Mom Leaves Infant With COVID-19 To 9-Year-Old Son; Baby Dies Of Bleeding Lungs

A 26-year-old woman in Marion County, Indiana, has been charged with neglect after her infant son died of COVID-19 late last year while he was under the care of his older siblings.

Madelissa Flores, of Indianapolis, was taken into custody last week over the death of her unnamed 3-month-old son, The Independent reported.

Officers with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) were executing a welfare check at Flores' home on Nov. 28 last year when they witnessed neighbors performing CPR on the infant, according to the outlet.

The child was taken to Riley Children's Hospital after an officer attempted to revive him, but the infant was pronounced dead.

Doctors discovered that the boy was COVID-19 positive and had hemorrhagic lungs, which were likely related to the virus, a report by Fox 59 said.

Additionally, a skeletal survey showed the boy suffered metaphyseal fractures in both of his femurs, according to documents.

The injuries were "a common finding in toddlers and infants who are being abused by being shaken or by being forcibly handled and yanked by their limbs," the IMPD said.

An autopsy later determined the boy's cause of death to be complications from his coronavirus infection.

Prior to his death, the infant was "alone in the dark house, screaming with no adults in sight," after Flores left him as well as his 7- and 9-year-old siblings at the residence, neighbors told police.

Flores told authorities that she left her three children alone because she was a "single mom that is under a lot of stress and needed to talk to someone," court papers obtained by The Indianapolis Star stated.

Law enforcement personnel visited Flores' home several times in the days leading up to her son's death, according to court documents. Officers found the boy "gasping for air" during one visit that occurred hours before the infant died.

Flores claimed that her son had been sick for a few days and that she did not give him any medication because "she wanted to treat it naturally before going to any doctors," documents stated.

A detective who visited Flores' home described the residence as being "filthy and in disarray."

"The floor was littered with dirty diapers and trash, open and rotting food was left out, there were multiple bottles of alcohol left in the open, there was an open bottle of antifreeze on the floor, the home had cluttered sleeping spaces, there was no food in the refrigerator and there was a foul odor in the residence," the officer said in court documents.

The Department of Child Services received complaints in 2020 and 2021 that alleged Flores "was leaving the children at home for hours at a time while she was engaged in leisure activities" and that her 9-year-old "was frequently tasked with caring for" the baby.

The complaints also claimed that Flores' three children shared a bed, had to go to neighbors' houses for food and were not attending school.

Flores has since been slapped with two charges of neglect of a dependent resulting in catastrophic injury and one charge of neglect of a dependent following the death of her child. She is currently being held at the Marion County Jail.

The U.S. has reported a total of 78,389,155 COVID-19 cases and 932,894 virus-related deaths, according to data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.