USA TODAY International Edition
Abandoned Fla. baby finds new home
Dumped days after birth, boy is doing ‘amazing’
TALLAHASSEE – His newborn legs were bare and cold to the touch.
That chilly morning of May 6, his short-sleeve onesie was wet, his diaper was soiled, his white bib was stained. Curled up in the bed of a Nissan pickup, he was without a hat, a blanket or a name.
He was less than a week old. And he was all alone.
It’s uncertain when the baby was stowed in the truck bed or how long he was there. A college student walking through the parking lot of the Meridian Apartments on High Road was drawn by the sound of hushed cries and discovered the child. Rattled, the 22-year-old called police. It was 8:26 a.m. Within minutes, an officer arrived, followed by paramedics.
As events unfolded, strangers found themselves at the right place, at the right time, to help an abandoned baby.
A week later, as if by divine design, that baby had a name, a home and a grateful mother who longed to nurture the newborn as her own.
His name is Caleb, but his mom and dad call him Charlie.
Lights and sirens
Leon County EMS Captain Steve Suarez had just grabbed a cup of coffee when a dispatcher’s voice piped through his field truck. Come with “lights and sirens,” the dispatcher said. He arrived in two minutes.
Tallahassee police officer Beth Bascom was on the scene at the student apartment complex. In her arms, she held a “cold, scared and young baby.” All he had was a green pacifier and one unused diaper; a loosely tied shirt was partially wrapped around his head and body, the police report said.
Temperatures dipped to 49 degrees that morning — 10 degrees colder than usual.
“The biggest concern we had at that point was exposure to the elements,” said Suarez, who arrived around the same time as an ambulance with two paramedics. “We could tell he was relatively new to the world.”
That Saturday morning, something told Suarez to put a special equipment bag in his truck. It contained a warming mattress designed for babies and children. The EMS field supervisor had used it only once before, while training.
Suarez called it “an incredible coincidence” that left him thinking a higher power was at work.
Sirens blared as the infant was rushed by ambulance to Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare. Waiting in the emergency room for the baby’s arrival was a supervising respiratory therapist just in case the newborn had trouble breathing.
Lorraine Nichols, 46, will never forget that morning.
Little was known about the infant, who was given the computer-generated name “Whiskey Doe” at the hospital. Nichols, a respiratory therapist for 18 years, said he was hypothermic, his body temperature dangerously low, even after the warming efforts of the paramedics. Doctors estimated he was 5 to 7 days old, because his umbilical cord had fallen off.
“My heart just went out to him,” Nichols said. “He was left alone.”
When he arrived, Nichols monitored his breathing and oxygen intake. For the most part, the newborn was fine — cold, hungry and wet — but fine. No drugs were detected in his bloodstream. He had no obvious abnormalities.
As a supervisor, Nichols works wherever she’s needed throughout the region’s largest hospital. That morning, she happened to be working in the ER.
Nichols is a two-time breast cancer survivor. She and her husband, Charles, 67, had spent tens of thousands of dollars on in-vitro fertilization before they were advised to stop trying. The hormones could bring back the cancer.
The couple turned to adoption and completed the exhaustive vetting process. They were told it could take years to identify a baby.
As the newborn remained at the hospital for observation, she speed-dialed the Florida Department of Children and Families and her case manager at the Children’s Home Society to discuss a possible adoption of Whiskey Doe.
Welcome home
Charlie arrived May 10 at the Nichols’ four-bedroom home in northeast Tallahassee in a new Graco car seat. A plush cushion supported his head. A soft gray-and-white polka dot blanket kept him cozy. He was safe and secure.
The house, which sits at the entrance of a quiet cul-de-sac, was plastered in portraits of his instant, forever family: his parents and three grown siblings — two brothers and a sister — and eight nieces and nephews (one on the way).
Inside his nursery, a white crib was lined with baby lion linens. On the aqua blue walls, Charles Nichols hand-painted colorful air balloons, flying airplanes and smiley-face clouds. “Charlie” was spelled out in block letters on the frontfacing wall.
Lorraine Nichols had always wanted a baby girl, but the odds always seemed stacked against them.
Baby Charlie arrived one week before they were about to call a private adoption attorney. “I truly believe that what God has for you is for you,” Lorraine said. “It’s on His time.”
On Sept. 7, four months after Charlie appeared in their lives, his adoption was made final.
Since then, the couple have tackled each day while planning for the future. Baby Charlie has a passport for a family cruise in March. Swim lessons are set up for April, Taekwondo classes by age 3.
Lorraine said there are too many what-ifs to count. She thinks of them all.
She prays a divine message may reach the mother to let her know that the baby is in good hands, and he’ll have a good life. She said, looking down on Charlie’s face, “It’s just been amazing.”