This story is a total nightmare — enough to make your hair stand up on end.
A woman in Indiana was detained last week after her 4-year-old daughter nearly died from a severe lice infestation, the Associated Press reported. Shyanne Singh was arrested on three felony counts of neglect of a dependent, including neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury. She remained in custody at Scott County Jail through Friday.
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Court records showed that both of Singh’s daughters, ages four and six, were placed in custody of their maternal grandparents in April, per the AP. Both girls had lice when they arrived, and their grandmother attempted to treat it at home. However, she was told by a pharmacist she needed to “take the kids to the hospital.”
Police in Scottsburg, Indiana were contacted after the four-year-old was brought to the hospital. As the AP reported:
“Doctors declared her a ‘near fatality’ because lice had fed off of her for so long, according to a probable cause affidavit.”
The girl was so ill she couldn’t even walk, and was given multiple blood transfusions. The outlet claimed a Department of Child Services supervisor told police that the child had “the lowest hemoglobin levels the hospital had seen” — she was at 1.7 grams when she should have been at 12 grams, per court documents.
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Meanwhile, school workers told police the girl’s older sister had lice three straight days in March before she missed 31 days of school, according to the Lexington Herald Leader. Her hemoglobin levels were also low (8.7 grams), but not as dangerously as the four-year-old’s. In court documents, the investigating officer said images of the girls “showed an infestation of lice like nothing I have seen before,” per WDRB.
In the affidavit, the girls’ grandmother told police that she asked Singh how she allowed the lice to get so out of control, and the 26-year-old responded that “she didn’t notice, and that (she) was just in a fog.” Their grandmother also disclosed that the girls had lice in November and that Singh “was just too lazy to help comb them out and it would start all over again.”
What a seriously upsetting situation. Getting lice is bad enough — we can’t even imagine what an infestation of this magnitude would look like. Thankfully the girls are in a better situation now and hopefully on the mend. We’ll be keeping them in our thoughts!
[Image via BBC/YouTube/Scott County Sheriff’s Office.]