'Medical emergency' ended with baby in Wheaton yard, attorney says

Nunu Sung had endured seven hours of unassisted labor and was “bleeding to death” by the time she left her newborn son in a Wheaton yard — not far from where she gave birth, her attorneys said in court Wednesday.

“This case is not about neglect. It is about a poor, uneducated woman who was initially unprepared for childbirth,” Jennifer Wiesner said.

Wiesner — one of two lawyers representing Sung at her parental fitness trial — opened the 27-year-old's case by attributing her June 2009 abandonment of the boy to a “one-time medical emergency.”

She said Sung wanted to go back for the infant but was confused, exhausted and seriously injured after a traumatic outdoor delivery.

“Nunu thought she was going to die,” Wiesner said. “But she intuitively moved her son to a safer place.”

Sung — a Burmese refugee with a seventh-grade education — told family members she was going for a walk the night before she secretly gave birth in her cousin's backyard in Wheaton.

For seven hours, Wiesner said, Sung labored in the dark before the child “literally fell from her torn body,” ripping the umbilical cord in two.

Being uneducated about childbirths, the mother then used the cord to tear the placenta from her body, causing major blood loss, according to her attorneys.

“It was so severe Ms. Sung needed a blood transfusion,” Wiesner said.

Afterward, Sung took her baby to a neighbor's yard and placed him under a bush that her attorneys say had special meaning to her.

Attorney Terra Howard, who also represents Sung, said her client intended to explain what happened and get help when she returned home. Instead, Sung “passed out,” she said.

Sung pleaded guilty to lying to police about the birth and is slated for parole from Lincoln Correctional Center this month.

A foster family from Wheaton is caring for her son, now 2, and willing to adopt.

Sung's attorneys said she has complied with most recommendations by state welfare officials in order to be reunited, but that some required services weren't made available to her.

The boy's court-appointed guardian contends Sung essentially chose to give up her motherly rights when she “left the child to die.”

“There's no way she can correct this,” Kathleen Anderson said in court.

The trial in front of Judge Robert Anderson resumes Thursday.