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Newborn, unable to breathe on own, dies in storm-wrecked hospital after 3-day struggle

Associated Press
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Genia Mae Mustacisa pumps oxygen into the lungs of her three-day-old infant in front of the altar of a Catholic chapel inside the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center in Tacloban on Saturday Nov. 16, 2013. The chapel is now being used to care for infants after Typhoon Haiyan destroyed the original facility of the hospital. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder) (The Associated Press)

Sick and premature babies lie in cribs on the alter of a Catholic chapel inside the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center in Tacloban on Saturday Nov. 16, 2013. The chapel is now being used to care for infants after Typhoon Haiyan destroyed the original facility of the hospital. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder) (The Associated Press)

Nanette Salutan holds her baby son Bernard in her arms in front of the altar of a Catholic chapel inside the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center in Tacloban, Philippines on Saturday Nov. 16, 2013. The chapel is now being used to care for infants after Typhoon Haiyan destroyed the original facility of the hospital. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder) (The Associated Press)

All through her very short life, the parents had squeezed oxygen into her tiny body with a hand-held pump to keep her alive.

In the end, their prayers and whatever little medical care doctors could muster in the typhoon-ravaged hospital were not enough. Althea Mustacia, aged 3 days, died on Saturday.

She was born on Nov. 13, five days after Typhoon Haiyan annihilated a vast swath of the Philippines, killing more than 3,600 people. The storm's aftermath is still claiming victims — Althea was one of the latest.

A doctor said Sunday that Althea's parents took her away, wrapped in a small bundle.