quote:

Premature Indian baby survives falling from train moments after being born

A newborn girl fell through the toilet in a moving train and onto the tracks moments after her mother gave birth prematurely, surviving nearly two hours before being found, relatives said Thursday.

The infant's mother, who uses the single name Bhuri, was traveling with relatives on a train when she went to the bathroom shortly before midnight Tuesday and unexpectedly gave birth, said Arjun Kumar, her brother-in-law.

``Later, she fell unconscious and the baby fell through the toilet,'' he said.

``Two stations later, we knocked at the door.''

Bhuri opened the door, soaked in blood.

``When we asked her about what happened, she said the baby had fallen through onto the tracks,'' Kumar said.

Toilets on Indian trains usually have holes that open directly onto the tracks, and there were no indications that authorities doubted Bhuri's story or planned to investigate.

Kumar said that after finding Bhuri, relatives pulled the train's emergency brake and notified railway officials. A search was quickly organized, and guards at one of the stations the train had passed soon found the baby.

``She was on the rail track for almost 1 1/2 to two hours,'' said Dr. Gautam Jain, a pediatrician at Rajasthan Hospital in Ahmadabad, in the western state of Gujarat, where the baby and mother were taken.

The infant, who has not yet been named, was eight to 10 weeks premature and weighed only about 3 pounds 4 ounces, Jain said. She had a low heart rate and body temperature.

``We do not expect such children to survive,'' Jain said, adding that her survival was ``God's mercy.''

Here is a pic of the baby, she is beautiful!!!!

Wow, such an amazing story.

This reminds me of when I took the one and only train trip in my life. It was a very memorable time and a unique and beautiful experience. I was traveling from Eastern Washington to Tucson, AZ. It took 3 days. I was 25 and quite nieve but I did notice that when you flushed the potties, you could see the ground going by under you. Weird, I thought, that the toilet flushes right onto the train tracks. I wondered if the same thing happened in airplanes..no couldn't be.. no wonder on the train there was a sign in the bathrooms that said, "Do not flush while the train is stopped". I guess they didn't want the raw sewage to be deposited in the towns and cities we stopped at, but only onto the tracks when we traveled. When I returned home I told people that Amtrack trains' toilets flush right onto the tracks and basically, no one believed me. So now I have proof..lol. 23 years later.

My daughter was only 6 months at the time and she was with me on this trip to visit her grandparents for the first time. I wanted to see the sights so I took the train instead of flying. I recently came across a letter I wrote to her dad at that time and there was a part that I would have never remembered had I not written about it. It told a story of the train conductor who talked to us on this trip. We were traveling through a very beautiful part of Oregon, along the Hood River by Hood Mountain and he pointed at some kids fishing in the river by the bridge we were crossing and he said, "When I was a kid, I used to fish right there and watch the trains cross the bridge and wish I was on the train. Now I am on the train and wish I was a kid fishing in that river". I will now never forget that man and his story after reading the letter I wrote to my daughter's dad 23 years ago.

Okay I totally "derailed" this thread. (Pardon the intended pun.)

That poor baby!

I hope she'll be alright and won't remember the ordeal.

I was always afraid of trains when I was young - I always worried that I would fall off the platform when boarding or exiting trains and get crushed under the wheel. Or when you have to travel between cars on the train with those rickety "bridge" like things. I especially felt nauseous when riding in cars as a kid and passing over railroad tracks and that awful bump and buffet feeling.

One thing I did like as a kid was the smell of trains...

Cheers, Mikey

Oh my gosh how is that possible?! Seriously... wouldnt the mother know that she was giving birth and go get help when she knew something was wrong? Wow but thats a crazy thing how the baby survived the prematurity and the fall!! Wow.

I've been on a train 2 times. But since, the huge bridge like collapsed in a storm, and now its a historical site.

The toilets "drain" directly onto the tracks....how disgusting. If they would modernize the trains that would have never happened. The is one strong baby!

Wow!