Newborn Baby Girl Found in Trash is OK
The newborn baby girl that was found in a cardboard box on a Philadelphia sidewalk is in good condition, according to city police.
Two church members doing a weekly cleanup on a Northern Philadelphia block discovered the child on Wednesday morning. Her umbilical cord was still attached and it appeared that she had been born just hours earlier.
She was found wrapped in a red blanket on a curb lying next to bags of trash.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
The child was discovered in the brown box near a Rainbow Daycare and Learning Center after one of the men picked up the box to move it and heard was shocked to hear a baby start crying.
The men called police around 10 a.m. local time and the child was rushed to the St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children to undergo evaluation.
“It is just so sad, so weak because there are so many places and so many people want to take a baby in and raise it themselves,” eyewitness Robert Taylor told CBS Philly News.
“If a person feels as though they cannot help them or they can’t raise them, it is just pathetic,” he added.
Police are now searching for the mother of the baby girl and are asking the public for any leads that can help locate the mother of the infant.
"If anyone knows someone who was pregnant yesterday but not today- and there's no baby- please contact us," said Lt. Anthony McFadden of the Philadelphia police.
McFadden added that the child was "very lucky" to have been discovered so shortly after being dropped off.
"It's cold out, dreary, wet. I understand there's issues, but she could have (brought the infant) to a hospital, a school, (alert) any adult, call 9-1-1," he said.
According to Pennsylvania state law, new parents can drop off an unharmed baby up to 28 days old at a designated safe haven in order to avoid prosecution.
Pennsylvania is just one of 48 states in the country that have adopted the Baby Safe Haven law.
