Shimmer
Well-known member
Quote:
Honestly, why bother having kids? Take him to the police station and give him up, take him to a church or foster home, or something, but how can anyone treat a child this way??
The parents of a 6-month-old Dallas boy are accused of abusing him so cruelly that he has severe brain damage, dozens of bone fractures and scars too numerous to count. Now a court must decide whether he should be taken off life support. David Cesar Coronado Sr., 23, and Ruthy Marie Chabolla, 22, took their only child to Methodist Dallas Medical Center one evening last month. He wasn't breathing. Hospital staffers revived the infant with CPR and rushed him to Children's Medical Center, where doctors quickly discovered appalling injuries. The baby, identified in criminal district court records as David Coronado Jr., was barely alive. In addition to severe brain and spinal cord injuries, a doctor noted that David had 42 skeletal injuries. His hands and feet appeared to have been pulled, twisted and crushed. His skin injuries included bruises and human bite marks. One of his fingers appeared to have been bitten to the bone, records say. Another had lost a nail to some past trauma. Many of the fractures had healed some, indicating they were several weeks old. It appeared the abuse had lasted at least a month. "Overall, David has a pattern of injuries indicative of repeated severe and violent traumatic events," the doctor reported. "Neurologically, David is exhibiting minimal movement," the doctor wrote. "If he survives his injuries he will have severe and permanent disability as a result of these injuries." On Dec. 23, Dallas police arrested Coronado and Chabolla on charges of injury to a child. Each is being held in the Dallas County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail. Interview requests sent to the jail were not immediately responded to Friday. Born in July David Coronado Sr. and the infant's mother live with her father in a small white house on a quiet street in West Dallas. Chabolla's father, who pulled into the driveway late Friday in an old Chevy pickup, declined to comment. David Jr. was born full term on July 19. He weighed 4 pounds, 5 ounces. When evaluated by a family doctor on Dec. 1, he weighed more than 7 pounds, and the doctor noted nothing amiss. But by the time he stopped breathing at Methodist, he was down to 6 pounds, 10 ounces. "His appearance resembles a premature infant," a report by Child Protective Services noted. Chabolla told police she fed her child from a bottle several times a day, though sometimes she would skip a feeding if he was asleep, the report said. Parents' accounts Coronado told police that about 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 17 he noticed his son in the baby swing acting fussy, with an unusual cry. He said he picked the infant up and patted him, then put him in his crib, where he fell asleep. Several hours later, Coronado said, the infant woke up crying. So he changed his son's diaper and began giving him a bottle. Coronado said his son threw up, began to gurgle and stopped breathing. Chabolla started CPR, and they left for the hospital. Both parents told detectives that their son sometimes had trouble breathing and was given to blank stares. They denied deliberately causing any of his injuries. "I would never hurt my child," Chabolla told police, according to a CPS report. She said the marks on David's feet, described as bite marks by his doctors, were from where he had rubbed them together. The bruises up and down his body may have been from the buttons on his onesies, she said. Further into the interview, however, Chabolla said she would sometimes bite her son in a playful manner. She told detectives that her husband sometimes dreamt he was fighting and may have hit his son while they slept in the same bed. Coronado, who is 6-foot-3 and 260 pounds, said maybe he picked his son up "too hard" in the middle of the night, but that he never hurt David intentionally. CPS report "Both parents are responsible for long-term, extensive physical abuse to their only infant son," a CPS report says. "Neither parent is able to provide a safe, nurturing environment for this or any other child, given the magnitude of the physical abuse and life-threatening physical neglect this infant has sustained while in their care." On Monday, the infant's court-appointed guardian filed a motion in Dallas County juvenile court asking that doctors at Children's be permitted to remove David Jr. from life support. The motion, noting that the parents "have not consented to withdrawal of support," argues it is in his best interest. Court records describe him as "neurologically devastated." The motion could be decided next week. |
Honestly, why bother having kids? Take him to the police station and give him up, take him to a church or foster home, or something, but how can anyone treat a child this way??