Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe is pleased to announce the County’s Safe Surrender Program celebrated success again today with the report of another safely surrendered newborn. This most recent report of a surrender occurred in the City of Bellflower at Kaiser Permanente Hospital.
The newborn Hispanic female was surrendered on Monday, March 26 and is reported to be in good health. Although the surrender occurred on Monday, confirmation was just received today. It is normal for surrenders to take several days to be verified under the rules of the program. As is standard practice, the baby girl is in protective custody and will be placed with a family approved for adoption by the Department of Children and Family Services.
This is the seventh Safe Surrender in Los Angeles County in 2007, and the 54th surrender since the program began six years ago. The program was initiated by Supervisor Knabe and approved unanimously by the Board of Supervisors in 2001. It allows someone to surrender an infant that is no more than 72 hours old, as long as the infant shows no signs of abuse.
This latest Surrender just goes to show that 72 hours works, said Supervisor Knabe. The Safe Surrender Program continues to be a tremendous success and I am happy to hear this baby girl is healthy.