Woman Finds Baby Buri3d in Park – The reason why is….
The vast majority of the time when a baby is born, an unbreakable bond is forged between mother and child. It is the kind of bond that is not intentionally manufactured; it is something that goes beyond that. It is the strongest natural bond that exists between any two human beings. And I say the vast majority of the time instead of all the time because there are cases in which a mother neglects her natural instincts. Not all mothers bring their children into the world wanting to do so. Some suffer in silence while that moment arrives, and when they give birth, instead of feeling happy, they fall into a deep depression and do things that under normal circumstances they would not do. It is then when stories as touching as the one we are going to tell you take place, in which solidarity and love are the only possible alternative.
Our story goes back to the month of May 1998, when Azita Milanian, a nurse who loves animals and sports, went jogging as she does every morning together with her two dogs, two German Shepherds, without knowing what she would end up discovering. Azita Milanian always went for a run an hour before she started her nursing shift at the hospital in Altadena, California. Her usual route was ten kilometers along a trail near her home, which she covered in barely an hour. During her run, Milanian always passed by a small park which at that time of day, 7:30 a.m., was always deserted, so she was used to running alone without spectators.
However, that morning would not be the same as the rest. That day she would not be alone in that park, and what she would end up discovering with the help of her dogs would change her life forever. As she ran through the park flanked by her two German Shepherds, Jackie and Pearl, Azita was startled when one of them caught a scent near a pile of dirt and hurried to follow.
“What’s going on? Jackie, wait, I’m coming, okay!” shouted the woman, trying to stop her dog who kept pulling her towards a pile of dirt hidden in the bushes.
The dog stopped dead in front of the mountain of dirt and started digging at full speed with his paws, when suddenly the cry of a baby was heard. Azita then bent down to investigate next to her dog and pulled it away so it wouldn’t continue scratching the ground. The nurse suspected that there was something hidden in the dirt and didn’t want the dog to hurt it. When she finished removing all the sand, she was stunned by what she saw. A newborn baby was buried alive in the dirt.
Azita, shocked and frightened in disbelief, realized the newborn was only a few hours old, as it still had the umbilical cord attached to his navel. Fortunately, her nursing knowledge and experience working in the hospital emergency room for more than eight years allowed her to react quickly and save the baby’s life. First, she picked him up in her arms and wrapped him in a towel she was carrying to wipe off her sweat. Then she walked over to a nearby fountain, cleaned her hands with water, and wiped all the dirt from his face. She gently stuck her wet fingers into his mouth and nose to remove the dirt clogging his airway and allowed him to start breathing.
It was a really agonizing few seconds in which Azita thought she hadn’t made it in time. The baby was very still and his face was pale, but he still had a lot of will to live. The baby started breathing again and began to cry loudly. He was alive. He had made it, but he still needed urgent medical attention to stabilize him, cut the umbilical cord that was still hanging from his stomach, and monitor his progress. After realizing the baby was breathing and his heart was pounding, Azita immediately called 911 to report what happened. She then resorted to the only thing she could do, pray that he would survive and that his little body would be able to hold out until the ambulance arrived.
“You’ll be all right, little one. I don’t know who your mommy is or where you come from, but you’re safe here. You hear me? I won’t leave you alone. You’re not alone, you’re safe,” Azita said to the baby while rocking him against her chest, waiting for reinforcements.
The ambulance took more than thirty minutes to arrive. Apparently, the driver made a mistake when taking a detour that delayed them, increasing the nurse’s nervousness.
“I managed to clear the remnants of amniotic tissue that were blocking his airway. He is stable, but not for long. The baby’s very weak. I’m a nurse, please take him quickly to an incubator or he could die,” Azita hurriedly explained to the paramedics who arrived at the park.
“Don’t worry, miss, you did the right thing. If it wasn’t for your quick action, the baby wouldn’t have had a chance to fight for its life. Thank you very much, we’ll take care of him now. He’s in the best hands, I assure you,” one of the paramedics who arrived with the ambulance hurried to tell her.
