A 21-month-old boy
suffered traumatic injuries while he was staying at a hotel in
Boca Raton in September, city police said in arresting a 26-year-old Fort Lauderdale woman on a charge of aggravated child abuse.
Doctors said the child suffered "significant head trauma" and had a small brain bleed. A family member said at one point the child's legs had shaken uncontrollably. A doctor's report said the child's injuries were consistent with physical abuse.
The child was a trauma patient in critical but stable condition at Delray Medical Center in early September. Boca Raton police said Wednesday the child has been released from the hospital.
Ketyra Carter faces a charge of felony child neglect causing great harm in addition to the charge of aggravated child abuse. She is free on $15,000 bond following her arrest by Boca Raton police Oct. 23.
The child was staying at the Courtyard by Marriott with Carter and another woman, who were watching him for his mother, when he sustained his injuries, according to Boca Raton police.
A woman who identified herself to police as Carter's girlfriend said when she returned from work that day, "something was wrong." She said the baby's legs were shaking uncontrollably.
She said she asked Carter, who said only that the child had thrown up a few times.
At the hospital, police saw small dark spots and a small bump at the center of the baby's forehead, as well as what appeared to be a bite mark on his right arm. Doctors told officers the boy had a small brain bleed, according to the report.
On Sept. 2, the mother told police, Carter sent her photos and videos of the child that unnerved her and led her to call paramedics to the hotel. The woman did tell police her son "plays rough" with other children.
Carter initially told police the child might have struck his head on a table. She also said she might have accidentally have scratched the boy with her fingernails. She also said the child tripped over the floor track for the sliding door to the room's balcony, but that he jumped right up, so she though nothing of it.
The report said Carter later said the child fell twice, hitting his head during one of the falls. She denied striking the child.
On Oct. 21, police received a doctor's report that said the child's injuries were consistent not with a fall but physical abuse. The report also said Carter sought medical help only after the girlfriend returned in the evening, even though the child had suffered a "significant head trauma" and symptoms had surfaced in early afternoon.
The next day, the report said, Carter admitted to police that she shook the child, saying she feared he was choking.
