Calls Pour In to Adopt Baby Left Near Trash

The infant boy abandoned next to trash cans in a San Carlos neighborhood Thursday is in good condition and drawing plenty of attention, including inquiries from prospective parents, health and social workers said Friday.

Cindy Cohagen, spokeswoman for Sharp Memorial Hospital, where the 3- or 4-day-old infant is staying, said blue-eyed “Baby Doe” is “doing just fine.”

Prospective parents eager to call Baby Doe their own have been calling the county Department of Social Services incessantly, officials there said.

“The first thing this morning, just about five after 8, I got my first call asking how they could adopt the baby,” said Hawley Ridenour, chief of the department’s adoption unit.

“Not 10 minutes after the first call, I got another one. And I would say we’ve received several dozen calls.”

Search for Parents Continues

Administrative nurse Vicki Nichelson, who has supervised Baby Doe’s care, said, “We fed him through the night every three or four hours. He’s a real good eater. . . . he even gained a couple of ounces.”

Sgt. George Guevara of the San Diego Police Department’s child-abuse unit said a search for the infant’s parents has so far been unsuccessful.

Adoption unit social workers are also conducting a search for Baby Doe’s parents, but realize the effort may be fruitless, Ridenour said.

“If no one comes forward to claim the child in the next several days, we will operate on the basic premise that the first home we put Baby Doe in will fortunately be his last one as well,” he said.

Baby Doe will most likely be placed with a “prospective adoptive family,” which would care for the baby after he is released from the hospital and then adopt him when such an action is legally possible.

Although a search for such a family has not been conducted yet, Ridenour said finding one would not be difficult. “We have an abundant supply on waiting lists,” he said.

Once found, the family could take Baby Doe home from the hospital, but would not be able to adopt him for at least six more months because of “lots of paper work and a lengthy bureaucratic process,” Ridenour said. During that time, the baby will remain a “dependent of the (Juvenile) Court,” he said.

“The only risk is that, after we place a baby with a prospective adoptive home, the baby’s natural parents might show up,” Ridenour said.

If that occurred, he said, the Juvenile Court would take responsibility for the child and determine where he ultimately should be placed.

“Prospective parents realize that, even after taking care of an abandoned baby for several months, they might lose it (to the natural parents),” Ridenour said. “But there are plenty of people who will take that risk to have their own baby.”