LITTLE ROCK — North Little Rock police opened an investigation Wednesday into allegations of abuse concerning a 6-month-old foster child who remains hospitalized in serious condition.
“At this point, obviously, there’s no way we can say he was beaten or shaken or dropped,” North Little Rock Police spokesman Sgt. Terry Kuykendall said. “All we know is that an injury took place, and we are trying to figure out how that injury occurred.”
Kuykendall said investigators were notified by Arkansas Children’s Hospital on Wednesday of the infant boy’s injuries.
The name of the infant has not been released. His “near fatal” injuries were one of two cases posted on the state Department of Human Services’ Child Fatality Notification list on the agency’s website late Wednesday afternoon.
The second case was the death of 2-year-old Dominick Doss, who died as the result of “physical abuse” on July 18, according to the website. He lived in Washington County.
Dominick was not a foster child or in Human Services’ custody. However, the agency had twice before investigated allegations of abuse, neglect, or both, involving Dominick.
Both times - once in April 2009 and again in September - the allegations were deemed “unfounded,” the website shows.
Arkansas State Police’s Crimes Against Children Division is investigating Dominick’s death. No other information was available late Wednesday.
The Crimes Against Children Division also is involved in the investigation into abuse of the 6-month-old boy in Pulaski County. He was born Jan. 15 and placed into foster care the same month, according to the website.
Details about why the infant was placed in foster care, as well as information about his foster parents, are confidential, Human Services Department spokesman Julie Munsell said.
What exactly happened to the infant remains unclear. Kuykendall said ambulance crews were first called to the home where the infant lived July 15 for a medical emergency. Police did not respond, and the child showed no obvious signs of abuse.
Two days later, ambulance crews were again called to the house, and the child was taken to Children’s Hospital, Kuykendall said.
Police responded that time, but no report was written because officers saw no visible signs of abuse, he said.
On Monday, Crimes Against Children investigators called North Little Rock police, saying the child had sustained an injury, but abuse wasn’t suspected at that time, Kuykendall said.
“Specifically in the narrative it said, ‘No one has said that they suspect abuse,’” he said.
However, Wednesday, police were told that the child had suffered an injury and “something had to have caused that injury,” he said. “We found out that a crime may have taken place.”
The Human Services website lists the allegation or preliminary cause of the infant’s injuries as “physical abuse/subdural hematoma,” which is bleeding between the brain and the thick lining that covers it.
All other children living in the foster home with the infant have been removed as a “precaution,” Munsell said.
Arkansas, Pages 12 on 07/22/2010