Mother is charged after daughter, 4, got infested with so many head lice she almost died after the parasites sucked the oxygen out of her blood

• The girl's levels of hemoglobin - oxygen-carrying proteins in red blood cells - were 1.7 grams per deciliter when the normal level is 12 grams
• Hospital staff declared her a 'near fatality', said the preschooler could not walk and needed at least four blood transfusions
• The girl's six-year-old sister was also found to be infested with lice, but her hemoglobin levels were not as low as her elder sibling's 
• Singh has been charged with several counts of neglect, including neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injuryA mother was arrested after her four year-old daughter suffered a head lice infection so severe she almost died and could barely walk after her blood oxygen levels plummeted. 

  Shyanne Nicole Singh, 26, was arrested earlier this week after the child was admitted to hospital in Scottsburg, Indiana last month. Police in the city, which sits 83 miles south of Indianapolis, were called to the facility by doctors horrified by the girl's infestation, according to The Lexington Herald Leader.

  The girl was unable to walk and needed four blood transfusions because the parasites depleted the oxygen in her blood to dangerously low levels. 

  Singh has been charged with several counts of neglect, including neglect of a dependent, neglect of a dependent resulting in bodily injury, and neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury. She is due to make her first appearance in court on Friday. According to an affidavit, seen by the Herald Leader, hospital staff told police that they had measured the girl's hemoglobin levels when she was admitted.

  Hemoglobin is a protein that carries oxygen throughout the body to the organs and tissues and expels carbon dioxide.

  

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  The girl who almost died in hospital is pictured in pink with her older sister and Singh  

  

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  Hospital staff declared her a 'near fatality' and said the preschooler could not walk and needed at least four blood transfusions. Singh, pictured, is due to make her first court appearance on Friday 

  Typically, hemoglobin levels are around 12 grams per deciliter (g/dL), but the girl's  were just 1.7 g/dL, the Herald Leader reported.

  Staff at the hospital said the girl's levels were the lowest they had ever seen and, because of it, they declared her a 'near fatality.'

  Court documents indicate that the girl had to have at least four blood transfusions and was so sick she could could not walk.   

  The girl's six-year-old sister was also found to be infected with lice, according to the Herald Leader.The newspaper reported that an officer who saw photos of the girl said it was the worst infestation he had ever seen. 

  Police interviewed school workers who told them that the six-year-old had been sent home from school in early March after having lice for three consecutive days.

  However, she did not return and had missed at least 31 days.

  The six-year-old girl's hemoglobin levels were 8.7 g/dL, which is low but not as dangerously low as her sister's. 

  

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  Singh (pictured) has been charged with several counts of neglect, including neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury

  The Department of Child Services have removed the two girls from their mother's home and have placed them in the custody of their grandmother.

  The Herald Leader reported that, according to an affidavit, the girls' grandmother told police she asked Singh how the girls' lice infestations had gotten so out of control. 

  In response, the mother said that 'she didn't notice, and that [she] was just in a fog.' 

  The grandmother also told police that the two girls has lice in November, but that Singth 'was just too lazy to help comb them out and it would start all over again.'

  The girls' plight is finally believed to have been exposed after their grandmother took photos of the infestation to a pharmacist, and the pharmacist urged her to take the children to a hospital.  

  Singh was being held in the Scott County Detention Center but appears to have been released on bail or bond.

  Authorities have not released any further updates on her children's conditions.