Records: US dad kept alive by young son has died
By Associated Press
Mar 4, 2013 6:17 PM CST

Court records show the father of a 10-year-old boy has died, days after he fell in their Nebraska home and was found being cared for by his son.

An amended petition filed in court Monday says 45-year-old Bienvenu Asumani died Sunday. Additional information about his death wasn't available.

Lincoln police say an investigator went to the home Friday after a principal reported the boy had missed four days of school. An affidavit says the boy, Peter Asumani, told police his father fell on a wet floor more than a week before, striking his head. The boy says he gave his father fluids and food.

Asumani was taken to a hospital, while his son was put in state custody.

Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Dan Zieg, who filed the petition, couldn't immediately be reached.

Peter had told police said he couldn't communicate with his father during the ordeal. The two lived alone in the house. It wasn't clear whether the boy knew about the 911 phone system that he could have used to call emergency dispatchers or whether he tried to contact a neighbor or anyone else for help.

Russ Reno, a spokesman, for the Nebraska Health and Human Services Department would confirm only that the boy was in foster care on Monday. Reno wouldn't comment directly on the case but said it was routine in such cases for the department to immediately begin searching for a child's relatives.

The boy said he had relatives in Arizona and his mother was in Africa, according to the affidavit.