LRH tragedy: Police say mother threw baby out of despair

A mother of a 27-day-old infant has admitted to throwing her baby from a window on the sixth floor of the Lady Ridgeway Hospital in Borella, on Friday, police said. The tragedy came to light when a hospital staff member had discovered the lifeless body of the baby on the grass right below the window, about an hour later.

Police said the 27-year-old mother had confessed to throwing the baby out of despair as the child was suffering from complicated physical disabilities, which would have made life miserable for the baby.

The baby had been transferred from the Anuradhapura General Hospital when the infant was just two days old, to the Lady Ridgeway Hospital. The baby was undergoing treatment at the Baby Unit’s ICU, when the incident occurred, Ridgeway hospital sources said.

Police said the baby had been thrown out of the window at about 1.50 p.m. and the body was discovered around 2.30 p.m. Magistrate Sujatha Alahapperuma ordered that the mother be remanded until May 13.