Miracles do happen sometimes and people show up as guardian angels for those who can't protect themselves.
There are moments that feel like miracles and we know that we are placed there for a reason. Perhaps, we end up meeting someone who saves our life or we are able to help someone else who needs it. It's being in the right place at the right time.
One woman in North Carolina was going about her walk with her dog, as usual, on the afternoon of July 16, 2020 when she heard a cry from a trash can. What she found inside shocked her and the discovery spurred her into action.
Cynthia Burton and her dog, Flounder, usually walk a different route back home, but they took a shortcut behind Christ Community Church in Wilmington around 5 p.m. She wanted to avoid the sizzling hot pavement as her dog would be uncomfortable.
On their way home, Cynthia heard a noise, which she couldn't distinguish as cries then, but when she opened a trash can and saw what was inside, she realized it was a baby. The cries grew louder after she took the lid off but she couldn't see the child yet since it was inside a black trash bag. She discovered a newborn baby boy, as per WECT.
The child was covered in blood and his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck. Holding on Flounder's leash in one hand and the child in another, she cried for help but the church was empty. She ran to a nearby apartment complex and stopped a couple outside on their patio to call 911 and help the baby.
“He’s very powerful and very strong because he cried out to live and if I had walked by, and not heard a sound I’d have kept on walking, but he cried, and he kept on crying, he cried until I went and got the bag and pulled him up and, when I opened the bag, he stopped crying. That’s when I think he knew he was safe," said she. When she found him, she knew that he was alive and she "knew that was a good thing." However, she also knew "didn’t have a lot a lot of time(sic)."
Tamara Austin was at the Meridian at Fairfield Park apartments that day when she heard Cynthia screaming that she found a child in a dumpster. "She said she found it in a dumpster across the street," said Tamara, as per WBTV. "She was on the phone with 911 when I came out. The baby was breathing he was obviously a newborn...very recent," she said.
A mom herself, she was listening to the instructions by the 911 dispatcher and following them. "He still had his umbilical cord around his neck," said she. "The 911 operator told us to take it from around his neck which it wasn’t tight, and I just held him and cleared his airways with a towel and I just held him," she added.
Together, Cynthia and Tamara waited until the paramedics reached them. They comforted the child who had been abandoned to die. "I was praying," said Tamara. "And she (the woman who found the baby) started singing Jesus loves me and I just chimed in with her and saying it with her. I told him someone here wants you. And, God has a purpose for you so, hang in there. And waited until the ambulance got here."
The women went through an emotional experience together and saved the child. "I said, ‘hang in there little man, we have help coming for you, and God has a purpose for you.’ He actually grabbed my pinky finger when I said that. So, that was very heartwarming to say the least," said Tamara.
"Thank God that she was walking her dog when she was, thank God she heard him cry and was able to bring him up here. 'Cause she's definitely the hero that saved his life," Tamara said of Cynthia, as per ABC11.
The baby was then taken to a hospital by the emergency responders, said the Wilmington police. They also said that the newborn found was healthy and doing well. They then started looking for the mother of the child, who turned out to be a 21-year-old woman, Maryuri Estefany Calix-Macedo.
She was charged with first degree attempted murder. Maryuri was taken to New Hanover Regional Medical Center for assessment and was being held at the New Hanover County Jail under an $800,000 secured bond.
References:
https://www.wbtv.com/2020/07/17/woman-describes-moments-after-newborn-baby-was-found-trash-can/
https://abc11.com/wilmington-baby-found-in-trash-can-maryuri-estefany-calix-macedo/6323532/