Newborn found still connected to unconscious mother on hotel lawn; parents face charges
WESTLAKE, Ohio (WJW) - A good Samaritan helped save a newborn infant after finding the child's mother unconscious with the baby still attached by the umbilical cord.
Police and paramedics were called to the Westspring Inn in Westlake, Ohio, on Tuesday after the witness, who was walking her dogs, spotted a woman passed out in the grass outside the hotel. Initially, she was not sure what she was looking at.
On police body camera video, she told officers, “So I'm like, 'What is that sticking up in the air?' and the baby's face was down in the grass and its butt was up like this and the baby was crying, and she was out like a light.”
“The mom was?” the officer asked.
“Yes, I was like, ‘ma'am, ma'am,’ screaming at her and she did not budge,” the witness responded.
Since the mother would not respond, the witness used scissors from her purse to cut the umbilical cord while waiting for help to arrive, according to police.
"Someone unconscious on the ground is concerning to anybody. When they're still connected to a baby via an umbilical cord, it adds that much more alarm to it, so she did the right thing. She made sure the baby was OK," Captain Jerry Vogel said.
The good Samaritan told a 911 dispatcher that she made sure the baby was breathing OK and wrapped him in towels.
Police say the father of the infant, 35-year-old John Bratsch, told them that the mother, 42-year-old Chanel Mueller, gave birth to the baby in their hotel room, and while Bratsch was cleaning up the room, Mueller went outside with the baby still attached and passed out.
"They do admit to being drug users, dependent drug users, so I don't know what they were thinking, not seeking medical help. They claim the baby came really quick. Maybe that happened, I don't know, but once you have the first inkling that the baby is coming, dial 911, get help there,” said Vogel.
Mueller and the infant were taken to St. John Westshore Medical Center and investigators say as a result of the alarming conduct by the parents, officers immediately called in investigators with Cuyahoga County Family and Children's Services.
Police are hoping that the child will be placed in a safe home and that the incident will serve as a wake-up call for Bratsch and Mueller and convince them to seek help.
They are each facing charges that include child endangering.
"They put the child in a life-or-death situation by not trying to seek medical attention. Obviously, they weren't in any state to take care of this baby at that point because neither one of them did,” said Vogel.