Newborn abandoned in 50-degree heat

Police in Russia’s southern Rostov Region are trying to trace the parents of a baby abandoned beside a road in blistering heat.

Doctors are amazed she survived after being left in grass by the roadside for several hours, with the temperature pushing 50 degrees. Hospital staff in the town of Aksay have called the baby girl Svetlana, or ”Sunny”.

The two-week-old child was spotted by passersby having lain for hours on the ground in 50 degree heat.

“I heard a squeak and thought it was a kitten. Then I looked closer and was taken aback. It was a crying child,” recalled Lyubov Gritsyuk, who found the girl. “My husband and I were shocked. How could somebody abandon a child like this?”

The couple spent hours trying to track down the girl’s parents without success.

Doctors say the child was badly dehydrated and was lucky to escape the attention of insects and stray dogs.

“The situation was critical. A little more time out there and we could have lost her,” said head doctor of the Aksay Central Hospital Dmitry Burtsev.

Pleased with her progress, the medical staff say she is demonstrating a superb appetite.

The police are now involved in the search for the parents who abandoned their daughter.

“We’ve been to all the maternity hospitals, but so far no information about this simultaneously unlucky and lucky child,” said investigator Anna Karavaeva.

A number of families have already approached the local authorities offering to adopt Svetlana. So there is hope her future will be secure.