A baby was found covered in faeces and severely traumatised trapped in the same room as her mum who died five days earlier from a drug overdose, according to court documents.
Little Lyric Laboy was 15-months-old when she was found huddled under a bed just a few feet away from the dead body of her mum, Shelbi Westlake, 26, at the East River Family Center in Manhattan, New York.
The infant was “covered in human faeces”, suffering with severe dehydration and needed urgent hospital treatment when she was finally rescued, the New York Post reports.
The youngster also had a “horrific” diaper rash which hasn’t yet healed six months after the July 2021 ordeal.
Her dad Quraan Laboy, 31, is now suing the state’s Department of Homeless Services for $5million in damages.
He said: “I don’t know how long she will suffer with this. She has a lot of separation anxiety.”
Lyric’s mum, Shelbi Westlake, reportedly died from an accidental overdose
The little girl lost seven pounds through the harrowing ordeal and has been left severely traumatised.
Laboy’s lawyer, Seth Harris, says Lyric has been “slapping her dad while he’s sleeping to make sure he’s alive”.
The homelessness department has denied the youngster was left alone for five days, but did not provide details on how long she was left.
They told the New York Post the incident is under investigation and has already sparked changes in the way they work.
The shelter now conducts same-night wellness checks for residents who fail to sign the evening register, they say.
Shelbi – who was separated from dad Quraan – had moved into an apartment-like unit at the homeless shelter around three or four months before her death, according to documents filed at Manhattan’s Supreme Court.
It wasn’t until a resident in a neighbouring unit smelled a “foul odour” coming from Shelbi’s room that the alarm was raised, legal papers say.
Another lawyer for Laboy, Allison Keenan, claims the mum’s last sign-in date at the shelter was six days before her body was discovered.
Harris told the New York Post: “It’s amazing that she’s alive.”
Keenan said: “Allowing an infant to remain with her dead mother for five days unnoticed not only highlights the indifference and lack of humanity shown to those most in need but exhibits complete malfeasance by the City of New York and Department of Homeless Services.
Lyric is now in a far better physical condition after regaining all the weight she initially lost.
But Quraan says she still cries out for her mum nearly every night.
“She always wakes up in the middle of the night, she’s kicking, she’s fighting, saying, ‘Mommy,’ I look at her and I just start tearing up sometimes,” he said.
Quraan has left his job to take care of his daughter – who is his “number one priority” now.
He added: “My daughter’s gotta [sic] deal with this mentally for the rest of her life.”
Maybe this corrupt government could come up with new ways and rules to educate and correct people who cannot handle life with respect to those they leave behind ,so they dont go on drugs, instead of screwing with people who know how to get to life and are tough to face life without being medicated, and take their rights and freedoms away, I feel sorry for her I do not feel sorry for her choice that she chose to raise her child in over-reaching week corrupted government, this is the post-millennial government indoctrination thinking they they have pushed on all our children
Where was daddy? Not in the homeless shelter with the mother and baby. He has a job that he will quit so he can sue for the 5 million, then he will apply for welfare. He allowed his child to live in a homeless shelter with a drug addicted woman. Neither one of them cared about the baby. Now the baby is money!
You can thank our judicial system for that. Momma gets the child even if the children have to sleep on the floor. As long as there is a roof over their head. Found
Judicial system to blame. Momma gets the child regardless of where they live as long as they have a roof over their head. They can sleep on the floor if need be and makes no difference in the courts eyes. Unless you have a lot of proof to prove a mother unfit, (which is very difficult to do) then momma keeps the child with her. Do I agree, no. I’m a mother myself and I learned and saw this the hard way. Even abused children are handed right back into the abused environment. It’s really a heartbreaker.
If you don’t know any of these people and you don’t know what went on in their life how can you decide who did what?
If dad is actually so concerned about his daughter at this time, he should have had custody from the get go. Now, he seems eager to win a lawsuit to line his pockets with cash from his daughter’s misfortune.
If dad was so concerned about his daughter, he wouldn’t have quit his job, as he will still need to provide a roof overtop her head and food in her stomach. He needs to normalize that little girl’s life as quickly as possible. She is 15-months old and will forget about what happened in due time. There is no guarantee he will be awarded that $5m yet he will have to pay for the lawyers either way. What happened in the complex should make them rethink how to assure that all residents are safe and sound.