She was born in Istanbul in 1979 . Ömür 's mother Emine Doğançay and her father Hürol Kınay divorced when Ömür was one year old . From then on , she stayed with her mother . In the mid 1990s , she and her mother returned to Istanbul from Germany , where they had lived . At age 20 , Ömür and her mother moved into their newly purchased flats situated one upon the other in the same apartment block at Sefaköy , Küçükçekmece . Just one week later , her mother died in the earthquake on August 17 , 1999 under the debris of the wrecked building . Ömür was found four-and-half hours later hugging her mother . She was rescued from the wreckage , and was taken into a nearby hospital . However , she became paralyzed due to a spinal cord injury . A photograph showing her with sideward tipped head under the concrete debris appeared on the main page of major newspapers . Currently , she is forced to use a wheelchair
earthquake on August 17 , 1999
1999 İzmit earthquake
Ömür Kınay