The death of a 1-year old Gering boy in a Colorado hospital last Saturday has brought a more serious charge against a Gering man arrested last week for child abuse.
      31-year-old Tyler Green was initially charged with knowing and intentional child abuse resulting in serious injury, but the Scotts Bluff County Attorney’s Office is raising that to intentional child abuse resulting in death
Green remains in custody on 10% of $1-million dollars bond with a preliminary hearing scheduled a week from Thursday in Scotts Bluff County Court.
The case began shortly after midnight last Wednesday when Gering police and medical personnel were sent to a home after Green reported a child coughing up blood, then going limp and unresponsive but still breathing.
Green told a sheriff’s deputy that he was giving the boy a bath after diarrhea had caused the toddler to make a mess on the floor and walls, but that the child suddenly began vomiting blood and he called the boy’s mother to come upstairs.
First responders took the boy to Regional West Medical Center, but the deputy told investigators that evidence at the scene did not support Green’s story. An emergency room doctor at Regional West told officers the child suffered injuries that appeared intentional
Those included bruising to the face, lower back and chest, blood in the lungs, and a hypoxic brain injury revealed by a CT scan. The boy’s core body temperature was also down to just 82 degrees before he was flown to Children’s Hospital in Aurora, Colorado
Investigators say his mother told them the boy and 3 other children were put to bed after being fed Tuesday night, and that she and Green then started drinking – with Green drinking heavily over an argument with his ex-wife earlier in the day
The mother said she went to bed after two beers and was awakened later by Green screaming. Green told officers he left the boy alone in the tub for about 45 minutes while he went outside to smoke and check on the other children, but returned to find the toddler vomiting blood.