Phoenix Police Conduct Welfare Check, Find Newborn Baby ‘Clinging To Life’ After Mother Died

Police officers in Arizona discovered a newborn who was “clinging to life” after conducting a welfare check, the Phoenix Police Department (PPD) said Thursday.

The PPD conducted a welfare check after neighbors said they hadn’t seen a mother and her newborn for several days, the department said in a post on Facebook.

“Inside the home, they discovered the mother had passed away and her baby was still alive, severely dehydrated and clinging to life,” the caption of their post read.

Body cam footage from May 14 shows officers pulling open the blinds of a window on the side of the house. One officer can be heard calling out “Hello” before another officer says “The baby’s here.”

“Officers looked through an open window and saw an adult woman who was motionless,” PPD spokesperson Sgt. Brian Bower told AZFamily. “The mother had passed away while the child was still on the bed still curled up where the mother had left them.”

Officers can be seen breaking down the door and rushing inside. One officer grabs the baby off of a bed where the newborn appears wrapped in a blanket. The caption of the video notes the newborn was also severely emaciated.

“Come on, come on, come on little one,” the officer said as he carried the child to a stroller. (RELATED: ‘By The Grace Of God’: Infant Survives Tornado, Found Nestled In A Fallen Tree)

“[The] mom’s dead. The baby’s probably been in there by itself for at least a week,” one officer can be heard telling another.

The video then shows the officer handing the baby to the EMTs.

The newborn was transported to a nearby hospital in critical condition, the police department said.

“We are happy to report, the infant’s condition has improved greatly, and they’re expected to survive,” the PPD said.

“It wasn’t learned until well after the fact from doctors and staff at the hospital that if the police officers didn’t immediately provide aide and didn’t immediately go into the apartment, the child may not have survived much longer,” Bower told AZFamily.

The police have not yet released information on the woman’s cause of death.