“Mommy, I love you so much” were some of the last words of a 13-year-old girl before she tragically passed away.

For this story we have to go back to November 1985, when the Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupted in Armero, Colombia.

An estimated 25,000 people lost their lives when 14 surrounding villages were completely destroyed as a result of the eruption. But no event was more tragic than the death of Omayra Sánchez Garzón.

The Colombian girl became known worldwide as the face of the disaster because it took her three days to die an agonizing death while being photographed.

When the volcano erupted, it caused a deadly landslide of a volatile mixture of volcanic lava and ice, known as a lahar, that flowed into the river valleys below and toward nearby villages.

One of them was the home of Omayra and her family.

The massive landslide devastated entire cars, buildings and thousands of people.

Omayra herself was trapped for three days under the roof of her own house, which was stuck underwater between concrete and rubble, from November 13, 1985, when the volcano erupted, until her death on November 16.

Omayra Sánchez Garzón became the face of a disaster in 1985, when she suffered for hours before succumbing to her injuries. (Wikimedia Commons)

Journalists, photographers, television crews, Red Cross workers and rescue workers gathered around her, trying to offer her as much comfort as possible in her final moments.

So why didn’t they try to help her?

Well, they did, but nobody could do anything about it.

They could only watch in fear as the teenagers’ rescue efforts failed again and again. This was because their legs were trapped under the house, which divers discovered when they tried to free them.

Their only option was to amputate both her legs. However, they did not have the means to deal with the consequences, so she would have died in even greater pain.

Tragically, on her last day, she began hallucinating and told those around her that she could not be late for school because she supposedly had a math test.

Omayra died three days after being trapped under the roof of her own home following the volcanic eruption. (Pool BOUVET/DUCLOS/HIRES/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Her eyes had now become so bloodshot that they appeared black, her hands had turned white, and her face was swollen.

She spoke her last words directly into the camera and expressed her affection for her family: “Mommy, I love you so much, Daddy, I love you, Brother, I love you.”

She later died. Her death was probably caused by burns or hypothermia.

Omayra’s father and aunt were killed in the landslide, but her brother and mother, who were in Bogotá at the time of the eruption, survived.

She later said of Omayra’s death: “It is terrible, but we must think of the living… I will live for my son, who only lost a finger.”

After Omayra’s death, the Colombian government was heavily criticized for its lack of preparation for the threat posed by the volcano.