Investigation reveals several injuries to 6-month-old

Fain

An examination by doctors found a 6-month-old boy, whose mother is in jail charged with abuse, had multiple broken bones, bruises and other injuries, some of them weeks old.

Amanda Fain, 21, was arrested Thursday night for child abuse resulting in great bodily harm and is being held on a $100,000 cash-only bond at the Curry County Adult Detention Center.

The injuries the 6-month-old suffered were extensive and took place over a period of days and weeks, according to an affidavit filed in Curry County Magistrate Court.

The child was transported from his family’s home at 405 Johnson St. to Plains Regional Medical Center Sept. 28 after a 911 call indicated he was gasping for air.

He was stabilized at PRMC, then airlifted to a Lubbock children’s unit, records show.

Doctors identified numerous injuries in various stages of healing, including; bruising on his head, torso, face, arms, legs and feet, human bite marks, burn marks on his shoulder, stomach and groin area, cuts and abrasions and a broken leg, healing neck fractures and internal bleeding beneath the skull.

Investigators photographed the injuries and presented Fain with 11 photos during an interview, the affidavit said. She explained each injury, records show, telling investigators she felt “overwhelmed” with the crying from her children and put him into bed “harder than usual,” and that she didn’t realize how hard she had bit her son’s toe.

Fain has four other children who were removed from the home following the incident and are in the care of child services.

The oldest of the children, a 4-year-old boy, told investigators the children bit and hit each other and his mother had hurt the 6-month-old in the past with several different objects.

Staff at the Lubbock hospital where the boy is being cared for reported the child “coded” Thursday and was resuscitated but had “minimal probability” of survival, the affidavit said.

Monday, police Capt. Patrick Whitney said the boy’s condition had not improved.

Police have said if the child does not survive, Fain’s charges could be modified to child abuse resulting in death, similar to a murder charge but specific for crimes against children.

There is also no improvement in the status of a 1-month-old Clovis girl hospitalized in the same Lubbock children’s unit.

The girl was taken to Plains Regional Medical Center, where healing fractures found in x-rays sparked an unrelated child abuse investigation the same day. She was transported to Lubbock where she underwent brain surgery and doctors gave her a poor prognosis.

Whitney said there have been no arrests in the girl’s case and the investigation is ongoing.