Baby Taken From Hospital; Police Seek Him, Parents

A Huntington Beach couple were being sought by police Tuesday on suspicion of felony child endangerment after the father allegedly took his injured and possibly abused 8-month-old son from protective custody at a UCI Medical Center pediatric ward.

Huntington Beach Police Sgt. Michael Relic said police departments and hospitals around the state have been asked to watch for David Kennedy, 30, his wife, Kimberlynn, 24, and their baby, David Kennedy Jr.

The child, according to his pediatrician, has bruises under both eyes and a potentially fatal blood clot in the brain.

The baby was being closely monitored by hospital nurses under a protective custody arrangement after his parents brought him there on Friday. Doctors at that time discovered multiple “suspicious” injuries, including bruises on much of his body, the blood clot and evidence of “long bone injuries”--broken arms and legs that were healing, a Huntington Beach police spokeswoman said. Police on duty Tuesday night were not able to say whether the parents had explained how the baby was injured.

Hospital officials said that David Kennedy Sr. spent about two hours with his injured baby Monday night, noting that he appeared to be attentively caring for the child.

Then, at about 9:15 p.m., nursing manager Sue Ahearn said, “there was a momentary passing of nurses.” The nurse watching the child stepped down the hall to chat with a supervisor and “another nurse asked, ‘Where’s David?’ The child and the parent were gone. They were there one minute and gone the next,” Ahearn said.

Although the couple are suspects in the child endangerment case, no charges have been filed against them, Relic said.

Ahearn said the child’s disappearance shocked the hospital staff and has sparked an internal investigation, including a detailed review of the protective custody policy.

Relic said: “Child abuse isn’t unusual, but for parents to take a child in medical danger, that’s highly unusual.”

Concerned About Bleeding

Doctors and police said they are very concerned that the bleeding under the baby’s skull could become a fatal hemorrhage. Relic said he also believed that friends and relatives of the Kennedys were helping the couple hide themselves and their baby.

“We feel that the family is sympathetic to them and their sympathy is hindering our investigation,” he said.

“We feel they know the whereabouts or have information or are not telling.” But when Relic described to family members the seriousness of the baby’s injury, “they were more in disbelief than anything else,” he said.

Relic said he hopes that the parents’ concern for the baby’s life will outweigh their concerns about any possible criminal penalties and that they will bring their baby back for treatment. “We’re trying to save a child’s life,” he said.

According to police and UCI officials, the baby’s most serious injury was the blood clot or occipital subdural hematoma between the skull and the brain.

Huntington Beach police spokeswoman Joanne Bonkowski said the couple brought their injured baby into a Huntington Beach pediatrician’s office on Friday. When he found “suspicious” injuries and bruises, the physician referred the family to UCI Medical Center where, after additional examination, the baby was admitted and a protective custody hold was placed on him (by Huntington Beach police), Bonkowski said.

Nursing manager Ahearn said that the couple became “upset and distraught” when their baby was placed in protective care but that such responses are normal under the circumstances.

When David Kennedy Sr. visited his child Monday evening, “his behavior was not suspicious or anything,” she said.

Relic said he had only sketchy information about the parents, but noted that David Kennedy Sr. was fired from an Anaheim firm last week.

Kimberlynn Kennedy works for a local car dealer but “she failed to report to work today and asked for some time off,” Relic said.