TRACKING >Doctors and nurses at Alex Ekwueme Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, are battling to save the life of a two-week-old baby girl at Neo-natal ward of the hospital, who was dumped by her teenage mother before running away.
This is even as the police in the state have commenced investigation into the matter. The baby was dumped inside a sack bag and put under the stircase at female surgical ward of the hospital. A cleric, Pastor Dan Orji, had gone to the female ward to see his sick wife when he heard the cry of the baby who was struggling inside the bag she was kept by the mother and raised the alarm which attracted security agents who came and contacted the management.
He said: “This morning as early as 7:30am, I was contacted because my wife was on admission in the hospital, I rushed to FETHA 2. On entering a ward I heard a baby crying behind and I didn’t see any mother there. I was shocked and looked again and the cry persisted. Lo and behold, behind a stircase I saw a baco bag and peeped. “I saw a baby struggling inside the bag and I shouted. People came out from the ward and started shouting, who did this? The nurses came down from upstairs and brought out the baby.
The baby was well dressed, beautiful baby girl. They took her upstairs and started treating her. “The person who dumped the baby under the stircase was very sharp, I don’t know how they beat the security men and came into the ward, dropped the baby and then left. This is a baby of about two weeks old. “It’s like one of these single ladies that got pregnant and maybe she didn’t want people to know she was pregnant and gave birth. “She didn’t want to kill the baby and that’s why she came and dropped the baby here where she will be saved so that people can take care of the baby.”
The Public Relations of the hospital, Oji Uzodinma, who confirmed the incident, noted that the baby was taken to the neonatal ward of the hospital where doctors and nurses are currently treating her. “This morning, I got a call from the security people that a baby was abandoned within our hospital complex, FETHA2. We now rushed and alerted the management of the hospital and commenced treatment immediately to save the life of the baby. “We don’t have any record of a baby missing from our hospital and it has never happened.
We have a security outfit here. So, they discovered a baby crying here, when they checked, they saw the baby crying under a staircase. “We have reported the case to the appropriate authorities and security agencies and they are doing their investigations,” he said. When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), DSP Loveth Odah, confirmed the incident. She disclosed that the command was investigating the matter and condemned the dumping of the baby.
