Bihar: Abandoned baby girl finds many parents
Several people and charitable organisations have come forward to adopt her. While many of them have reached the hospital in person,others have called up from different places to inquire about the adoption process.
A 15-day-old girl child left abandoned by her mother at a hospital in Bihar has good Samaritans queuing up with open arms to adopt her. But they will have to wait since the hospital administration is not ready to hand her over to anybody until her health improves. The little unnamed girl, currently being treated in the paediatric ward of the Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH), was found abandoned by nurses in the hospital premises on Tuesday morning. They waited for her parents to return but did not find anybody to claim her. She was finally admitted to the neo-natal intensive care unit of the childrens ward.
Since then, several people and charitable organisations have come forward to adopt her. While many of them have reached the hospital in person,others have called up from different places to inquire about the adoption process. PMCH superintendent Lakhindra Prasad said many people expressed desire to adopt the baby but she would not be handed over to anybody until her condition improves. Prasad said the hospital administration would hand over the girl to a charitable unit run by a missionary organisation at Padri ki Haveli. He advised the people keen on adopting her to contact the local police station and complete the legal formalities for adoption. According to doctors treating her, the girl was born prematurely and needs constant monitoring.
The hospital administration is now planning to find her parents through newspaper and television advertisements. Among those who had rushed to the hospital on coming to know about the baby was Arun Verma and Rashmi Verma, a childless couple from Jamshedpur. I have been married for the past seven years but I have no child,?? said Rashmi. I want to adopt the girl and bring her up as my daughter.?? But Rashmi was advised to contact the district administration and the local police and apply for her adoption in keeping with the legal provisions once she was shifted to the charitable institute. Rashmi is not alone though. A nurse at the hospital, who has been looking after the baby in the NICU, has become so attached to the girl that she wants to adopt her. I have two children of my own but I will have no problem in keeping her if nobody comes to claim her,?? said Sarita Devi.
The hospital administration is also receiving requests from many patients and their kin to hand over the baby to them. A young boy also approached the nurses asking for the girl because a newly-born child of her sister had died at the same hospital. Meanwhile, the child is being fed by mothers of other newlyborn children who are still in the hospital while the nurses are taking turns to look after her.