Surveillance video shows rescue of abandoned baby in Manhattan

CHELSEA, Manhattan (PIX11) -- He had apparently only been alive a few minutes when he was found by some good Samaritans and helped by some EMTs, and now a newborn baby is doing okay at the hospital, while his mother is under arrest.

The situation in which the infant was found was captured on surveillance video.

It shows how quick action in the early morning hours by a man who says that he's often traveling in his wheelchair overnight, as well as fast work by a doorman and the medical professionals, ensured that the baby survived.

"[It] was a fresh delivery," said EMT Mia Chen, one of the first responders. "So it probably happened moments before," she said, describing the birth of the baby, for which Chen was called into action at 3:09 a.m., she said. 

It happened under the High Line, on West 23rd Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues. 

The location is right across the street from an EMS station, and next to where ambulances from the station park, when they're not on call.

Chin and her EMS partner, Patrick Feimer, had just pulled in to a parking spot under the High Line, at the end of a shift, when somebody knocked on their window. It was the doorman of the building right next to the High Line pillar where the baby had been left, with his umbilical cord still attached. 

"He found the child unattended," Chin said about the doorman who'd approached her ambulance, "with another gentleman in a wheelchair."

The two men got the EMTs involved immediately. 

"When I approached the infant," Chin continued, "it was crying and cooing and waving. I was just so happy that the child was alive and well," she said. 

Surveillance video from a camera that's just a few feet from where it all happened, shows an intense situation unfolding in about a minute's time. First, the man in the wheelchair passes the pillar next to which the baby had been left. The disabled man, whose legs are amputated above the knee, is seen going to the building that's next to the High Line pillar, at 515 West 23rd Street. 

The man in the wheelchair is Ronald Robertson, who said that he's lived in the neighborhood for a decades, and is typically riding around overnight. He got the doorman at 515 West 23rd Street to come to the baby's aid. 

"I saw the baby crying and I didn't know what it was," Robertson said in an interview. "I could see it was still living, so I told the doorman to go get the ambulance." 

Seconds later, as the surveillance video shows, the ambulance lights turn on, and the just-off-duty EMTs were back on duty, in a big way. 

"We were completely caught off guard," Chin said. "We were off duty." 

"You have no idea what you're walking into," she continued, "but then you remember what your instructors, what your lieutenants, your medics, everyone has assured you that you're part of a community, that you're part of a family, and you have each other at times when you don't know what to do."

Various parents in the neighborhood expressed sympathy for the mother.

"I was thinking desperation," said a mother of four who gave only her first name, Angela. "It must be a horrible thing what's going on for her."

Police said that Ayata Swan, 37, is the mother. She apparently turned herself in, with medical needs following the childbirth. Police charged her with abandonment of a child. 

Under New York State's Abandoned Infant Protection Law, a parent can safely leave a baby at a fire station, police station, hospital, house of worship, or other designated locations safely, with no questions asked, and no prosecution, provided that someone at the location is notified.  A parent can drop off without penalty up to 30 days after the child is born.

Parents can also call 877-796-HOPE (4673) for help.