This Just Should Not Happen

Every now and again, we all are treated to some horrific story of a baby being abandoned by a young teen-aged mother.  Sometimes it appears that the girl is in total denial about even being pregnant – hence the apparent “justification” for doing such a terrible thing. Well, one night last year, we had one of these patients. 

Well, two actually. 

A 15 year old girl came in complaining of vaginal bleeding.  She had a somewhat flattened affect and denied being pregnant, being sexually active, or anything else that would explain at least partially why she was haemorrhaging so much.  One look with a speculum and it was a sad site.   My colleague who was examining her had just witnessed his wife give birth to their child only about a month prior.   Thus, he told me that what he saw could only mean one thing – she had just given birth.  He immediately asked her where the baby was.  She looked at him like he was from Mars – flatly denying it.  He pressed her and again demanded to know what had happened to her baby. I guess the authority in his voice finally made her crack.  She said that yes, indeed she had just given birth and had thrown the neonate into a rubbish dumpster behind her apt complex.  My colleague got on the horn and called the police in the town where she lived and asked them to immediately go and look in any trash receptacle they may find in the alley behind her address. 

About a half an hour later, the medics called the ER on the console to tell us that indeed, they had amazingly found a live infant in the garbage.  He was not doing well. He appeared premature and was nearly apnoeic (not breathing) with very poor colour and tone.  They rushed him in and my colleague was there to meet them with the overnight pediatrician who is available for emergencies.  The child was intubated and an IO line was inserted.  Intensive rewarming was commenced and about an hour later, he was deemed stable enough to be transferred (we do not have a PICU) to a nearby large tertiary care hospital.  Despite his better vital signs, he had virtually no neurological functioning and no one was holding their breath that this child had any chance for meaningful neurological recovery. 

Amazingly, over the next several weeks to months, information trickled in that indeed he was improving.   He was extubated and was released from the hospital in about two weeks.  Even more impressive was that this child was placed into foster care and began to come to our clinic for his routine care.  Now at over a year of age – he is meeting all his milestones!  One just wonders how someone will eventually tell him that his mother dumped him in the garbage on cold November night.