KEVON FELMINE

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

The two-day-old ba­by girl dis­cov­ered in a garbage bag at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal was healthy and un­der staff care yes­ter­day.

The South-West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty said the girl was clin­i­cal­ly sta­ble and con­tin­ues to be cared for by its ded­i­cat­ed pro­fes­sion­als while an in­ves­ti­ga­tion con­tin­ues.

How­ev­er, T&T Po­lice Ser­vice Cor­po­rate Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Unit man­ag­er Joanne Archie said in­ves­ti­ga­tors were no clos­er to find­ing her fam­i­ly. Archie said the San Fer­nan­do Crim­i­nal In­ves­ti­ga­tions De­part­ment in­ter­viewed sev­er­al peo­ple but none had in­for­ma­tion that could lead them to the fam­i­ly.

Mean­while, Emer­gency Re­sponse Unit (ERU) per­son­nel from the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty will vis­it the hos­pi­tal to­day to get an up­date on the girl. The ERU op­er­ates on a 24-hour ba­sis to re­spond to ur­gent mat­ters where a child might be in dan­ger. ERU man­ag­er Va­lerie Mo­hammed-Metivi­er said they re­spond­ed to the dis­cov­ery of the ba­by girl on Mon­day and gath­ered in­for­ma­tion from the per­son who found her and the doc­tors in­volved in her care.

“We will go back to en­quire if any­body would have come for­ward to claim the ba­by or say that they have in­for­ma­tion in re­la­tion to who is the par­ent. When we get that in­for­ma­tion, we will treat it ac­cord­ing­ly,” Mo­hammed-Metivi­er said.

If no one claims the ba­by, the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty will have to find a safe place for her, such as fos­ter care. If she is not claimed af­ter some time, they will put her on an adop­tion list.

If some­one claims to be a rel­a­tive, the au­thor­i­ty will con­firm the re­la­tion­ship and con­duct a suit­abil­i­ty as­sess­ment of the per­son’s home. Once the rel­a­tive meets the re­quire­ments, they can seek an or­der from the court for cus­tody.

On Mon­day, Emanuel Pierre went to the hos­pi­tal for a job in­ter­view when around 9 am, he no­ticed a garbage bag in a hall­way with the top twist­ed and heard nois­es in­side. He opened it and found the ba­by in­side with a note. He alert­ed nurs­es, who ex­am­ined the ba­by and took her for treat­ment. The note ap­peared to be from the ba­by’s moth­er, ex­plain­ing that she did not have the means to take care of the child.

But be­fore aban­don­ing a ba­by, Mo­hammed-Metivi­er said there are bet­ter op­tions through the au­thor­i­ty. She said any par­ent who can­not care for their child should call the au­thor­i­ty’s hot­lines at 800-2014 or 996 and speak to a so­cial work­er. She said so­cial work­ers would meet the par­ents to as­sess the sit­u­a­tion and see if they can as­sist. If it is a fi­nan­cial sit­u­a­tion, they can help the par­ent ap­ply for grants from the Min­istry of So­cial Wel­fare and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices. If they can­not care for the child, they can seek to iden­ti­fy a rel­a­tive who can. If not, the oth­er op­tion is to of­fer the child for adop­tion.

Mo­hammed-Metivi­er said par­ents can al­so vis­it the Na­tion­al Fam­i­ly Ser­vices of­fices and hos­pi­tals where there are med­ical so­cial work­ers,

“There are peo­ple out there will­ing to be­come adopt­ing par­ents, so use the hot­line num­bers, call us or walk in­to NFS of­fices, talk to your med­ical so­cial work­er, and go to the health cen­tres. There are pub­lic places where you can go in and speak with peo­ple. Even the Child Pro­tec­tion Unit and the po­lice sta­tions. Let some­body know,” Mo­hammed-Metivi­er said.