Mentally ill homeless woman gives birth in vegetable market, refuses help

Mentally ill homeless woman gives birth in vegetable market, refuses help

GUANGZHOU - She was a familiar sight to the residents of Baiyun district.

For the past few months, this mentally unsound homeless woman had been seen haplessly wandering around the Longgui Food Market, with a big belly that indicated that she was pregnant.

On the morning in early May, residents were shocked by what they found.

With the umbilical cord still attached, she appeared out of an alley next to the food market carrying a filthy little infant.

According to residents, she appeared mentally unsound, but refused hospital assistance.

Beijing Shots reported that she even walked nearly 6km carrying her newborn baby.

She later used scissors to sever the cord, leaving it strewn on the road in front of the market.

Since the birth of the infant, she neglected to clothe him.

When thirsty, she simply left the naked infant on the muddy ground whilst she collected water from a roadside ditch using a plastic bag.

Whether the child had been fed is also disputable. A hospital worker who tried to persuade her to feed the child was refused.

The woman then took the infant to a public toilet adjacent to the market where she used to live.

Was she raped?

Was she raped?

According to residents, she had been seen wandering about the market for two to three months.

Eventually, the police rushed the baby to the hospital for treatment. However, the woman kept saying she has no money, although the doctor repeatedly explained to her that the treatment is free.

The doctors were helpless to treat the baby because the woman was unwilling to give the baby up for cleaning or shots.

At midnight in the morning of May 10, she suddenly left the hospital after four or five hours at the hospital. The doctors did not stop her as they saw no reason to detain her.

However, a reporter from Southern Metropolis Daily called the police as he was worried about the baby. The police stopped the woman and the baby was again sent to a hospital.

A doctor from Baiyun District Red Cross Hospital said that she may have a mental illness. Netizens have been questioning how she came to be pregnant, and speculated that the woman may have been raped.

The infant is currently stable and remains at the hospital for more comprehensive examinations.

The woman will be sent to a mental hospital for treatment while the infant may be sent to a child welfare institution in the future.

View pictures of the mentally ill woman and her infant below:

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