Castro's house of horrors for 10 years. He raped and beat them until they escaped in 2013.
How Dmitri Mendeleev Developed the periodic table of the elements
1850 Dmitri Mendeleev walked almost a thousand miles to Moscow so he could apply for the University of Moscow. Although he was not accepted, he walked to St. Petersburg where he was accepted, And with that education, he developed the the periodic table of the elements
The unbroken seal on King Tutankhamun's tomb until 1922
The unbroken seal of Tutankhamun's tomb before it was opened in 1923, it was unbroken for over 3000 years.
Mario Segale, Developer Who Inspired Nintendo to Name Super Mario
Super Mario is named after real-life businessman Mario Segale, who was renting out a warehouse to Nintendo. After Nintendo fell far behind on rent, Segale did not evict them but gave them a second chance to come up with the money. Nintendo succeeded and named their main character after him.
Why Comedians Failed to Make Sober Sue Laugh in the Early 1900s
In the bustling vaudeville scene of early 20th century New York, a mysterious performer known as "Sober Sue" captured public imagination not for jokes or songs, but for her unshakable stoicism—she never smiled or laughed. A local theater even offered a tempting reward of $1,000 to anyone who could make her laugh, drawing crowds and famous comedians eager to claim the prize. Despite countless hilarious attempts, Sue remained expressionless, a mystery that baffled performers and audiences until it was revealed that she suffered from facial paralysis, explaining her unchanging demeanor.
10 world’s most destructive and dangerous volcanic eruptions in history
Volcanic eruptions can devastate cities, change the world's atmosphere, and devastate economic systems. They can create molten lava rivers, mudslides, suffocating ash, and poisonous gases that cause chaos around the world for years. A volcanic explosion's effects can be massive, from its size to its death toll to its economic cost. Here is ten world’s most destructive and dangerous volcanic eruptions in history.
