The Iowa parents of a baby girl have been arrested after they failed to seek medical treatment after the infant was seriously injured.
Chad Gibbs, 23, and Sarah Lembke, 22, have both been charged with child endangerment/serious injury, KTIV reported. According to court documents, Gibbs claimed he fell down the stairs while holding the baby, causing her head to strike a door frame, and also dropped her from a height of three to four feet. Neither he nor Lembke bothered to seek medical treatment until the baby girl stopped breathing hours later.
The documents say Lembke was not observant enough to realize something was wrong, although she did tell investigators the little girl had been crying incessantly for about five hours and had a bruise on her face.
Documents say that Gibbs has a history of harming Lembke’s children without providing details.
He told investigators he “accidentally” elbowed the child nearly a week earlier and that he became so upset with the crying that he squeezed her to his chest.
Crawford County is a sparcely populated, rural county in western Iowa.
KTIV did not say when the incident took place or provide any information about the child’s current condition or the status of the parents’ cases.
