Girl Dies After Parents Treat Injuries Only With Smoothies

A 12-year-old girl has died in Texas after lingering for four days with injuries her mother and stepfather tried to treat with smoothies instead of summoning medical help. They finally called 911 on Monday evening, and responders found Miranda Sipps unconscious when they arrived, the Atascosa County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. The girl, a student and cheerleader at Jourdanton Junior High School in Christine, was pronounced dead a short time later in a hospital emergency room, NBC News reports. Her mother, Denise Balbaneda, and stepfather, Gerald Gonzales, have been charged, per KSAT.

The sheriff's office gave this account: Miranda was seriously injured somehow on Thursday evening. She was placed on a pallet in the family's house in Christine, about 45 miles south of San Antonio; no other children were there. Miranda wasn't talking, only fluttering her eyelids and moving her hands slightly at times. Her parents tried to give her smoothies with vitamins, saying later they did what they could to save her, but the child was unable to swallow.

Investigators suspect the couple didn't call for help because they didn't want officers coming to their home. When emergency responders arrived, they were met on the road. Balbaneda and Gonzales face a first-degree felony for injury to a child by omission, per NBC. An autopsy report is pending. (More Texas stories.)