The grandparents of Baby 59 – the newborn child who was thrust into the global spotlight last Saturday after being miraculously rescued from a sewage pipe – have appealed for the family to be left in peace.
Baby 59 was reportedly discharged from hospital into the care of his maternal grandparents on Wednesday night, four days after being found trapped in a pipe below a communal lavatory in China's eastern province of Zhejiang. The grandparents, who have not been named, urged the media and general public to "stop paying excessive attention to the baby" so that he would be able to "grow up in a peaceful environment", according to a report from the state-run China News Service.
The baby's 22-year-old mother was initially expected to face attempted murder charges for supposedly abandoning the baby after secretly giving birth. But reports on Thursday suggested police had accepted her version that the baby had "accidentally" slipped into the lavatory, becoming lodged in a pipe below.
The mother, whose name has also not been released, is suffering "from a high fever due to postnatal complications and remains in hospital", the state-run Global Times reported on Friday.
Meanwhile, police believe they have now located the father of Baby 59, who was nicknamed after his hospital incubator. "After a thorough investigation, we are confident, to some extent, that we have found the baby's father. Right now they are undergoing a DNA test. The man has expressed his willingness to raise the baby if their relationship can be confirmed," Xiang Jiangsong, a local police official, told the Global Times.
It is still not clear who will ultimately be given custody of the child or whether the parents, who were reportedly not in a relationship, will attempt to raise Baby 59 together.
Chinese micro-bloggers have been left perplexed by the astonishing reversal in the Baby 59 case, which this week saw the mother transformed almost overnight from villain into victim.
"Why the mother is not investigated?" wondered one baffled user of China's Twitter-like social media site Weibo. "Based on her story alone it cannot be concluded that the baby suddenly slipped down the sewage pipe when she was using the lavatory." Others were more sympathetic, backing the grandparents' call for Baby 59's family to be allowed some privacy. "The baby was rescued and we should let the mother have a good rest. The media should take a rest too," wrote one micro-blogger under the name "Jianshixian".
Baby 59 was reportedly discharged from hospital into the care of his maternal grandparents on Wednesday night, four days after being found trapped in a pipe below a communal lavatory in China's eastern province of Zhejiang. The grandparents, who have not been named, urged the media and general public to "stop paying excessive attention to the baby" so that he would be able to "grow up in a peaceful environment", according to a report from the state-run China News Service.
The baby's 22-year-old mother was initially expected to face attempted murder charges for supposedly abandoning the baby after secretly giving birth. But reports on Thursday suggested police had accepted her version that the baby had "accidentally" slipped into the lavatory, becoming lodged in a pipe below.
The mother, whose name has also not been released, is suffering "from a high fever due to postnatal complications and remains in hospital", the state-run Global Times reported on Friday.
Meanwhile, police believe they have now located the father of Baby 59, who was nicknamed after his hospital incubator. "After a thorough investigation, we are confident, to some extent, that we have found the baby's father. Right now they are undergoing a DNA test. The man has expressed his willingness to raise the baby if their relationship can be confirmed," Xiang Jiangsong, a local police official, told the Global Times.
It is still not clear who will ultimately be given custody of the child or whether the parents, who were reportedly not in a relationship, will attempt to raise Baby 59 together.
Chinese micro-bloggers have been left perplexed by the astonishing reversal in the Baby 59 case, which this week saw the mother transformed almost overnight from villain into victim.
"Why the mother is not investigated?" wondered one baffled user of China's Twitter-like social media site Weibo. "Based on her story alone it cannot be concluded that the baby suddenly slipped down the sewage pipe when she was using the lavatory." Others were more sympathetic, backing the grandparents' call for Baby 59's family to be allowed some privacy. "The baby was rescued and we should let the mother have a good rest. The media should take a rest too," wrote one micro-blogger under the name "Jianshixian".
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