A one-and-a-half-year-old boy was reportedly abandoned by his parents at the Government Rajaji Hospital here on Wednesday night.
“The baby has a cleft lip and palate and clubfoot on its right leg,” senior doctors at the GRH said.
A Harikrishnan, a trustee of the Netaji Trust, noticed the infant lying unattended outside the 28th ward, when he visited the hospital to hand over the body a 52-year-old destitute man, who was found dead on a roadside here.
The baby was seen asleep on a platform along with other people, Harikrishnan said, adding that the infant was wearing jeans trousers and shirt.
“However, its body had swelled due to mosquito bites,” Harikrishnan recalled.
After noticing the baby, he immediately alerted the police personnel at the GRH.
A police official said, “We inquired with people sleeping near the ward in a bid to trace its parents, but nobody gave a proper response.”
A subsequent search on the hospital premises too did not yield any result.
“Though the baby was healthy, the parents could have abandoned it due to the cleft lip,” the police said.
The baby has been admitted to the paediatric ward.
A senior doctor at the hospital said, “We are taking all measures to keep the baby healthy. The parents might have abandoned it due the cleft lip and the clubfoot. The IQ of the baby is less compared to that of a normal infant. At this juncture, we cannot conclude whether the baby will be able to speak or not.”
Against this background, Harikrishnan pointed out that in the last one year, two abandoned baby girls were found in Madurai. “One girl was found abandoned in the Government Rajaji Hospital later died, while another found near the corporation school at Karuppayoorani was handed over to a home,” he added.