The infant, taken alive from 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, was reunited with his father in hospital but remains in grave condition

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A baby that was cut from his mother’s womb by attackers who killed the pregnant woman is clinging to life and has opened his eyes.

The infant boy, taken alive in the incident in the Chicago area last month, known in crime circles as fetal abduction, was later reunited with his father in hospital but remains in grave condition.

Pregnant woman's murder shocks Chicago but experts say such cases are rare Read more

The baby’s father, Yovany Lopez, held his tiny son in his arms on Sunday, in a picture taken by a student pastor, Celia Garcia, who posted it to Facebook.

“We were just praying and praying, and he opened his eyes, and his dad said: ‘Oh my God, he opened his eyes!’” Garcia, who is assisting the family, told CNN.

“We’ve been blessed, although this is a really bad tragedy, they’re such a loving and humble family and it’s just so wrong what happened to them,” she added.

Meanwhile the agency that licenses and inspects healthcare facilities in Illinois has started an investigation of the suburban Chicago hospital where doctors were confronted by a woman and the sick baby she brought in, claiming to be his mother, a spokeswoman for the agency said late on Tuesday.

Fetal abduction: brutal attacks against expectant mothers on the rise in US Read more

The woman was charged weeks later with killing the actual mother, 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, who was nine months pregnant, and cutting the child from her womb. Ochoa-Lopez’s body was found later after a frantic search by her family.



The infant was brought to Advocate Christ medical center in Oak Lawn, Illinois, on 23 April by Clarisa Figueroa.



The hospital’s handling of the case has raised questions, particularly since the Chicago police department and the state’s department of children and family services both said last weekend that staff at the hospital did not alert them after determining that Figueroa had not just given birth to the gravely ill newborn as she had stated.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The infant was brought to Advocate Christ medical center in Oak Lawn, Illinois, on 23 April. Photograph: Cecilia Garcia / Facebook

The family of Ochoa-Lopez, who was strangled, has been critical of the hospital, and a representative of the family said they met on Monday with hospital staff to ask that they be provided copies of protocols it follows when it receives a baby who was born at home.

The Cook county sheriff’s department said it would ask state authorities if the hospital broke the law.

Figueroa and her daughter, Desiree Figueroa, remain in jail after being arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder. The mother’s boyfriend, Piotr Bobak, 40, was charged with concealing a homicide.



In a news conference last week, police said Ochoa-Lopez headed to the Figueroa household after the mother posted an offer of free baby clothes on a Facebook chatroom.

Investigators said Clarisa Figueroa’s adult son died of natural causes two years ago and they believe the woman was hoping to raise the stolen newborn as her own.

Clarisa Figueroa called police hours after Ochoa-Lopez was killed to report that the baby had stopped breathing. The woman and the baby were rushed to hospital.

Of the roughly 30 documented fetal abduction cases between 1987 and 2015, most of the mothers were slain and it is typical for them to have been stalked or lured somewhere under false pretenses, including for free supplies, according to Kenna Quinet, an associate criminal justice professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.