A boy with special needs was found dead in a Bronx apartment along with his mother, who authorities say overdosed on drugs, leaving the boy helpless.
According to the New York Post, the heartbreaking incident occurred at 5240 Broadway, the apartment the mother shared with her son, who was receiving a feeding tube and appeared to be bedridden. A preliminary investigation determined that the mother of a boy with special needs may have been starving after his mother died of a suspected drug overdose, an unfortunate and morbid discovery that has left the city in shock.
Bedridden 10-year-old boy starves to death after mum takes deadly drug habit at New York home: Source https://t.co/uOl62lujIK pic.twitter.com/gNuHet3M63
— New York Post (@nypost) August 15, 2024
The boy’s death sparked outrage because of the family’s history with the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). Sources revealed that the 39-year-old mother was being investigated for abuse and neglect and the boy was removed from her care at one point but was later returned. The egregious mistake outraged many, including elected officials and investigators.
“If you investigate parents and return children who later die, that’s a crime and someone needs to be held accountable,” one investigator told the Washington Post. “You can’t hide behind bureaucracy: ACS needs an overhaul. This situation It’s happened too many times, one is too many because we’re talking about defenseless children.
Tragically, this wasn’t the only child death in the Bronx to come under ACS review Wednesday night. An 11-month-old girl was found dead after her mother called police to report she had drowned in a bathtub. Likewise, the deceased’s 30-year-old mother had previously been investigated by the ACS, and her father reportedly had an open case with the organization at the time of her death. A troubling trend of oversight failures has cast a dark cloud over the agency, with Assemblywoman Diana Ayala calling the boy’s death “heartbreaking” and vowing to investigate further.
“I’ll follow up and see what’s going on here,” Ayala said.
Similar incidents have occurred across the city, with ACS facing severe criticism for repeatedly returning vulnerable children to families with problematic care. A number of cases of children dying under similar circumstances in recent years have sparked calls for reform and greater accountability within the agency.
