| Mraz-a-licious
Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Iowa City @ U of I
Posts: 6,875
|  Baby81 gets a family | |
I found a link to this story off the website for one of my local papers. It's such an amazing story...I'm so happy for this family!
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'Baby 81' Parents Can't Take Him Yet
By KRISHAN FRANCIS
Associated Press Writer
KALMUNAI, Sri Lanka (AP) -- The 4-month-old boy dubbed "Baby 81" now has a name - Abilass - and a birth date - Oct. 19 - after a judge's announcement Monday that a DNA test shows the child dug out of tsunami debris belongs to the couple who waged an agonizing court battle to claim him.
But the parents, Jenita and Murugupillai Jeyarajah, have to wait two more days for a formal court hearing that will return custody of their son.
"We have gone through a lot of hardships during these days that we never experienced before," the boy's joyous father, Murugupillai, said after being informed of the finding. "But we have known that the child will be with us, even after months or years."
Eight other couples also tried to claim the boy in the early days following the Dec. 26 tsunami as he lay in hospital care. Only the Jeyarajahs filed a formal claim, but they couldn't document the boy's birth because their records and other possessions were lost when the killer waves battered Kalmunai. They said the baby was swept out of his mother's arms.
Court-ordered DNA tests were conducted last week at a clinic in Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital, 185 miles west of this coastal town.
On Monday, Kalmunai Judge M.P. Mohaideen unsealed the results from an envelope, read them at a closed meeting with lawyers and then ordered the Jeyarajahs, hospital officials and the baby to appear in court Wednesday, said S.H.M. Manarudeen, an attorney representing the couple.
"Since they are the biological parents, I have noticed them to appear on that day and we will hand over the baby to its biological parents," the judge said later.
After meeting with the judge, the couple's lawyer went to the house where the Jeyarajahs are staying temporarily to break the news. He was embraced by a weeping Murugupillai.
AP VIDEO
DNA Test Results Released for 'Baby 81'
Audio
Francis reports the parents are thrilled with the news.
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"I am so happy, and I only have to thank God for giving my child back," the father said. "We've got the results for all our hardships."
"We're happy!" Jenita exclaimed.
She and her husband had a private visit with the boy Monday night. The hospital has allowed them to be with the baby every day.
The Jeyarajahs say their son, named Abilass, was born Oct. 19.
He was found amid mud, debris and corpses after the water receded, and was named "Baby 81" because he was the 81st admission at the hospital the day the tsunami hit.
The story of "Baby 81" was a rare bright spot in a catastrophe that killed at least 167,000 children and adults in a dozen nations, 31,000 of them in Sri Lanka. Tens of thousands more are still officially listed as missing, but hopes for them have faded and bodies are still being pulled from the debris.
Sri Lankan police said Monday that villagers south of Colombo dug out the remains of 15 people. In Indonesia's Aceh province, which accounted for the most dead, workers found 582 bodies Sunday.
It has been a wrenching seven weeks for the Jeyarajahs. At one point, they barged into the Kalmunai hospital to try to reach the baby and were briefly detained after a scuffle with the staff. Then the father threatened to commit suicide unless the baby was given to them.
The court had originally ordered the hospital to give the couple temporary custody until the boy's parentage could be determined, but doctors refused, arguing he still required medical attention.
"If we were rich and of a higher social caste, the treatment would've been different," said Murugupillai, a barber. But he quickly added: "At the same time, if it hadn't been for the doctors, we wouldn't have seen the baby alive."
Jenita said that as soon as she regains custody of her son Wednesday, she will fulfill vows to smash 100 coconuts at a temple of the elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesh, offer sweet rice to the warrior god Murugan and kill a rooster for the goddess Kali.
"Then, we'll decide what to do next," her husband said. |
I am glad the baby will be safe now, I was worried the baby might go into the wrong hands.
