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Baby girl is in good shape after being abandoned
Agency may try to reunite infant with mother who left it in park
By Kelly Wilkinson
A baby girl discovered in Lakewood Park on Sept. 6 remains in the care of the county's social services agency, while the baby's mother--who abandoned the infant in the park just after giving birth--will face charges by the district attorney's office sometime this week.
Capt. Chuck Eanuff of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety says two 10-year-old girls biking in Lakewood Park last Sunday night heard a faint cry from the bushes and alerted one of their mothers. The mother went to the bushes and found the newborn infant in a plastic bag.
Eanuff said the baby had been born only minutes or hours earlier, and still had her umbilical cord attached. When she was found, the infant was cold and weak, but is now in stable condition.
"Those little girls were heroes," Eanuff said. "The baby would not have made it through the night because the temperature was already dropping. Everybody's in better shape because of those two girls."
Paramedics brought the baby to El Camino Hospital, where the 18-year-old mother had separately checked in for severe vaginal bleeding, Eanuff said. The mother had not told anyone she was the infant's mother, but police say she admitted the child was hers after tests revealed she was the mother.
She has not yet been charged, but Eanuff said there are a range of possibilities when she goes before the district attorney. Those range from child abandonment or neglect to attempted murder.
Police are not releasing the names of anyone involved in the case or more specifics surrounding the abandonment until the case goes to the district attorney.
"This has been very traumatic for everyone, especially the girls who found the baby," Eanuff said. "The two girls and their families didn't want to be identified because they're pretty upset."
The child is now in the care of the county's child protection services, where she will remain until the resolution of the case.
"[Child Protective Services] become advocates for the child," Eanuff said. "It's their job to make sure the baby gets into a foster home or some other appropriate care so the baby gets the best start it can."
Gil Villagran, manager of community relations for Santa Clara County's social services agency, said he could not comment specifically on the case. But he said the agency normally attempts to reunite the child with either the mother or another family member.
"Our intention is not to keep this child forever, but to reunify the family whenever that is possible," Villagran said. "We try and work on the assumption that this is a confused, distraught young lady who was unprepared for having a child."
Villagran said the child will remain in the custody of the court and most likely in a foster home until some decision is reached about what would be best for the child. If a reunion is impossible or would jeopardize the baby, Villagran said, his organization then explores other options such as foster homes or adoption.
And while Villagran said the county can expect at least one case of a baby's being abandoned in a park or dumpster each year, Eanuff said he cannot remember any such case in Sunnyvale.
"This is the first time I recall here," he said. "You hear about this in other places. But it's just tragic that it happens even once."
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
