An East Naples man faces charges of child neglect, after his 3-year-old daughter was found barely breathing and living in filth. Nicholas Salvani, 38, is charged with child neglect with great bodily harm.
Collier County deputies were alerted when a woman called 911, telling deputies that she became concerned when she tried calling Salvani and he didn't answer. She said she broke into his house through the back door.
Inside, she said she found Salvani and his 3-year-old daughter unconscious on the kitchen floor.
"Is she still unconscious?" the 911 dispatcher asked the woman.
"She's coming to, sort of," was the reply. A moan can then be heard in the background.
"Come on, baby, come on," the woman is heard saying to the child, then: "She's breathing, she's breathing normal."
When deputies arrived, Salvani had awoken, but the girl was pale and unresponsive. EMS soon arrived and took her to the hospital, where she was listed in stable condition.
But deputies described the condition of the house as "deplorable," with feces and urine on the floor and a sick dog lying in urine. There was no power to the house, and deputies found what looked like drug paraphernalia on the kitchen table. They also opened the fridge, and observed that there didn't seem to be any food for the child.
Neighbors of Salvani told Fox 4 that they knew Salvani had fallen on hard times recently and had lost his job, but say that they knew him to be a good, attentive father.
The girl is now in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Salvani is in the Collier County Jail on $100,000 bond.
