A 24-year-old Elmhurst woman faces 10 years in jail for first-degree manslaughter after pleading guilty on Monday to discarding her newborn daughter in a hospital trash can last May.
According to District Attorney Richard Brown, Dawa Lama of 65th St. admitted leaving her daughter after giving birth in a bathroom at Elmhurst Hospital in May 2011. She will be sentenced April 16.
In a statement issued by his office, Brown said the guilty plea was a just and fair disposition to a sad case involving a very troubled young woman.
“The defendant has been held accountable for what was a serious but avoidable crime,” Brown said. “New York’s Safe Haven law allows a parent to anonymously surrender their unwanted newborn infant to personnel in a safe place — such as a hospital, a police station or a fire station — and not have to worry about getting into trouble.”
Brown said Lama went to the hospital on May 10, 2011, with the intent to register for prenatal care. She went into a restroom after feeling a pain in her abdomen and while in there gave birth to a live full-term girl with no obvious problems.
The girl, who was named Mingmar Gurung, was discovered and kept on life support for a week before dying.
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