HUNGRY FOR LIFE: A nurse feeds the newborn after he was freed from a harrowing entrapment in a toilet. (
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A newborn baby was miraculously rescued from a narrow, filthy sewer pipe where he became stuck after he was apparently flushed down the toilet of a residential building in China.
Adoption offers poured in for the lucky little one after video of the painstaking rescue went viral.
It was later discovered that the 22-year-old mother, a tenant of the apartment building in Zhejiang province in eastern China, dropped the baby into the ceramic toilet bowl after giving birth.
The disturbed woman then alerted the building manager who notified authorities, according to a state-run news agency.
When first responders were unable to pull the baby back through the toilet, they tried to free him from a section of pipe along a ceiling just below the bathroom.
That didn’t work either, so they removed an L-shaped section of the pipe — with the baby still stuck — and brought it to an area hospital.
White-gloved doctors there used saws and pliers to take apart the pipe and delicately remove the boy.
“When the baby arrived here, he was in critical condition,” a hospital nurse told London’s Daily Mail. “We suspect he has a fracture in the top right section of his skull.”
The infant is being called Baby No. 59, the number of his incubator.
The mother, whose name was not revealed, watched the miraculous rescue effort unfold before confessing to police days later.
It was unclear if she will face any charges.
Officials said an investigation is continuing, and police are treating the incident like an attempted homicide.
A hospital nurse said news of the rescue prompted an outpouring from strangers who came to the hospital with diapers, baby clothes and powdered milk.
“There have been three or four groups of visitors delivering baby formula, some of whom have expressed willingness to adopt,” the nurse said.
“We’re going to take care of the baby. We are not sure when the baby can be discharged.”
The 6.2-pound miracle baby’s placenta was still attached when he was rescued, reports said.
Video of the two-hour rescue — including graphic footage of the pipe removal — shows the baby’s tiny arms pinned to his body, black soot covering his nose and forehead, and blood dripping from the edge of the cut pipe.
The baby’s mouth then opens wide — the moment of relief for the workers, since he begins to wail again.
The case has been widely discussed on China’s Twitter-like microblogging service.
“The parents who did this have hearts even filthier than that sewage pipe,” wrote one user.
The building’s landlady said it was unlikely the birth took place in the bathroom because there was no evidence of blood.
Reports of abandoned babies are common in China, which enforces strict family-planning rules, and places a higher value on baby boys.
Before this abandoned boy’s mother was found, authorities launched an urgent social-media appeal.
“Mom, come back!” the posted message said. “The baby is resilient and alive. Please show up, Mom. This is your own baby and he should return to your warm embrace soon.”