A tough but touching testimony. Early on this cold Tuesday morning in Barcelona, a resident on her way to work found a sports bag containing a baby, aged between one and two months old, which had been abandoned in a street in the Sants neighborhood. Ana, who had left her house at around a quarter to seven, as she explained in this video to ElCaso.cat, came across a man who informed her that there was a baby inside the bag. She approached it, and at first she doubted his story - "I thought the man was drunk" and believed that what she could see was a doll. But then she saw that it was moving its eyes.
"I stayed there watching his little eyes, he moved his little head, had a pacifier in his little mouth, and I was left surprised, I had just left home to go to work, and look what I found there on the pavement."
After phoning 112 and confirming the address with the Mossos d'Esquadra police, she picked up the boy, she says. In just a few minutes, a Mossos patrol appeared, who placed the baby inside the patrol car and gave him first aid, until the emergency ambulance arrived, who stabilized him and transferred him to the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital.
The boy is doing well and is still admitted at the pediatric hospital, initially treated as being in serious condition, but with his life not in danger. He was admitted to confirm that he was well and to stabilize him, after he had been abandoned in the street when the thermometer marked 4 degrees, with freezing rain falling, on a day when snow has fallen in the hills around Barcelona.
"We carried out first aid on the child, we checked his body temperature was good, the child was moving, not crying and we put him in the car because it was very cold on the street", said the Mosso agent who attended the incident. Once inside, they covered him up with clothes and called the SEM ambulance, which took him to hospital. The police reported from the medical centre that the baby is fine and in good condition.
The officer believes, judging by the baby's body temperature, that he was not in the street for long. He also explained that the baby had been left covered with a blanket and wearing a pacifier. The officers noticed that the baby was not crying, was moving normally and had his eyes wide open.
Investigation of what happened
The Mossos d'Esquadra have opened an investigation to clarify what happened, identify the child and also the parents and the people who abandoned him. For the moment there is no further news related to the baby found this morning in Sants. The Catalan police assure that the facts could constitute at least two crimes: abandonment of a minor, and also attempted murder.