Authorities have confirmed that a newborn baby girl was rescued from a rubbish bin last Wednesday in San Martín, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, and remains hospitalised in a clinically stable condition.
The infant was taken to the Diego Thompson Municipal Hospital after police responded to an emergency call reporting a baby crying in the area. Officers from the local police station arrived at the scene and found the newborn naked and abandoned inside a public rubbish bin, according to local outlet SM Noticias.
Given the urgency of the situation, police transported the baby directly to hospital in a patrol car rather than waiting for an ambulance. She was admitted to intensive care for observation and treatment.
According to a police report, the child had been left inside an iron rubbish bin. Officers said the baby was naked and had markings on her face caused by contact with the metal bars of the container.
First Lieutenant Verónica Ayala and Sergeant Hugo Leiva, who took part in the rescue, described the discovery to local media. Ayala said police received the 911 call at 5.40am after a passer-by reported hearing a baby crying.
“When we arrived, we found her at the bottom of the rubbish bin, with only her face visible. There were rubbish bags on top of her,” Ayala said. “Because of the urgency of the case, we prioritised the baby’s safety and did not speak to the person who made the call. We do not know who it was.”
She said they had tried to keep the baby warm by wrapping her in a jacket before heading to the hospital’s accident and emergency department. “She was completely naked. We covered her and took her straight to hospital with other patrol cars,” Ayala added.
The officer said the baby still had her umbilical cord attached and showed signs of having been left unprotected. “She had marks on her face from the bars of the bin because there was nothing to shield her. She is now in intensive care and is stable,” she said.
“I didn’t see a girl. It was a baby. All I could see was the umbilical cord. When you’re a mother, it’s difficult, because it’s not something you see every day but we had to do our best for this girl to make it to the hospital with her in one piece,” Ayala told the the TN news channel.
Local media reported that the baby was premature, at around 36 weeks’ gestation, and weighed 1.89 kilograms. Hospital officials said the birth was believed to have occurred at home, via a natural delivery, as the umbilical cord showed signs of a hand-cut severance.
The hospital medical team named the baby Verónica, in recognition of First Lieutenant Ayala, who led the rescue operation and ordered her immediate transfer to hospital.
The case is being investigated by San Martín prosecutor Daniel Omar Cangelosi and has been classified as “abandonment of a person.” The regional child protection service has been asked to intervene to determine the next steps regarding the baby’s custody and protection.
– TIMES/NA/PERFIL
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