http://dsdsdemo2.ap.org/aptopicsdemo/stories/42_ds_440318.html

 

This version is the same that appeared in our local paper.  A mother in the
hospital who is breastfeeding her own child is feeding this baby that the
mother dog rescued and kept near next to her own puppy.

"She is now fine. She is warm. She is in a separate room, like an isolation
ward, with a lady who is also nursing a baby admitted in hospital for
treatment," Gakuo said. "The lady is looking after her as if she is her own
child."

Judy Ritchie



A newborn baby abandoned in a Kenyan forest was saved by a stray dog and
discovered nestled with one of her own puppies after children heard the
infant girl crying.

The dog reportedly dragged the child, named "Angel" by health workers,
across a busy road and through some barbed wire to the shed in the poor
Nairobi neighborhood where the puppies were sheltering.

Aggrey Mwalimu, the owner of the shed, said the dog apparently found the
baby Friday in the plastic bag in which she had been abandoned.

Unwanted infants are often abandoned in Kenya, with poverty and failed
relationships frequently to blame. Kenya's weak law enforcement and social
security systems mean that most people who forsake their babies are never
caught.

The baby was discovered after two children alerted elders that they heard
the sound of a baby crying near their wooden and corrugated-iron-sheet
shack. Residents found the mixed-breed dog lying next to the baby along with
one of her own pups.

"I followed them outside and we started looking around the compound and a
nearby plot," Mary Adhiambo, mother of the children, said near her rented
shack.

Adhiambo told the Daily Nation newspaper that she used warm water to wash
the baby, cleaned the maggot-infected umbilical cord with methylated spirit,
dressed her in fresh clothes and fed her. Neighbors gathered at the shack on
hearing news of the discovery.

Residents took the child to a nearby police station to record a statement,
before taking her to the Kenyatta National Hospital for treatment, said
officers at the Karen Police station.

"She cried a lot during admission, because her umbilical cord was infected,"
said Hannah Gakuo. Nobody had claimed the baby, she said.

"She is now very quiet. She just feeds and sleeps," Gakuo said. "I was there
this morning and she looked at me and yawned, looked at me again and yawned.
I think she is trying to identify the mother."

Gakuo said the 3.3 kilogram (7.28 pounds) infant "is doing well, responding
to treatment, she is stable ... she is on antibiotics."

Officials were not able to immediately provide figures on abandoned babies,
but Gakuo said about two babies are taken every month to the main public
hospital in the capital alone.

"Abandoned babies are normally taken to the Kenyatta National Hospital
because it is a public hospital," Gakuo said. "People are now donating
diapers and baby clothes for this one."

Dozens of Kenyans have visited the baby in hospital after reading news of
her rescue in the Daily Nation, Gakuo said.

"She is now fine. She is warm. She is in a separate room, like an isolation
ward, with a lady who is also nursing a baby admitted in hospital for
treatment," Gakuo said. "The lady is looking after her as if she is her own
child."

 

 


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