Abandoned Newborn Meets His Rescuer 25 Years Later

On Sunday, Robin Barton, who was left to die by a dumpster moments after his birth 25 years ago, met his biological father for the first time.

Although father and son had been trying to find each other for years, the meeting only happened this week following news reports of Barton’s reunion with the police officer who found and rescued him.

That fateful night 25 years ago came at the end of shift for Santa Ana Patrol Officer Michael Buelna. Buelna just wanted to get home.

He had just responded to the scene of a stabbing and was ready to go home to his 5-year-old twin sons and wife, but his car got pinned in on a tight dead-end street. So he figured he’d stick around and help find the crime scene.

Something pointed him across the street near some trash bins, and that’s where he found him. A newborn boy -- just hours old.

“I actually just wanted to go home,” he said, but something told him to check it out.

“I heard a faint meow-like sound and I thought it was a cat,” Buelna said.

“There was a lot of trash on the ground,” he said. “I didn’t see anything at first, but then I pushed away some of the debris and I saw the baby lying there. I remember how tiny he was.”

Mucus still covered the infant, and his umbilical cord was showing.

“I remember picking him up, giving him a little shake,” he said.

But the infant abandoned on this shivering Nov. 21, 1989, night did not react. He tried giving the newborn a breath, and again, nothing.

The officer cleared the baby’s mouth, gave him another breath and he sensed the infant responding.

Buelna wrapped the newborn in his jacket and ran toward paramedics treating the stabbing victim.

“They must have thought I was crazy. All I kept saying to the dispatcher was, ‘Baby!’ “ he said.

He shouted, “Baby, baby, baby,” to the paramedics as he sprinted toward them.

Then he opened his jacket, revealed the newborn, handed him to the paramedics who revived him with oxygen.

“Then he really started crying,” Buelna said.

The retired officer recalled the moments he rescued the abandoned baby he nicknamed Adam Doe a quarter-century ago in interviews with reporters recently as Adam -- now known as Robin Barton said he wanted to get the word out to his biological mother that he would like a reunion with her.

Barton, who was adopted by Daniel Fernandez and Elizabeth Barton and raised in Newport Beach, recently started looking for Buelna. A dispatcher who remembered the Adam Doe story put Barton in touch with the retired Buelna.

The two talked about how they met for dinner recently and both described the reunion as “surreal.” They talked for four hours and Buelna said they hardly “scratched the surface.”

That night, Barton learned the name of his biological mother, he said.

Barton’s mother -- Sarina Faviola Diaz -- pleaded guilty Sept. 18, 1990, to attempted murder, child endangerment and child neglect and was sentenced to three years in prison, according to court records.

After she was released she was deported, Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said.

The reunion with his rescuer hasn’t yet helped Barton find his mother yet, but it did set in motion an unexpected chain of events that brought Barton together with his biological father and five half sisters Sunday. Barton’s father, Marcos Meza, saw news coverage of he reunion and contacted ABC News.

Meza told ABC he had been searching for his son for years after finding out from police that Diaz abandoned the baby. “For 24 years, I always said I would like to find him, and I finally did,” he said to ABC.

Barton told reporters he was shocked to discover he had such a large family. Barton has two messages -- one for Diaz and another for other new moms cracking under the pressure of child rearing.

“I do forgive her and don’t blame her,” Barton said. “I’ve grown up healthy, happy and with a great family.”

For new, overwhelmed moms, Barton said, “There are safe places to give up your baby -- to a fire station or a hospital and there can be more happy endings than sad ones.”

Buelna and his wife, Ana, kept tabs on Barton for the first year of his life and even tried to adopt him, but the process was too complicated and time- consuming.

Meanwhile, Barton’s adoptive mother, Elizabeth, had heard news reports about the abandoned baby, who ended up in her friend’s emergency shelter after being released from UC Irvine Medical Center after a month.

At that time Fernandez and his wife were not looking to adopt. But when Elizabeth Barton went to her friend’s shelter and met Adam Doe for the first time she was overwhelmed, she said.

“The first time I saw him, I don’t know what happened, but she opened the door with him in her arms and I started crying,” Elizabeth Barton said. “I completely fell in love with him.”

She choked up as she told reporters what an “honor” it has been raising him.

Barton’s parents say he was a well-behaved child, and they would tease him he was allowed to get in trouble once in a while.

Robin Barton graduated from Sage Hill High School in Newport Coast and attended classes at Menlo College and Orange Coast College. He aims to become an emergency medical technician or a police officer, he said.

He hopes some day to save someone and give them the same chance at life that he received.

OTHER PATCH HEADLINES

• Burglary Suspect Shot By Police Following Struggle inside Fountain Valley Rite Aid
• Killer of Popular JSerra Student Gets Early Release from Prison
• Stubborn Fire Damages Seal Beach Restaurant and Spa
• Woman, 23, Killed in Los Alamitos Crash
• Man Gets 25 Years for Exposing Himself to San Clemente Colleague’s Child
• Laguna Alumnus Gets 16 Years for Stabbing Death of High School Pal
• Kendall Jenner Trashed Hollywood Hills Apartment with Wild Birthday Bash, Suit Alleges

City News Service and Patch staffer Paige Austin contributed to this story.

Photo Credit: Twitter user smxmagazin gay+news© ‏@smxmagazin

Get Patched in! Sign up for free news alerts for your town.

ALISO VIEJO | FOUNTAIN VALLEY | LAGUNA BEACH | LAGUNA NIGUEL-DANA POINT |LAKE FOREST | LOS ALAMITOS-SEAL BEACH | MISSION VIEJO| NEWPORT BEACH-CORONA DEL MAR | RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA | SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO | SAN CLEMENTE