Background: The Cape Coral Police Department in Cape Coral, Fla. (Google Maps). Inset: Kelly Perrigo (Lee County Sheriff”s Office).
A Florida woman who worked as a home nurse for a couple with a premature baby has been sentenced after pleading guilty to child neglect.
Kelly Perrigo, 62, entered her guilty plea on Monday, months after she was arrested and charged with child neglect. She was ordered to serve a year behind bars.
According to charging documents reviewed by Law&Crime, Perrigo was employed by a service called Team Select, which provided home nurses for patients of all ages, including pediatric and geriatric patients. The parents of the baby, who was considered a “micro-preemie” after being born at 24 weeks, called police when they realized that Perrigo was lying about giving the baby his bottles.
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According to the arrest affidavit, the mother of the baby told police that he required around-the-clock medical care, and that the family employed a daytime and a nighttime nurse who each worked 12-hour shifts. Perrigo was the nighttime nurse, and on one occasion in September 2024, she advised the family that the boy had “drunk all of his nighttime bottles.” However, the baby’s blood sugar was alarmingly low, leaving the parents to wonder what was going on when they were not looking.
The parents viewed surveillance footage from their home, which captured Perrigo’s shift and showed her feeding the baby with a bottle for about two to five minutes. Instead of putting the remainder of the formula in the baby’s feeding tube, she admitted to police during an interview that she “would pour out the remainder in the bathroom or the kitchen.” During her interview, she told police she would get rid of it because the baby was “eating more during the day.”
When Perrigo was asked by police why she did not feed the baby his full bottles as instructed, she responded, “Poor judgment.”
Texts between Perrigo and the baby’s mother were included in the affidavit. The baby’s mother repeatedly confronted Perrigo over why she did not feed the baby at all on some occasions and lied about other feedings. Perrigo often cited “poor judgment” and repeatedly apologized.
Perrigo also seemingly pointed the finger at Team Select, telling police that she told them during her hiring process that she had “no pediatric care” experience. The affidavit said that she had been fired from another pediatric nursing job for a premature baby through Team Select. Perrigo’s reason for the firing was that she was caught “smoking in the bathroom,” but Team Select did not provide a reason for the firing.
The parents of the baby said their little boy had issues gaining weight, displayed low energy, and went into liver failure as a result of his lack of nutrition. While the baby survived and was expected to live, the mother of the baby was in court on Monday when Perrigo was sentenced. She stated that the baby had undergone 12 surgeries and will have long-term health issues as a result of Perrigo’s neglect.
Perrigo was sentenced to one year in jail and will have to give up her nursing licenses.
