By Tien-Shun Lee
A 33-year-old homeless man who found a newborn girl abandoned by the Van Wyck Expressway Saturday morning said he is very disappointed that agencies involved in the baby's welfare have not contacted him to let him know where the baby is and how she is doing.
Eli Couvertier said he was walking to work around 7:30 a.m. on Saturday when he saw squirrels crowded around something wrapped in a yellow and white knit blanket. The bundle was lying close to Hoover Avenue in Kew Gardens on a grassy patch behind a stone partition that divides 83rd Avenue from the Van Wyck Expressway.
When he lifted the blanket, he discovered the baby girl with her eyes closed and her umbilical cord still attached.
“I was like, 'Oh, my God, it's a baby,'” Couvertier said. “I didn't know if she was dead or alive. Then I jiggled her cheek and she made a frown, like 'Leave me alone, I'm still sleeping.'”
Couvertier took the baby back to the Briarwood Residence, a homeless shelter at 80-20 134th St. where he, his wife and two children, 2 years old and 10 months old, have lived for almost a year. He used the shelter's phone to call police and an ambulance.
The newborn was brought to Jamaica Hospital, where doctors gave her a thorough examination. The baby weighed about six pounds, was in good health and was estimated to be four to five days old.
“The child was fine and custody has since been given to the Administration for Children's Services,” said Michael Hinck, a spokesman for Jamaica Hospital.
Once the baby was given over to the agency, ACS workers immediately began working to place her in foster care, said Elysia Carnevale, a spokeswoman for the agency. On Saturday night, the infant was released from the hospital and taken to a foster home.
“We worked as quickly as possible to have the child medically examined and placed in foster care,” Carnevale said. “Our concern when we're unable to find a parent is to have people (available) who can take care of her.”
Carnevale said she could not release information about where the foster home is or who the foster caretakers are.
Police said an investigation was underway to find the mother of the baby girl.
Couvertier said since Saturday he has returned to the same spot where he found the baby every morning on his way to do construction work to see if perhaps the mother is standing around looking. He is still in emotional turmoil over his find, he said, and is upset that no one has contacted him to tell him about how the baby is doing.
“These people are very cold,” Couvertier said. “I mean, yes, I'm homeless, but I'm a human being, too. At least they could mail me a letter. That's the kind of reward I would like from the city. It's a damn shame that I participate in saving a life and they can't even notify me of the whereabouts of the baby. I do care.”
Couvertier said he would like to be a part of the girl's life and would adopt her if the opportunity ever came up.
“You just don't find a baby every day,” he said. “I feel like a godparent because that's what God sent to me – he put this child before me so I could rescue her.
“I feel that if this small person could speak, she would want to stay in contact with the person who saved her life.”
Reach reporter Tien-Shun Lee by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com, or call 718-229-0300, ext. 155.
