The tiny baby lay in a plastic bag in the veld, blue and ice cold, with no hope of a chance on life.
Her umbilical cord and placenta still attached to her, she would not have survived another hour.
But this newborn was given a new lease of life when municipal cleaners found her yesterday morning, wrapped in a plastic bag near the Centurion Cemetery in Hennops Park.
Frikkie Gous of LifeMed Ambulance Services said the workers alerted Monitor Net Security Service, and they called the emergency service just after 9am. Rescuers arrived less than 10 minutes later.
“The baby was still alive, but very cold and dehydrated. She was only a few hours old. The plastic bag was twisted, but not knotted, so she still managed to get oxygen. She was so blue, that only after she was given treatment, did her body colour return,” Gous said.
Had they arrived an hour later, the baby would have been dead, he said. “The emergency personnel treated and stabilised her, wrapping her in a space blanket for heat.
“They then rushed her to the Steve Biko Academic Hospital. The baby cried a little bit in the ambulance, but only at the hospital, when she was put under the lights, did she really start to show reaction.”
Hearing the story of her short life, hospital staff named the baby “Hope”. She was assessed, put in an incubator and given baby formula, before being admitted to hospital for further observation.
Gous said little Hope was stable and doing well. He was sure the little girl would improve with the love from hospital personnel. “LifeMed also received many calls from people who wanted to donate clothes and nappies for little Hope.”
Once she is discharged from hospital Hope will be taken to a place of safety. Police Captain Bonginkosi Msimango said a case of child abandonment was being investigated. - Pretoria News