Would you nurse a starving baby if you were able to? This wasn’t even a question for a policewoman in a west Columbian village after she was dispatched to a remote area of the forest where a newborn had been abandoned.
The hours-old baby was dumped in the woods, with its umbilical cord still attached.
A local woman, Edinora Jimenez, 59, who found the baby in the forest said, “I was collecting some oranges when I heard something crying. I thought it was a cat until I looked closer and saw that it was a baby girl.”
Thankfully a guardian angel was on her way.
Officer and new mum Luisa Urrea has been credited by doctors with saving the little one’s life by breastfeeding her. Doctors say the newborn would have succumbed to starvation and hypothermia had she not stepped in.
But Luisa told local media: “I’m a new mother and I have milk and I recognized the needs that this poor little creature had. I think any woman would have given her nourishment in the same circumstances.”
Police commandant Javier Martin said, “The girl had some lacerations and was suffering from hypothermia. However, she was treated quickly and is now in good health.”
The baby is now being cared for by the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare, while police search for the baby’s birth mother, who may face attempted murder charges.
Orphanage director Jhon Arley Murillo said: “We could be dealing with a case of attempted homicide, although it’s the prosecutor who will decide the charge.”
Authorities are now looking for an adoptive home for the baby.
