Newborn With Umbilical Cord Attached Found Atop Garbage Can in Alley

Stock photo of a baby's feet. Vitamin/Pixabay

An hours-old baby was rescued on May 7 after being found abandoned on top of a garbage can in a Chicago alley.

A mother and daughter heard the newborn crying on Tuesday afternoon at around 4 p.m. The newborn was found in a canvas shopping bag with his umbilical cord still attached, reported ABC 13.

The good Samaritans then rushed the boy to a nearby firehouse. There, paramedics performed CPR revived the little boy.

“The baby was cold as concrete,” Chicago Fire Dept. Paramedic Field Chief Patrick Fitzmaurice told reporters during a news conference, reported the news station. “I wasn’t too optimistic, but like I said to the lieutenant, I wasn’t ready to lose this one today, and neither were they and they worked very hard.”

“This poor kid was minutes away from having no chance at all,” Fitzmaurice added.

After fire department officials revived the boy, he was taken to the Norwegian American Hospital in a critical condition.

Later on Tuesday, officials said the was in a stable condition and was “crying and kicking.”

“The newborn found in an alley on north Keystone has been upgraded to stable from very critical. The little guy is crying and kicking and about to be transferred to LCH on Chicago Ave. thanks to CFD paramedics and ED crew at Norwegian!” the Chicago Fire Media tweeted.

He was then transferred to Lurie Children’s Hospital for further treatment.

Dawn Geras, who lobbied to pass Illinois’ Safe Haven Law in 2001, told Chicago Sun-Times that this baby was the first to be found illegally abandoned in Illinois this year.

Under the city’s law, a baby 30 days or younger may be left with a staff member at a hospital, fire or police station—with no questions asked, according to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

“We don’t judge. Take him to a firehouse. Leave the baby there. Give the kid a chance,” Fitzmaurice said.

Officials have not released any details about the mother or reason for the baby’s abandonment.

Chinese Parents Abandon Newborn in US Hospital

In another case of child abandonment, a Chinese couple came to Southern California as tourists and abandoned their newborn baby in a San Diego hospital intensive care unit (ICU), because the child had birth defects due to premature birth, the Chinese language newspaper World Journal reported on Feb. 2.

The doctor, Shen Bowen, told the journal that the parents abandoned their child while the baby was still in ICU and flew back to China.

Shen, an obstetrician and gynecologist, said that this is one of many instances of birth tourism in China.

According to U.S. law, any baby born on U.S. soil is automatically an American citizen. Some people have taken advantage of this law, which has created a phenomenon called “birth tourism.” The children born under these circumstances have been dubbed “anchor babies.”

Naturally, the baby had to be cared for by the hospital, which increased the workload on the staff, Shen said. Hospital staff contacted the postnatal care center in China where the parents stayed, he said, but the care center did not provide any help.

The Epoch Times reporter Daniel Holl contributed to this report.