A Brazilian man said on Monday that he was shocked to find a tiny, naked and abandoned baby amid tall grass in a poor area of Rio de Janeiro — and the shocking discovery was captured on video.
Police officers immediately took the tiny, 5.4-pound infant to Maternidade Alexander Fleming Hospital, where the child was put in intensive care, The Daily Mail reported.
Now, authorities are investigating how the baby came to be abandoned in the grassy area near a busy road before being discovered by Alexandre da Silva Dias de Freitas, a worker at a traffic engineering firm.
Alexandre said that, when he approached the area, he at first thought the baby was a doll. Then, when he realized that it was a child, he wondered if the baby was alive, as the it wasn’t moving or making any noise, 9 News reported.
Luckily, he took quick action to save the baby’s life.
While not much information has been released, the area where the baby was found is known as Barros Filho and, according to the Daily Mail, it is one of the poorest areas within the city’s limits.
Cell phone video shows the baby laying in the grass as one man can be heard saying, “It’s alive.” Another man is heard saying that they must call 9-11 to assist the child.
Alexandre later gave an emotional interview to local media in which he said he will never forget the encounter, which allowed him to save a life, according to The Daily Mail.
“When I looked down and saw this little thing with its arms squashed up tight against its chest, I thought at first it was a doll,” he said. “Knowing that this day, December 18 with Christmas just around the corner, I saved a life is something that will always stay with me.”