VOLUSIA COUNTY, FL (WKMG/CNN) – A Florida mother was arrested Thursday after authorities say they found her 5-year-old son so underweight he was not even on the medical charts for children his age.
A caseworker, who was already investigating 24-year-old Naomie Hall, found the boy, who has special needs, badly neglected, police say. The 5-year-old was dehydrated, underweight and filthy.
Investigators say Hall admitted to not giving her son prescribed medications and that she had been going three to four days without feeding him.
The boy could not stand, walk or speak. He had not received any form of education and was not taught how to communicate, according to a police report.
When doctors examined the 5-year-old at the Child Protection Team Office, he weighed 24.9 pounds and “was not even on the growth chart,” the police report read.
The boy was taken to the hospital where doctors found he had not been bathed in “quite a while” and his hands and feet were covered with blisters, the report said.
Hall was arrested and charged with child neglect causing great harm.
The woman’s attorney argued Hall does not have a criminal history and has two other children at home to take care of, so the judge reduced her bond from $50,000 to $35,000.
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