Quick thinking saves baby dumped in garbage bags

A NEWBORN baby boy, dumped in double-knotted garbage bags and abandoned at the side of a road, was saved by an alert postman and a security guard who heard his wails – just before the garbage truck arrived.

Security guard, Musawenkosi Khumalo, said he was at his patrol station at the intersection of Maurice Nicholas Road, Lesley Drive and Beacon Place in Pinetown on Wednesday when a postman alerted him to the baby’s cries.

The infant was found in two garbage bags, among the many placed at the roadside to be picked up by the municipal garbage truck at about 10am.

“The postman walked past me heading towards Maurice Nicholas Road. A few minutes later, I heard him shout and I realised he was calling for help,” Khumalo said.

“When I arrived he told me he could hear a baby crying.

“By the time I got there, it was quiet and while we were wondering where the crying was coming from, it started up again.

“I started searching among the garbage bags on the side of the road. One bag started to move and the screams became louder,” Khumalo said.

He opened the bag and he and the postman were shocked by what they saw inside.

“The baby was wrapped in a small, lousy blanket. He had been placed inside a garbage bag which was tied up and put inside another bag with garbage – which was also knotted,” Khumalo said.

“When I opened the bags, the baby was screaming and was dirty and covered with leaves. His head had dried blood and was covered with afterbirth fluid. The umbilical cord was still attached. “He was also covered by small brown ants.” Khumalo said he pulled the garbage bags, with the baby inside, out of the blazing sun and placed him in some shade.

“I was shocked, nervous and didn’t know what to do. I called my supervisor to tell him what we had discovered.

“The only thing I could think about was what if he does not make it to hospital,” Khumalo said.

The 35-year-old security guard and father of three, said he calmed down after learning later the baby was “okay”, in Crompton Hospital in Pinetown.

“The municipal garbage truck arrived within five minutes of the baby being taken to hospital. He is really lucky to have survived.

WHEN I OPENED THE BAGS, THE BABY WAS SCREAMING AND WAS DIRTY AND COVERED WITH LEAVES. HIS HEAD HAD DRIED BLOOD AND WAS COVERED WITH AFTERBIRTH FLUID. THE UMBILICAL CORD WAS STILL ATTACHED

“He might not have been found at all and been taken away in the garbage truck.

“If he had died on his way to hospital, it would have felt like it was my fault, that I had failed to save him,” Khumalo said.

The baby was found directly opposite a child daycare centre.

Thembeka Ntshangase, an employee at the Colours Play Centre and After Care, said she had seen a woman sitting across the road when she arrived for work in the morning.

“Maybe she was in her 30s. She was carrying a small bag and was sitting there at about 7am. Even parents who came to drop their children saw her and said they noticed that she looked sad.

“We didn’t worry about it as we thought she might be working as a domestic worker in the area,” Ntshangase said.

“She was a medium-sized woman, wearing a navy or black skirt and a cream white top.”

Andreas Mathios of the community organisation, SA Can, who was also at the scene when the refuse truck arrived, said the baby had been saved in the nick of time by the security guard.

KwaZulu-Natal police spokesman, Major Thulani Zwane, confirmed a case of child abandonment had been opened at Pinetown police station but no arrests had been made.

After being checked out in hospital, the baby was transferred to child welfare.