The rescue marked one of the most significant survival operations since the earthquakes struck on Wednesday, which left at least 1,450 people dead and devastated communities across La Guaira, the worst-affected region.

French Civil Security personnel and members of the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team from Virginia spent about 12 hours carefully removing unstable debris after locating the pair with specialized search cameras. The operation required rescuers to stabilize the structure while gradually reaching the trapped survivors.

The father and son, both visibly exhausted and wearing protective masks, were carried through debris-covered streets on improvised fabric stretchers before being transferred to a waiting ambulance as residents and emergency workers gathered nearby.

“They are extremely weak, as any patient trapped under rubble for four days would be, so we are doing everything possible to rehydrate them and administer various medications during the extraction process, which is moving very slowly,” a member of the French Civil Security said during the rescue.

Rescue teams established intravenous drips and cleared debris before completing the extraction, while other personnel continued searching the surrounding ruins for additional signs of life and coordinating efforts with colleagues working inside the collapsed structures.

The same multinational rescue contingent rescued a mother and her 9-month-old baby from the rubble a day earlier, underscoring the continuing effort to locate survivors despite increasingly difficult conditions.

Authorities said at least 33 people were rescued alive over the weekend, although tens of thousands remain missing, intensifying concerns that opportunities to find additional survivors are rapidly diminishing.

Disaster response specialists have long noted that survival rates typically decline sharply after the first 72 hours following a major earthquake, making prolonged rescues increasingly rare as search operations continue.