A 3-year-old child is on life support after he was found limp and unresponsive in a West Philly apartment, police say.
Emergency medical officials were called to 47th and Chestnut streets at about 11 a.m., where the boy was lying unconscious.
The child was rushed to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and he is in extremely critical condition because of blunt-force trauma, officials say.
The person who called 911 said that the boy had fallen down stairs.
Sources say that the boy's injuries are not consistent with a fall however. They claim that some of his injuries appear to be old burn marks or welts. The boy is also suffering from a shattered spleen. Authorities are currently investigating whether the incident is a case of child abuse.
The boy’s godmother, Nadera Batson, 22, was questioned by police earlier today. Batson insists that she did not abuse her child.
Batson says that the boy suffered the burn marks after an accident in a bathroom back in March. She claims that the boy stepped into hot water in the bathroom while she briefly stepped out of the room.
"I love Jaquin so much," said Batson. "I'm devastated that it's not my child, first of all, and it happened in my care. I'm really feeling real bad about this situation."
Batson told NBC Philadelphia that she's been helping the boy's mother for the last nine months by taking care of him and that she even filed for custody.
"There are accidents that happen with children," said Batson's mother Tameka Batson. "She's not abusing children, we don't abuse children."
