Child on life support

A 4-year-old is on life-support with a traumatic brain injury in Texas after his biological father of Eunice hadn’t seen the child since early this year.

Four-year-old Alessandro was airlifted to a hospital in Lubbock, Texas, with traumatic brain injury and placed on life support after the child’s mother and her fiancé, Omner Alberto Polanco Terrazas, brought him to Ward Memorial Hospital in Monahans, Texas, Nov. 18.

The couple said the boy fell down their front porch steps. Hospital staff told law enforcement it was unlikely the injury occurred at the time the couple reported it, and it was also implausible the injury occurred the way they said it did, according to a Ward County Sheriff’s Office report.

Terrazas later admitted he caused the injury by striking Alessandro on the head several times with his hand. Terrazas allegedly failed to seek medical attention for Alessandro after the 4-year-old boy lost consciousness around 1 p.m. Terrazas and Alessandro’s mother didn’t bring Alessandro to the hospital until over four hours after the injury occurred, according to police reports.

Adan Chacon, 27, of Eunice, the child’s biological father, received a call from Child Protective Services Nov. 18 and he’s been by his son’s hospital bed ever since.

Alessandro already had one brain surgery when Chacon and his cousin, Erika Garcia, got to the hospital. An MRI showed half of his brain showed no activity, Garcia said.

The 4-year-old boy has gone through two brain surgeries and Garcia said Alessandro now shows no sign of brain activity at all.

“The doctors didn’t give us any hope. They’ve done everything they can,” said Garcia, a Eunice kindergarten teacher.

Garcia said Chacon’s attorneys were in the process of serving Alessandro’s mother a court order before the boy was injured. Chacon was supposed to have custody of Alessandro every weekend but his mother moved and didn’t tell Chacon where she went with their son. Chacon hadn’t seen Alessandro since February.

“I just hope there’s justice for Alessandro. I hope that everyone involved faces serious consequence,” Garcia said.

Terrazas was charged with injury to a child, a first-degree felony.

The criminal records clerk at the Ward County Sheriff’s Office said that as far as she knew, Alessandro’s mother had not been charged and was seeing Alessandro in the hospital on supervised visits.

As of 3 p.m. Friday, Garcia reported Alessandro was scheduled to be taken off life support.

Sara MacNeil can be reached at reporter@hobbsnews.com.