Infant Survives Being Flushed Down Toilet In China
A newborn baby in China reportedly survived being flushed down the toilet by its mother, and was saved from a nearby sewer when passerby heard crying.
The infant, who has been nicknamed Xiaoxiao, was reportedly flushed down the toilet by his mother after his birth in Suide County, in Shaanxi Province.
The baby had reportedly been lying in the sewer below the street when a passerby called the police after he heard crying underground. The police arrived in time to find Xiaoxiao still alive, laying on his back in a pool of soiled water in the sewer.
Suide County fire department squad leader Li Zhi described the baby's rescue as a "race against time" because the infant could have quickly been covered in more debris from the sewer, or been flipped on his back where he would have drowned in the filthy water.
"It was really a race against time because somebody could have flushed something down the sewer again at any stage, or the baby might have turned over and ended up face first in the filthy water and drowned," Zhi told the Daily Mail.
The baby reportedly still had its umbilical cord when it was rescued, and authorities said the cord had not been properly cut.
"The child survived the ordeal surprisingly unscathed. I can't think of any similar case where a child survived being effectively flushed down the toilet," Li Zhiping, a physician at the local hospital where the infant is being treated, told the New York Daily News.
