PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. - A Wal-Mart shopper was shocked to see a purple baby's arm and umbilical cord poking out of a bloody toilet bowl in the store's washroom.

Beatrice Stieb told court Monday the infant didn't move and appeared to be dead -- though he did survive in the end.

"The toilet bowl was packed full of toilet paper and soaked in blood," testified Stieb, one of the first witnesses to take the stand at the trial of April Dawn Halkett.

Halkett, who has pleaded not guilty to child abandonment, has admitted she gave birth in the store in Prince Albert, Sask., two years ago. The 22-year-old clutched tissue in her hand as she listened to the testimony and appeared particularly upset during the descriptions of the bloody scene.

Stieb said she quickly left the washroom with her daughter and tried to tell an assistant manager about the situation, but was brushed off. The worker said she already knew about the mess in the washroom, said Stieb.

"She just seemed annoyed." Stieb told court she urged her husband to do something, and he insisted to the employee that there was a baby in the toilet and it was an emergency.

Stieb said the worker's face turned white. "She said, 'You're kidding, right?"' The assistant manager, Lynda Sinclair, testified she had been alerted to the blood earlier by other women who used the washroom.

Shopper Terry Sparks had told staff she suspected someone was having a baby when she heard grunting and saw a pool of blood on the floor in the stall next to her.

Sinclair said she went into the washroom twice to ask the woman in the bloody stall if she was all right.

"She said yes, everything was fine," said Sinclair. "She was wiping the floor as I was talking to her."

Sinclair said she knew it wasn't a normal amount of blood on the floor, and she waited outside the washroom near the store cashiers to check on the woman again when she left.

But Sinclair must have become busy with work, she said, because she didn't notice the woman leave the washroom.

A store surveillance video played in court shows Halkett was in the store for only 14 minutes on May 21, 2007. As she leaves the store, she is seen kneeling by the exit doors.

Store manager Chad Fraser testified when he learned about the situation, he rushed to the washroom.

All he saw in the toilet was a "disgusting" mess.

"Then I saw something move. Then I noticed a leg," said Fraser. "I realized there was a baby in there."

He said he grabbed some rubber gloves from a first-aid kit and pulled the baby out of the toilet by the leg.

"I put my hand on its neck and I could see little bubbles coming out of his nose," said Fraser. "There were some signs of life."

He said he pulled the umbilical cord, attached to a placenta, out of the toilet and wrapped the baby in a towel until ambulance workers arrived.

Paramedic Darren Russell testified the baby was grey and cold and not breathing. But he had a faint pulse. Russell spent five minutes performing CPR before the infant started breathing on his own.

He estimated the baby was about three months premature.

Defence lawyer Ajay Krishan thanked Russell for his heroic efforts and also thanked Stieb for insisting that Wal-Mart staff check on the situation.

"You probably saved that child's life by doing that," Krishan told Stieb.

Courts have imposed publication bans on the identity of the child and a previous custody hearing that decided if he would be returned to his mother.

Krishan would not indicate whether Halkett will testify during the week-long trial but has said he plans to call an expert witness in the case.

Halkett didn't appear pregnant and hadn't told anyone she was expecting, testified friend Dwayne Merasty.

On the day she gave birth in Wal-Mart, Merasty had invited Halkett and some other friends and family from their northern community on a trip to Prince Albert.

He said that during the 2 1/2-hour drive, Halkett became ill with cold sweats and crawled into the back of his Ford Escape to lie down.

Halkett's uncle, Fisher Charles, said he asked her if she wanted to go to the hospital, but she said she was fine.

When the group stopped at the department store, Halkett went inside to use the washroom. She later returned to the vehicle still looking sick and almost fainting in the parking lot, said Charles.

Merasty went to buy Halkett some Tylenol, then she stayed in the vehicle while the others ate supper at the local casino. Charles brought her back some food, and Halkett told him she had puked on her clothes.

They drove back to the Wal-Mart and friend Jessica Sanderson ran inside to buy her some new clothes.

Merasty said he was curious about the police cars in the parking lot, and Halkett told him when she was in the bathroom someone had been knocking on stall doors because they were concerned about something.

The group soon headed home. Halkett then fell asleep on the couch at her uncle's while others watched a movies. She slept there for several days, said Charles.

Days later, when city police released a photo of the suspect mother from the store's surveillance video, Merasty said he recognized Halkett. She had been wearing his jacket.

He went to police. "I went to set the record straight," Merasty said. "I thought they had the wrong person."

Charles said he noticed Halkett had recently gained weight but thought it was just from eating too much fast-food. If she had known she was pregnant, she likely would have confided in him, he said.

Charles said Halkett told him about an earlier pregnancy and miscarriage, and she has since given birth to another son.

"She is great with kids," he said.