A newborn baby boy
who was found alive inside a toilet pipe in Jinhua, China, has been released
from a hospital and taken home by his maternal grandparents, police said.
The child's mother is still being treated at the hospital,
but has been cooperating with the investigation, Xiang Jiangsong, a police
official, said Thursday.
The police are labeling the case an "accident" at
this time, and no charges have been filed against the mother.
Dramatic video of the infant's rescue made global headlines
and sparked reactions worldwide.
Unable to pull the infant out, rescuers went to a floor
below the toilet and sawed away a section of pipe to gain access from there.
Still unable to extract the infant, rescuers detached the
section of pipe with the infant inside and took it to the hospital.
Working together, rescuers and doctors used pliers and
gingerly tore away bits of the pipe.
CCTV video showed the exact moment hands in white gloves
gingerly pulled away a part of the pipe to reveal the newborn's face.
The infant, a boy referred to as "Baby 59," was
drinking formula, doctors said.
Police said firefighters and other rescuers involved visited
the baby at the hospital and sent clothes, formula powder and diapers.
The mother's account
The mother of the infant is not being identified, but local
police say she is 22.
Police say that, so far, they believe her account of how the
baby ended up in the pipe.
"That day she felt stomachaches," said Jiang Song,
the vice director of police. "So she went to the toilet. It was actually
close to her due date and the baby just slid out."
Police questioned the woman, who told them that she did not
intend for the child to fall into the toilet, according to a local TV channel
that was posted on the official police Weibo account.
The police said she tried to retrieve the baby with a stick,
then decided to flush the toilet to clear away the blood.
Police: Young mother was embarrassed
A police officer in Pujiang County, in which the incident
took place, told a journalist working for CNN that the unmarried woman broke up
with her boyfriend six months ago. The officer refused to give his full name to
the reporter, identifying himself only as Fang.
According to Fang, the young woman was embarrassed to have a
child as a single woman and felt nervous, so after the baby fell in the toilet,
she called her landlord and told him that she'd heard crying, Fang said.
The landlord saw the baby and called police, the officer
said, adding that the woman later begged police not to tell her story to anyone,
including her parents, because she didn't want public attention, according to
the officer.
The mother's parents have agreed to help the mother take
care of the baby, and police have identified a man they believe is the father.
The police are conducting blood tests to confirm paternity, the officer told
CNN.
Fang said that the mother has legal custody of the child and
can decide if she wants help from the baby's father






0 comments:
Post a Comment