To say this as inhuman is an under statement.
”
A 16-year-old girl with cerebral palsy weighed only 23lbs and could not walk or talk when she was removed from her family home after being starved by her mother.
Darlene Armstrong measured just 3’10’’ tall when she was rushed to hospital in Chicago in March.
The severely disabled girl could have been rescued four months earlier if the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) had followed set procedures, an investigation by the Chicago Tribune revealed.
Darlene’s mother, Rosetta Harris, 50, pleaded guilty to endangering the life of a child.
The mother, who had no prior criminal record, was sentenced to 18 months of probation and ordered to undergo parenting classes.
Doctors at the Comer Children’s hospital said the girl, now 17, had been starved for a considerable period of time.
When Darlene was brought to hospital she weighed only 23 lbs – just over one and a half stone – the typical weight of a two or three-year-old child.
A shocking photo of Darlene in hospital shortly after she was rescued was leaked to the press by law enforcement officials, as an investigation was launched into how the social services dealt with the case.
Hospital officials did not believe the mother’s story that she fed her daughter eggs and grits for breakfast, steamed rice and chicken, chocolate protein drinks and snacks throughout the day.
On November 17 DCFS received an anonymous emergency call that Darlene Armstrong was not being fed and had not seen a doctor in ‘many years
Under the agency’s rules an investigator needs to respond to an emergency call within 24 hours, and, if they do not see the child on the first visit, they are expected to return every day until they see them.
An investigation by the Chicago Tribune revealed that an investigator into the case walked away from Darlene’s home on three occasions without seeing the 16-year-old.
Although an investigator went to the home within the required 24 hours after receiving the hot-line call she left after Harris’ brother said the mother and daughter were not at home. The social worker left her contact details at the home.