World | India
Newborn survives train toilet slip
A newborn baby girl fell through the toilet in a moving train and onto the tracks moments after her mother prematurely gave birth, surviving nearly two hours before being found, relatives said on Thursday.
- AP
- Published: 00:30 February 29, 2008
Ahmedabad, India: A newborn baby girl fell through the toilet in a moving train and onto the tracks moments after her mother prematurely gave birth, surviving nearly two hours before being found, relatives said on Thursday.
The child's mother, Bhuri Kalbi, was travelling with relatives on an overnight train when she went to the bathroom shortly before midnight Tuesday and unexpectedly gave birth to a baby girl, said Arjun Kumar, her brother-in-law.
"Later, she fell unconscious and the baby fell through the toilet," he continued. "Two stations later, we knocked at the door." Bhuri opened the door, soaked in blood. "When we asked her about what happened, she said the baby had fallen through onto the tracks," Kumar said.
Toilets on Indian trains usually have holes that open directly onto the tracks, and there were no indications yesterday that authorities doubted Bhuri's story or planned to investigate the incident.
Kumar said that after finding Bhuri, relatives pulled the train's emergency brake and told officials what had happened. A search was quickly organised, and guards at one of the stations the train had passed soon found the baby lying uninjured on pebbles by the track. She is now in intensive care.
Against all odds
"She was on the rail track for almost 1-1/2 to two hours," said Dr Gautam Jain, a pediatrician at Rajasthan Hospital in Ahmedabad, in the western state of Gujarat, where the baby and mother were taken.
The child, who is yet to be named, was eight to 10 weeks premature, weighed only 1.46kg, Jain said. She had a low heart rate and body temperature. "We do not expect such children to survive," Jain said.
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