Abandoned Newborn Is Recuperating

A crying newborn girl was found abandoned in a wooded area here Sunday by three 15-year-old girls.

The infant was covered only in a shirt, and its umbilical cord had been cut but was exposed, officials said.

The baby was taken to Children’s Hospital in Seattle and was in satisfactory condition, according to hospital spokesman Dean Forbes.

“She had apparently been born just hours before the girls discovered her,” Forbes said. “She was still somewhat warm, though she was starting to get hypothermia.”

The girls discovered the child shortly after 11 a.m. as they were using a shortcut through a wooded area near South 188th Street and 37th Avenue South in Sea-Tac, just north of Angle Lake.

The baby was expected to remain hospitalized overnight before being turned over to a social services government agency, deputies said.

King County sheriff’s officials were trying to identify and locate the mother Sunday.