Newborn’s Body Found at UCI Medical Center

ORANGE — The body of a newborn girl was found Thursday by a custodian in a women’s restroom at UCI Medical Center’s Emergency Room, hospital officials said.

Immediately after the discovery, officials issued a plea for anybody with information about the baby or the identity and health of the mother to contact UCI Medical Center police.

“It is a shock to have this happen at any time to any hospital,” said hospital spokeswoman Fran Tardiff.

Reports of the dead baby deeply saddened hospital staffers who earlier in the day had been celebrating Wednesday’s birth of quadruplets at the hospital, officials said.

Details of the discovery were sketchy, and investigators declined to release much information.

“We are withholding some information so as not to jeopardize the investigation,” Tardiff said. “We’re just hoping the news does get out so that if someone saw something they will contact us. A lot of questions need to be answered.”

Officials said the full-term or near full-term baby had been found in the restroom by a custodian about 1 p.m.

Emergency room doctors were immediately called to the restroom and pronounced the baby dead.

Officials declined to say how long the infant may have been in the restroom where the custodian had found her or if attempts were made to resuscitate her.

After the discovery, medical center police, Orange County coroner’s investigators, and county crime lab technicians were called in to investigate.

An autopsy is scheduled today to determine the cause of death.

Anybody with information about the incident can call UCI Medical Center police at (714) 634-5493.