Newborn Found in Trash at Hospital

Just minutes after it was born, an infant was discovered in the bin of a women’s restroom at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Long Beach, authorities said Friday.

Police and hospital personnel said the infant’s 21-year-old mother was waiting to be treated in the hospital’s emergency room for general weakness Thursday night when she went to the restroom, gave birth, bit through the umbilical cord and put the baby in the trash.

The mother, Samantha Mam, left the restroom and went in for her exam. Another woman who went into the restroom told nurses she heard “something like a small animal in the trash,” said hospital spokesman Greg Harrison.

Mam denied that the infant was hers, but an exam showed she had just given birth, Harrison said. The baby was in stable condition. Mam, of Long Beach, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and was hospitalized at County-USC Medical Center, police said.

In the adjoining community of Lakewood, another infant, no more than 2 hours old--was discovered two weeks ago in an alley trash can. That boy’s mother has not been found; he has been released from the hospital and placed in foster care.