KANNAPOLIS — Police and the Cabarrus County Department of Social Services are investigating how a baby rolled off a bed and suffered severe burns on his head this morning.
Nine-month-old Everado Perez Morales was listed in critical condition this morning at Northeast Medical Center before being transferred to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.
The baby’s parents, Everardo Gonzalez and Ernestina Gomez, could be charged with non-assaultive child neglect, though the investigation is continuing, said Lt. Terry Clanton with the Kannapolis Police Department.
Emergency medical workers and police responded to a report of a baby not breathing at 1400 E. First St. at 3:55 a.m. today, Clanton said.
They found the baby boy with three burns on his head. By the time police arrived, the baby was breathing again, Clanton said.
A police report said the baby had been left unattended on a bed next to a wall. The baby rolled off the bed and into an open closet, where a water heater and electrical circuitry box are located.
The baby rolled against either the open circuitry box or the water heater, suffering two burns on the side of his head and one on his forehead, the report said.
“It appears it was accidental,”Clanton said.
The most severe burn was on the top of the baby’s ear and just above his ear on the head, he said. He sustained another burn about three inches above that on his head. The least severe burn was across his forehead.
A NorthEast representative said the baby was listed in critical condition before a helicopter flew the child to Carolinas Medical about 5:30 a.m.
A Carolinas Medical Center representative said no child was listed there by the name given to police.
The representative said the child may be listed under another name because of the circumstances surrounding his injuries.
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