Posted on: Saturday, March 12, 2005
Plea to help child refused
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
HILO, Hawai'i — A doctor who treated a 10-year-old girl found near death at a Puna home last month told police the malnourished child had broken bones, cigarette burns and other injuries that suggested she had been bound with wires, thin ropes and cloth, according to a police affidavit filed in Hilo District Court.
The affidavit also states that a 15-year-old girl living in the same 'Ainaloa home told police she begged her mother, who was the 10-year-old's caregiver, to get medical help for the younger girl, but the woman refused.
The mother, Hyacinth L. Poouahi, called for an ambulance Feb. 7 when the 10-year-old girl could not be roused. The affidavit said the girl was found lying on a lanai of the home with a cut on her head that was "decomposing and containing maggots." She also had injuries to her upper lip and other areas of her body that showed "signs of decomposition," according to the document.
Investigators have said the child was a victim of "severe abuse," but no one has been arrested.
Poouahi could not be reached by telephone for comment yesterday on the affidavit, but she earlier said the girl's injuries were largely self-inflicted. Poouahi has said she suspected that the girl cut herself and picked at her wounds, causing a severe infection. Poouahi said the girl's condition suddenly deteriorated on Feb. 6, prompting her to call an ambulance the following day.
The girl is not being identified by The Advertiser to protect her privacy. A spokesman for the state Department of Human Services said the girl remains in critical condition at Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children.
According to the affidavit, filed Feb. 10 in support of a police request for a search warrant, a Kapi'olani doctor reported that the girl had gone into cardiac arrest at the hospital and had to be revived.
The doctor told police that marks on the girl's body suggested she had been bound, and that "she had several areas of dead tissue about her body as a result of pressure ulcering (often called bedsores) and burns that appeared to be from a cigarette and cigarette lighter," according to the affidavit.
The girl also was suffering from severe dehydration and malnutrition, with broken bones in her left hand and left foot, the doctor reported.
The affidavit said Poouahi's 15-year-old daughter told police that her 13-year-old brother, along with Poouahi and Poouahi's common-law husband, "beat up" the girl. The 15-year-old also told police the younger girl had told her that the brother stabbed her in the ankle with a steak knife, according to the affidavit.
Poouahi's daughter told police that "she begged her mother to seek medical treatment for (the 10-year-old girl) but that her mother refused." The 15-year-old stated that the 10-year-old girl "was in pain when she walked, and would cry when she attempted to do so," the document said.
The 10-year-old was not related to Poouahi's family, and police and neighbors have said the girl had been dropped off at the Woodrose Drive home by her mother, who was a friend of Poouahi. Acquaintances of the 10-year-old and her mother have said the child had an unstable life and had been left with a series of caregivers over the years.
Police said the child lived at the 'Ainaloa home for about three months. Keonepoko Elementary School Principal Kathleen Romero said the girl attended school there for a time, but did not return when classes resumed after the Christmas break. When school officials contacted the 'Ainaloa household to ask about the girl, they were told she was receiving medical treatment, Romero said.
According to the Feb. 10 police affidavit, Poouahi's 15-year-old daughter said the 10-year-old girl's injuries to her face and upper lip area occurred about two weeks before an ambulance was called to the home. The teenager said she became so distraught over the girl's treatment that she left home to stay with a friend for a week. When she returned on Feb. 7, she didn't see the 10-year-old girl, and her mother refused to explain what had happened to the child, the affidavit said.
The 15-year-old girl told police that the family went to Hilo Medical Center later in the day because Poouahi's oldest daughter, 19, was giving birth. After the baby was born, Poouahi returned home with her husband and summoned the ambulance, police were told.
At the close of her interview with police, the affidavit said, the teenager told officers: "I'm done protecting them."
Soon after the girl's injuries were revealed to authorities, Child Welfare Services removed the 15-year-old girl, her 13-year-old brother and three other children from the 'Ainaloa home.
In their petition for a search warrant, police said they wanted access to the home and two adjoining vacant properties where there was a lava tube that neighbors said the 10-year-old girl sometimes went. The warrant was approved by District Court Judge Barbara Takase, and officers retrieved rope, scissors, blankets, school books, a tarp, a lighter and bags of clothing from the home.
Officers also seized a plastic doghouse where Poouahi said the girl sometimes slept.
Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.
