Woman in jail as 17-lb. 3-YO boy fights for survival

Story here. Excerpt:

'His mother is in jail, and his protector is the state. His home is a hospital, and his health is nearly as fragile as the day he landed in the ER at Memorial Hermann Children's Hospital.

Weighing just 17 pounds, 3-year-old Kayvon Lewis arrived in the emergency room last month extremely malnourished, dehydrated and at risk of heart failure and liver damage. He can neither walk nor talk. He is blind and suffers seizures, sometimes five a day.

His mother, authorities say, was starving him to death, a form of child abuse so rare that doctors almost never see it.

About 200 children each year die from abuse and neglect in Texas. Kayvon escaped death by a thread.

And as is often the case, a lengthy list of people knew about the boy's eroding condition, but failed to intervene.

“The care Kayvon was given was pathetic,” said Gary Polland, the attorney appointed to represent Kayvon at court after ER physicians had the boy taken into temporary custody by Texas Child Protective Services.'