(WFLA/WECT) – A woman’s walk with her dog turned into a life-saving rescue in North Carolina.
Cynthia Burton walked her dog, “Flounder,” several times a day.
They decided to take a different path home because of hot pavement on Thursday.
Burton heard a noise coming from a garbage bin behind a nearby church.
“I heard a cry, a loud cry and then I kept hearing it,” she said.
Burton investigated and found a newborn baby boy with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck.
“He would not have survived if someone hadn’t been walking that way because he was in the trash bin at the bottom,” Burton said. “He was in a trash bag and the ties were tight. I couldn’t open them. I had to rip the trash liner part.”
Burton ran to a nearby apartment complex screaming for help.
A neighbor heard her and ran to assist.
“I saw the baby and I just knew I had to take action. I didn’t even wait a second, I knew I had to take action because the baby was so bloody, it looked like it had just been born,” Burton said.
She said it was a mixture of divine intervention and being aware of her surroundings that saved the newborn’s life.
Despite the trauma of the boy’s first moments on Earth, Burton hopes the child grows up knowing his life has worth.
“He’s special. He was loved from the very beginning that I got him in my arms and sang, you know, ‘Jesus Loves Me’ that he’s gonna live a wonderful life and 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,” Burton said.
“But he cried, and he kept on crying 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 believe he knew he was safe.”
North Carolina has a safe surrender law, allowing anyone who has a child to turn it over to a first responder, social worker or health care provider.
