The parents of an infant were charged by Tamaqua police after the child was found unresponsive Feb. 5 allegedly in a bed with both parents and several other children.
In court papers, police wrote the sleeping arrangement the parents practiced is not recommended as safe sleeping conditions for infants and that the parents received literature from a hospital concerning the risk of accidental suffocation during sleep with this practice, yet chose to do it.
Joseph E. Kuhla, 22, and Alyssa L. Shellhammer, 23, both of Tamaqua, were accused of committing four counts each of endangering the welfare of children and reckless endangerment.
They await preliminary hearings before Magisterial District Judge Stephen Bayer, Tamaqua.
According to arrest papers, officers were dispatched Feb. 5 to 307 Arlington St., about 2:33 a.m. for an infant that wasn't breathing and arrived with emergency medical services. Both a police officer and also a Tamaqua ambulance worker went into the home for the 6-week-old baby, Bronx Kuhla, who wasn't breathing. The child was taken to St. Luke's Miners Memorial Medical Center, Coaldale, by ambulance and CPR was performed on him but he did not wake.
Neither parent went with the ambulance, police wrote, and Bronx was pronounced dead in the emergency room at 2:58 a.m. According to court papers, a doctor tending to Bronx called Shellhamer to come to the hospital but she said she couldn't because she had to watch her other children. When confronted that there was another adult in the home, she said they didn't have a vehicle, so police gave her a ride to the hospital.
According to arrest papers, Shellhamer initially told police that the family went to bed about 9 p.m. Feb. 4 and Bronx was placed in a pack and play to sleep. She said she awoke when her boyfriend, Joseph Kuhla, got up to use the bathroom. When she checked on the baby, she found him unresponsive so she yelled for Kuhla to call 911, according to police. Kuhla related a similar story, according to court papers.
On March 5, police met with the couple again in the presence of Schuylkill County Children & Youth, where Kuhla told police he and Shellhamer brought Bronx into a full size bed with them and their remaining children. He said that he was laying in the bed with Shellhamer and four other children, including Bronx, according to arrest papers. The fourth child was lying across the bed at everyone's feet, according to court papers.
He said he woke up to hear one of the children crying, according to arrest papers, and then woke up Shellhamer to tend to him while he went to the bathroom. He heard her screaming and went upstairs and called 911, police said.
Kuhla said Shellhamer told him to say that Bronx was in the pack and play after police and EMS left the home, arrest papers allege.
Shellhamer related the same story, noting that once Kuhla woke her up, she gave a bottle to the crying child and noticed one of the children had their head on Bronx's stomach and Bronx was unresponsive, according to court papers.