People in Beijing's Xicheng District called police when they heard crying coming from a public bathroom early in August. When the police officers investigated, they found a baby dunked head-first into one of the bathroom's floor toilets. Police chief Qian Feng told the Beijing Times that officers originally planned on dismantling the toilet, but changed their minds when they realized how long that would take.
A migrant construction worker followed police into the bathroom and began filming with his phone. Feng can be seen reaching into one of the toilets and pulling out a newborn girl. "Her head was upside down ... we could only vaguely see her feet from the side," Feng told the Beijing Times. The child was recovered alive and rushed to a nearby hospital.
China began launching "baby hatches" in 2011 in order to combat the growing problem of child abandonment. The hatches allowed a baby to be
anonymously dropped off, and would alert welfare staff shortly after the parent had left. Last year, a baby hatch in Guangzhou had to be shut down after less than two months because it was inundated with infants.
The mother of the child found in Xicheng's public toilet has yet to be identified, but the Beijing Times reported at the time that the baby's health was stable and that she showed "
no apparent physical defects."
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