Baby allegedly burned by babysitter's hot bath recovering from surgery

A four-month-old boy is recovering after undergoing surgery on Tuesday to treat second- and third-degree burns on his face and body while the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) continues to probe the cause. Maddox Lee, of Carroll County, Tennessee, was under the care of an adult-aged babysitter while his mother, Danielle Stover, was at work on July 27.

Stover, who also has a 2-year-old daughter, said she received a call from the babysitter, who reportedly was a family friend, and was told to meet at the hospital.

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“He was barely breathing when she handed him to me,” Stover told Fox 17. “What happened to cause this? Why does my baby have to go through something like this? Why does he have to suffer? My 4-month-old – why?”

Maddox was taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital before being transferred to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, and is now at Shriner Hospital in Cincinnati where he has been outfitted with a feeding tube and undergone skin grafts.

The boy’s grandmother, Tracy Stover, said she does not believe the babysitter’s account that Maddox was injured during a bath, and wants justice for her grandson.

“How does a baby get second and third degree burns on just the front side of his body from a bath?” she said, according to Fox 17. “I want to take all the pain away from him and make him better. I want to take all the pain off our daughter. No mother should have gone through this. And for an innocent child to have this done to him, it’s wrong.”

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According to a post on the Team Maddox Facebook page, doctors took skin from the boy’s left thigh and stomach. They expect all areas to heal. On August 12, a post indicated that Tuesday’s surgery was the second to occur in two days, with the first meant to address skin that was not properly healing and to control the bleeding.

“They came in and told us he will have a surgery Monday morning to remove all of the skin that isn’t healing, and he will be wrapped all day Monday to control the bleeding. Tuesday morning they will do another skin graft using the skin form his back,” the post read. “This week will be tough. Little man is definitely going to have to fight hard this week! Please continue to pray for him and strength for his Mama and family as they go through this.”

A GoFundMe page was set up to help the family cover the cost of treatments.