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In the Interest of M. T. F.

The juvenile court erred in determining that clear and convincing evidence supported a finding that the child was deprived at the time of the termination hearing.

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The biological mother of four-year-old M. T. F. appeals the juvenile court order terminating her parental rights. The mother contends that the juvenile court erred in, among other things, terminating her parental rights because the evidence was insufficient. We agree and reverse.

On June 19, 2008, the Georgia Department of Human Resources Division of Family & Children Services DFCS filed a deprivation petition alleging that on June 15, 2008 M. T. F. was born prematurely to a mother who was a minor and in the custody of DFCS. DFCS alleged in the petition that M. T. F. was admitted at a hospital and was “without a proper parent to provide for the child as the . . . mother is a child herself who cannot provide for her own daily necessities of life and the child has been essentially abandoned by the father.” M. T. F. was born at 24 weeks, and, according to a neonatalogy developmental specialist, was “medically fragile.” M. T. F. had multiple diagnoses, including mild cerebral palsy, because of his extreme prematurity. M. T. F. fed through a gastrostomy tube which was surgically placed through his anterior abdominal wall and into his stomach.

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