An abandoned infant was discovered early yesterday morning in Guangzhou’s Baiyun District, unclothed, in the midst of the coldest temperatures reported in the city thus far this winter.
The baby boy, who was discovered in a garbage heap by passersby at around 8am, was rushed to a nearby hospital for a medical evaluation, before being transported to an orphanage.
Southern Metropolis Daily reports that a man surnamed Li and his coworker were rushing off to work when they heard a sound coming from the garbage pile. “At first we thought it was a cat meowing. Then I thought, ‘No, that’s not right, it sounds like a wailing child.’”
Upon investigation and with a little digging, the men discovered a black shopping bag containing a newborn boy, with light abrasions on his face and his umbilical cord still attached. Tragically, the men found that someone had stuffed the child's mouth with tissue paper in an apparent attempt to either suffocate the child, or stifle his cries.
“The child was frozen beyond belief,” Mr. Li told reporters. “I took off my down jacket and wrapped him in it.” The boy was treated at Guangzhou Chinese Medicine Hospital, Tongde Branch, where nurses used an electric space heater to warm his tiny body, before, in a happy turn of events, declaring him healthy and in stable condition.
The incident took place in Tongdewei, one of the Pearl River Delta’s famed ‘urban-villages,' neighborhoods that are fast disappearing in the face of economic pressures and aggressive urban planning policies that so often leave migrant workers and low-income locals behind.
Tongdewei, the neighborhood where the baby was found, has been facing evictions and demolitions as construction on the planned Guangzhou Metro Line 8 Northern Extension snakes its way toward the neighborhood
Sadly, this is not the first time this year we have had the somber task of reporting on abandoned children in Guangzhou. Back in February a six-month-old was found by station police in the Linhexi Metro Station, while the following month, police in Panyu District stumbled upon an unattended infant on the sidewalk. April saw a similarly swaddled newborn girl abandoned (thankfully, this time) at the doorstep of a Haizhu District medical facility.
Maybe authorities will consider reopening the ‘baby-hatch’ that briefly functioned in 2014: an anonymous drop off point intended to improve survival rates for abandoned youngsters. The closure of the hatch, due to an unmanageable influx, saw a return to children being found on the street.
[Images via Southern Metropolis Daily, Yangcheng Evening News]
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