A 21 year-old Jefferson man has been arrested for child abuse. According to the Iowa Department of Public Safety, Patrick Ryan Thompson was arrested Tuesday and charged with Child Endangerment Causing Serious Injury for an incident that occurred in late January.
According to court documents, on January 26th an individual noticed that 8 week old Patrick Ryan Thompson Jr. was acting differently by staring off to the side, not responding and later twitching. That evening the infant was taken to the Greene County Medical Center in Jefferson. Initial observations indicated the boy’s seizures were due to injuries suspected to be from child abuse. Thompson Jr. had bleeding on the brain, hemorrhaging in one of his eyes and bruises on the chin. The baby was then life-flighted to Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines. A medical evaluation revealed the infant was suffering from a traumatic brain injury that was non-accidental in nature and not from natural causes.
In an interview with law enforcement, Thompson Sr. admitted to squeezing his son “too hard” and said it was his fault the child was in the hospital.
The Child Endangerment charge is a class D felony. If convicted, Thompson Sr. faces up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He’s currently being held in the Greene County Jail, bail has not yet been set.