Left: Marcus Maddela (Bucks County DA’s Office). Right: Courtney Soyka (Bucks County DA’s Office).
A couple in Pennsylvania has learned their fates for failing to feed their twins sufficiently and causing the children to become “dangerously malnourished.”
Courtney Soyka, 33, was sentenced to between 364 days and 729 days in jail after pleading guilty to two counts of child endangerment, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office announced.
Marcus Maddela, 45, was sentenced to between 8 and 23 months in jail after pleading guilty in late October to his own child endangerment charges.
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The case was “extremely disturbing,” Bucks County Assistant District Attorney Bridget Murphy said during Thursday’s sentencing hearing.
Soyka and Maddela’s twins were born about two months prematurely in October 2024.
One twin weighed 4.16 pounds at birth while the other weighed 3.74 pounds. They were placed in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and as the district attorney’s office recounts, they “required regular weight checks.” The children were released into the parents’ care, but over the ensuing weeks, each child missed four check-in appointments.
On Dec. 11, 2024, the parents brought the infants back to the hospital. But the signs were troubling.
“At the time of their return, the babies were dangerously malnourished and fell below the first percentile for their age,” the DA’s office said.
The twin who was 4.16 pounds at birth had only gained 1.62 pounds, while the other child had only gained 1.3 pounds.
The twins were then “immediately transferred” to St. Christopher’s Hospital, a pediatric acute care hospital in Philadelphia, according to law enforcement.
Doctors at the hospital reported that both twins had “very poor weight gain” but no other signs of illness. In doctors’ care, their situations improved drastically — suggesting that the problem was what had been going on at home.
“After just three days of routine formula feedings by mouth at the hospital, the twins significantly improved and began gaining weight at a much higher average rate than when they were at home,” authorities said. “A St. Christopher’s doctor confirmed that the poor weight gain was consistent with insufficient caloric intake at home and could have been addressed sooner had the couple attended the scheduled follow-up appointments.”
The status of the twins, now roughly one year later, is currently unclear.
