<i>Update:</i> First Outstate Safe Haven Case
Update: First Outstate Safe Haven Case Save Email Print
Grand Island
Posted: 7:00 PM Nov 19, 2008
Last Updated: 9:16 AM Nov 20, 2008
Reporter: Sara Geake
Email Address: sara.geake@kolnkgin.com

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As lawmakers worked to modify the safe haven law, yet another child was dropped off.

A 15-year-old girl was the 35th child abandoned under the law, and the first to be dropped off outside Lincoln and Omaha.

Grand Island police said they picked up a runaway Tuesday afternoon.

The girl's aunt and guardian said she would take custody of the child if officers met her at Saint Francis Medical Center.

But after police delivered the child, the aunt relinquished her custody rights under the safe haven law.

It is just one in a number of safe haven drop offs, but this one is unique.

It's the first to happen west of Lincoln.

"I think we hoped that we wouldn't see one. Naturally you don't want to see a safe haven drop off in your hospital but our process worked as it was," said Cathy Brockmeier, of Saint Francis Medical Center.

Though Saint Francis didn't have the practice of eastern Nebraska hospitals, it did have the procedure.

"Our nursing supervisor is the individual that gets contacted from the hospital and then she makes the contacts with Health and Human Services," said Brockmeier.

Which is exactly what happened after a woman dropped her niece off under the safe haven law.

A law that, once modified, hospital officials say will decrease the odds they'll get another safe haven case.

"I think that that will drastically reduce the number, seeing that really the majority of children that have been dropped off have been older," said Brockmeier. "And I hope that it sheds light on the difficulties and the struggles that we see our families facing with either not knowing where to get services or not having services available."

According to Health and Human Services, the child dropped off Tuesday has now been placed in a foster home.

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