By Cassandra Morgan, Melissa Cunningham and Hannah Kennelly
A baby boy is in hospital after being discovered with life-threatening injuries outside a home in Melbourne’s south-east.
Victoria Police detectives are investigating after the newborn was found outside a property on Gladstone Road, Dandenong North about 2.40am on Friday and taken to hospital in a critical condition.
The baby’s condition has since been updated to stable, a spokeswoman from Monash Children’s Hospital said just before 1.30pm on Friday.
A 25-year-old woman at the home was also taken to hospital, where she remained under police guard on Friday morning.
Her housemates told 9News they did not know she was pregnant.
“We are happy that the baby is okay and we’re still praying for her and the baby,” one said. “We are more than ready to support her when she gets out of hospital.”
Police at the home where a critically injured newborn baby was discovered in Gladstone Road, Dandenong North.Credit: Jason South
A police spokeswoman said the circumstances surrounding the incident were under investigation.
The painted white brick house, where the injured baby was found, had a “sold” sign stuck on the front and was cordoned off with police tape as detectives congregated in the driveway about midday on Friday.
Carmela Fato and her grandson, Carlos Pereyra, who live across the road from the house, said they were both home all night but did not hear or see anything untoward.
They expressed alarm over the incident and said they believed the current occupants of the home were a couple aged in their 50s or 60s.
Carmela Fato and grandson Carlos Pereyra speak to reporters after an injured baby was found at the home opposite.Credit: Cassandra Morgan
The pair said they had never seen anyone matching the hospitalised woman’s description at the house.
“I’m shocked,” Pereyra said. “It’s very surprising for something like this to happen. They were a bit older.”
Fato described the people who lived in the house as quiet neighbours who kept to themselves.
“I [didn’t] hear [nor] see nothing – not just now with what happened,” he said.
“They were just quiet people, that’s all.”
Traffic cones were laid out on the road by police, encouraging drivers to slow down as they passed.
Forensic police were examining a light timber set of drawers, sitting outside the house, and taking photos of a stain on a windowsill.
The house is next to a medical clinic and there is a childcare centre three doors down on the opposite side of the road.
A woman working at the centre, who asked not to be named, said the first staff member of the morning arrived about 6.50am and saw police vehicles outside the home.
Police urged anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers.
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