Two-year-old girl recovering in hospital after officials say woman severely burned her feet as punishment
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
A two-year-old girl could possibly lose her feet after her step-grandma scalded them so severely that it looked like she was wearing red socks made of jelly.
Kaylee Robinson was dipped in boiling water on August 11, which left her with horrifying second-degree burn marks stretching from her toes to her ankles.
Her feet have been burned identically, with specialists saying that these ‘sock burns’ can only have been inflicted deliberately.
A 2-year-old child is recovering after both of her feet were severely burned. Detectives say the woman who was babysitting the little girl scalded her feet as punishment. https://t.co/DLWK9YyAlE
— FOX26 News (@KMPHFOX26) August 21, 2019
Step-grandmother Jennifer Vaughn has been charged with injuring the toddler at her Chattanooga, Tennessee home, and is said to even have confessed to dipping her into the boiling water as a punishment for misbehaving.
Vaughn is the mother of Kayle Vaughn, whose fiancee is the child’s mother Britanny Smith.
In an interview with Metro, Brittany said:
“It’s terrible, it’s just so stressful. Kaylee has had two operations so far, but they haven’t worked.
The skin is not really repairing itself in the way the doctors hoped it would. Kaylee is in a lot of pain.
They are going to take some skin from her thigh next week to try and repair her feet…
She is at high risk of infection and could end up losing them.”
The mother says she left the child with Vaughn on August 11 while she, her fiancee and her two other children went swimming at a local pool.
She said the water there was way too deep for such a young child to be able to enjoy it safely. So she decided to leave Kaylee to Vaughn, who had previously cared for her multiple times without an issue.
However, Brittany received a horrifying phone call before she arrived at the pool.
She said:
” I got a phone call from Jennifer. I could hear Kaylee screaming in the background.
‘She said that I had to come home right away. I asked her what had happened, but she wouldn’t tell me.”
The frightened mother went back to Vaughn’s house and found Kaylee screaming in pain. She says that the babysitter had told her she would put her daughter in a bath, and that Kaylee had gotten burnt while she was absent for a couple of minutes.
This is Kaylee Robinson, her mom Brittany Smith sent us these pictures. Kaylee’s is on the road to recovery after Jennifer Vaughn allegedly dipped her feet in scalding hot water causing second degree burns. pic.twitter.com/NbHleSaKGz
— Claudia Coco (@ClaudiaCocoWRCB) August 20, 2019
She added:
‘”Even if that story was true, you know you never leave a child in an unattended bathtub.
Jennifer told deputies from Rhea County (Sheriff’s Office) that she’d scalded Kaylee deliberately after our little girl had upset her.”
The toddler was brought to a hospital, where she continues to receive treatment for her injuries.
Jennifer Vaughn has been charged with aggravated child abuse and is being held under arrest. Her bond is $150,000.
SOCK BURNS: Jennifer Vaughn is charged with aggravated child abuse. Investigators determined she used scalding water to punish a two-year old-girl. The hospital called it “sock burns” because it quite literally looked like the burns were a pair of socks. pic.twitter.com/n7ALjZ2ad1
— Abby Kirk (@AbbyKirkNews) August 20, 2019
Brittany explained the impact the terrible burns have had on her baby girl:
“The burns are very serious, but it’s the impact they’ve had on Kaylee’s day to day life that is going to be worse.
She will not be able to walk for the foreseeable future, and is really struggling to understand why she can’t join in with her siblings when she sees them playing at the hospital.”
Brittany says that no punishment the court could come up with could give her rest:
“If I had my way, she would have the exactly same punishment given to her that she inflicted on my daughter.
I would like someone to burn her feet just the same.”
You can watch NewsChannel9‘s coverage of the story in the video below:
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