The Hindu : Front Page : Missing infant reunited with parents

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Saturday, May 24, 2008
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Missing infant reunited with parents

R. Sujatha

— Photo: V. Ganesan

Lost and found: Deepa and Vaitheeswaran with their girl baby at Egmore Police Station on Friday.

CHENNAI: An infant girl, reported missing from the Institute of Child Health, Egmore, was found abandoned under a tree 500 metres away, near the museum.

Even as the police were conducting a search, volunteers from a non-governmental organisation brought the baby to the Egmore police station.

For Deepa and her husband Vaitheeswaran, the six-hour time that they spent looking for their lost child was probably the most harrowing in their life.

Ms. Deepa (30) delivered the baby on May 18 at the Egmore Maternity Hospital. A day later, the baby was found suffering from jaundice and was sent to the neonatal special ward. On Friday morning, the hospital sent five women, including Deepa, with their newborns to the Institute of Child Health for routine check-up. “Some equipment like the ECHO and the ultrasound are available only in the ICH. So, mothers are sent with their babies there,” explained a policewoman at the outpost in the hospital.

Ms. Deepa had wanted to call her husband to inform him of the development. She left her baby to a woman near the newborn ward and went searching for a phone booth. When she returned 15 minutes later, she could find neither the woman nor her child. She lodged a complaint with the police outpost and with the Egmore Police Station.

Around 3 p.m. the family’s relatives got a call saying that a baby had been brought to the police station. The parents identified the baby.

Don Bosco Anbu Illam’s child helpline had received a call around 2.30 p.m. saying that a baby had been found under a tree near Jeevan Jothi building, opposite the Egmore Museum.

The home lodged a complaint with the Egmore police, who asked them to bring the child for identification by the parents who had complained of a missing baby, said J. Vijaya and P. Mahaeswari, paraprofessionals from the home, who brought the baby to the Egmore Police Station.

“I was upset because my first child, a girl, died within 45 days,” Ms. Deepa said, after taking possession of her baby. The couple have two sons aged 4 and 2.

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