A 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck Cali on 10 August, leaving collapsed buildings across the city. Fifteen minutes after the tremor, a team of trauma and rescue specialists led by traumatologist Laureano Quintero arrived at the El Lido neighbourhood, where a four-storey building had collapsed onto Fifth Street.
Rescuers located two people trapped in the rubble: Paula Andrea Lasprilla and her son Omar Martínez Lasprilla, aged 48 and 26 respectively. Two hours after rescue efforts began, Omar was extracted alive, though he had a serious head wound and multiple bruises. The medical team performed cranial compression, bleeding control and neurological protection at the scene before transferring him to hospital.
Paula's extraction presented a severe complication: her right leg was trapped beneath a concrete column. After assessing the severity of the crushing and with the patient's consent, Quintero decided to perform an emergency amputation to rescue her alive.
The rubble became an improvised operating theatre, where a trauma specialist, two specialised surgeons, paramedics and the Bomberos Cali search and rescue team worked in coordination under extreme conditions. The procedure included a tourniquet manoeuvre with compressive bandaging on the limb to prevent massive haemorrhage at the moment of extraction. According to Quintero, the operation had to be executed precisely under tonnes of concrete and with the constant risk of further seismic aftershocks.
