HALL COUNTY, GA - Authorities have arrested a mother and charged her with child cruelty for not taking her 14-year-old son, who weighed a mere 49 pounds, to the hospital for help.
On July 25th, Oakwood police said they received a call from a pediatric gastroenterologist who requested they do a welfare check on the child, WSBTV reported. The doctor said that lab results showed the young boy was in critical condition and needed to go to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
An incident report filed by police states that the doctor said the mother was "screening" multiple calls from the doctor's office and the hospital, and that she refused to answer. When officers went to the woman's house, they found her and her 14-year-old son in a bedroom.
The mother, identified as 44-year-old Hashabah Yehudah, was arrested and charged with second-degree cruelty to children. As of Wednesday, July 30th, she was incarcerated at the Hall County Jail with no bond.
"When I met Hashabah and [the child], he was skinny and lying on a towel on the bed," the arrest warrant said. "Hashabah stated that doctors wanted to give him an infusion, but she wants to give him medicine for his iron. The doctor said that [it's] an emergency and the child's life is in danger."
Police said that the mother told them she wanted her son to go to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, not Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
The paramedics told her that Children's Healthcare of Atlanta was the best equipped to treat her son's condition. When she asked where they were taking her son, they told her he would be going to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
"I knew if I had to take him, I would have," she reportedly told police. The child remains at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, where his condition is stable. The teen has been placed in the custody of the Division of Family and Children Services, which has launched an investigation into the child's care at home.
Neighbors said they tend to keep an eye out for the kids in the complex, but they had not seen the boy, Law & Crime reported. "I tell you, this community here is a community full of people that love and look out for each other's kids," neighbor D.M. Willis said. "And unfortunately, it looked like one slipped through our hands and we weren't able to see that or we weren't aware of that."
On July 25th, Oakwood police said they received a call from a pediatric gastroenterologist who requested they do a welfare check on the child, WSBTV reported. The doctor said that lab results showed the young boy was in critical condition and needed to go to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
An incident report filed by police states that the doctor said the mother was "screening" multiple calls from the doctor's office and the hospital, and that she refused to answer. When officers went to the woman's house, they found her and her 14-year-old son in a bedroom.
The mother, identified as 44-year-old Hashabah Yehudah, was arrested and charged with second-degree cruelty to children. As of Wednesday, July 30th, she was incarcerated at the Hall County Jail with no bond.
"When I met Hashabah and [the child], he was skinny and lying on a towel on the bed," the arrest warrant said. "Hashabah stated that doctors wanted to give him an infusion, but she wants to give him medicine for his iron. The doctor said that [it's] an emergency and the child's life is in danger."
Police said that the mother told them she wanted her son to go to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, not Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
The paramedics told her that Children's Healthcare of Atlanta was the best equipped to treat her son's condition. When she asked where they were taking her son, they told her he would be going to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
"I knew if I had to take him, I would have," she reportedly told police. The child remains at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, where his condition is stable. The teen has been placed in the custody of the Division of Family and Children Services, which has launched an investigation into the child's care at home.
Neighbors said they tend to keep an eye out for the kids in the complex, but they had not seen the boy, Law & Crime reported. "I tell you, this community here is a community full of people that love and look out for each other's kids," neighbor D.M. Willis said. "And unfortunately, it looked like one slipped through our hands and we weren't able to see that or we weren't aware of that."
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