Thirteen years ago, Azita Milanian's life suddenly changed. And now, she's working to change the lives of others.
Milanian is a former JPL engineer who now runs Tosca Fashion, a dance and eveningwear company in Pasadena. The Altadena resident is also the founder of Children of One Planet, a nonprofit that will be holding an event this weekend to raise funds to fight child trafficking around the world.
Pictured: Milanian in her Altadena garden.
Milanian's life abruptly changed direction on May 16, 1998, when she found a baby buried on the Cobb Estate and saved his life.
It was an event that seemed to Milanian to be foreordained, and it started with her dog, Tango. The dog was a stray found by Milanian while she was running in the foothills -- they immediately bonded, and she took the dog in. About eight months later, when she was out running with Tango and her other dogs, a woman called to the dog from her car, and Tango came over.
The woman said that Tango used to be her dog -- and she used to take care of infants. Tango had grown used to the smell and sound of babies -- a trait that would prove important later.
The woman hurt her back and gave him to a friend, but Tango kept running away. He was always found in the hills, and would be taken to the Humane Society and returned home. He did this six times until Milanian found him.
According to Milanian, the woman said she wasn't going to take him away -- but the next day, she came back to where Milanian was running and threatened to call the police if she didn't return the dog. So, Milanian said, she changed the routine she followed for six years, parking her car in a different place and began running on different trails with the dogs to avoid the woman.
In the afternoon of May 16, 1998, Milanian and her dogs were running one of the new routes when Tango -- who had become the pack's alpha dog -- broke away into the bushes and abruptly stopped over a pile of freshly-turned earth. The other dogs followed, and also stopped.
"Calling their name, calling their name," Milanian remembers it, "and they weren't coming, and when I went to get [Tango], the baby hears my voice ... and he kicks his feet out of the dirt in front of my feet -- I thought it was a snake, so I screamed, and I pulled on [the dogs] , and they wouldn't leave. "
Panicked and confused, she finally got the dogs back in her car, but something drew her back, she said; "God, his angels, whatever it was. So I go back, talking loud from fear, of course. What kind of animal is it that looks like human feet? And then I heard him crying again. I knew it was a child in there, and I started digging in the bushes ... and I saw this blue towel, opened it, and there he was with his umbilical cord still attached."
What Milanian found was a newborn boy, wrapped in a towel and buried in the ground. There was dirt in his mouth, throat, and in his nose, but he was still alive.
"I love you, I'll come back, please don't die," she remembers saying, and ran to her car to get the cell phone. She dialed 911 but was put on hold before she could describe her situation, and then the call dropped. She ran back, she says, cleared his air passages, and began massaging the cold child.
After a time, she ran back into the street and flagged down a passing car "Call 911, there's a baby buried alive!" she remembers saying, and ran back to the baby. Night was coming, and she says she could hear coyotes howling in the distance. She continued massaging the baby, and "he grabbed my wrist until the ambulance came," Milanian said. "He wouldn't let go of my wrist."
By the time they took him to Huntington Memorial Hospital, he had hypothermia. Over the next few days, the boy dubbed "Baby Christian" grew stronger, in what even the doctors said was a "miracle."
Milanian only saw him one other time, during a hospital visit: "The only memories I have are he was in the grave or in the hospital on oxygen." She'd like so see him again, she said, "so can I see if he's doing better to erase that memory." He was eventually adopted and she does not know where he is. His birth parents, and whoever put him in his grave, were never found.
"The Oprah Winfey Network contacted me -- I guess there was an upcoming event called 'Who Do You Want to Find in Your Life,' and they chose me, and called and interviewed me." But they couldn't put her in contact with the boy, because they couldn't find him. "I guess they couldn't reveal his information or find him, because he's still young -- maybe doesn't know what happened. "
But that wasn't the end of child-saving for her. Milanian has always had a love of dance (Tango is gone now, but she has two dogs named Mambo and Samba). She turned that interest into a line of dance and evening wear, Tosca Fashion. Tosca Fashion helps support the charity she founded, Children of One Planet, which devotes itself to children's causes.
"I don't want a baby, I just want to save the kids," laughs Milanian.
Every year, to remember the anniversary of Baby Christian's birthday, Milanian holds a fashion and dance show to benefit Children of One Planet. This weekend, the benefit will be at the Pasadena Hilton on Sat., May 21, starting at 6 PM. Admission is $50 (no dinner), $100 (with dinner) and $150-$200 dinner with VIP seating). The evening includes performances by young champion ballroom dancers and social dancing as well. Proceeds will go toward efforts to combat child trafficking around the world.
She thinks it's part of her task in the turn of events that brought together a woman, a dog, and a baby who needed help. "Tango came to the mountains six times, running away from home ... finally I found him, and he never left my side. And the reason that the baby was found is that me, this baby, and this dog, were connected somewhere in the universe, as this task we had to do ... I know this baby, for some reason only the future would tell, was supposed to live."
Tickets to the Tosca Fashion and Dance Show are available here.
