HATAY, Türkiye

Visiting southern Türkiye, renowned Turkish-American heart surgeon Mehmet Oz spoke to earthquake survivor Samir Mohammed Ajjar, who was rescued in the 296th hour since massive earthquakes in the region earlier on Saturday.

Oz asked the Ajjar how he survived for almost 13 days under the rubble of a collapsed building in Hatay, one of the 11 province in the country hit hardest by the quakes.

To stay alive, Ajjar said he had to drink his own urine, adding that to avoid falling ill, he first disinfected with a certain medicine.

He noted that his wife was with him and alive, but that his children would not answer when he called to them after a few days.

One of his daughters had a problem with her leg, he said, and added that he heard her voice for three or four days but she fell silent.

His eyes filled as he said his youngest child had wanted him to get the fruit before the earthquake, but that he could not fulfill that wish.

Three more people, including a child, were rescued from the rubble in Türkiye's southern Hatay province on Saturday, more than 296 hours after the first of two back-to-back earthquakes hit the region.

Oz visited hospitalized survivors of the earthquakes on Saturday.

Accompanied by cardiovascular surgeon Halit Yerebakan from Istanbul, Oz visited the Mustafa Kemal University Research and Application Hospital in Hatay, where they arrived late on Friday.

Visiting the relatives of patients, he also answered questions by survivors and their families.

Search and rescue teams pulled the survivors out from the debris of a collapsed building in the district of Antakya, in yet another miraculous rescue in the 12th day since the magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes on Feb. 6.

Ajjar and his wife, who were rescued from the wreckage, were taken to the hospital by ambulance, while their children could not be saved despite the intervention made after the rescue.

The quakes affected a wide area across 11 provinces in Türkiye, where more than 13 million people reside. So far in Türkiye, over 39,000 people have died and tens of thousands injured.

They were also felt in other countries in the region, including Syria, where at least 3,688 people have been killed and over 14,749 injured.