Published: 3 February, 2008, 06:31
Edited: 3 February, 2008, 06:31
A newborn girl is recovering in a Russian hospital after apparently being thrown from a moving train just minutes after being born. She still has no name, but her plight has moved the hearts of thousands of people who've asked to adopt her.
Zelenovskaya train station is lost in the steppes of the Volgograd region. It's a small village, and almost everyone works for the railroad.
On a cold night, Galina Sudarchikova went to inspect the rail track as usual. She found a moving bundle of bloody fabric that turned out to be a newborn girl.
“I was in shock. I took off my jacket and wrapped the baby in it, and ran with her in my arms. I was afraid she'll die right there,” says Galina, who herself is a mother of two.
While waiting for an ambulance, she tried to take care of the newborn the best she could. But the ambulance never came, stranded in snow several kilometres away from the village. So the station workers took the girl to the nearest hospital on a diesel locomotive.
The police had been alerted and were already searching for the baby's mother. Police officials got on the train and found a woman who showed signs of having given birth earlier.
The 34-year-old woman was hospitalised in a state of shock in Volgograd.
But fellow passengers were in no lesser shock when they found out what the woman was suspected of doing.
Doctors say it's a miracle the newborn girl didn't die after being thrown from the train into the freezing cold.
Now the regional perinatal centre is being kept busy by people calling in with offers to adopt the girl.