Ill and abandoned infant receives help from readers

Dantri/DTiNews readers have donated to help an abandoned infant in HCM City who is in dire need of financial support.

The infant abandoned at a local pagoda.

On August 11, Nguyen Thi My Chau, head of the social work office at Thu Duc District, said they had received VND66,040,000 (USD2,800) from Dantri readers to the child. In the past days, several people have also called the hospital to ask about the boy's health and donated VND20m to him.

His health has improved a bit and doctors still remain cautiously optimistic. In order to treat his cholestatic jaundice and birth defects, they need intensive and long-term treatment which will be costly. The boy still needs much help.

The baby boy was abandoned at An Lac Pagoda in Thu Duc District on July 17. No one has come to reclaim the boy.

Nguyen Ha Phuong from the hospital's Children Intensive Care Unit said, "The boy was born prematurely with birth defects. He had been treated at another hospital before and there's a chance that he may suffer from an infection. He is struggling against pneumonia, septic shock and cholestatic jaundice and other illnesses."

Dieu Ngoc, a Buddhist at An Lac Pagoda, said, "At 9 am on July 17, we saw a woman with a headcover run away from the pagoda. Looking at her posture, we thought that there was something wrong and then I heard someone said that there was a baby left on the bench." Ngoc said the infant still had a part of the ventilator left in his mouth. He could hardly breathe at the time so they reported to the police and brought him to Thu Duc Hospital. The baby has a deflected nasal septum, bulging eyes and multiple deformities.

"Maybe his mother knew he was ill and needed treatment so she left him at the pagoda or maybe he's just a child from unwanted pregnancy," Ngoc said.