Authorities said a newborn baby boy was found abandoned early Thursday morning outside a Chelsea luxury condo building, with his umbilical cord still attached. The infant was discovered at the base of a High Line support beam by two doormen from the HL23 building on West 23rd Street, near 10th Avenue, around 3:10 a.m. They immediately called for an EMS unit from Station 7, which is just across the street, according to police sources.
EMTs Spring Into Action
“The umbilical cord was still attached,” said EMT Mia Chin, who was off-duty when she and her partner Patrick Feimer jumped into action to care for the baby at the station.
“It was a fresh delivery,” Chin, 26, told reporters during a Thursday briefing. “It probably happened moments before. The doorman who informed us about it said it happened just 30 seconds before our arrival to the station.”
“When I approached the child, it was crying and cooing and waving, and I was just so happy that the child was alive.” The baby was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was found to be conscious and alert with no apparent injuries, according to police and sources. Feimer explained that the situation “caught us off guard.”
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“She was done for the night,” Feimer said of Chin. “And getting a knock on your window like that, you don’t know what you’re going to walk into. So we just ran over, tried to assess the situation, and when we saw it that’s when we snapped into action.”
Mother in Custody, Charges Pending
Sources revealed that the baby’s mother had just delivered the infant around 2 a.m. She was taken into custody, with charges still pending as of late morning, according to the sources.
New York State’s Abandoned Infant Protection Act allows a parent to leave a baby up to 30 days old at a “suitable location”—such as a hospital or a staffed police or fire station—without facing prosecution. The law requires that the parent promptly notify an “appropriate person” of the baby’s location.
FDNY Commissioner Highlights Safe Haven Law
FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh praised the EMTs for their efforts during the Thursday briefing but also reminded the public about the safe haven law.
“If you have an infant or a child that you cannot care for, for any reason at all, you can bring them to a firehouse, police station, or an EMS station, and you can leave that infant without question,” Kavanagh said.
“So please if you are in the middle of an emergency of any kind and you can’t care for your child or your infant, please make sure you do bring your child somewhere where it will be safe and we’ll take care of it and we will not ask any additional questions.”
Building Super Expresses Shock
After the baby was found, some splattered drops of blood were visible near the spot where the baby had been discovered.
“This is shocking to me,” said Cedric Fraser, the building super whose doorman first spotted the child. “Somebody threw the baby right here and she ran away, just ran away. And the rain? It was raining all night.”
“There are a lot of pregnant mothers on the streets, homeless,” Fraser said.
“This one was about to deliver, and there were so many places she could have gone for help — the EMTs, the police,” Fraser added. “She could have gone to the hospital. I don’t know why she didn’t. If any mother came out here and saw that, they’d say, ‘Oh my God.’ I’d like to see this woman, talk to this woman, and understand why she did what she did.”
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