Baby hospitalized, mother accused of neglect

A3-m ont h-oldsuffe ring from severe dehydration and malnourishment was hospitalized in critical condition after police found her and and a 2-year-old sibling living in deplorable conditions, according to a court affidavit.

Officers were called to a home in the 1900 block of Park Place about 5:45 p.m. Thursday to assist the Department of Human Services with a welfare check of two children “running around unsupervised, and the house being unlivable,” police reported in the affidavit.

When officers entered the house they found no electricity, no running water and no food, other than a “half- full can of formula,” police reported.

“There were feces on the floor and one of the children was running around with feces on his leg and missing one shoe,” police reported. The 3- month-old was “sweating and blue with labored breathing.”

According to the affidavit, the baby was taken to The Children's Hospital at the OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City, where she was treated for sepsis, acute kidney failure, and hyper nat re mia, a high concentration of sodium in the blood.

Dezirae Leeanne Dawn Stapleton, the children's mother, told police the baby was not eating normally.

Asked if she called for medical help, Stapleton said “no,” police reported. She also told police she last changed the baby's clothes about 11 a.m. on Aug. 28, and the reason there was no electricity or running water was because she had been evicted two days earlier. The boy was released to t he custody of a DHSapproved distant relative, police reported.

Staple ton ,28, was arrested and booked into the Oklahoma County jail on child neglect complaints. She remained jailed Tuesday on a $400,000 bond, according to records.

Officers were called to a home in the 1900 block of Park Place about 5:45 p.m. Thursday to assist the Department of Human Services with a welfare check of two children “running around unsupervised, and the house being unlivable,” police reported in the affidavit.