Kevin Fowler, and Aislyn Miller, were both arrested on child abuse charges.
When a 9-month-old girl was taken to an Oklahoma hospital, a strand of hair was wrapped around her finger so tightly that the finger had become infected and skin had started growing over the hair.
Her twin sister was no better off: Medical personnel were horrified to discover a maggot inside the girl's body.
According to an incident report obtained by the Tulsa World, the two infants were extremely skinny and had severe diaper rashes and bedsores.
One of the twins, the report states, was so malnourished that she looked like a "skeleton."
Kevin Fowler, 25, and Aislyn Miller, 24, had taken their twin babies to a hospital in Owasso, just outside of Tulsa, on Friday. After seeing the infants, a police detective and the hospital staff described their condition as the "worst case of child abuse" they had ever seen, according to the report.
A hospital nurse had tears in her eyes as she talked to a detective about the condition of one of the infants, according to the report.
Fowler and Miller have been arrested on suspicion of child abuse. Prosecutors have not formally charged the couple.
Miller told police that her daughters were underweight because they were born two weeks premature, according to the incident report cited by the Tulsa newspaper.
When authorities confronted the parents about their infants' deteriorating conditions, the couple acknowledged the health problems. But Miller said they didn't have health insurance and couldn't afford medical bills, the report states.
The twins had not been seen by a doctor since their birth, Miller told police.
She also said that they were "new parents" and unaware of how to care for infants. But Owasso Deputy Chief of Police Jason Woodruff told The Washington Post that the twins have two older siblings.
Woodruff said all four children are now in the custody of a local child protective services agency.
In 2012, 80 percent of perpetrators of child maltreatment were parents, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Of the 3.4 million referrals made to local and state child protective services that year, 78 percent were children who were victims of neglect.
© 2016 The Washington Post
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