The new mother, a drug addict, returned to Faro Hospital last night nearly a week after removing her newborn from an incubator and walking out of the hospital with the infant in a satchel.

Despite being on the run for several days the baby is said to be ok.

A source from the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care unit told Lusa News Agency the baby was in a good state of health and the mother was very sorry for what she had done.

Concerns had been growing for the baby’s health given that it was removed by its own mother from an incubator on an intensive care ward.

A report in national daily newspaper Correio da Manhã (CM) claims the infant’s mother, identified as Alexandra, originally from Beja, is a drug addict who took heroin just an hour before giving birth.
Given her dependency on drugs the baby is also understood to require permanent medical care or its life could otherwise be at risk.
It has emerged that Alexandra’s other six-year-old child was recently placed into care by courts.
The child was handed over to the Refúgio Aboim Ascenção children’s home in Faro a month ago due to alleged mistreatment and a lack of social conditions, CM said.
Speaking to the newspaper, Dr. Luís Villas Boas, head of the home, said the child has had regular visits from the father, who is separated from Alexandra.
All three of Portugal’s police services, the PJ, PSP and GNR forces, were understood to have been involved in the increasingly urgent search for the woman and the newborn.

Health authorities are also probing the fact that Faro Hospital was not using an electronic bracelet system which is complusory by law for newborns on hospital wards.