Mom charged after daughter, 4, almost died from headlice infestation when bugs sucked oxygen from her blood
A MOM has been charged after her four-year-old daughter almost died from a headlice infestation.
Shyanne Nicole Singh, 26, has been held after the child was admitted to hospital in Scottsburg, Indiana, and found riddled with parasites.
Doctors called the cops who were horrified to find the infestation of lice sucking her blood and draining her of oxygen, reports The Lexington Herald Leader.
The girl was unable to walk and needed four blood transfusions as her oxygen level was so dangerously low.
Her six-year-old sister was also found to be infested with lice.
Court documents reportedly state a cop who saw photos of the girl said it was the worth infestation he had ever seen.
Police say Singh failed to manage and seek medical treatment for her daughters’ lice infestations.
Singh has been charged with several counts of neglect, including neglect of a dependent, neglect of a dependent resulting in bodily injury, and neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury.
The mom was due to make her first appearance in court on Friday.
Hospitals staff told cops they measured the girl's hemoglobin levels when she was first admitted onto the ward, according to court documents.
Hemoglobin is a key protein that carries oxygen through the body to the organs and gets rid of carbon dioxide.
Healthy levels are around 12 grams per deciliter - but the girl's were just 1.7, less than 20 per cent of what they should have been.
Doctors declared the girl's levels were the lowest they had ever seen and warned the girl was a "near fatality".
Police spoke to school workers who told said the six-year-old had lice for three straight days in March before she then missed 31 days of school.
Her hemoglobin levels were 8.7 grams - which was low, but not critically low like her younger sister.
Child services removed the two girls from Shyanne and placed them laced them in their grandparents’ custody.
The girl's grandma reportedly had asked the mom how they had got lice so bad.
Shyanne reportedly replied she "didn't notice" and she was "just in a fog".
The grandma also told the authorities the girls got lice in November.
Their mom was "just too lazy to help comb them out and it would start all over again", the grandma said.
Severe cases of headlice can cause anemia, which is when the human body "lacks enough healthy blood cells to carry adequate oxygen to your body tissue’s".
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Kaitlyn Yozviak, 12, died last year after a severe headlice infestation which have gone untreated for years.
The girl, from Macon in Georgia, developed anaemia caused by repeated bites over three years which led to the fatal cardiac arrest.
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Her parents Mary Katherine Horton, 37, and Joey Yozviak, 38, were charged with second-degree murder and second-degree child cruelty over the tragic death.
Kaitlyn was so swarmed by lice that agents from Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said it was the worst case they had ever seen.