Baby Boy Abandoned in Gym Bag Found, Police Hope Mother Will Come Forward

Baby Boy Abandoned in Gym Bag Found, Police Hope Mother Will Come Forward
Family Medical Clinic in Chamblee. (Screenshot via Google Maps)
NTD Television
8/31/2017
Updated:
8/31/2017

A baby was found abandoned in a gym bag in front of a medical center in Chamblee, Georgia, on Thursday Aug.31. 

Police are hoping the mother of the premature baby will come forward. 

Officers responded to a call just after midnight to the Family Medical clinic on Buford Highway after one of the cleaning staff found a baby boy inside a blue gym bag, Fox5 reported. 

Chamblee police said even the umbilical cord was still attached.

Lt. Jason Waasdorpat said at a Thursday news conference that the cleaner first heard crying noises before discovering the newborn. 

“The gentleman who found him was going to clean the front windows and heard crying, and that’s when he opened up the gym bag,”  Waasdorp said. “He was the one who called 911.” 

Evidence from witnesses and surveillance footage confirmed that the 4.86-pound boy was left outside in the entrance area of the clinic on Wednesday at 7 a.m. Later a staff member brought the bag inside and placed it on top of a lab collection box assuming it belonged to a patient, according to a Facebook post by Chamblee police. 

The video of the press conference can be seen below:

The staff member did not open the bag. According to 11Alive, the employee told police she did not hear any noise coming from the bag when she moved it. 

“It is heartbreaking, but we'd like people to understand that Georgia has a Safe Haven law and under that law, you are able, as a mother, to give up your baby within 72 hours of giving birth at a medical facility,” Waasdorp said. “However, the mother has to leave her information with the facility.” 

Waasdorp said the mother broke the law and could face several charges, which include the abandonment of a child, deprivation of a child, and child cruelty in the second degree. 

The baby was trapped in the zipped gym bag for about 17 hours without any food, water, or attention. Investigators also said it appeared the baby was Hispanic. 

The infant was later taken to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite where he is being treated and is now in the custody of the Division of Family and Children Services. 

“He’s doing great and took his first bottle this morning,” Waasdorp said. 

“Everything has been checking out well for him. [He’s] doing well all the way around” he said. 

Based on how much time the infant spent without nourishment medical staff consider him a “miracle baby.” 

Waasdorp applauded the officer who first responded to the call, Officer Beth Frye who has been to two other infant-related calls in the past and delivered babies on duty. 

Investigators believe the mother of the baby was scared and did not want to care for the infant. 

From NTD.tv