Authorities in central Florida have arrested a young couple, charging them with neglect after their newborn twin babies had to be hospitalized.
Madison Smith, 23 and Leroy Somersall III, 24, live in Sanford, Florida, where police have charged them with child neglect with great bodily harm.
Police said the twin babies — a boy and a girl, born five months ago — were taken to the hospital on January 6 after one was found unresponsive. While there, medical staff quickly realized the twins were severely in a malnourished state and extremely dehydrated.
Hospital officials called police and told them the infants’ bones were showing, and that their abdomens had sunken in, according to arrest documents obtained by Us Weekly. The brother and sister, whose names were redacted in court records, weighed only 5.7 pounds at the time of their hospital admission.
The baby boy actually weighed more when he was discharged from the hospital after his birth, it is alleged in the arrest report.
Both babies were “thin and frail” in appearance, and had low blood sugar levels, according to the arrest reports. Nurses also told police the babies seemed “very sick, underfed, and malnourished.”
The arrest report notes the twins were born a month prematurely, and that Smith had tested positive for THC while the babies were in utero.
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“There are concerns that the children are not being fed properly,” read the arrest report, which noted the couple have a “history” of complaints lodged against them with the department of Children and Families.
The reports claim Child Protective Services received a tip about possible abuse of the twins.
Speaking to police at the hospital, the couple allegedly claimed they were not advised by health care professionals about the need to feed babies more as they develop and acknowledged that they provided the twins with minimal amounts of formula, because they were newly born.
But during a search of the couple’s RV, police allegedly found no formula on hand. Also missing from the RV and the trash can were empty containers of formula, police alleged.
The police report alleges the two babies started gaining weight between January 6 and Sunday, January 11, as the hospital staff had been feeding them regularly.
“Hospital staff have expressed that both children are expected to survive,” according to the arrest reports, which claim one of the two children is suffering from an unspecified neurological condition.
The couple was scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday, January 13. It was unclear what the outcome of that initial hearing was. Us Weekly was trying to confirm if the couple had entered pleas or were represented by counsel.
If you suspect child abuse, please call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or visit ChildHelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential, and the hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
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