Shocking Photos Of Newborn Baby Who Survived After Being Abandoned Inside Rat-Infested Storm Drain

A newborn baby has been hailed a “miracle” after surviving being dumped in a freezing storm water drain in the midst of a colony of stinging red ants.

Charmaine Keevy, 63, was out for an early morning walk with her sausage dog Georgie in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, when it suddenly started barking loudly at a drain duct in the gutter.

The catering company boss said she heard a noise and thought it was a cat mewing.

But when she got on her hands and knees she realised she could hear a baby crying from deep inside the drain.

Frantic Charmaine began waving down passing cars for help until motorist Cornie Viljoen, 60, pulled over and after listening for himself agreed that they could indeed both hear a baby sobbing.

He grabbed a steel bar from the boot of his car and with Charmaine’s help the pair of them managed to lever the heavy concrete slab covering the storm water drain free so they could look inside.

The baby was rushed to hospital with hypothermia

Brave Cornie had to drop six feet down into the drain and almost immediately began being stung on both his legs and realised he was standing in a colony of red ants as he tried to grab the baby.

He said: “The baby was lucky the red ants were higher up in the drain and not down at the bottom where she was.

“I just do not know why anyone could do this to a newborn baby, but I was just so glad that we were able to help her and save her life.

“I told Charmaine to call the emergency services right away.”

Cops and paramedics treated the baby at the scene for hypothermia and she was rushed to the Dora Nginza Hospital for emergency treatment and to warm up.

Police spokeswoman Colonel Priscilla Naidu said: “There is a possibility that the person who did this may have come from outside the area and placed the child there.

“We are appealing for witnesses and the mother of this baby to come forward.”

Hospital staff have called her Grace April and she has become a celebrity on the baby ward

Charmaine who found the baby on her morning walk, said: “I honestly believe I was meant to find that baby by God as I usually take a different route on my dog walk but for some reason went another way.

“I cannot help but feel that there is some sort of a plan and a purpose for that little girls’ life – it is a miracle without a doubt.”

The tot weighed in at 3.09kg and the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Crimes Unit of the South African Police Service have been called in to try and trace the mother.

Hospital staff have called her Grace April, and she has become a celebrity on the baby ward.

Social worker Pamela Rubushe who is caring for the baby and will find her a place of safety estimated she had been lying abandoned for a couple of hours, was near to hypothermia and was found just in time.

Charmaine added: “I hope if the mother does not come forward that Grace April finds a loving family and makes her mark on this world”.

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