A Jamaican man is fighting to gain custody of an abandoned infant he found stuffed in a shopping bag and left on a fence.
The local children’s hospital admitted the child for evaluation and care, however, informed the man he would not be able to take the little girl home because authorities needed to investigate her abandonment.
Kingston contractor Oshane Briscoe says he wants officials to see how serious he is about parenting the child, showing up to the hospital as much as he can. However, despite his visits, he is not allowed to see the girl because he is not a biological parent.
No one knows who her biological parents are.
Briscoe and a female friend discovered the little girl he calls “Baby Sunshine” on Wednesday, May 3, near his home in Vineyard Town, St. Andrew, Kingston, according to the Jamaica Gleaner.
The father of two said the baby was covered in blood and swarmed by ants that bit her all over her face and arms but was otherwise “strong.”
After discovering the newborn and noticing she still had her umbilical cord attached to her body and other fluids like blood and afterbirth, he swiftly took her to the Victoria Jubilee Hospital.
While the hospital did not admit the child, it did clean her up before instructing Briscoe to transport her to the Bustamante Hospital for Children.
Once he took the baby to Bustamante, officials received the baby but cut Briscoe off from seeing her. Reports say it was against policy until authorities can sort out who her parents are if she should go into the foster system, or if she will be placed up for adoption.
Dr. Sandra Chambers, the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) regional technical director explained the process hospitals and officials must follow in the case of abandoned children.
“The established protocol is to stabilize the patient; inform social worker, police, and Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA),” Chambers said. “It is a case of abandonment under investigation and protocol dictates that contact be limited until the case has been properly investigated.”
“Hospital protocol dictates that only parents are allowed to visit children and this is still under investigation. The baby is now a ward of the hospital and only persons from CPFSA and the police are authorized to visit,” she added.
The SERHA would later say Victoria Jubilee Hospital was mistaken in not taking custody of the baby when Briscoe presented her there.
In a video interview, Briscoe said he is already attached to the baby and wants to be considered as her guardian. It would make his family complete. While he wants to adopt the young girl, Briscoe says there are others in his village also considering stepping up for Baby Sunshine’s care.
He said his sister and another female friend were interested, but both are mothers to daughters already.
That is not a deterrent for Briscoe.
“I don’t got any daughter. I got two sons. My older son lives in the States,” he said adding, having a little girl would be a blessing, “Maybe, it’s God sent her to me.”
He also said, “As much as I got my two responsibilities, I would like to have her. God will provide.”
Briscoe says has not seen the baby because of policy but has brought diapers up for her care. The gifts were also not received. That too is against policy.
“We can only accept general donations that will be utilized for general patient care and not this specific child,” Chambers said. “This case is still under investigation. There are clear, strict protocols that govern what you can and cannot do at the hospital.”
Still, Briscoe is not discouraged and is keeping hope alive regarding the baby. He hopes he will be given to him, even if it is only to be a foster parent for a while.
He says Baby Sunshine is a “nice, quiet” baby with a strong future ahead of her.
The dad says this with confidence, drawing attention to her sturdy disposition during her lowest point.
He noticed the baby was being bitten by the ants, but she didn’t seem agitated. Briscoe believed it was as if she got used to the bites.
Baby girls, research shows, are born with a “fundamental genetic advantage.”
“Females carry two copies of the X chromosome, while males carry an X and Y chromosome. As the X chromosome contains more of the genes involved in fighting disease, women are biologically more likely to be able to fight acute infections,” a study by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland says.
Higher rates of “disease-fighting protein” were found in the samples for newborn girls,” research shows.
Professor Catherine Greene, the senior author of the research, was clear, “The phenomenon of female neonates being hardier than their male counterparts is well recognized.”
Briscoe wants to see all the ways Baby Sunshine might be different from the sons he raised, saying he is researching the steps and gathering the appropriate documents he needs to take to adopt her. Whatever obstacle might come before him, he said he is ready to face them to gain custody.
As for now, the baby remains at Bustamante and has become a ward of the state. Her health, according to the SERHA, is in good condition.
