ANKARA

Turkey's Family Ministry has taken over the treatment expenses of a 17-month-old Syrian baby girl who was abandoned at three months with a birth defect on the Turkey-Syria border. 

The abandoned baby girl was found by the Istanbul-based Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) when she was three months old with anomalies in her esophagus.

After the baby girl, who was found to have no connection between her digestive tract and stomach, received surgery in Turkey's southern Hatay province, she was sent to a private hospital in the Turkish capital Ankara for better treatment.

The treatment expenses were assumed by health professionals in the private hospital for a while.

Later, Turkish Minister of Family, Labor and Social Services undertook baby's expenses of treatment, the officials from the hospital told Anadolu Agency.

The baby girl underwent a series of surgeries in the hospital where she has been treated for 14 months.

She may be discharged in the coming three months, according to the hospital administration.