Malnourished Newborn Brought To Metro Hospital, Mother Arrested

A 26-day-old baby is in state custody after she was taken to a local hospital hungry and malnourished. The police investigation revealed heartbreaking details about the baby's alleged lack of care.

Officers arrested the baby’s mother Pamela Dejear, 32, for child neglect.

The newborn was brought to Saint Anthony hospital on Tuesday by Dejear. Police said that was the infant’s first time to be seen by a doctor.

At first, emergency room staff were not sure who the newborn belonged to. Dejear could not tell hospital staff the baby's name or date of birth.

‘The woman seemed out of touch with reality,” said Officer Megan Morgan, Oklahoma City Police Department. “And didn’t have a whole lot of information about the child.”

Dejear was able to tell officers she gave birth to the baby by herself inside her apartment and cut the umbilical cord. The following day Dejear took the newborn to the health department and was told to take her to the hospital.

Dejear also told police she was recently evicted from her apartment because of a prior drug charge and had been living with the infant at the City Rescue Mission.

“It appeared the child had not been cared for properly,” said Morgan. “The hospital advised the child appeared malnourished.”

Nurses also noted the baby had a hernia due to the umbilical cord not being cut properly.

Dejear told officers she did not take the baby to the hospital sooner because she was busy and admitted to feeding the newborn cereal instead of baby formula.

Dejear became uncooperative when officers attempted to arrest her for child neglect.

“A minor use of force was used to take the woman into custody,” said Morgan. “Fortunately, no one was injured.”

The Oklahoma Department of Human Services was called to the hospital and a case worker took custody of the baby. Police said the mother thought the hospital sold her baby to DHS and asked if the baby would be raped.