Baby girl ‘abandoned’ at hospital

A woman claiming to be the mother brought the child.

FAISALABAD: A baby girl was apparently abandoned at the Allied Hospital on Sunday by a woman who called herself its mother.

Medical Superintendent Rashid Maqbool told The Express Tribune that a woman, who identified herself as Mafia Bibi of Chak 109-JB, had brought a six-week-old who she said was her daughter to the hospital’s emergency ward. He said the child who was suffering from a fever was referred to the children’s ward.

The MS quoted another patient’s attendant, Shagufta Bibi, as saying that Mafia Bibi asked her to look after her daughter saying that she was going to the canteen.

When Mafia Bibi did not return for a while, Shagufta Bibi informed the hospital administration. The administration said they looked for the woman, but she was nowhere to be found.

The MS said that police had been informed. He said if the child’s parents were not found in a few days, the child would be handed over to a couple seeking to adopt one.

Police said Shagufta Bibi told them that during her short discussion with Mafia Bibi after her daughter was shifted to the children’s ward, she had told her that she (Mafia Bibi) belonged to a poor family and “could not afford a daughter”. Shagufta Bibi said the woman had told her that she could not even afford to pay for her daughter’s treatment.

Police said they were not ruling out the possibility that the woman had had an accident or another emergency. They said they were looking for her.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2014.