The baby boy is alive and well. But the circumstances of his birth on January 16 are still shocking.
Her 23-year old mother, Emmanuella Osei, who immigrated from Ghana last May to live with her uncle in the United States was pregnant but hid it from everyone, including coworkers, family members and close friends.
But on January 16, Osei was working at a group home on Parkside Lane in Warwick Township in Pennsylvania when she told colleagues she felt ill.
She asked her supervisor to relieve her and went to a restroom to give birth.
There, she phoned her manager, asking them to call 911 but never mentioned she had just given birth in the toilet.
However, when Northern Lancaster County Regional police officers entered the restroom, they found what appeared to be an umbilical cord.
The door was partially open and he was surrounded by a large amount of blood.
Officers quickly performed CPR on the newborn who was cold and unresponsive and believed to have been submerged for 10 to 15 minutes.
According to police, Osei didn’t attempt to help save the baby’s life, who was hospitalized in critical condition but has since recovered. He has been placed in a foster home.
“The quick thinking and actions of Corporal Ochs almost certainly saved this child’s life,” District Attorney Craig Stedman was quoted as saying by local media, adding that “this is a reminder of how much our men and women in uniform do for us.”
Osei, who pleaded guilty on Tuesday faces up to 10 years in prison on the second-degree felony charge.
She would be sentenced later this year after a background investigation.
She has remained locked up at Lancaster County Prison without bail after her arrest at Reading hospital in January, and was not given bond because she could flee to Ghana.
