MAHONING COUNTY Mom gets probation in case over infant's finger

The Austintown woman said she didn't intend to hurt her infant son.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Christyanna Upole said trying to remove an extra finger from a baby's hand by tying it off with a piece of string isn't as unusual as it might sound.
"A lot of people in my son's family are born with that," Upole told a judge Thursday, explaining that it's a hereditary condition.
Upole's son was born with an extra finger protruding from his right pinkie finger. She knew the extra appendage had to come off but couldn't afford a doctor's care, so she tried what others had told her to do. The 22-year-old Austintown woman wound up in court for doing it.
Judge Robert Lisotto of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court placed Upole on probation for one year for child endangering, to which she had pleaded guilty in June. She could have gotten up to six months in the county jail and fined up to $1,000 for the first-degree misdemeanor.
"I wasn't trying to hurt my son. I really wasn't," Upole told the judge. "I didn't realize what I was doing was actually going to hurt him."
Upole said she went to see a doctor about having it surgically removed but wasn't able to find the office.
What she did
She called the doctor and scheduled another appointment, but in the meantime talked to others who'd had babies with the same problem and had cured it by tying off the extra fingers with string or thread.
Since it had apparently worked for them, and because she didn't think she could afford surgery, Upole tied a piece of string tightly around her son's finger in February, hoping it would eventually fall off.
The baby's grandmother notified authorities of what happened after she noticed damage to the baby's finger. When police detectives went to the home to investigate, they found Upole feeding the 1-month-old baby, whose finger was red and cut.
Defense attorney Douglas King said Upole believed in her heart that she was doing the right thing.
Upole said publicity surrounding her criminal charge has caused her to lose friends and her job.
"I've learned my lesson," she said.
Assistant prosecutor Robert Andrews said the baby was removed from the home by Mahoning County Children Services immediately after the police visit. CSB still has custody of the child, though Upole is in the process of trying to get him back, Andrews said.
He was not sure whether the baby's extra finger was surgically removed.
bjackson@vindy.com