Each year, cases of baby abandonment happen around the world. In the most shocking case, a newborn baby girl was reportedly dumped in a concrete storm drain in Newlands East, outside Durban, South Africa. Luckily, the infant girl, trapped around 7 meters (approx. 22 feet) down the drain, was rescued by emergency workers.
The harrowing rescue operation that lasted for about three hours occurred a few months ago on Feb. 11, 2019. It unfolded when residents in Newlands East heard faint cries coming from deep within the storm drain around the corner of Herring Circle and Barracuda Rd.
Initially, resident Iyron thought it was a “kitty cat.”
Realizing a baby was stuck deep in the drain, the residents called the authorities for help.
“A 2m trench was excavated using an earth mover. Once the walls of the trench were shored, the pipe was broken open to remove the baby,” an emergency worker said.
Finally, after three hours, the crowd gathering around the scene cheered and applauded in relief when the baby with the placenta still attached was pulled out of the drain. Thankfully, the infant girl was still alive and kicking!
This emotional moment was captured on film. The video was later uploaded to Twitter by local journalist Bernadette Wilks.
The baby, thought to be between one and three days old, was subsequently flown to Durban’s Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital, where she was diagnosed with a mild case of hypothermia. Aside from hypothermia, the baby was doing fine.
Dr. Hardcastle said her survival was a miracle. “Any child that survives a certain amount of hours is a miracle. It seems like she was trapped for at least five hours in a stormwater pipe,” he remarked.
This miracle infant girl, like other abandoned babies in South Africa, will most likely grow up in an orphanage. If not for the residents’ alertness, she would have likely ended up in a tragic consequence.
