The mother of a baby with Down Syndrome has abandoned him after her husband refused to give the newborn up. New Zealand man Samuel Forrest’s Armenian wife demanded he place the child, named Leo, up for adoption. When he refused, she walked out and filed for divorce – just one week after Leo was born.
Mr Forrest was determined to keep his son despite his condition but felt he needed to ask for help. He made a public appeal to raise money for his son Leo’s medical care in the hope of raising $60,000 dollars. He was shocked when his online appeal raised $209,000 in just nine days.
Mr Forrest will use some of the money to help children with disabilities in Armenia, his wife’s home country, in the hopes that fewer babies will be abandoned in the way little Leo was.