Caregivers are celebrating baby's recovery

Abandoned outside a Martha's Vineyard church last week, a drenched, hypothermic, hours-old infant hovered near death when he was discovered by a passerby.

But yesterday caregivers at Children's Hospital in Boston celebrated what Susan Getman, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Social Services, called a miracle. Baby Vinnie, as the abandoned child was dubbed, has been discharged in healthy condition to a Massachusetts couple who hope to become his permanent adoptive parents.

''This is the very happy story of a system that worked for a baby that was helpless," said Dr. Monica Kleinman, medical director of the critical-care transport program at Children's Hospital.

As word of the abandoned infant spread, officials said, hundreds of prospective adoptive parents who knew no more about Baby Vinnie than what they had saw in the newspaper called to offer their homes.

The infant was released into the care of a couple chosen by DSS. The 10-day-old baby had gained more than a half-pound, to 7 pounds, by the time he was discharged Thursday with mobiles, stuffed animals, and other gifts that poured into the hospital from well-wishers.

''His prognosis is really the best it can be," Kleinman said.

Although a months-long process has begun to formalize Baby Vinnie's adoption and possibly terminate the rights of his biological parents, Getman appealed to the infant's parents to identify themselves. The parents might be able to provide important medical and other information that could prove useful in the baby's care, she said.

The parents also could waive their parental rights to simplify the process for the adoptive family, officials said.

District Attorney Michael O'Keefe, whose jurisdiction includes Cape Cod and the islands, said that abandoning an infant is a crime in Massachusetts, but that authorities would ''be inclined . . . to tread very lightly" in considering criminal charges if the parents ''were to make themselves known and assist DSS and the foster parents in caring for the child."

O'Keefe appealed to Martha's Vineyard residents, including tightknit immigrant communities that might not feel comfortable reaching out to law enforcement, to help locate the parents. Authorities have also contacted physicians for information about recently pregnant women on Martha's Vineyard, for example, but doctor-patient privacy concerns have slowed that effort, O'Keefe said.

In Boston, at a hospital where seriously ill children are heartbreakingly commonplace, the recovery of Baby Vinnie was reason for broad smiles and the vindication of dogged hope.

''This is an unusual case for us," said Dr. Dara Brodsky of Children's Hospital, who advised Martha's Vineyard Hospital staff by telephone on minute-by-minute emergency care after Baby Vinnie was brought there from St. Augustine's Church in Tisbury.

''Most babies here are very sick," she said. ''This was a breath of fresh air for our unit."

That outcome would have been difficult to envision at about 5 a.m. June 22, when a woman on a morning walk saw what she believed to be a bag of trash near the chapel of St. Augustine's. Instead, wrapped in a white blanket and doused by sprinklers, Baby Vinnie clung to life despite a perilously low body temperature and low blood pressure.

''He was very close to death," Brodsky said. ''It could have been hours later; it could have been minutes."

A police officer resuscitated the child and brought him to the emergency room at Martha's Vineyard Hospital. Baby Vinnie was hypothermic from being drenched by cold water from the sprinkler, his skin blue and cool to the touch.

A breathing tube was connected to his nose. Medicine and fluids were fed to him through his umbilical cord. A helicopter brought him to Children's Hospital, where he was placed in the neonatal intensive care unit.

''He is an incredibly resilient child," Getman said.

The boy's foster parents were limited to applicants who had gone through the DSS screening, home study, and a training process. The couple's identity is being kept private.

Hundreds of hopeful adoptive parents, touched by the infant's near-death, inquired about Baby Vinnie, Getman said.

Although the infant has been placed in a home, Getman added, hundreds of children who need adoptive homes remain available.