Deener also shared some of the restrictions they must follow in another video on IG to ensure their son remains in their care.
“We have to weigh our son. He’s not allowed to lose weight. He has to do therapies where they monitor his play … and he still has appointments,” he said.
The couple’s troubles initially began in February when they took their 1-year-old Amen’Ra to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, for dehydration when he was struggling with the transition from breast milk to solid foods, according to We Have the Right to Be Right, an activist group campaigning for Mercado. While there, the group stated that Amen’Ra was assessed by Dr. Sally Smith, a physician who was the subject of a USA Today Network investigation for being accused by critics of being too quick to conclude caregivers are abusing children, something Smith denied to USA Today Network.
According to NBC News, the investigation reviewed hundreds of Smith’s cases and found more than a dozen instances in which charges were dropped or parents were acquitted. In Mercado’s case, instead of Amen’Ra being released to his parents at the end of his hospital stay, he was taken by Manatee Child Protective Services and placed with a foster family.
Check out the family reunion below.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6a1Hg_7dsw[/embedyt]
