YOUNGSTOWN 11-month-old found with crushed skull

His grandmother told police the baby was found lying next to his bed.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- An 11-month-old city child was clinging to life this morning in Forum Health Tod Children's Hospital with a crushed skull, police said.
Police reports show that a grandmother baby-sitting the boy told police he had fallen off a mattress onto the floor as he napped in his North Garland Avenue home.
City Police Chief Richard Lewis said the case is being investigated. No charges have been filed.
Mother left: The child's mother, 17, told officers that she had left the infant and his 2-year-old brother with their grandmother around 1:30 p.m. for about a half-hour when she went to Family Dollar store.
The 41-year-old grandmother said the toddler had been sleeping and she placed him in the bedroom on the bed, a box springs and mattress lying on the floor. She said she watched cartoons with her other grandson and fell asleep around 1:30 p.m. and heard a thump shortly afterward and thought it was a dog in the basement, police reports show. Around 2 p.m., she went into the bedroom and found the baby on the floor, not breathing, his lips blue. He was unresponsive, so she called 911.
She told police she did not know how he was positioned on the floor. She also said the child can walk.
Hospital: The child's mother said she was on her way home from the store when the grandmother came running toward her telling her the baby had been found face down on the floor and was "hurt bad, real bad." The women took a bus to the hospital.
The infant's father, 18, said he was at his home on MLK Boulevard when the grandmother came to his home and told him the child was hurt. He, too, went to the hospital.
The baby was on life support around 8:15 p.m. Tuesday and hospital workers told police his chances of survival were slim.
Forum officials would not release information today on his condition, citing policy that prohibits the release of information on juveniles.
The boy's brother was transported to Children Services, police reports show.