Do the Right Thing...

Who doesn't love a happy ending beginning?

The silent alarm on the Safe Haven Baby Box at the Coolspring Township Volunteer Fire Department in Michigan City, Indiana has been tripped before, fire officials there said, mostly by people curious about the box on the east side of the building.

So when Chief Mick Pawlik's pager went off Tuesday night, he assumed it was another false alarm. He hoped it wasn't a baby, he said, because he was in his pajamas.

When he saw something in the box after getting the page at 10:24 p.m. and arriving at the station, he thought it was a dog or a raccoon. That's not what he found.

"I can see this sweatshirt. I can see this little baby arm," he said during a Wednesday news conference at the fire station.

Fire officials lauded the decision to put the baby girl, who they said was about one hour old, wrapped in a gray hoodie and with a few inches of her umbilical cord still attached, in the box, a move that likely saved the infant's life.

"I would really like to thank the mother who did this, for doing the right thing," said Assistant Chief Warren Smith, who lobbied the department for the box, which was installed April 28, 2016. "This just happens to be a story that turned out really well."

Fire officials said Tuesday night marked the first time an infant has been left in one of the boxes.

According to the Safe Haven Baby Boxes website, there are two such boxes in Indiana. The second box is at the fire department in Woodburn; no other locations are listed on the website. Under the state's Save Haven Law a person can anonymously give up an unwanted infant less than 30 days old at a police station, fire department or hospital without fear of arrest or prosecution.

Smith pressed for the box after several babies were found abandoned in LaPorte County over several years, though Pawlik said the department initially faced criticism for installing the box.

Having the box is an option, Pawlik said, adding law enforcement officials will never know the number of babies abandoned in the county.

"I can't express how happy I am for this call," he said, adding of the baby's mother, "it's the hardest decision she'll ever make and it was a wise one."
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"It makes me feel like it's part of something special and it is something special. We saved a life last night," he said.

Firefighter Nick Fekete, who also was at the station when the infant was found, said he had the utmost praise for the baby's mother.

"I don't know what she was going through. It was just a great decision," he said.
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Under Indiana's Safe Haven Law, a person can give up an unwanted infant anonymously without fear of prosecution, according to the DCS website.

As long as there are no signs of intentional abuse on the baby, no information is required of the person leaving the baby. Once the baby is examined and given medical treatment, if needed, DCS will take the baby into custody through Child Protective services, where it will be placed with a caregiver, according to the website.

The Safe Haven Baby Box is heated, Pawlik said, and once the door is opened, it locks when it shuts. An interior door to the box is located in his office inside the fire station.

Pawlik said he left the infant in the box until medics arrived so she would stay warm, though his instinct was to pick her up. The baby, he added, was calm, certainly calmer than he was.

"It's very rewarding," he said. "I don't look at it like we're heroes or nothing. We're serving the public here."

Indeed!