A newborn baby boy that had been flushed down a toilet headfirst and became lodged in the sewage pipe in the Jinhua, Zhejiang province of China has been rescued, according to the New York Daily News.
Firefighters and rescue workers had to cut out the pipe to rescue the 2-day old infant, who was then rushed to the hospitals. Authorities are currently searching to find the parents.
The tiny boy's placenta was still attached when firefighters and rescuers attempted to free him from the pipe below a squat toilet in an apartment in Jinhua on Saturday afternoon. Firefighters failed, so rescuers sawed a four-inch wide, L-shaped section of pipe when neighbors reported hearing the baby's crying, and doctors had to cut the section of pipe around him to pull him out.
Doctors at Pujiang People's Hospital told NBC News by telephone that the baby had a good prognosis, and added that his breathing was much smoother and his breathing had stabilized. The staff also reported that the hospital was covering the medical bill themselves, and have declined to confirm whether or not the baby's parents or relatives have come forward.
The abandoned baby has been named Baby No. 59 from the hospital number on his incubator, and was reported to be in stable condition from a nearby hospital. A video of the two-hour rescue was broadcast widely across China on news programs and websites late Monday and Tuesday, and news of the ordeal prompted an outpouring of strangers to donate diapers, baby clothes, powdered milk and offers of adoption to the hospital.
Despite the adoption offers, a hospital doctor said that Baby No. 59 would be handed over to social services if his parents do not claim him. The infant has suffered "severe bruising", according to the Telegraph, citing a the China Daily newspaper.
"The parents who did this have hearts even filthier than that sewage pipe," wrote one user of the Twitter-like Weibo, a Chinese social media site, according to the Telegraph.
"More and more young parents treat their own flesh and blood so viciously," wrote another Weibo user, according to NBC News. "Treating a life like this is no different than murder."
Child abandonment is a common issue in China with young mothers, blamed on strict family planning policies. Other abandoned babies like Baby No. 59 are not so lucky to be rescued, as on May 22 another newborn was found in a dustbin in Hebei province, wrapped in a pink cloth and badly bruised, the Telegraph reported.
Disturbing television footage of the unlucky infant was aired, showing a crying infant who had suffered horrific facial injuries that ultimately proved to be fatal.
