A 6-month-old girl in Port Richey, Florida was rushed to a children's trauma center earlier this month after testing with a blood alcohol level of 0.383 — more than four times the legal driving limit for adults. Her 7-year-old brother found her unresponsive in her playpen after coming home from school, and her parents were arrested days later on felony child neglect charges.
According to fox8.com, the boy found his parents, Jessie Lee Waldroup and Denise Leann Uzunboylu, asleep on Sept. 8, then went to check on his sister and found her unresponsive; 911 was called. The parents had reportedly been asleep in the living room while the baby was in a playpen in a bedroom. First responders who arrived found the infant breathing but still unresponsive and had her airlifted to the trauma center, the outlet reported. Medical personnel described her as critical but stable and said she likely would have died had treatment been delayed much longer, per the same account.
A trauma exam turned up bruising on the baby's abdomen, head and thigh that police described as highly suspicious for non-accidental trauma given its location and appearance, fox8.com reported. Uzunboylu reportedly told investigators the girl had been suffering from a rash and claimed the family's pediatrician was aware of it — but the pediatrician's office reported no record of any rash ever being reported, according to the outlet.
Vodka in a Water Bottle
Waldroup and Uzunboylu initially denied using drugs or alcohol and said they did not know how their daughter had alcohol in her system, the station's report states. Uzunboylu reportedly told investigators the family had gone to the beach with other relatives on Sept. 7, and that a family member had put vodka into a water bottle — the same one she said Waldroup later used to prepare the baby's bottle. Waldroup corroborated her account, and the couple confirmed the bottle recovered from the home was the only one their daughter used, per the same report.
Investigators located the child's bottle inside the family home and noted a strong smell of an alcoholic beverage coming from it, according to lawandcrime.com. The wfla.com notes that the Cleveland Clinic has said any blood alcohol concentration above 0.30% is likely to cause alcohol poisoning, which can be fatal — putting the infant's reported 0.383 level well into that danger zone.
Arrests, Bond and a No-Contact Order
Waldroup, 36, and Uzunboylu, 27, both of Port Richey, were arrested in Pasco County on Sept. 17 and charged with felony child neglect causing great bodily harm, according to WPXI. Each posted $10,000 bail, WPXI reported, and court records reportedly bar both parents from having any contact with their daughter after they bonded out. Attorney Bryant Camareno, who is not affiliated with the case, told WFLA that penalties for the charges can range from five to 30 years depending on the severity of the injuries involved.
The dossier notes a discrepancy in the mother's identity across outlets: WPXI and the underlying seed facts identify her as Denise Leann Uzunboylu, while wfla.com refers to her as Desirae Uzunboylu. Both names appear tied to the same case and arrest date, but the reports have not reconciled the difference.
How Little It Takes
Poison control experts caution that alcohol poses an outsized danger to young children. According to poison.org, children can reach the same blood alcohol concentration as adults after consuming a much smaller amount of alcohol simply because of their smaller body size, and ingestion can cause low blood sugar, seizures, coma or death. The organization has documented a comparable case involving a 2-year-old boy who drank about 2 ounces of vodka and registered a blood alcohol concentration of 248 mg/dL; he was airlifted to a hospital with a pediatric intensive care unit and later made a full recovery, per poison.org.
