BY LIDIA DINKOVA
ldinkova@MiamiHerald.com
When Coral Springs firefighters heard the alarm Monday night, it wasn’t a siren but a baby’s cry.
Outside the fire station at 4550 Rock Island Rd. they found a newborn girl.
“She was wrapped in some T-shirts,” said Mike Moser, spokesman for the Coral Springs Fire Department.
“The child still had the umbilical cord and some of the placenta attached.”
Firefighters took the baby to Northwest Medical Center, where doctors said she was in good condition.
Then, she was taken to A Safe Haven for Newborns, a state organization that works with private adoption agencies, Moser said.
This was the second baby in about three years to be dropped off at the Coral Springs Fire Department, and the 159th in Florida to be left with A Safe Haven for Newborns since 2000.
The number of babies left at Safe Havens reached all-time highs in 2005 and 2007 when 23 babies were left at fire stations or hospitals.
But the number has steadily decreased over the past four years. So far this year, eight babies have been left at Florida Safe Havens.
Florida’s Safe Haven for Newborns Act, passed in 2000, allows mothers to drop off babies one week or younger at any hospital, fire station or emergency medical services station, anonymously, without consequences.
“All these babies get adopted,” said Nick Silverio, founder of A Safe Haven for Newborns. “They have a future. They could be the next president. They could be a Supreme Court justice. But more importantly, they will have a mom and dad.”
