Two Children Rescued in Pasco County Florida

NEW PORT RICHEY, FL (WFLA) –

A judge ruled on Monday that two children pulled from a fire in Pasco County will not be able to go home with their parents.

5-year-old Kenneth Ledbetter and 6-year-old James Taylor were rescued from a home in Spring Hill Friday and airlifted to Tampa General Hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation, when the home caught on fire. Over the weekend, the children were taken into protective custody.

Their parents Tammie and Jesse Ledbetter said they were escorted out of the hospital by law enforcement.

Court documents said “the children appear to be malnourished and their teeth are rotting out of their mouths.”

“Both children were examined by doctors at Tampa General Hospital and found to be in the 1st percentile for weight-to-height,” court documents also revealed.

A judge decided to leave the children under state supervision. Both James and Kenneth will be evaluated for medical foster care. If they do not qualify they will be living with family members until the next court date on April 1st.

The court documents also revealed that the “children were previously removed from the parents” and that “they had a questionable ability to parent.”

The documents also said the mother had five previous children that were the subjects of involuntary termination of parental rights and another child that was voluntarily surrendered.

Both James and Kenneth were diagnosed with several medical conditions before the fire.”Cerebral palsy, autistic, ADHD, bi-polar, OCD,” said Tammie Ledbetter.

“Yes they are underweight because of all the medication, my whole family is under weight. They’re on Pediasure. They’re on boost. My kid would eat anybody out of house and home,” said Ledbetter.

“You just lose your house and everything you own and now they’re trying to take the kids away,” said Tammie’s brother-in-law James Bell.

“I’ll go ahead and grant the discretion for the department to look into some visitation while the children remain in the hospital. Again this will remain supervised visitation at all times for the present being,” said Judge Thomas Ramsberger.

“It’s like a nightmare. I still have nightmares from it,” said Jesse Ledbetter.

About Author

countyfiretactics

Curt Isakson is a 35 year veteran of the fire service. Curt is currently a Battalion Chief for Escambia County Fire Rescue. Previously worked 9 years with the Pensacola Fire Department where he was assigned as the Company Officer on Rescue 31. Curt’s fire service experiences started at a young age as a Junior firefighter with the Midway Fire Protection District and rose through the ranks to Captain. He has worked in volunteer, career, and combination departments.

Curt has held all ranks up to Battalion Chief and been assigned to operations, training, inspections, and was Chief of Special Operations for 7 years. Curt owns and operates County Fire Tactics that covers a very diverse range of fire service topics, as well as Firefighter Rescues, a site that documents rescues made by firefighters around the country.

He has annual contracts with numerous departments to provide standardized monthly training for these departments that respond daily together under an automatic aid agreement. Curt teaches nationally to include; FDIC, Firehouse Expo, Firehouse World, Orlando Fire Conference, Atlanta Fire Conference, Bowling Green State University, and owns/operates the annual HROC, COBC, WOTF, CFT ODP on Pensacola Beach. He is a Florida Certified Fire Officer, Instructor, Inspector, Arson, and FLUSAR.

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