Newborn Girl Found With 'Excessive Rodent Bites,' Parents Charged
MAGNOLIA, Ark. (KDKA) -- A man and woman in Arkansas have been arrested after their infant was hospitalized with "excessive rodent bites to its body."
CBS affiliate KTVH reports officers were dispatched to a hospital in Magnolia after it was reported a newborn had been brought in covered with rat bites. The baby had to be taken to another hospital due to the severity of the injuries.
18-year-old Charles Elliott and 19-year-old Erica Shryock were identified as the child's parents and arrested for first degree endangering the welfare of a minor.
New felony charges of permitting abuse of a minor with serious physical injury were expected to be filed, according to the Magnolia Reporter.
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An investigation revealed the family's home had a rodent infestation. Doctors estimated the 15-day-old child suffered 75 to 100 rat bites, one leaving a wound so severe on her forehead she required facial construction surgery, the paper reports. A doctor reportedly told police the damage to the girl's skin was so severe "it would have taken hours to occur and [the patient] would have been in distress during the process."
The doctor said she believed the caregivers "were either absent or incapacitated to not have responded."
Elliot and Shryock are being held in the Columbia County Sheriff's Department with no bond, the station reports.
