Baby Girl Fights For Her Life After Being Found With Broken Bones In The Bronx
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - A young girl around 3 months old was fighting for life Wednesday after being rushed to a Bronx hospital with broken bones and other injuries, according to police.
As CBS2's Nancy Espinosa reported, both parents were being questioned late Wednesday afternoon. No one had been charged with a crime.
Around 10 a.m. Tuesday, authorities responded to calls of a child having difficulty breathing at Honeywell Avenue in East 181st Street in the West Farms section of the Bronx. She had been found unconscious by her father, authorities said.
"They was rushing the baby out. Had the oxygen mask on the face and everything, and couldn't even have no clothes on," said Barbara Brown, a tenant in the building. "The baby was rushed out."
Brown could not sleep as she watched the horrific scene.
"Really because the way the baby is, you can't sleep like that, and it being a 2-month-old baby, you can't sleep," Brown told WCBS 880's Alex Silverman.
The child was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital where, upon further examination, they found her to be suffering from broken bones including a spinal fracture, frontal and side fractures to the skull, a left clavicle fracture, a broken tibia, old and new broken ribs, and old right and new left femur fractures. She had also suffered cuts to all fingertips and toes, and a possible obstruction of her airway.
The child also had hemorrhages in her eyes, which could be a sign of shaken baby syndrome, 1010 WINS reported.
The child was transferred to Montefiore Medical Center in critical condition. She was on life support late Wednesday afternoon.
A father who lives just a few doors down couldn't believe what had happened.
"I think that's kind of devastating. I have a child myself, 4 years old," said Argenin Polasco. "They didn't even look like the type of parents to be like, you know, to be like the type to abuse the child."
A man who works in the building at night said he has never heard of anything like the incident happening in this building.
"Pathetic – it doesn't make no sense," said Terrell Williams. "Kind of quiet, because it's a bunch of older people."
There is no Administration of Children's Services history with the family, and detectives have questioned both the mother and father at the 48th Precinct as to how and why their baby girl received those injuries.
Officers have been outside of the apartment since Tuesday. A 5-year-old boy has also been removed from the home.
There is no ACS history with the old child either.
Detectives told CBS2's Espinosa that the investigation is now in the hands of the NYPD's Bronx Child Abuse Squad as well as Child Protective Services.