Baby Dropped Down 28-Foot Deep Outhouse Saved By Teenage Boy

(Nashville, Tenn.) – The Hands & Feet Project is now the home of 18-day-old Christela Belle, an unwanted newborn baby girl thrown down a 28-foot outhouse hole by her 15-year-old mother and left for dead shortly after she was born on Sunday, July 8, 2007. Rescued by a teenage boy, Toussaint, who attempted to retrieve her before calling police, Christela has now been placed in the protection of the Hands & Feet Project, a children’s village in Cyvadier (Jacmel), Haiti.

Rescuer Toussaint knew the mother had always denied being pregnant so when he noticed her leaving the school in Jacmel with a smaller stomach and blood on her legs, he followed the trail of blood to the outhouses behind the school. After hearing the baby, he notified police and attempted to lasso a rope around the baby below to pull her out.

The police and American UN soldier Darry “DJ” Williams arrived on the scene at a set of newly constructed outhouses, where Williams observed Toussaint desperately chipping away at the concrete toilet. “Toussaint told me that the mother had dropped the newborn in the pit because she didn’t want it. I could see that the baby was moving and knew that time was of the essence,” said Williams.

Williams notified the Sri Lankan Army, serving on behalf of the United Nations (UN) in Haiti, who arrived and quickly worked, breaking up the concrete two stalls down and lowering a soldier into the pit. The soldier wrapped the baby in a towel and secured it to a rope, which was then pulled out of the hole.

The umbilical cord and placenta were intact and a Sri Lankan medic raced the baby to an ambulance. The first hospital was poorly staffed, so Williams contacted an American friend, Drex Stuart of the Hands & Feet Project. “I told the medics to follow me to a private hospital near my house, and I called Drex who operates the Hands & Feet Project. I know that he recently had a set of twins in the private hospital and I asked him to call and notify them of our situation.”