After the baby was loaded into the ambulance, he was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, and that was the end of Azita’s involvement. She would never hear from the child’s life she had just saved again for more than twenty years. Azita remembered him and his dirty face wrapped in that towel, and wondered what had happened to him, if he had managed to survive, but she had no idea of his fate, and she did nothing to find out either.
And this could be the end of the story, don’t you think? An open ending to a sad and disconcerting story that you don’t see every day. But no, this is not the end. Fate still had a nice surprise in store for our protagonist, one that would make her remember everything that happened that warm morning in 1998 and fill her heart with joy.
To begin with, it turned out that the baby fought for his life, amazing the hospital staff with his endurance, managing to survive and grow at the same pace as the rest of the children. He didn’t have any side effects from what happened on the day of his birth, and all thanks to the quick intervention of Azita, who was the one who found him dying in the pile of sand. Once recovered, Child Protective Services stepped in and helped him find a foster home. The family that adopted him named him Matthew Christian Whitaker, giving him a happy and comfortable life.
Matthew grew up a sweet, polite, and intelligent child who loved literature and playing baseball, qualities he would never have been able to explore had it not been for his savior twenty years earlier. Now, Whitaker is an excellent twenty-year-old college student who dreams of becoming a journalist and having his own column. The young man always knew he was adopted, but lived oblivious to his past until he turned seventeen, when his curiosity about his biological family grew and he began to ask many questions that his adoptive parents didn’t hesitate to answer.
However, although his adoptive family was always very cooperative in helping him learn more about his background, they never got to know who his parents were, let alone all the details surrounding his precarious birth.
“You came to us through the national adoption services. We had been waiting for two years to get the go-ahead, and suddenly you were there with your big green eyes and curly hair looking at us. We were only told that someone found you hiding in the bushes in a park, a woman if I remember correctly, but nothing more. I’m sorry I can’t tell you anything else, my dear,” his father said in a low tone.
But Whitaker wasn’t about to give up. He wanted to know more about his biological family and the mysterious woman who saved his life, so he contacted a family friend to email the Ryan Seacrest show to request a DNA test from 23andMe. He didn’t hold out much hope that it would get him results, but it did. Two weeks after sending the email to the show, one of the show’s producers, Patty Rodriguez, learned of Whitaker’s amazing rescue story and set out to reunite the student with the woman who saved his life all those years ago.
The reporter made many efforts to reunite the two, and after more than two weeks of searching, she managed to locate Azita, who was now living in Chicago with her husband and two daughters. And on May 17th, the two were reunited, almost twenty years after Whitaker was found in the park. It was an unforgettable moment witnessed by thousands of people through their television sets. Azita instantly recognized the curly-haired, big-eyed boy she had cuddled in her arms that morning. Seeing him, she walked over to him and with some fear grabbed Whitaker’s hand as she fought back tears. Whitaker couldn’t help but be moved either, for despite not remembering anything about her, he knew that if he was alive, it was because of that woman. He owed her his life, and that was the greatest debt anyone could ever owe.
“I’m here today, I’ve lived a great life. I was adopted into a good family, a great one, and it’s all thanks to this wonderful woman who didn’t hesitate to help me,” said Whitaker as he held Azita’s hand tightly.
“I never forgot about you, you know. I’m not saying this to make myself look good or because thousands of people are listening, I say it from my heart. After leaving you in that ambulance, not even knowing if you’d survive, I never stopped thinking about you, and in a way I felt guilty for not having done more to find you. I could have looked for you and asked for you, but I felt that it wasn’t my place, that you should go your own way and find your own family. And so it has been. Look at you, you’re a really handsome and talented man. I’m so happy to have been able to contribute to a good life for such an exceptional human being,” explained Azita with great emotion.
“I’ll be eternally indebted to you. Without you, I would have had no chance of surviving. Thank you for stopping that morning when you might not have done so. Thank you for giving me a second chance without asking for anything in return,” Whitaker answered, excited.
After the show, Azita and Whitaker kept in touch and became close friends despite the distance that separated them. They often spoke on the phone and ate together with their families on important dates, with Matthew’s birthday being perhaps the most important day for both of them, the day when fate wanted their paths to cross and Azita gave him the chance to come back to life. Can there be a greater gift than that? If you don’t believe in miracles, this might have changed your mind.
