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Baby is left in firefighter's arms
By CANDACE RONDEAUX, Times Staff Writer
Vandermeir could make out the face of a white man in his early 20s peering through the glass. The man motioned for Vandermeir to open the door. Dressed in a T-shirt and shorts smeared with blood, the man said just a few words. "He asked if this was a safe place. I said it was. Then he said, 'I have a baby for you' and gave me the baby," Vandermeir said. Authorities think the unidentified man who handed Vandermeir the hour-old boy on Tuesday was the first in Pinellas County to take advantage of an amnesty law that protects parents of abandoned babies. Under Florida's 2-year-old safe-haven law, a parent or relative can legally leave an unwanted baby less than 3 days old with personnel at a fire station, a hospital or a doctor's office with no questions asked. The baby was in stable condition in the neonatal intensive care unit at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, according to Roy Adams, a hospital spokesman. Adams said the baby was about an hour old when it was left at the fire station. The child will be placed for adoption. Up until the moment the man arrived at the station house door, Vandermeir said, the squat brick Pinellas Park fire station on 82nd Avenue N had been silent. The 21-year Fire Department veteran had just jumped down from the lemon yellow cab of a firetruck when the man appeared. With his adrenaline still pumping after spending about five hours helping clean up a spill caused by a leaking fuel tanker at the Clearwater Air Park, Vandermeir could barely believe what he was seeing. The tiny boy appeared to be a full-term newborn. Vandermeir immediately made sure the baby's airway was not blocked and checked his vital signs. Vandermeir, a father of three young girls, asked the man only one thing. "I did ask the father if he'd like to say goodbye to his baby," Vandermeir said. The man said goodbye and turned to go without another word. "It kind of put a tear in your eye." Vandermeir assumed that the man who dropped the baby off was the child's father, but because police do not know his identity, they can't be sure. The law allows someone leaving a baby in a safe place to remain anonymous. Pinellas Park police spokesman Sgt. Dan Levy said the mother was not present. "We're concerned for the mother, that if she has any health or medical issues she needs taken care of, she needs to come forward and go to the hospital," Levy said. He reiterated that under the law, the parents cannot be charged with abandoning their baby. "We don't want to know who she is," Levy said. According to state officials, there have been several cases of babies abandoned at hospitals and fire stations since Florida's amnesty law was enacted in July 2000. Department of Health spokesman Bill Parizek said the department does not officially track such cases but that he believed this was the first time under the new law that a baby was left in Pinellas County. Even since the law took effect, however, some parents have abandoned babies in trash bins or left them to die in other places. State Rep. Sandy Murman, R-Tampa, was the chief sponsor of the safe-haven law. She said the Pinellas Park case proves that the $100,000 the Department of Health has spent advertising the law has been effective. "Slowly, inch by inch, it's working," Murman said. Pinellas Park Fire District Chief Dave Holler agreed that the law seemed to have helped in this case. "It's much better than finding him in the trash can," Holler said. And as far as he's concerned, the baby couldn't have been left in better hands than Vandermeir's. At the station, paramedics monitored the child's vital signs while Vandermeir bundled the boy up in his old Klondike Bar towel and dubbed him "Baby K." When Vandermeir phoned home later Tuesday morning to tell his wife, Lori, and his daughters what had happened, the girls begged him to bring the baby home. For now, doctors plan to keep the baby under observation for several days. "Basically, not knowing any history of the child, they (hospital doctors) are going to make sure any medical issues are met," Adams said. "In this scenario, it seems like a positive outcome of these laws. It's been a win-win situation. The child is safe, and the parents can be at peace that he was left in good hands," Adams said. Roxanne Fixsen, director of Family Continuity Programs, the agency charged with caring for abandoned newborns and children who are wards of the state in Pinellas County, said her agency would have no involvement because there was no evidence of abuse. "The law presumes that the parents intended to put the baby up for adoption, so unless there's abuse, we don't get involved," she said. Fixsen said a judge will decide whether the child eventually will be turned over to A Gift of Life adoption agency or Catholic Charities Adoption Services. The child will then be placed for adoption with a family already in the adoption process, though officials know they will receive calls from people who learn about the baby and offer to adopt him. Vandermeir said he's just happy the baby's okay. He admires the father for having the courage to follow the law and bring the baby to a safe place. "I think it's remarkable what that man did. It takes a heck of a person to do what he did."
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