Parents Abandon Newborn for Having Down Syndrome, Nurse Gives Him a Mother's Love

After a young boy was abandoned at a hospital for having Down syndrome, a nurse stepped up to give him the motherly love he deserved to receive.

No child deserves to be without a parent's love, especially since they're brought into the world without a clue of what's going on around them. Raising a child is a parent's responsibility and something that should be done with love and the purest of intentions.

There's nothing a parent wants more than to see their child healthy. When a child is found to be with special needs, most parents will go the extra mile to give that child the best care.

This wasn't the case for one particular baby, who was heartbreakingly denounced by his family after finding out he had Down syndrome. The condition was initially not detected during the woman's pregnancy, and it shocked her and the rest of the family when they learned about it after the baby was born..

A Heartbreaking Birth Scene

Unable to accept this reality, the mother asked for the baby's crib to be removed from her room. She refused to take the baby home, and returned the birth certificate to the midwife assigned to her.

At the time, Marcela Casal Sanchez was a nurse at the nursery where the young boy was in. She had never experienced such a dramatic scene where parents refused to take their baby home for having a condition. It broke her heart, and she knew something had to be done.

Hoping for a Change of Heart

At one point, even the nuns assigned to the sanatorium tried to get through to the parents to change their mind. Unfortunately, nothing they did was enough to get them to take their baby home.

Things turned nasty quickly, with lawyers coming to discuss the implications to the parents. This all happened while the child, who was named Santiago, was receiving care in the nursery and was undergoing therapy.

Growing Attached to the Baby

For weeks, nurses tried to shower Santiago with all the love they could possibly give. They didn't want the child to feel unwanted in any way, so they took turns cradling him.

When Marcela learned about Santiago's situation, she instantly grew attached to him. She wanted to give him a mother's love, and she did just that. Recalling the situation, she said:

"Santiago got into my heart right away with everything that was happening. I needed to have him in my arms all the time. That he felt accompanied and loved."

To this day, Marcela still doesn't know what made the parents react to Santiago's birth that way. In fact, the baby had to go through so much more when his birth parents refused to name him "Franco" as they had initially planned. They claimed the name "Franco" was suited for a healthy child.

Thus, the nurses named him "Santiago," and it was a painful situation that everyone in the sanatorium could never forget.

Adopting Santiago

Marcela was hopeful Santiago's parents would come around, but when that didn't happen, she took matters into her own hands. At the time, she was actually considering adoption with her partner when she didn't fall pregnant.

Santiago was assigned to a foster family while they worked on his case. When Marcela found out, she was restless and was 100% determined to adopt the young boy.

It was a long and tedious process, but Marcela remained unfazed. She processed all the paperwork, and attended to all the visits and evaluations made by an interdisciplinary team.

Finally, after months, Marcela and her partner were called to court. There, she found out they were chosen to be Santiago's parents.

It was an emotional day filled with tears. The judge, and everyone else around cried with Marcela. However, it wouldn't be an easy ride for her and Santiago.

Just a year after Santiago moved in with her, her partner left her and chose another path. Ultimately, the nurse became a proud single mother to Santiago, who is now a beautiful pre-teenager.

In a similar story, a baby who was abandoned at birth because she had Down syndrome went on to become an actress years later. Click here to read all about it.