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Newborn boy found abandoned in box with note saying: ‘My mom is so sad to do this’

‘My parents and grandparents don’t have food or money to raise me. They never wanted to do this to me,’ note found with baby says

Gustaf Kilander
Washington, DC
Monday 03 January 2022 17:19 GMT
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A newborn baby has been found abandoned in a cardboard box in Fairbanks, Alaska along with a note saying “my mom is so sad to do this”.

The baby was found at around 2pm local time on New Year’s Eve, according to Alaska State Troopers.

A woman found the box with the child bundled in blankets. The baby was taken to hospital and “was found to be in good health”, police said.

The note found alongside the child said “Please help me!!!”, and added that the child was born 12 weeks premature.

“My parents and grandparents don’t have food or money to raise me. They never wanted to do this to me,” the note said. “Please take me and find me a loving family. My parents are begging whoever finds me. My name is Teshawn.”

Facebook user Roxy Lane posted a video of the note and the box, briefly showing the head of the child in the blankets.

A baby was found in a box in Alaska along with a note saying ‘please help me' (Screengrab / Facebook / Roxy Lane)

“I’ve been processing my feelings all day and running through all the different scenarios and reasons, with my bf and family, as to why something like this could have happened,” Ms Lane wrote.

She added that the parents may be too young to know that the state of Alaska has a safe haven law allowing new parents to surrender their child to police, firefighters, or paramedics and other healthcare workers until the child reaches 21 days of age.

According to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, children can also be given up to “any person the parent reasonably believes would keep the infant safe and provide appropriate care”.

“There is always a safer, humane choice to surrender a baby and you will not get in trouble or even have to answer any difficult questions,” Ms Lane wrote. “Take the baby to a fire station, or church, or hospital and they will take care of them.

“I hope the mother gets the help she might need. I doubt they could have afforded to take her to the hospital and she may be in need of medical attention. Please, someone knows this new mom, check on her! She might be in a desperate situation, feeling abandoned herself,” Ms Lane added.

“Clearly, someone in our community felt so lost and hopeless that they made probably the hardest choice of their lives to leave that innocent life on the side of the road with nothing but some blankets and a name,” she continued in the post. “But she named him! There’s some love there, even if she made a terrible decision. I know we’re all struggling, I see it. I see you. I love you all and I’m here. Today I saved a baby and I’ll probably think about Teshawn for the rest of my life.”

She told The Daily Beast that she released the video “in the hopes that everyone involved got the help they might need and that whatever justice needed to be served would be served”.

“I only hope for more awareness in the community, and maybe some compassion for a difficult situation for everyone involved,” she added.

A spokesperson at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital said on Saturday “the baby is doing well and very healthy”, according to Anchorage Daily News.

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