A Daytona Beach couple were arrested today after doctors found their 5-month-old son had a skull fracture, brain swelling, a healing leg fracture and eight broken ribs.
The boy and has a 50 percent of surviving — at best with extreme neurological impairment, a doctor said.
The baby was rushed to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach Wednesday with bruises on his head, neck, face, legs and torso, a police report states. He also had a broken femur — the thighbone — and ribs that were in various stages of healing, doctors told police.
The couple delayed calling 911 for more than 13 hours while they slept and the father bicycled to a pawnshop, investigators said.
Father Jack O'Connor, 21, and mother Gladys Vasquez, 22, told investigators the baby must have gotten hurt falling out of their bed, which is no more than 2 1/2 feet off the floor, according to the report. Doctors said the injuries couldn't have been caused by such a fall — only child abuse, a police report states.
O'Connor told detectives he is unemployed and the primary caregiver for his son. Vasquez works at a movie theater.
O'Connor also revealed that the state Department of Children and Families had previously investigated him because it was alleged that he took drugs while caring for the baby. A department spokesman said confidentiality laws prevent him from disclosing the result, although O'Connor admitted that he still smokes marijuana, the report says.
On Sunday, the baby fell out of bed face down near a DVD player, investigators said he told them. The child then drank formula, spit up and slept through the night, failing to wake up for his normal feeding at 3 and 6 a.m., the father told police.
On Monday morning, the baby had a seizure and his face was twitching, the father said. But instead of summoning medical help, O'Connor took the DVD player by bicycle to a pawnshop in Holly Hill, pawned the machine, then rode back to the apartment, according to the report. That was when he and Vasquez called 911.
O'Connor attributed the healing femur fracture to a fall off the couch several weeks ago, while his girlfriend said it must have happened when she picked the infant up to change his diaper, the report states. They never sought medical help, police said.
The baby's last visit to a doctor was in July. Nobody took him for a scheduled appointment on Sept. 13, officers said. One doctor said the injuries probably happened in the past two weeks. The doctor also told investigators that the baby would have been in extreme pain and wailing while he was being hurt. The child was transferred to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando.
O'Connor and Vasquez were each arrested on a charge of aggravated child neglect causing great bodily harm and are being held in the Volusia County Branch Jail. The father told police that nobody other than he and his girlfriend had cared for the child.
[...]
