Woman Hears Cries and Opens Washing Machine, Sees Baby With Umbilical Cord Attached

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Dumped in a washing machine is not the way a child should start out its life, but that is exactly what happened to this newborn in Thailand.

Shop owner Sangduen Khaorueng runs a coin-operated washing business outside a shop in Krabi, southern Thailand. According to The Daily Mail, Khaorueng, 47, closed up business on the afternoon of May 3 and returned on May 6 after being closed for the weekend. She heard a baby crying and at first dismissed it as coming from a neighboring house, but when she checked inside the washing machine, she couldn’t quite believe her eyes.

“I went away on Friday to the provinces to do business and the shop here was closed all weekend,” said Khaorueng as reported in The Daily Mail.

“When I returned I could hear crying. I thought it was a from a neighbor’s house so I didn’t do anything,” she added.

Khaorueng followed the noise and it led her to a washing machine—a crying baby was inside. “I called the police immediately,” she said.

The newborn baby boy was wrapped in a towel, with its umbilical cord still attached. Police Lieutenant Sanya Kaewnui from Krabi Police said the newborn was being cared for by hospital staff. “We believe the baby is about five days old. He was in good physical condition but was very hungry. A resident prepared a bottle of milk for him.

“It is fortunate that he was crying or nobody would have noticed him in the washing machine,” added the lieutenant. Police will make efforts to find the mother: ”My team will check CCTV from the street to try and find the mother. If the baby cannot be returned to the family he will be brought up in an orphanage and offered for adoption.”

Most of the abandoned babies that are rescued in Thailand go to orphanages to await adoption. There are plenty of anxious couples and singles waiting to give unwanted children the good home they deserve. Take one couple from Oklahoma—when wife Amy heard about an abandoned baby on the news, she said to husband Todd: “That is the saddest thing ever. Do you think that is our baby?”

“I doubt it. He’s probably pretty sick,” Todd replied.

The couple, who had their names down with a fostering agency, were heading out on Thanksgiving when an urgent call came in from the agency, asking them to come down immediately.“When I got to the agency, they handed me a newspaper article,” Amy, 43, said to PEOPLE.

Upon reading the article, Amy realized that the baby reported on was the one she and her husband were talking about just moments prior. According to the article, the baby was left at a clinic, wrapped up in a blanket—and like the previous story, its umbilical cord was still attached. Amy recalled what the agency people told her: “They said, ‘He’s yours. He’s waiting for you.’ We were so surprised that he was the one.”

Amy instantly knew the baby boy was meant for them. He will be a welcome addition to their already big happy family of seven children. “Oh, he was ours. The moment I saw him, I knew he was ours, yes, definitely,” Amy told News On 6.

“The way things came together with timing is, couldn’t be called anything but a God thing,” Todd added.

“We ended up spending the next week with him in the [neonatal intensive care unit] and then he came home,” Amy said.

“We went through the whole adoption process, it had its ups and downs, but we made it through and a year later he was officially ours.” Amy added: “He’s just thriving. He’s a great little boy.”

Let’s hope the newborn baby boy left in a washing machine in Thailand can find a forever home similar to Amy and Todd’s. After such a rocky start, he needs plenty of love.