Mother Wraps Newborn in Plastic Bag, Abandons Baby in Large Metal Box

Mother Wraps Newborn in Plastic Bag, Abandons Baby in Large Metal Box
(L) A woman carrying a plastic bag. (Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images) -- (R) A woman holding a newborn. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)
Daniel Holl
6/20/2019
Updated:
9/6/2019
Warning: This report contains disturbing images.

A newborn child was found wrapped in old clothing, inside a plastic bag, and discarded outside a housing complex in China, according to the Sichuan News Channel. The child survived and was taken to a local pediatric hospital.

The woman suspected of discarding the baby may also be the mother, as medical staff said the newborn was less than a day old when he was found on June 16.

She was seen carrying the bag on security cameras.

The baby was found inside a large metal box, which is used for donating clothes and other items.

Residents at the housing complex in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province said the child was on the verge of death, and that the person who threw the child inside the box was heartless.

The reports did not say if the local police had begun an investigation.

Newborn Abandoned in Box

According to time stamps on the security camera footage, the baby was left abandoned in the donation box just after 8:00 a.m. on June 16.

A woman can be seen carrying the bag in which the baby was found, walking toward the area with the donation box. However, the box happens to be out of view from the security cameras.

Moments later, she is seen walking away without the bag.

The child was pale, turning blue, and on the verge of suffocating, according to the Sichuan News.

The donation boxes do not have specific pick-up times—it just happened that the truck arrived about two hours after the child was abandoned inside, right before 10:30 a.m.

“His whole body was blue, he was about to die,” an unnamed resident told Sichuan News. The man said that after opening the bag and letting the child breathe, his body started to regain color.

“If they were late by another 30 minutes to pick up the clothing, the child would have definitely died.”

“If you can’t raise [him], you can give [him] to someone else,” a female resident told the Sichuan News. “This person is too heartless, people condemn this behavior!”

After paramedics arrived on the scene, they determined that the child was born that day, according to the Sichuan News Channel. A pediatrician at the hospital said that the newborn is in stable condition.

There were no reports of a police investigation.

Daniel Holl is a Sacramento, California-based reporter, specializing in China-related topics. He moved to China alone and stayed there for almost seven years, learning the language and culture. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
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