An Oklahoma couple was arrested last week after taking their 9-month-old twins to an urgent care facility with signs of severe neglect.

Reports say nurses at the health care facility called police after the babies were brought in looking skeletal and having significant diaper rash and bedsores. Police say a nurse told them that one infant had feces in her ear, and that a maggot crawled from the genitals of another while nurses examined her.

When police questioned the children's mother, identified as Aislyn Miller, 24, she told them that she knew her daughters were not doing well, but said that she and their father, Kevin Fowler, 25, are new parents and did not know how to care for the babies. She told police that she had not brought the twins to the doctor since their birth because they did not have health care insurance. 

Police then visited the home, where they say conditions were consistent with neglect, citing "a lot of clutter and animal feces and things like that inside the house," according to Owasso Deputy Chief Jason Woodruff. 

The parents were arrested on child abuse complaints, and the twins and two older children living in the home were taken into DHS custody.

Oklahoma law prohibits and penalizes the abuse, neglect, exploitation, and sexual abuse of children in 21 O.S. § 843.5. Under this statute, child abuse or neglect, and enabling child abuse or neglect, are punishable by a maximum of life in prison. Child abuse is an 85 percent crime, which means that anyone convicted of child abuse or neglect must serve at least 85 percent of his or her sentence before becoming eligible for parole. 

State law provides definitions of abuse and neglect in the Children and Juvenile Code, 10A O.S. § 1-1-105:

  • "Abuse" means harm or threatened harm to the health, safety, or welfare of a child by a person responsible for the child's health, safety, or welfare, including but not limited to nonaccidental physical or mental injury, sexual abuse, or sexual exploitation. Provided, however, that nothing contained in this act shall prohibit any parent from using ordinary force as a means of discipline including, but not limited to, spanking, switching, or paddling.
  • "Heinous and shocking abuse" includes, but is not limited to, aggravated physical abuse that results in serious bodily, mental, or emotional injury
  • "Neglect" means:
    a. the failure or omission to provide any of the following:
    (1) adequate nurturance and affection, food, clothing, shelter, sanitation, hygiene, or appropriate education,
    (2) medical, dental, or behavioral health care,
    (3) supervision or appropriate caretakers, or
    (4) special care made necessary by the physical or mental condition of the child,
    b. the failure or omission to protect a child from exposure to any of the following:
    (1) the use, possession, sale, or manufacture of illegal drugs,
    (2) illegal activities, or
    (3) sexual acts or materials that are not age- appropriate, or
    c. abandonment. 
  • "Heinous and shocking neglect" includes, but is not limited to:
    a. chronic neglect that includes, but is not limited to, a persistent pattern of family functioning in which the caregiver has not met or sustained the basic needs of a child which results in harm to the child,
    b. neglect that has resulted in a diagnosis of the child as a failure to thrive,
    c. an act or failure to act by a parent that results in the death or near death of a child or sibling, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, or presents an imminent risk of serious harm to a child, or
    d. any other similar aggravating circumstance;

Resources are available for parents having difficulty in caring for their children and for those who are unable to afford health insurance for their children. Find out about SoonerCare (Oklahoma Medicaid) from the Oklahoma Health Care Authority. Learn more about SoonerStart for children under 3 and their parents.

Image credit: Cody