By A couple from Katy, Texas, acted swiftly when they discovered an abandoned newborn with her umbilical cord still attached while walking on a trail Saturday morning. Daniela Fedele and her husband were strolling along Casa Martin Drive when they noticed a towel on the ground that appeared to be moving.
As their three-year-old daughter rode her bike towards the towel, Fedele realized that something was moving underneath. “I noticed two little feet moving and then my husband was right behind me with the dogs and I yelled to my husband and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, a baby, a baby,'” Fedele recounted to KHOU. “And then my husband [says] like, ‘Call 911, call 911,’ and that’s what we did.”
Harris County Sheriff’s deputies received the call at around 9 am and rushed to the scene. In the meantime, Fedele and her husband worked to keep the infant safe. Surveillance footage captured the couple running towards the baby with their dogs, with Fedele’s husband grabbing the child and racing to find shade under a nearby tree.
The couple waited until deputies from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office arrived and handed the infant over, informing officials that they had seen a man running away from the scene. The baby girl was then transported to a local hospital, where she was reported to be in good condition.
Authorities praised Fedele and her husband for their quick thinking, stating that their actions may have saved the infant from death. “The two witnesses that were thankfully walking on the trail with their daughter and their dogs were a blessing,” said Sgt. Juan Garcia from the Child Abuse Unit. “The baby was a newborn… still had, you know, fresh placenta on the baby, so it was freshly born this morning,” he noted.
Fedele expressed her shock and anger at the situation, wondering how someone could abandon their baby. “I was shocked, I was mad, I was upset,” she said, adding that there are options for new parents who don’t wish to raise a child, such as dropping the baby off at a fire station, police station, or hospital.
Police say that cases of people abandoning infants are rare and are now searching for the man they believe dumped the baby. He is described as a young Hispanic or white male with a slim build and fair complexion, wearing a black shirt and possibly gray pants at the time of the abandonment.
The incident has left a lasting impact on Fedele, who cannot get the image of the abandoned newborn out of her head. Her actions, along with those of her husband, have been hailed as heroic by the local community and authorities, who are grateful for their intervention in saving the infant’s life.
Dailymail.com
