Girl, 15, Gives Birth, Leaves Baby in Trash : Health: High school sophomore is stopped from leaving hospital after another patient finds infant stirring in restroom wastebasket.

A 15-year-old girl who gave birth in a hospital restroom and hid the infant in a wastebasket was stopped as she left the building after another patient discovered the child, Orange police said.

Mother and child were admitted to St. Joseph Hospital in Orange in the custody of the Children’s Services Agency and were doing well, Lt. Timm Browne said.

The mother, a sophomore at an Anaheim high school whose name was not released, walked into St. Joseph’s emergency room about 4 p.m. Sunday and complained of stomach pains, Browne said.

While waiting for help, she went into the restroom and gave birth to a full-term, 7-pound girl.

The infant, apparently still attached to her umbilical cord, stirred in the trash can and attracted the attention of another patient, who had walked into the restroom as the 15-year-old was trying to leave the hospital. The patient alerted hospital staff.

The teen, who told investigators she did not know she was pregnant, was not arrested. The case will be handed over to the district attorney’s office.

“She’s so young,” Browne said. “The D.A. will decide what’s in the best interest of both children.”

Children’s Services will interview the girl and her family, then make recommendations to the district attorney’s office, said the agency’s director, Gene Howard.

“This is still a very rare situation,” Howard said. Ten to 12 newborns a year are found abandoned, usually in “a dumpster or an alley.” The mothers include teen-agers and adults.

“If they’re teen-agers, the situation is, they didn’t want their parents to know,” Howard said. “If they’re adults, they don’t feel they have the ability to raise and care for the child.”

He said he could not predict what will happen to the 15-year-old and her baby, until a caseworker files a report.

“Each case has different circumstances,” Howard said.