Human Services Department Responds to Allegations

Today, we reached out to the Department of Human Services for a comment on the report made by Kevin Arnold Senior. As you heard in our newscast on Wednesday night, Arnold alleged that his seven-month-old baby boy and two-year-old daughter were removed from his care and placed in a home because he didn’t have proper housing arrangements. Arnold said that less than two weeks after that happened in September, he was informed that his baby had suffered an injury to the face that was threatening the baby’s life. He went on to claim that the Department didn’t respond to his queries. Today, when we reached out to the Department, they shared a press release to shed light on the matter at hand. According to the department, back in September they received a report of medical neglect of two minors and when they visited the home they found the living arrangements to be of risk to the children. The Department says that the parents didn’t agree to have the children taken for medical care and so the police intervened and removed the children from the home. The release says that a medical exam showed that the children were dehydrated and malnourished. As a result, the Belize Family Court granted an interim care order for the children to the department and they were placed in foster care. The release says that the parents were informed and offered periodic supervised visitation at the department.  In response to the child’s injury, the release says that there was no trauma and that the child developed a condition, “On September twentieth, 2019, the younger child was rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital for examination where he was hospitalized.  The parents were informed of the medical emergency on the same day.  A CAT-scan was conducted on the child and medical findings were of a Non- traumatic Spontaneous Subdural Occipital Hematoma.  The medical report concluded that there was no trauma to the child’s head. The child continues to be monitored by a pediatrician every two weeks.” The Department of Human Services says the father failed to attend two appointments to meet with the doctor to get an explanation of the child’s medical status. The parents’ last visitation with the children was on October eighteenth.