Parents try to treat girl’s life-threatening injuries with smoothies, Texas cops say
A 12-year-old cheerleader was injured for days before her mother and step-father sought help, Texas police said.
The girl’s mother called 911 on Aug. 12 after her daughter, Miranda Sipps, went into respiratory distress while they driving in a vehicle, according to the Atascosa County Sheriff’s Office.
Two hours after emergency services took the girl to a Jourdanton hospital, she died, the sheriff’s office said in an Aug. 13 news release.
After her death, authorities said they learned the girl was seriously injured Aug. 8. However, the sheriff’s office said her mother and step-father — identified as Denise Balbaneda, 36, and Gerald Gonzales, 40 — waited days to seek medical care for the child.
Sipps’ injuries, deputies said, were life-threatening. Deputies did not disclose what the injuries were.
Despite Sipps’ condition, the parents waited four days before they sought medical attention.
“She was not talking,” Sheriff David Soward said in an Aug. 15 news conference posted by KSAT. “She basically could flutter her eyes and move her hands a little bit. Over a four-day period, they had her laying on a pallet in the house.” video: minute 1-2
Soward said the parents gave Sipps oxygen and tried to give her smoothies to “nurse her back to health.”
Balbaneda and Gonzales were arrested Aug. 13 and charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury by omission.
The night of Aug. 12, Balbaneda was driving with her daughter when she went into respiratory distress, so the mother called 911, according to the news release.
Dispatchers instructed Balbaneda to meet first responders at a designated spot, according to deputies. The girl was “alive but unconscious” when she was taken to the hospital, Soward said.
“Hospital Emergency Room personnel worked vigorously to treat the victim but she was pronounced deceased,” Soward said.
Jourdanton is about a 40-mile drive south from San Antonio.
This story was originally published August 14, 2024 at 1:26 PM with the headline "Parents try to treat girl’s life-threatening injuries with smoothies, Texas cops say."
