poignant
Correspondent:: John Starrett
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 13:16:20 -0700
--------
http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm2307_20050114.htm
Nine women claim baby who was brought to Sri Lankan hospital on day of
tsunami is theirs
Friday, January 14, 2005
BY DILIP GANGULY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - The infant dubbed "Baby 81" nurses from a bottle of
milk and kicks playfully at a pink blanket as nine desperate,
heartbroken women quarrel over him - all claiming he was torn from them
by the tsunami.
One man standing outside the nursery at Kalmunai Base Hospital
threatened to kill himself and his wife if they are not given the baby.
A woman at the hospital said she would kill the doctors unless she gets him.
The battle over the wide-eyed boy, who appears to be about three or four
months old, symbolizes the enormous loss in the Dec. 26 disaster.
Children accounted for a staggering 40 percent - or 12,000 - of Sri
Lanka's death toll of nearly 31,000. In all, nearly 160,000 people have
died across southern Asia.
The loss is especially keenly felt in Ampara district, where the fight
over "Baby 81" is taking place. There were 10,436 people killed in
Ampara, the highest in Sri Lanka.
The infant, bruised and covered in mud but otherwise healthy, was
brought to the hospital hours after the tsunami struck Kalmunai, a
remote town in eastern Sri Lanka that is home to Muslims and Tamils. It
was partly cut off after a major bridge was swept away by the deadly waves.
He was given the nickname because his real name is not known and he was
the 81st admission that terrible day, officials said Friday. No
relatives were with him.
Now, nurses in the hospital are competing to take care of the infant, a
doctor said. They have put a "mottu" on his forehead - a black stain to
ward off evil.
The nurses are not the only ones vying for "Baby 81."
"Parents who have lost their children come every day to the hospital to
check," Dr. K.R. Saseenthirian said Friday in a telephone interview.
"Some stay and claim that the baby is theirs."
The nine women who claim "Baby 81" show up at the hospital and quarrel
with each other, a hospital official said.
"Most of the parents who came and claimed that this is their baby are
really believing that this is their baby," Dr. K. Muhunthan, an
obstetrician, told Sky TV.
"Maybe they are not lying, because they have lost a baby of the same age
and all the babies they look at look like their own child," he said.
Hospital authorities asked police to investigate after some of the
parents became violent, Saseenthirian said. No one was injured.
"Now it will have to be a court decision. If the court asks us to
conduct DNA tests, we will do that," Saseenthirian said.
DNA tests are expensive in this poor region, however, and it was unclear
who would pay - or where they might be done.
Another doctor in charge of the children's ward said "Baby 81" was the
only child without his parents in the hospital.
"We have 25 babies, but all of them have their mother or father," said
Dr. Kandaswamy Muruganathan.
"Our Baby 81 is alone, but then all the nurses want to attend to him,"
he said.
"He is a healthy baby and feeding well on cow milk. We have no problem,
he is fine," Muruganathan said by telephone.
UNICEF says preliminary data indicate that nearly 1,000 children were
orphaned by the tsunami in Sri Lanka and 3,200 more lost one parent.
Associated Press writer Krishan Francis contributed to this report.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
John Starrett
Correspondent:: IMBJR
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 21:16:52 +0000
--------
On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 13:16:20 -0700, in reply to John Starrett
:
>http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm2307_20050114.htm
>
>Nine women claim baby who was brought to Sri Lankan hospital on day of
>tsunami is theirs
How do you cut a baby into nine even pieces again?
Correspondent:: nikolai kingsley
Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 10:31:19 +1100
--------
>>http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm2307_20050114.htm
>>
>>Nine women claim baby who was brought to Sri Lankan hospital on day of
>>tsunami is theirs
>
> How do you cut a baby into nine even pieces again?
you need a large measuring bowl and a blender, for a start.
Correspondent:: Tartarus Sanctus
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 17:02:54 -0700
--------
nikolai kingsley wrote:
>
>>> http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm2307_20050114.htm
>>>
>>> Nine women claim baby who was brought to Sri Lankan hospital on day
>>> of tsunami is theirs
>>
>> How do you cut a baby into nine even pieces again?
>
> you need a large measuring bowl and a blender, for a start.
The US Navy has developed a CO2 laser displacement tank that does the
trick. It was originally intended for baby harp seal disputes, but they
were able to quickly modify it, and it is on it's way over to take care
of this dispute as we type.
The baby is lowered into the tank and the change in water level is
recorded. The desired number of slices is dialed in, and the child is
then raised out of the water slowly. A CO2 laser is kept level with the
changing surface level, and cuts off slice after slice as the infant
rises out of the tank. The beauty of this system is that the pieces have
exactly the same volume. The job must be done quickly, though, because
the release of blood throws off the volume calibration.
Tartarus
Correspondent:: "c-bee1"
Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 01:07:07 GMT
--------
"Tartarus Sanctus" wrote in message
news:vvCdnV18Dp3-wHXcRVn-hA@nmt.edu...
> nikolai kingsley wrote:
> >
> >>> http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm2307_20050114.htm
> >>>
> >>> Nine women claim baby who was brought to Sri Lankan hospital on day
> >>> of tsunami is theirs
> >>
> >> How do you cut a baby into nine even pieces again?
> >
> > you need a large measuring bowl and a blender, for a start.
>
> The US Navy has developed a CO2 laser displacement tank that does the
> trick. It was originally intended for baby harp seal disputes, but they
> were able to quickly modify it, and it is on it's way over to take care
> of this dispute as we type.
>
> The baby is lowered into the tank and the change in water level is
> recorded. The desired number of slices is dialed in, and the child is
> then raised out of the water slowly. A CO2 laser is kept level with the
> changing surface level, and cuts off slice after slice as the infant
> rises out of the tank. The beauty of this system is that the pieces have
> exactly the same volume. The job must be done quickly, though, because
> the release of blood throws off the volume calibration.
>
> Tartarus
Damn baby keeps falling back in after the first slice! What am I doing
wrong?
Correspondent:: HellPope Huey
Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 03:44:15 GMT
--------
In article <%0_Fd.6758$P04.1199@attbi_s03>,
"c-bee1" wrote:
> Damn baby keeps falling back in after the first slice! What am I doing
> wrong?
You failed to coat it liberally with French Vanilla Cool Whip first.
--
HellPope Huey
"You can't go out to play today, kids;
the Giant Flea Alert Level is at Orange."
"They say Democracy
is how we choose the guy who takes the blame."
- "The West Wing"
"Oh, the goddamned irony
that courses through the popular culture
like a cancer.
If nothing is serious anymore,
there's nothing left to satirize."
- Berkeley Breathed,
creator of "Bloom County"
Correspondent:: nikolai kingsley
Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 10:34:51 +1100
--------
> One man standing outside the nursery at Kalmunai Base Hospital
> threatened to kill himself and his wife if they are not given the baby.
> A woman at the hospital said she would kill the doctors unless she gets
> him.
simple solution. gather all the claimants in a room and tell them "we've
just finished DNA testing and we know precisely who the parents are."
then look at their faces and check for a brief flash of guilt on the
ones who know they're lying.
if they all think they're telling the truth, then find eight babies that
look sufficiently like Baby 81 so they can't tell the difference and
hand them out in secret, saying "the other parents are gonna kill me for
this, but..."
it's not like there's a shortage of them.
alternatively - and i've been thinking this makes a dandy solution to a
lot of problems - send them to Guantanamo Bay.