Docs: Indiana mother charged after child ‘near fatality’ due to lice infestation

SCOTT COUNTY, Ind. (WISH) — A Scottsburg woman has been charged after a hospital said one of her children nearly died due to a lice infestation.

Shyanne Singh, 26, faces three felony counts of neglect of a dependent.

A Department of Child Services supervisor contacted Scottsburg police on April 20. The supervisor told police that the child was “declared by the hospital as a near fatality due to the lice” feeding off of her for so long. The child’s hemoglobin levels, normally at 12, were at 1.7. The hospital said that was the lowest level it had ever seen.

The child was also unable to walk.

Singh’s other child was sent home from school in March due to lice and has had more than 30 unexcused absences since then.

Police interviewed the children’s grandmother during the investigation.

She told police that her daughter called her “to take the girls because she could not care for them” and that one of the children “couldn’t walk and she would have to teach her to walk again,” according to court documents.

The grandmother said she took pictures to a pharmacist. The pharmacist said “he had never seen an infestation like that before and to take the kids to the hospital,” according to court documents.

Online court records state that Singh has an initial appearance on Friday morning.