Newborn turned over to San Bernardino firefighters under safe haven law
Oct. 30--SAN BERNARDINO -- On a typical day a dispatcher for the San Bernardino City Fire Department takes hundreds of calls, some emergencies and some not. But on Sunday one particular call was taken unlike any other before.
"9-1-1 dispatcher Kathy McRaven received a call from a woman who had just delivered a baby boy," Fire Chief George Avery said. "The mother said she didn't know she was pregnant and didn't want the baby."
McRaven, an 18-year veteran dispatcher with the fire service, said this is the first time the San Bernardino Fire Department has taken a call from someone who wished to surrender the baby they just delivered.
"A woman called to say her neighbor who didn't know she was pregnant just delivered the baby in the bathtub," McRaven said. "And at some point she asked if she could take baby to a fire station."
The mother and the friend wrapped the baby boy in a blanket, put him in a laundry basket and delivered him to the fire station where paramedics and an ambulance were standing by, McRaven said.
"The friend got out of the car and handed the baby boy to firefighters, got back in her car and left," she said. "The mother never got out of the car."
McRaven, who drives to work from her Ontario home to the dispatch center in San Bernardino every day, said she was relieved that someone had the strength to make that call.
"I really admire the mother and the friend for doing this," she said. "It's very courageous of them to do that. I could hear it in her voice that she was scared."
A California law known as the "safely surrendered law" allows for the voluntary surrender of a baby within 72 hours of birth.
Parent(s) can safely surrender their baby and be protected from prosecution for child abandonment under this law which makes it easier for those who might otherwise abandon their baby in an unsafe place.
"I can't stress this enough," Avery said. "If someone is going to give up a newborn child it's better to call 9-1-1 and do it safely. We've all heard the horror stories and this law is an avenue that saves lives."
More information on the safely surrendered law can be found at dss.cahwnet.gov.
Copyright 2013 - San Bernardino County Sun, Calif.
