UPDATE: Girl, 3, on Life Support After Ingesting Opiate; No Sign of Trauma on Body
A 3-year-old girl has been transferred in "extremely critical" condition to a children's hospital in Manhattan after she was found unresponsive at her Bronx home, police say.
The child's mother found her facedown in vomit, with blue lips, at their Mott Haven home early Monday, according to police. The mother's boyfriend tried to administer CPR while another relative called 911.
Emergency responders took the girl to Lincoln Hospital. She had bleeding to the eye and suffered loss of oxygen to the brain, police said. Initial tests also showed signs of opiates in her system, according to officials.
The girl was later transferred to New York Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital. Doctors believe there was some kind of rectal trauma, police sources say.
Francisco Perez, who described himself as the child's stepfather, denies any implication of a possible sex attack and said the little girl was fine Sunday night.
"I cooked her favorite meal -- broccoli, shells and meat -- and she went to sleep perfectly fine," Perez said.
Perez said the little girl's mother woke up in the middle of the night to give the couple's newborn son a bottle and noticed vomit. Then, Perez said, the woman saw her young daughter was purple. Police were then called.
Twelve people live in the Bronx home, and police are speaking with the girl's mother, her boyfriend and other relatives, police said.
