Abandoned Miami Baby Found Under A Bush Now in State Care

' rel="nofollow">http://cbs4.com/...doned.baby.north.2.816256.html"]

NORTH BAY VILLAGE (CBS4) ― The young mother, charged with attempted murder for allegedly abandoning her newborn baby earlier this week, was released from the hospital Friday and went straight to bond court.

The judge ordered 19-year old Lorena Godinez-Perez to be held on $25,000 bond.

Investigators say Godinez-Perez gave birth Monday night and left the baby underneath a plant next to a fence at 7917 West Drive in North Bay Village.

Police were called to the location around 11:30 p.m. Monday after someone called to report a woman was bleeding profusely. Godinez-Perez was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital where doctors determined she had recently given birth, although she denied it.

Officers went back to the scene to try and find the newborn infant. After an exhaustive search, officers found the baby girl under a plant. The baby's umbilical cord and placenta were still attached.

"She was just laying their motionless. At first they thought she was dead and if she's dead, then it was a crime scene but then they saw an arm move," said Det. John Costa from the North Bay Village Police Dept.

One of the responding officers quickly jumped into action. "Officer Register, the only thing he had to pick her up with was his uniform shirt and he wrapped her up in his shirt and we transported her to the rescue station," explained Det. Costa.

From the rescue station, she was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital were doctors discovered she had a large leaf lodged in her throat. The leaf was removed, and doctors on Friday had taken the baby off a ventilator machine, saying she is expected to be okay.
 
She will also be turned over to the state for care.

' rel="nofollow">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26632460/"]

Police said Lorena Godinez Perez allegedly denied giving birth or having sexual activity, but doctors notified police to look for an infant after examining her.

“We sent our officers out here to search the area to see if we could find an infant that was abandoned,” Mastrodonato said.

After following trails of blood from Perez’s North Bay Village apartment, authorities searched for the baby for more than an hour. One officer heard a noise from under a bush.

Neighbor Miguel Ezteleta said police officers were searching for the baby.

“It was just ah, ‘Everybody on the floor now,’” Ezteleta said. “They had like five cops looking on the floor.”

The child was found near a fence and placed underneath a plant, its umbilical cord and placenta still attached.

A fire-rescue crew took the baby girl to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where doctors removed part of the plant stuck in her throat.

A neighbor said she realized the woman was pregnant.

“I felt very sad because you don’t know what was going through her mind,” the neighbor said.

Authorities said there were other options available to Perez. With the Miami-Dade Firehouse only two blocks away, she would have been protected by the Safe Haven Law, NBC 6’s Sharon Lawson reported. The Florida law allows any parent to leave their infant with a firefighter, emergency medical technician, or paramedic at a fire station or emergency medical services station. Other options also include bringing the baby to a hospital emergency room.

“No questions asked. You can leave the baby and they would not ask you any questions,” Mastrodonato said.

Perez, who recently arrived from Guatemala, was hospitalized in serious condition. She was charged with attempted second-degree murder, police said.

 

Police found a newborn child -- with an umbilical cord and placenta attached -- early Tuesday abandoned in a bush near a North Bay Village high rise.

Police officers made the discovery after receiving a call from physicians at Jackson Memorial Hospital saying doctors were treating a woman who was bleeding excessively from her vagina.

Though the woman vehemently denied sexual activity or pregnancy, doctors examined her and recognized that she had recently given birth.

But there was no sign of a baby.

At 2:05 a.m., officers were dispatched to 7917 West Dr. -- the apartment building where fire-rescue crews picked up the woman nearly three hours earlier -- to search for a newborn.

Dive teams were also called out because of the proximity of waterways.

Police searched everywhere, climbing in and out of trash bins.

At 3:40 a.m., officers Phillip Register, Ray Marabotto and Frank Pieiga heard rustling in the bushes near the 360 condo building at 7900 Harbor Island Dr.

There, they found the baby girl, covered in dirt from head to toe.

Register picked up the baby, who appeared to be breathing, and wrapped her in his uniform shirt. They rushed her to a nearby fire station for medical attention.

Fire-rescue then took her to Jackson Memorial Hospital.

There, emergency room doctors discovered a piece of a plant stuck in the infant's throat, which they removed.