A Kansas man is suspected of child abuse after police said his girlfriend’s 2-year-old son, who was in his care, was found not breathing because an octopus was lodged in his throat.
Police said the child’s mother from Wichita, Kan., returned home from work Tuesday night and discovered her boyfriend performing CPR on her son. The toddler had minor visible injuries and breathing issues, according to an incident report.
The child was rushed to a local hospital where “an obstruction was removed from his throat,” according to the report.
Wichita police Lt. James Espinoza told The Washington Post that doctors first noticed facial injuries and then found a dead octopus – the head measuring about 2 inches in diameter – in the boy’s throat.
The toddler had been listed in critical but stable condition and doctors were unsure whether he would suffer any permanent brain damage from oxygen deprivation, according to local news reports, but Espinoza said the boy was released from the hospital Friday after his condition was upgraded to “great.”
His mother’s boyfriend, identified by police as 36-year-old Matthew Gallagher, was arrested early Wednesday on suspicion of child abuse after police said his account for the boy’s bruises and bizarre octopus injury did not match the evidence.
He was later released from Sedgwick County Jail.
Dan Dillon, a spokesman for the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office, told The Post in an email that Wichita police presented their evidence against Gallagher on Friday morning and that the case is currently under review by the district attorney’s office.
Espinoza told the Wichita Eagle that “the D.A. did accept the case,” meaning it could be a felony charge.
It’s still unclear how the octopus ended up in the toddler’s throat.
Authorities said they did not think the animal had been a family pet.
“The octopus appeared to have gotten there from a sushi dish,” an unnamed police spokesperson told People magazine.
Espinoza told the Wichita Eagle that once the boy has recovered, investigators will want to talk to him about what happened.
“That’s an interview that will need to take place,” he told the newspaper.
