PALM COAST, Fla. – A 38-year-old Palm Coast man was arrested Thursday morning on charges of aggravated child abuse and neglect of a child causing great bodily harm.
The investigation began Monday when deputies responded to Florida Hospital Flagler after they were called and advised that Stanley Wykretowicz brought a 2-year-old girl to the hospital emergency room unresponsive and with bruising on her body from head to toe.
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The girl was flown to Wolfson Children's Hospital in Jacksonville, where her condition was reported to be severe.
She was admitted to the hospital, where she remains in critical but stable condition.
Detectives said they spoke with Wykretowicz, who was the last person with the girl, and he told them he is her primary caregiver. He said she had fallen in the bathtub on Sunday, hitting her head on the spout and possibly on her bath toys, which caused the bruising on her back and buttocks.
He also told detectives that the girl had fallen while she was trying to get out of the bathtub on Monday
morning, hitting her abdomen on the side of the tub.
In another incident, he told detectives that he noticed the girl's abdomen appeared to be bloated, so he put his finger down her throat in an attempt to make her vomit.
According to doctors, the girl needed abdominal surgery to repair a laceration to the colon, and had severe injuries that appeared to be several days old and that those injuries appeared to have been caused by blunt force trauma.
Detectives said charges were filed and an arrest warrant was issued on Wednesday afternoon based on Wykretowicz's statements to detectives as to the cause of the injuries, that he was the last person with the child, and on the findings of doctors and child protective team investigators. Wykretowicz was arrested just before 1 a.m. Thursday.
He is being held at the Flagler County Detention Facility on $150,000 bond.