A 12-year-old Texas girl died Monday after her mother and stepfather failed to seek medical attention for four days after she suffered life-threatening injuries, instead nursing her with smoothies, authorities said.
Miranda Shipps, a cheerleader at Jourdanton Middle School in Christine, Texas, was found in critical condition Monday evening when her mother called 911. Christine is a small town about 45 miles south of San Antonio, according to a statement from the Atascosa County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities said emergency personnel found Shipps and her mother on the highway after they had left the home and rushed the unconscious girl to the hospital, where Shipps was pronounced dead a short time later.
A sheriff’s office-led investigation revealed that Shipps had been seriously injured the previous Thursday, with life-threatening injuries, and that Shipps’ mother and stepfather had refused to seek medical attention for her over the next four days, even though she remained largely unconscious. There were no other children in the home.
“She was not speaking, she was flapping her eyes and was able to move her hands slightly for four days,” Sheriff David Soward said at a news conference, “and she was lying on a cot inside the home.”
Sowards said Shipps’ parents tried to treat his injuries by giving him vitamin smoothies, but his condition worsened and he began having trouble breathing Monday evening, so his mother finally called 911.
“They tried to give her a smoothie, but an unconscious person can’t swallow,” Sowards noted.
The mother was identified as Denise Balvaneda, 36, and the stepfather was identified as Gerardo Gonzalez, 40. Both were arrested Tuesday afternoon and charged with first-degree felony counts of injury to a child by negligence.
Investigators believe the couple did not seek medical help to avoid police coming to their home, and after calling 911, Balvaneda chose to leave the house and meet emergency responders on the road.
The cause of Shipps’ injuries remains under investigation. Soward declined to provide further details, saying only that they were not related to the school day that began on Monday. A final autopsy report is pending.
Sowards expressed surprise at the unusual nature of the incident.
“This is not something we would normally encounter or experience, but it is common in this industry,” Thorward said. “The next call is going to be something strange or something we’ve never dealt with before. This case is a good example of that.”
Miranda Shipps would have turned 13 later this month.
The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to a request for further updates.
