Pa. Paramedic Recounts Finding Newborn in Trash Can
Sept. 30--As Mon Valley EMS paramedic Terry Foster Jr. bent down to undo straps on a stretcher during a call last Saturday, he heard a small whimper from a nearby garbage can.
When he looked inside, Foster found a newborn baby girl with her umbilical cord still attached.
"The first feeling is shock and amazement," Foster told Tribune-Review news partner WPXI-TV.
Paramedics initially were called Sept. 24 to the BP station on Fayette Street in North Belle Vernon for a report of a female with unknown bleeding and a possible miscarriage.
Now the woman, who allegedly placed the newborn in the trash, is under investigation by Westmoreland County detectives.
Foster said he removed the baby girl, clamped and cut the umbilical cord, and transported her to the hospital along with her mother.
"Ultimately, it feels great (to have saved a life)," he said. "We have too many of the other kind of day."
He has worked in emergency services for 25 years, the past 14 as a paramedic with Mon Valley.
It appears that the woman gave birth in the bathroom at the gas station located off Interstate 70 around 1:15 p.m., according to Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck.
"The baby didn't appear to have any injuries," said Peck, who declined to elaborate on the girl's condition.
County detectives have applied for a search warrant to obtain the patient-care reports written by Foster and other emergency personnel who responded to the call.
Foster said he did what any other paramedic would do, and added that the call was among the more unusual he's answered.
"It was a shock," he said. "Completely unexpected."
Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-850-2862 or pvarine@tribweb.com.
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