Nurse adopts abandoned baby who was addicted to drugs at birth
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A US nurse adopted a baby girl who was abandoned and addicted to drugs at birth.
Liz Smith, 45, had always wanted to have a baby of her own but suffered from infertility.
Sky News reports the same day she found out she was ineligible for IVF in 2016, the senior nurse was introduced to then three-month-old Gisele.
Giselle had been in hospital for five months, and never received a single visitor.
The baby had been suffering from neonatal absence syndrome when she was transferred to the Franciscan Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Gisele’s condition was a result of being exposed to narcotics during pregnancy and she had to be weaned off drugs as a result.
Smith learnt Giselle was a ward of the state, born premature and with neonatal abstinence syndrome as a result of her birth mother using heroin, cocaine and methadone during pregnancy.
Smith fostered her, and cared for her tirelessly as tiny Giselle underwent drug withdrawals. She would vomit frequently, and needed to be fed via a tube, reports Boston Globe.
Giselle’s birth parents could still take her, or the state could take her, as due process had to be followed regarding the fostering process.
“I remember thinking ‘I could lose her’,” Smith said.
“I would talk to [the state agency] about it. And they said, ‘We’re not going to come and take her in the middle of the night. It’ll be a planned event.’ Any time we had those conversations, I wanted to get sick.”
Finally, parent’s rights were terminated and in October 2018, Smith formally adopted Giselle.