Superintendent of Police Tommie-Lee Chambers, Head of the Kingston East Division, says there still are no leads pointing to Baby Sunshine’s parents or other relatives. The investigation remains active.
There is such a lack of common sense I’m this world. The older I get, the stupidity is astounding. I’m, literally, scared for my children to grow up in this world, as it is today.. Bunch of selfish, spoiled brats who could care less about a life and what it means. It’s truly sad to watch each year. The law and the government is even sadder n more sickening to watch. My dad has cancer n took away his pain meds bc of other people’s addiction,….. No one cares about people as individuals, ect. I could go on n on but it does no good. I’m just a nobody w a lot to say.
I truly do agree with you. I have a hard time with meds etc, and other stuff as well the does what it wants to do and they get away with it
Yes maybe it is God sent but I also feel finders keepers
I hope and pray for the kind gentlemen who basically saved sunshine I believe his state should award this man full custody
I believe that. The gentleman who found her should be able to adopt this child and be her father
He named the child and wants to give her a loving home.
The man found her should be able to adopt. He found than when though proper channel for safety. And check on her every day. I pray he get custody in Jesus name.
I agree that the man who saved her should have a chance to adopt her. We can see that he has good intentions. By the way, the hospital that wouldn’t admit her and sent them on should be fined for dumping.
Yes she was a godsend for you but if you read into it they are calling her baby sunshine so in my eyes being from the state anytime somebody’s name something and it went into a different custody they seem to always get them back so keep on with your face because God will provide and God will bring her back to you I don’t know how to submit it
This is such a touching story,and I as others feel it’s only right this man gets this child,I mean her own parents throwed her away as if she wasn’t nothing,if it wasn’t for him and his gf finding her she probably would have passed this world,it’s by God’s grace that this man found that child that’s who God has chosen for her daddy so pls people give that man what he deserves(BABY SUNSHINE) I THINK THATS AN AWESOME NAME KEEP YOUR HEAD UP GOD WILL PROVIDE IN JESUS NAME I PRAY AMEN
I can’t believe that that the country won’t give him custody but he saved her life he found her with his girlfriend and he took care of her and took her to the hospital that alone shows that he’s a very responsible person I don’t know why they need to fight him to give him custody of her it’s obvious that he loves her and I don’t think that’s ever going to change but if you guys keep screwing around like this you’re going to mess up her life all she needs right now is someone who loves her and doesn’t care whatever else happened to her
This man baby Sunshine would probably be passed out of this world so and he went the right way about it and bring her to the hospital he could have just found her and bring her home and kept it under the grid you know so I think this man deserves to be able to raise her it was it was meant to be God put her in his path so I believe baby sunshine needs to be with him so baby sunshine I’m praying that you get to go home with your daddy that count me ought to be ashamed of themselves that little girl’s been through enough already she was abandoned and thrown in the trash from day one give her a chance she deserves it will be praying that you get the baby back in jesus’s name I mean the way the world is nowadays A lot of people went crazy people would have found that baby maybe even walk right by and left it there maybe even took the baby and sold it to a drug dealer cocktail you never know so that man deserves to be the one that raises baby sunshine and I’ll be praying for that to happen
If it is God’s will, God will make a way. My Dad once told me life is easy, it is us who complicates it. How true that has turned out to be the case. Stick to the basics. How crazy is it that they would give this child to someone randomly when this man, this man has already proven himself to be an example of a caring human being who stepped up and did the right thing. There was no need for her to be a ward of the state. God let your will for this child be known 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏❤️
I pray this baby is given to Briscoe. I think he’ll be loving father. It’s obvious he loves her already
Wow. He loves the baby more than the mother who hung her up in a bloody shopping bag, to basically be eaten alive by ants. And when they find the parent(s) then what?
I’m so glad the baby was rescued and is on the road to recovery from the ant bites and hopefully go on to live a happy life with a good family that found that her
Let him raise sunshine she needs someone who will be there for her and he all ready loves sunshine let them be a family
May God bless you and your family ❣️ and I pray that you get to adopt 🐥🍼 Sunshine and become her father amen❣️💐🦄