Date:26/08/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/08/26/stories/2007082661520700.htm

Andhra Pradesh

New-born girl found abandoned

Staff Reporter

Sangareddy: Just one day after the auspicious Varalakshmi Vratam, someone left a three-day-old baby girl on an open ground just behind the new bus stand here on Saturday. The crying infant was found by some passer-by, who in turn informed the nearby Rakshak unit. The police took her to the district headquarters hospital and admitted her to the paediatrics unit.

Wrapped in soft towels, the little one is recuperating under the warm lights of the incubator unit at the hospital. The nurses at the ward who first received the girl told The Hindu that the girl was clean when she arrived at the ho spital and those who abandoned her even applied a black bindi on her forehead before leaving her near the bus stand.

Hospital coordinator N. Surendra said that the infant might have been born at least three days ago, but weighed 1.5 kg, much below the normal level of 3 kg.

He said that she has been given IV fluids and nurses were told to feed her milk supplied by the hospital. Mr. Surendra said that the hospital would bear all the expenses required to take care of the child till the Child Welfare Department takes care of her.

The hospital authorities have already informed the matter to the project director of ICDS and they would be handing her over to the Sishu Vihar.