Woman charged with causing baby's brain damage

A 2-month-old baby suffered massive, permanent brain damage in what police are describing as child abuse.

The girl, identified in criminal charges as F.E., had been dropped off at her great-aunt's Salt Lake City home Sept. 22 while her mother went to work at a job she had started two weeks earlier, police wrote in court documents.

That night, the aunt called the mother to report F.E. appeared to be having a seizure, police wrote. At the hospital, doctors found evidence of traumatic brain injury and rib fractures, police wrote.

"F.E. was initially not expected to survive her severe head injuries and although she has been kept alive on artificial life support, she has massive permanent brain damage and will likely never recover normal neurological function," investigators wrote.

The aunt, Madina Osman, said the baby was in good condition when she was dropped off, but she began to stiffen and shake spontaneously while she was lying on a pillow on the floor.

Police charged Osman with two second-degree felony counts of child abuse.