Hours-Old Baby Girl Found Abandoned in Yerevan With Umbilical Cord Still Attached

A newborn girl, believed to be only hours old, is recovering in a Yerevan hospital after she was found abandoned near an apartment building with her umbilical cord still attached and her body temperature at a dangerously low 30 degrees Celsius.

The baby was discovered Monday evening near a playground in Yerevan after residents heard crying coming from beneath metal structures and initially thought the sound might be a puppy.

Narek Petrosyan, who found the girl, said a resident alerted him to the noise at about 8:40 p.m. He went to investigate and nearly moved the covering with his foot before deciding to bend down and look underneath.

“I opened the covering and saw there was a baby inside,” Petrosyan told reporters Tuesday. “I immediately picked her up and called an ambulance.”

Emergency crews arrived within minutes, and the newborn was taken to the Republican Institute of Reproductive Health, Perinatology, Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Doctors said she arrived in serious condition, primarily because of severe hypothermia. Her body temperature had fallen to 30 degrees Celsius, or 86 degrees Fahrenheit, a critical level for a newborn.

Arshak Jerjeryan, a physician at the institute, said doctors could not warm the baby too quickly because of the risks involved. Her temperature was instead raised gradually, by about half a degree Celsius each hour, until it reached 36.7 degrees.

The girl is breathing on her own but remains on CPAP respiratory support because she is experiencing breathing difficulties. Doctors said her life is not currently in danger.

Medical staff believe she was born at about 36 weeks of pregnancy. Her umbilical cord had not been cut when she reached the hospital, and its condition provided doctors with another indication of how recently she had been born.

“Judging by the freshness of the umbilical cord, we can assume that the baby was about three to five or six hours old,” Jerjeryan said. “She was born on Aug. 10, and we can say with certainty that she was not born in a medical facility.”

The girl weighs 2,550 grams, about 5.6 pounds, and is 48 centimeters, or nearly 19 inches, long.

Petrosyan returned to the hospital Tuesday to check on the child. Speaking to reporters outside, he became emotional as he described the bond he already feels with her.

“When someone finds a baby in their lifetime, it feels like fate,” he said. “I have my own child, and I live for my child, but I will look after this baby for the rest of my life.”

He believes the girl may have been deliberately left somewhere she would be noticed. The area is used by neighborhood children and regularly visited by residents.

Petrosyan said he would also like to help choose a name for the girl, who has not yet been named.

Hospital officials said that responsibility now rests with Armenia’s social services. The agency will also oversee the child's care after she leaves the hospital.

If her recovery continues without complications, doctors expect her to remain hospitalized for about 20 to 22 days before being transferred to a child care institution. Any future adoption would take place through the formal process after that transfer.

Police, meanwhile, are trying to determine who left the newborn outside.

Armenia’s Interior Ministry said authorities are reviewing surveillance footage from the area around 13 Halabyan Street to identify the person who brought the baby there.

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