Ottawa — Police are trying to find the mother of a newborn abandoned early Monday in a hallway outside Ransom Memorial Hospital's emergency room.
Wrapped in a pink blanket, the baby girl, believed to have been born several hours earlier, was found by a hospital worker shortly after 5 a.m., Police Chief Jeff Herrman said.
Hospital staff checked the infant and found her healthy, Herrman said.
"This is the first time I've seen anything like this," said Herrman, Ottawa's police chief of 13 years.
The baby, dubbed Abby Dawn Doe at the hospital, was found by a worker whose identity wasn't released by police or hospital officials.
The female employee may also have seen the mother moments earlier with a pink bundle under her coat, Herrman said.
"Our intent is to find out who the mother is and make sure nobody needs any medical attention," Herrman said. "We're not out to make an arrest. We'll turn over the information to the county attorney's office."
Under a Kansas law passed nearly two years ago, the mother of the baby would not be prosecuted unless the baby had been harmed, said Bob Byers, chief of social services with the Lawrence office of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.
Since the law was passed, "this is the first such incident that I know of," Byers said. "This is something that doesn't happen very often."
The law requires that the mother of an unwanted baby go to a fire station or hospital and hand the baby over to an employee, Byers said. She need not identify herself.
"It would have been better if she had done that," Byers said of the mother's actions in Ottawa.
Byers said he doubts many people know about the law.
During a hearing Monday in Franklin County District Court, custody of Abby Dawn Doe was awarded to SRS, Byers said.
The baby remained at the hospital Monday night but will probably be placed in a foster home through an SRS provider such as Kaw Valley Center, Byers said.
Hospital workers were touched by the child's plight and glad to be able to get to the baby so soon after it was abandoned, said Kelly McDermeit, the hospital's director of business affairs.
"They were just grateful that the mother left it where she did," McDermeit said.
A mother who abandons her baby probably feels fearful and helpless, said Sister Barbara Wieseler, of Catholic Community Services of Lawrence and a former director of Mother to Mother, a program that works with mothers with limited resources.
"I feel really bad for the baby, but I also feel bad for the mother that she felt like she had to do something so drastic," Wieseler said.
Wieseler advised mothers thinking about abandoning a baby to seek help from a close friend or a social service agency.
"There's not a person I know who wouldn't be of heart and want to help," Wieseler said.
There have been no reports of missing or kidnapped babies in the region, Herrman said. Anyone with information about the mother or the baby is asked to call police at (785) 242-2561 or after hours at (785) 242-1700.
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