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Background: Lehigh Valley Cedar Crest Hospital in Allentown, Pa., where a newborn baby was reported to have been admitted with “near fatal” injuries (Google Maps). Inset: Edward Ellis Bailey (Jim Thorpe Borough Police Department).
A Pennsylvania man brought his newborn baby to the hospital after she reportedly started having seizures — and the visit led to an investigation into the baby’s welfare.
Now that man, 30-year-old Edward Ellis Bailey, is in custody on $100,000 bail, charged with aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child. According to a Facebook post by the Jim Thorpe Borough Police Department, Bailey brought his 27-day-old baby to the Lehigh Valley Cedar Crest Hospital on the morning of Feb. 19. When hospital staff determined that the little girl was suffering from “a near fatal injury involving blunt force trauma to the head,” they alerted Carbon County Children and Youth Services.
According to court documents obtained by WFMZ, an independent local news outlet, Bailey told police in a statement that when he became frustrated that the baby wouldn’t stop crying, “I lightly dropped her on the bed.” When the baby continued to cry, his frustration grew, and he picked her up and carried her down the stairs, but told police he had been “speed walking.” This caused him to fall down about three steps with the baby in his arms.
He told police, “[M]e and the baby fell.”
Soon after the fall, at about 7 a.m., Bailey stated that he started noticing the baby “twitching” and eventually having seizures. He called the baby’s mother and asked her to come immediately, and together they took the little girl to the hospital at around 10 a.m.
Hospital staff notified authorities that afternoon. Police said in their post that the baby is still in critical condition.
Bailey was charged with aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child. He is being held at the Carbon County Correctional Facility on $100,000 cash percentage bail.