A small crowd gathered at the post natal ward of Tambaram Taluk Government Hospital in Chromepet on Thursday morning, curious about a new arrival — a baby boy just two weeks old.
The boy however, was not surrounded by his parents and relatives but by a team of nurses and doctors. He had been found abandoned in the ladies compartment of a suburban electric train that pulled into platform No. 2 at Tambaram railway station a little past 10 p.m. on Wednesday.
Passengers and crew members, who heard his cries, alerted railway police personnel who in turn contacted Childline volunteers. When no one came to claim the baby despite many announcements, the volunteers took the child to Chromepet GH.
He was fed by patients in the post natal ward. A paediatrician said that considering the baby’s weight — 3.2 kilograms — and signs of the umbilical cord having been only recently severed, the baby could not be older than 15 days. The boy was kept in an infant warmer of the Newborn Stabilisation Unit. Staff kept requesting relatives of other patients, who were gathering to get a glimpse of the baby, to disperse.
The baby was taken to Christ Faith Home for Children, Manapakkam later, said D. Davanbu, Director, Childline.
