Dawa Lama
The Queens woman who dumped her baby in a trash can after giving birth in a hospital bathroom was sentenced to 10 years in prison on May 14.
Dawa Lama, 24, of 65th Street in Queens pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter for discarding her infant daughter and fleeing Elmhurst Hospital on
May 10, 2011.
On that day, Lama arrived at the hospital and went into labor in
a bathroom where she delivered the baby girl, who was later named Mingmar Gurung.
Lama then detached the baby from the umbilical cord, threw the infant in the garbage bin and exited the bathroom.
Before she left the hospital, Lama got back her identification card from the front desk. After Gurung was found alive, she was placed on life support but died one week later. The infant was born with no obvious deformities.
“Today’s sentence brings to a close a troubling case of a mother senselessly and
needlessly killing her newborn infant,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. “This case should serve as a reminder that under New York’s Safe Haven law a
parent may anonymously surrender an unwanted newborn infant to personnel in a safe place—such as a hospital, a police station or a fire station—without repercussions.”
