SHAWNEE, Kan. (AP) — Johnson County authorities say a couple is charged with child abuse and endangerment after they brought a 5-year-old boy to a hospital weighing only 28 pounds.
Court documents say investigators were called to Children’s Mercy Hospital in December. Doctors said the boy suffered malnutrition from starvation, a distended stomach and a perforated bowel caused by blunt force trauma. He also had bruises on most of his body.
He was taken into protective custody after hospital staff told investigators the child had lost 10 pounds since he had been to the hospital in September.
Francis and Carter are each jailed on $100,000 bond.