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Letter Carrier Saves Newborn While Delivering Mail

By Marilyn Loeser

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

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Columbus, OH, Letter Carrier Mike Herron usually doesn't even glance at a Columbus house in a quiet East Side neighborhood when he's delivering mail — the house is vacant.

 But when Herron passed by recently, he heard a baby crying and then noticed movement in a black garbage bag on the front porch. "I couldn't believe what I was seeing," Herron said. "A baby girl, just a few hours old with its umbilical cord still attached."

Once Herron found the baby, he knocked on doors of nearby homes for help. One neighbor called 911 while another held the baby, trying to comfort her.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Newborn Summer Adams, found outside a vacant house, is now in foster care.

 

 

 

 

 

"Thank goodness she was healthy because if she hadn't been crying, I wouldn't have looked at the house," said Herron who works out of Livingston Station. "She had a healthy pair of lungs."

 
 
 
 
 
 
Columbus, Ohio Letter Carrier Mike Herron stands beside the porch where he found a newborn baby girl.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
"Luckily, the mailman found her," said Doris Calloway Moore, spokeswoman for Franklin County Children Services. "We averted a tragedy."
 
Herron said it's hard to speculate how long the baby may have lasted, but "there wasn't a soul out on the street on that Saturday morning.
 
"I was at the right place at the right time," he said.
 
Children Services workers have filed legal paperwork to name her Summer Adams. They wanted a strong surname and often choose the names of past U.S. presidents, Calloway Moore said.
 
"Actually, I thought I would like to take her home," said Calloway Moore holding the infant. "I think she is just a precious little girl. She is so fortunate to have been found by that mail man. She is healthy and I know she will be adored."
 
Summer is now in the care of foster parents. Calloway Moore believes "it's likely she'll remain in the loving home where she's been placed."

 

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Readers' Comments

  • It's rare we here the good things that the majority of the postal workers do. Mike Herron is a shining example of most postal workers....
    Posted: July 14, 2009 9:02 AM
  • Kudos go to carrier Mike Herron. Hope your bossman doesn't give you a Letter of Warning for wasting time. If he does, your NALC Branch President will enjoy "frying" the boss. Carriers are being pressured in "burning up" the routes, but Mike, hip hip hooray! to you for watching out for your people on...
    Posted: July 10, 2009 10:52 AM
  • Recently, in a Washington suburb, a young mother of five and her seven year old daughter were killed when a tree fell on the mini-van they were in. I'm curious - was that a coincidence, or did a higher power play a role in putting them in the wrong place at the wrong time?...
    Posted: July 8, 2009 2:50 PM

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