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Infant found in Michigan City fire station's baby box

Amy Lavalley
Post-Tribune

The silent alarm on the Safe Haven Baby Box at the Coolspring Township Volunteer Fire Department in Michigan City has been tripped before, fire officials there said, mostly by people curious about the box on the east side of the building.

So when Chief Mick Pawlik's pager went off Tuesday night, he assumed it was another false alarm. He hoped it wasn't a baby, he said, because he was in his pajamas.

When he saw something in the box after getting the page at 10:24 p.m. and arriving at the station, he thought it was a dog or a raccoon. That's not what he found.

"I can see this sweatshirt. I can see this little baby arm," he said during a Wednesday news conference at the fire station.

Fire officials lauded the decision to put the baby girl, who they said was about one hour old, wrapped in a gray hoodie and with a few inches of her umbilical cord still attached, in the box, a move that likely saved the infant's life.

"I would really like to thank the mother who did this, for doing the right thing," said Assistant Chief Warren Smith, who lobbied the department for the box, which was installed April 28, 2016. "This just happens to be a story that turned out really well."

Fire officials said Tuesday night marked the first time an infant has been left in one of the boxes.

According to the Safe Haven Baby Boxes website, there are two such boxes in Indiana. The second box is at the fire department in Woodburn; no other locations are listed on the website. Under the state's Save Haven Law a person can anonymously give up an unwanted infant less than 30 days old at a police station, fire department or hospital without fear of arrest or prosecution.

Smith pressed for the box after several babies were found abandoned in LaPorte County over several years, though Pawlik said the department initially faced criticism for installing the box.

Having the box is an option, Pawlik said, adding law enforcement officials will never know the number of babies abandoned in the county.

"I can't express how happy I am for this call," he said, adding of the baby's mother, "it's the hardest decision she'll ever make and it was a wise one."

Mick Pawlik, chief of the Coolspring Township Volunteer Fire Department, center, talks about finding a baby in the station’s “Save Haven Baby Box” Tuesday night during a Wednesday news conference at the station. At left is firefighter Nick Fekete and to the right is Assistant Chief Warren Smith, who advocated for the station to get the box. (Amy Lavalley / Post-Tribune)
"This is the last resort, when the mother cannot make face-to-face contact," he said.

He credited the fire department and the township trustee's office with bringing the box to fruition.

"It makes me feel like it's part of something special and it is something special. We saved a life last night," he said.

Firefighter Nick Fekete, who also was at the station when the infant was found, said he had the utmost praise for the baby's mother.

"I don't know what she was going through. It was just a great decision," he said.

Officials said the baby was taken by ambulance to Franciscan St. Anthony Health-Michigan City. Pawlik rode in the ambulance with the infant.

"The infant is in good condition. There is no reason to believe there are any injuries to the infant at this time," said Capt. Mike Kellems, public information officer with the LaPorte County Sheriff's Department, adding the child is in the custody of the Indiana Department of Child Services.

Under Indiana's Safe Haven Law, a person can give up an unwanted infant anonymously without fear of prosecution, according to the DCS website.

As long as there are no signs of intentional abuse on the baby, no information is required of the person leaving the baby. Once the baby is examined and given medical treatment, if needed, DCS will take the baby into custody through Child Protective services, where it will be placed with a caregiver, according to the website.

The Safe Haven Baby Box is heated, Pawlik said, and once the door is opened, it locks when it shuts. An interior door to the box is located in his office inside the fire station.

Pawlik said he left the infant in the box until medics arrived so she would stay warm, though his instinct was to pick her up. The baby, he added, was calm, certainly calmer than he was.

"It's very rewarding," he said. "I don't look at it like we're heroes or nothing. We're serving the public here."


http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post...1108-story.html

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[Southsider2k12]

http://www.wndu.com/content/news/Photo-sho...-459117483.html

A previous version of this story included a photo from Safe Haven Baby Boxes. The organization has clarified that picture was not of baby "Hope".

A newborn girl was left in a Michigan City baby box earlier this month. The baby box organization's president says the baby is doing well.

"Hope" was born on November 7, 2017.

"She is a beautiful, healthy baby girl who has her whole life ahead of her thanks to her mother’s selfless act of love," Safe Haven Baby Box Founder/President Monica Kelsey said in an email.

Police believe "Hope" was about one hour old when she was left in the baby box. She still had her umbilical cord attached.

"I have the utmost praise for the mother just because you don’t know what she was going through or the situation or anything like that, and it's just a great decision instead of it could have been a lot worse or a lot different," firefighter Nick Fekete said at a news conference. He and Coolspring Fire Chief Mick Pawlik were the first to arrive at the baby box.