CBS4 I-Team Lends A Helping Hand To A Family In Crisis

NORTH MIAMI (CBS4) - With big concerns about a little baby, the CBS4 I-Team had, for weeks, investigated worries over the welfare of the prematurely born  Jeremiah, his brothers  and their mom, Joanne.

"How is his breathing?" Chief I-Team Investigator Michele Gillen asked as all eyes were focused on a tiny baby, so small he nestled into the hands of his mom.

A mother of 4, Joanne and the children have long been at the center of community efforts to get them help. When CBS4 Chief I-Team Investigator Gillen first met them their home was a trailer whose welcome mat consisted of broken floor boards and precariously rocked with each step. A rotting structure with plastic and cardboard replacing glass for windows. The newborn slept in a small play pen.

Conditions that top a list of concerns community advocates say they reported time and time again to DCF in hopes of getting some services, some help for the children and their mom.

Community advocate Rachel Hughes of Art Studio Miami, which offered after school care for the children, has lead a team of folks that have been trying to get the family services and help.

"I called DCF directly and also emailed. I did their own line emailing. It is just shocking we are all overwhelmed by it. We want to help, and she needs help and she has asked for help. Joanne knows what she needs and has asked for help. We have been trying for 3 years to get services for her," says Hughes.

Concern over the living conditions became even more urgent with the birth of premature  Jeremiah.

DCF's response to that call for help?

According to Hughes, "She said 'is it a 911 emergency?' I said the baby is having trouble breathing. God forbid something happens and you guys have been there enough times. She said definitely she would send someone tomorrow and that didn't happen for two weeks later."

We learned that the night before Gillen's visit, DCF visited and recommended that Joanne clean up.

According to Joanne, who says she has long begged for help and new housing, "When she came she told me I have to fix the trailer. I told her I will fix it."

But a clean up at the dilapidated trailer would take much more than a broom, and advocates remained worried about the family living in such conditions. Gillen called the office of the Secretary of DCF to see if anything could be done.

We then went back to the trailer and learned that another DCF worker visited and left a pamphlet.

Gillen called DCF again and again, described conditions, "this trailer that has mold and a falling ceiling," Gillen told a DCF investigator.

Following Gillen's call, DCF told Joanne she and the children needed to find themselves another place to sleep at night.

Joanne's only option, according to her, was a room in private home that Gillen visited.

There, the infant slept on a bed he shared with his mother and two of her other boys were sleeping on the floor.

Joanne and neighbors expressed concern that this is not the proper environment for a struggling infant baby and a family reaching out for help.

While she awaited help - the children dreamed.

"I want a big bed," said one of the boys.

Ultimately, Jeremiah's bed was replaced by a crib in the ICU of Jackson Memorial Hospital where he needed a respirator to breath. Joanne feared he might not live.

"It is exactly what we were trying to avoid. And it could have been prevented. It is very upsetting. Who do these parents go to when they are looking for services and help and living in these 3rd world country living conditions," said the family's advocate Hughes. "It outright needs to be fixed or changed here in Miami"

Citing Florida law, DCF says they are not allowed to discuss on-going or prior cases.

Not willing to give up, those citizen volunteers persisted on their own in securing a townhouse  for the young family, Joanne and her children now all have beds, even little Jeremiah, who has fully recovered and released from the hospital.