RESCUER TAKING HEART IN RECOVERY OF 2-DAY-OLD BOY.Byline: Stephanie Cain San Gabriel Valley The San Gabriel Valley is one of the principal valleys of southern California. It lies to the east of the city of Los Angeles, to the north of the Puente Hills, to the south of the San Gabriel Mountains, and to the west of the Inland Empire. Daily Tribune Azita Milanian looked through the glass at the newborn baby Monday, the first time she'd seen him since rescuing him from a shallow grave in the Altadena foothills this weekend. Tears filled her eyes as she recalled the first time she saw the infant, covered with dirt and left for dead. ``He is a mountain angel, my angel,'' Milanian said. Milanian walked over to the baby's doctor, Ricardo Liberman, shook his hand firmly and thanked him for saving the newborn's life. ``They're calling me a hero, but you're the hero to bring these children to life again,'' she said. ``What I went through that minute, you go through every day.'' ``The baby's the hero,'' Liberman replied. ``I have never seen anybody leave a baby partially buried like this,'' said Liberman, who has been at the hospital for 25 years. ``It's depressing that someone could be so desperate.'' The 2-day-old boy - named Baby Christian by the nurses in the neonatal intensive care unit Noun 1. neonatal intensive care unit - an intensive care unit designed with special equipment to care for premature or seriously ill newborn NICU ICU, intensive care unit - a hospital unit staffed and equipped to provide intensive care at Huntington Memorial Hospital - was upgraded Monday from critical to serious condition. ``I think it's a miracle It's a Miracle was a television show that aired on PAX-TV (now Independent Television) between September 6, 1998 and September 1, 2004.[1] Initially hosted by Richard Thomas[2], and later by Roma Downey, [3] ,'' said Liberman, head of the neonatology neonatology /neo·na·tol·o·gy/ (ne?o-na-tol´ah-je) the diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the newborn. ne·o·na·tol·o·gy n. unit. ``He has all the normal neurological activity we would expect in a newborn.'' The baby, found with its umbilical cord umbilical cord (ŭmbĭl`ĭkəl), cordlike structure about 22 in. (56 cm) long in the pregnant human female, extending from the abdominal wall of the fetus to the placenta. still attached, was admitted Saturday with severe hypothermia hypothermia Abnormally low body temperature, with slowing of physiological activity. It is artificially induced (usually with ice baths) for certain surgical procedures and cancer treatments. and a body temperature of about 80 degrees. He was taken off a respirator respirator /res·pi·ra·tor/ (res´pi-ra?ter) ventilator (2). cuirass respirator see under ventilator. Sunday. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department This article is about the Los Angeles County Sherriff's Department, not to be confused with the smaller Los Angeles County Police The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) is a local law enforcement agency that serves Los Angeles County, California. deputies are still searching for the baby's mother. Using scents picked up from two bath towels the infant boy had been wrapped in, search dogs have repeatedly returned to a residential spot about a mile from where Milanian, who was jogging, found the baby just north of the private Alpine Villa Drive, said sheriff's Detective Kevin Elliott. Elliott said he didn't know why the dogs kept returning to that spot, but added deputies planned to go back again Monday night with a different search dog. It could confirm or debunk de·bunk tr.v. de·bunked, de·bunk·ing, de·bunks To expose or ridicule the falseness, sham, or exaggerated claims of: debunk a supposed miracle drug. what the other dogs sensed, he said. Elliott said the baby was not born where he was found. Someone had to have walked him into the hills. ``The dogs had a pretty strong scent and then lost it in this particular area,'' he said. ``We're going to start knocking on doors over there. We're going to be pounding the pavement. Somebody knows something. I've got a stack of leads here and we have to track every one of them down, but we will find the mother. ``This is nothing we can do with computers or high-tech stuff, it's just going to be a matter of talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to a lot of people,'' Elliott said. ``We're very concerned because it's our feeling that we've got a scared teen-ager out there who just didn't know what to do.'' Liberman said never before in his 25 years of practicing medicine has he seen a baby survive such a situation. ``I think the baby probably will be fine,'' he said. ``He's so far looking very good.'' Tests showed the baby's mother was not under the influence of drugs, Liberman said. Since the news broke Saturday afternoon, the hospital has received close to 50 phone calls from people interested in adopting the infant, said spokeswoman Toni Miller. ``Just in the first 24 hours we received over 20 calls, and we've received the same number since then,'' she said. ``There's just been a great outpouring . . . from concerned citizens in the area wanting to know if he was improving or if they should bring anything to the hospital.'' The Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County Department of Children and Family Services will be responsible for the baby's future after he is released from the hospital, she said, adding the hospital will establish a fund for the child. The Associated Press contributed to this story. |
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