[PHOTO CREDIT: Lake County Sheriff’s Office]
[Original Publish Date: 06/06/20]
TAVARES, Florida — A 26-year-old father accused of shaking his infant son and leaving him with a bleeding brain last month is in the Lake County Jail charged with aggravated child abuse.
Lake County Sheriff’s Office detectives and a Department of Children and Families investigator responded to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando on May 20 in reference to an injured infant who had been transported from UF Health Leesburg, formerly known as Leesburg Regional Medical Center. This was the baby’s second trip to both hospitals in less than two weeks.
The baby, who is only described as an infant in the arrest affidavit, had just come out of surgery to place a tube in his skull to drain blood that accumulated around his brain when investigators arrived, according to an arrest affidavit. The baby was suffering from three open spots — one on each side and one in the back — in his brain and a retinal hemorrhage. The attending doctor told investigators the injuries the baby sustained led him to believe the baby had suffered a traumatic injury of some kind, one equivalent to a high-speed vehicle crash.
Investigators interviewed the parents and they said on May 6, they called 9-1-1 due to the baby being “limp and white, and having labored breathing,” the affidavit states. The baby was taken to UF Health Leesburg and then transported to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children the following day and released on May 10. On May 16, the parents again called 9-1-1 due to the baby having the same issues and the baby was taken to UF Health Leesburg and again transported to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children. When staff found blood was on the infant’s brain, he was taken in for emergency surgery.
The parents were interviewed separately at the hospital and at the baby’s home in Fruitland Park, and based on both interviews, the baby’s father, Drew Wyatt Oldenburg of Fruitland Park was alone with the baby on both days he was injured, according to the affidavit.
On May 29, LCSO detectives received the Child Protection Team Doctor Report and according to the affidavit it stated, “That the child sustained a shaking injury that is represented by, what I believe to be blood along the falx, posteriorly that is seen in the initial CT scan and then again seen in the follow up MR scans as subacute bleeding. This is also recognized as a child with central and peripheral intraretinal hemorrhages noted on dilated eye exam per ophthalmology. I am unsure whether the child has had one traumatic episode or more but I can clearly document an episode of abusive head trauma having occurred shortly before the initial ER visit on 5/6/20.”
Oldenburg went to LCSO for a follow up interview on Wednesday, but the details of the interview are redacted from the arrest affidavit. After the interview, Oldenburg was taken into custody and transported to the Lake County Jail where he is being held on $25,000 bond.
[ Read a similar story here: https://www.lakelegalnews.com/article/groveland-man-arrested-told-authorities-he-became-overwhelmed-and-shook-infant-he-babysat-to-quiet-baby-down/ ]
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Our Editor-in-Chief, Marilyn M. Aciego, began writing for Lake Legal News in 2010. Born and raised in Lake County, she is a graduate of Umatilla High School and Lake-Sumter State College. She started her journalism career at LSSC, where she was editor of both student publications, The Angler and The Odyssey. Her professional career began at the Daily Commercial in 2004 where she covered cops and courts the majority of her time there until she left in 2009. Currently, along with being Editor-in-Chief of Lake Legal News, she is the Florida bureau chief for an international media organization. She has made more than two dozen appearances on live national television, including Nancy Grace and the Greta Van Susteren show, along with her appearance on Evil Twins. Contact her with breaking news, tips, and feedback by sending an e-mail to 352Tips@gmail.com. You can also contact us on our Facebook page — and make sure you “Like” and “Follow us” there. [PHOTO CREDIT: Bonnie Whicher]
