A heart-breaking video has captured the moment sanitation workers rescued an abandoned newborn after it fell out of a trash bag on a Rio de Janeiro street.
Now one of the street cleaners, who is already father of two, is looking to adopt the baby girl.
Samuel Santos told Brazilian news outlet G1 that his crew was removing garbage during the early hours of Tuesday on a road linking the northern Rio de Janeiro neighborhoods of Quintino and Cascadura when he flipped a trash can into the truck.
Santos was walking back to the garbage truck when he spotted what he thought was a new ‘doll’ wrapped in a blanket and decided to pick it up as a gift for his daughter.
The cleaner was startled when he touched one of the hands and it made the baby cry.
Anderson Nunes, who has been working for the sanitation company for 16 years, said they were moved by knowing they had just saved the girl’s life.
‘We named the baby Vitória … Let’s hope they find her family,’ Nunes told the outlet. ‘If they do, I’ll be visiting them no matter what.’
Santos visited the baby girl at Herculano Pinheiro Maternity Hospital, where she is in stable condition.
He and his wife are taking the necessary steps to provide the baby with a loving home.
Their children, aged 10 and 14, have even begun to set aside a room for her.
‘I told them that they have to wait, there is a lot of work to be done,’ Santos said.
Santos’s wife initially thought that they could adopt the child on the spot.
‘I had to tell her that she couldn’t take her home without going through the courts,’ he said.
For now, Santos and his family will have to let the process play out before they can apply for adoption.
The Rio de Janeiro Child and Youth Court will have to wait for the baby to be healthy enough to be discharged and placed with a foster care unit.
Then it will need to track down the child’s parents and immediate family members. If nobody comes forward or the baby is rejected, then she will be put up for adoption.
‘By legal determination, before referring a child or adolescent for adoption, it is necessary to exhaust the possibilities of family (re)integration,’ the court said, according to G1.
‘I want to tell the story of how she was found, so that she doesn’t get lost in the world,’ Santos said. ‘But for now, I’m going to wait for all the procedures to be completed before filing the claim.’
Culled from Daily Mail
