Baby flushed down toilet, He didn’t have the best start in life, but the newborn baby flushed down a loo has captured hearts around the world.
Offers of financial help, support – and even adoption – flooded in today as the miracle tot recovered from his amazing ordeal.
It began when his cries were heard coming from the plumbing system of a fourth-floor communal toilet at an apartment block in Jinhua, eastern China.
Rescuers were unable to free him without injury.
So, after a delicate two-hour operation, they managed to cut away an L-shaped section of piping where he was trapped – and rushed it to hospital with the child still inside.
Doctors then meticulously took the four-inch wide tube apart piece by piece with pliers and saws until they could finally release the baby, whose placenta was still attached.
He had been wedged with his arms pinned to his side and was covered in raw sewage. But as the medics prised him clear he let out a piercing yell and reached out his tiny hands.
Incredibly, the 6lb 2oz boy – named only as Baby 59, the number of his hospital incubator – escaped with mainly cuts and bruises and was said to be making good progress in hospital today.
A hospital spokesman said: “He was in a critical condition when he arrived and we suspected he may have a fractured skull. But everything has been stabilised now and he is recovering well.”
Police later revealed that the child’s mother, an unmarried 22-year-old, had been traced and was being questioned.
She is said to have been allowed to be reunited with him in hospital.
According to reports in Jinhua, about 200 miles south of Shanghai, the mother panicked after unexpectedly giving birth.
In a moment of remorse, she later phoned her landlord, saying she heard “weird noises” from inside the toilet pipe.
The landlord called police after spotting the infant stuck down the pipe.
One police source said: “Fortunately the baby survived. But the person who abandoned him is still suspected of attempted murder.”
The horrific story has shocked China, even though cases of abandoned babies are far from rare – partly due to the birth of unwanted girls in a society that puts greater value on boys, and partly because of the nation’s strict laws on the size of families.
A slight relaxing of the rules on news and social media reporting has also started to highlight the problem.
Footage from Saturday’s rescue was played across China’s state-run TV networks yesterday.
In the shocking video, firefighters were shown removing the pipe from a ceiling just below the fourth-floor toilet and then medics at the hospital using tools to prise apart the pipe and free the baby from his stifling plastic cocoon.
The amazing images were quickly flashed around the world on social media sites.
The case has also been widely discussed on China’s Twitter-like service Sina Weibo – with many calling for those responsible to be severely punished.
One outraged user wrote: “The people who did this must have hearts even filthier than that sewage pipe.”
And another writer commented: “How can anyone ever forgive dumping a newly born baby into a toilet?
“Can these people be called human beings? The animal to human ratio among grown-ups seems to be rising fast.”
A number of strangers have since come forward with donations of clothing and powdered milk.
There have also been offers to adopt him, although local authorities say he is likely to be put in the care of social services.
Only one child - or else
Births in urban areas are subject to China’s ultra-strict rules limiting couples to just one child.
There are exceptions for twins, foreigners and where both partners are only children.
Otherwise having a second child outside rural areas results in crippling fines.
Couples who marry late and delay starting a family get MORE benefits.
Authorities say these measures, introduced in 1979, have stopped 400 million births, easing social, economic and environmental problems among the huge 1.36billion population.
But critics say the policy has led to back-street abortions, the killing of baby girls or the non-recordings of their births in a culture that values males over females.
The law insists: “Discrimination against, maltreatment and abandonment of baby girls are prohibited.”
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Baby flushed down toilet
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