UPDATE 5/23/08 – Erin Markes’ charge of child neglect has been dropped. Prosecutors do not feel there is evidence to warrant a neglect charge. Erin’s son Jaden remains in DCF custody for the time being pending hearings on whether the child is safer with the state or with his mother. Details at the bottom of the article.

Pensacola, FL - Erin Brittany Markes aka Erin Brittni Beckett, 19 ( MyspaceMySpace ) may be a neglectful mother. Her son Jayden is in the hospital as I write with what law enforcement officers are calling the “worst case of neglect” they’ve ever seen. Jaden, 4, weighed just ten pounds and was near death when Erin Markes finally took him to the hospital last month. The severely disabled child had bedsores from not being turned and an incredibly low body temperature of 91.1 degrees. He had lost nearly half his body weight, reducing him to the size of some newborns. And the medications to control Jaden’s seizures were not in his bloodstream, indicating that he had not received his medicines in weeks.

Erin probably should never have been saddled with the care of her son in the first place. Fifteen when he was born, she was very young and apparently had little family support. Then Jayden turned out to have Lissencephaly, a disease in which the brain wrinkles are smoothed out. Lissencephaly causes severe brain damage, feeding problems, and means that a child who has it often requires total care for everything, even turning over ever hour or so to avoid skin breakdown.

In the last few months, Erin apparently left Jaden’s allegedly drug-addicted father and moved from Missouri, where Jayden was under doctors’ care, to Florida where her family lives. At that point, Erin told police, she just “wasn’t ready to be a mother”. She missed his doctor’s appointments but blamed the absences on not being told when the appointments were scheduled. She apparently stopped giving Jaden his three seizure medications, which had to be administered via feeding tube, or he stopped absorbing them entirely. Erin allegedly stopped trying to feed Jaden regularly. She even stopped turning him, according to hospital staff. Erin is accused of intentionally ignoring her child who could not complain due to his disability.

Erin was arrested on MarchMarch reviews 28 and charged with child neglect. She was held on $100,000 bond for several days and was released after obtaining legal counsel on April 2. Her attorney says that Jayden’s lissencephaly, not Erin’s neglect, is directly responsible for his deteriorated state. But medical doctors say that while Jaden’s disease process is a factor, he still was not getting adequate care at home and is gaining weight and improving in the hospital and may be released to home hospice care this week. Hospice care is for the terminally ill, so Jaden will die at some point within the next months or years, but hopefully his remaining time will be easy and pain-free.

I hadn’t planned to do this article on the front page. We’ve got a large thread on this case here in our forums already thanks to our member SoJaded, who found it at the time of Erin’s arrest. And my feeling as a former home hospice nurse for children was that Erin really had the deck stacked against her. A severely disabled child is tough for any parent, but for a fifteen year old, that’s really an awful lot to ask. I honestly felt that she had little or no support network, and that possibly she just succumbed to despair and gave up – not an excuse, but kind of an understanding. And lissencephaly is a horrible disease.  Very low weights are not that unusual in children who have the disease.

But Erin’s family and supporters arrived and told us that we were mean for expecting Erin to feed her child or for expecting her family to help her. They said we didn’t understand lissencephaly, so we read up on it. We still thought Jaden should have been fed and turned, ’cause we’re crazy like that. We were told that Jaden’s bedsores were a diaper rash by a family member in another state who has not seen the child. We were asked for help in raising Erin’s bail. We were told we were judgemental and uncaring. And then the fun really began.

Jaden’s extended family member tells us that Jaden remains near death and could die at any moment. I hope that Jayden is able to recover and have a semblance of quality of life for the time he has left. When he dies, it will be interesting to see what charges, if any, are brought in connection with his death. In the meantime, Erin, please think carefully before you parent another child. Because clearly you were not ready for this one.

UPDATE 5/23/08 – The neglect charge that was brought against Erin Markes has now been dropped, just days before a scheduled hearing in the case. Prosecutors felt, after reviewing the case records, that perhaps Erin’s story held up – certainly, they say, it presented enough reasonable doubt to make a conviction unlikely. In an interesting note, there may be evidence that Jaden’s lowest weight was around twelve pounds rather than ten. Erin’s documented instances of missing multiple doctor’s appointments for her son were essentially dismissed along with the charge against her.

While statements by law enforcement say that Erin Markes was at times “attentive and proactive” in regards to her son’s care, it was noted that her “efforts had waned of late”. Erin herself told investigators she did not feel that she’d done her best caring for her son. Jaden did gain weight while in the hospital, then lost a bit, and remains in the end stages of his disease process. However, Jaden is still in DCF custody, as hearings have yet to be held to decide whether Erin’s son is safer with the state, or with his mother.

Erin’s attorney is very pleased, saying in a statement that “Erin can go back to her life.” I wish Jaden had a life to go back to. I said more than once that I’d post an update if Erin was cleared – and she was. I wish I felt better about that.