After a security guard notified her about the baby carrier left in the Emergency Room waiting room this past Monday, Mary Walsh, a registered nurse, made her way over to read the note attached.
Few of the patients in the Emergency Room at St. Mary Hospital in Hoboken knew precisely what was going on or why a plastic infant had been left unattended in a carrier, although television cameras recorded Walsh’s every move.
“I cannot take care of the baby. Please do not try to find me,” Walsh read. “The baby was born on Sunday.”
Walsh and the rest of the staff were taking part in a hospital preparedness test for The New Jersey Safe Haven that was signed into law last July and began on August 7. by Acting Gov. Jack Collins.
This legislation allows a parent who cannot care for an infant younger than 30 days old to bring the children to a police state or hospital without fear of arrest. In response to the new legislation, the Bon Secour New Jersey Health System felt it needed to conduct the drill in order to prepare its own staff for the possibility. Those eligible under this program must be the parent or someone the parent sent to deliver the baby. The parent or person must be acting on their own volition. A neighbor cannot take the baby from someone in an effort to save it from a parent. And the parent must intend to permanently give up the child.
While this was only a test – done at the recommendation of Hoboken Councilwoman Theresa Castellano – real-life situations have occurred elsewhere in the state.
“We wanted our staff to be prepared if the situation comes about,” said Joan Quigley, spokesperson for the hospital, noting that three babies statewide had been dropped off as part of the program since August.
One child was turned into Newark Police, then brought into Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark on Aug. 17 as the first official baby under the program. The 8 lb., 7 oz. Michael Doe was turned into the hospital about 7 p.m. Acting out her part in Monday’s test, Walsh proceeded to ask if the plastic baby belonged to anyone in the waiting room. When it is clear the baby had been abandoned, she carried the baby into the emergency room treatment area. She immediately notified a hospital social worker, who called the Safe Haven hotline at state Division of Youth and Family Services, then notified the emergency room physician and the hospital’s pediatrician. The doctors examined the baby to make certain there were no signs of mistreatment, then called the police.
Hoboken Police Detective Sgt. William Gohde responded to the call. His role in the process was to examine the baby, photograph the baby and take its footprints.
“We only do this for the purpose of making certain this is not a missing or kidnapped child,” he said.
Happened before
Gohde dealt with a similar situation last year. Last year, well before the new law went into effect, the Hoboken police did a search for a parent or person responsible for abandoning a baby in Hoboken. The girl, who was later named baby Angela, was four days old when discovered on the steps of a Park Avenue apartment building. Police did an extensive search for the parents, who were never located. They would have faced seven years in prison for abandoning the child.
The Safe Haven Law changed all that. While medical staff or police can ask questions about the baby, they cannot detain the parent or seek identification from a parent who brings a baby to a police station – state, county, local or even campus – or to a hospital. Such a parent will not be charged with criminal neglect, provided the child shows no signs of abuse.
“There is no reason to abandon, kill, or place your baby in a garbage bag,” Gohde said. “There’s an opportunity here now to call the hospital or the police. If you can’t come to us, we’ll come to you.”
In January of this year, five babies were abandoned nationwide, including one who froze to death when abandoned on railroad tracks in southern New Jersey. Monmouth County showed 12 babies abandoned between 1987 and 1997. In 1997, four New Jersey teenagers abandoned babies. Although statistics have been scarce, some estimates place the number of abandoned infants in the United States as high as 250 a year. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported 105 babies abandoned in public places in 1998, 33 of whom were found dead.
The movement for a baby protection program began in Mobile, Ala. by a television reporter named Jodi Brooks. It gained momentum in September of 1999, when a rash of 13 babies was abandoned in 10 months in the Houston, Texas area. Texas became the first state in the nation to enact a Safe Haven law.
Since then, 14 states have passed similar laws, with 12 other states still considering them. New Jersey began to consider the law after seven well-publicized cases, including the Amy Grossberg case, in which two college students from New Jersey abandoned their baby in a Dumpster in 1996.
As part of the new process, hospital officials turn over official custody of the child to the state Division of Family Youth Services, which orders the hospital to admit the baby into the pediatric department. The hospital gives routine treatment and does a variety of tests including tests for HIV. The hospital also takes a sample of the baby’s DNA in case the child later proves to have been kidnapped or abandoned by a person not acting with the parent’s authorization. The last step of the process involves seeking parents to adopt the child.