A doctor taking care of a baby girl orphaned when the ship her family were on capsized in the Mediterranean has said he wants to be her adoptive father.
Nine-month-old Favour arrived on the Italian island of
Lampedusa after being rescued off the coast of Libya without her father and pregnant mother who are believed to have died in the accident.
The island’s only doctor Pietro Bartolo carried her off the rescue boat that brought her to safety.
The boat she was on overturned on Tuesday, tipping its 120 passengers into the water.
Dozens were pulled alive from the water, but many suffered serious burns from fuel that caught alight.
Mr Bartolo found the youngster shivering on the rescue boat and took her back to his clinic where he gave her some milk and dry clothes.
Since then, he says she has charmed him so much that he wants to continue caring for her.
“I’ve asked to foster her, I want to keep her with me forever,” he told Italian media.
“She is a marvellous creature, she hugged me, she didn’t shed a tear,” he said.
Mr Bartolo has cared for hundreds of undernourished, dehydrated and distressed migrants since the start of the crisis.
The baby will be transferred with dozens other survivors to Sicily where she will be taken by Child Care Center who will then transfer her to an Italian family.
Source: Skynews
Good for the baby. God bless the man.