Francisco Corporan: Father shares agonizing decision to remove 2-year-old son from life support after wife left child in burning building

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MANHATTAN, NEW YORK: After his 2-year-old son had been left unattended and critically hurt in a burning Washington Heights apartment, the distraught father revealed that he had made the heartbreaking decision to remove his son from life support.

Authorities stated that King Riley Corporan, 2, had been declared brain dead after he and his siblings were left by their mother in her Audubon Avenue apartment on the evening of March 20.

1-year-old son still in critical condition

“I didn’t take him off right away,” grieving father Francisco 'Gus' Corporan told the New York Daily News, expressing shock at the mother’s decision to leave the helpless kids unattended. “That’s my son, I didn’t wanna just take the plug off. I couldn’t.”

He told the newspaper he felt hopeful that the child's organs would continue to live on as a donor. “I said, ‘Well, he might not be here physically but he still lives on. Somebody else is living because of him'," Corporan said. 

“My son is still here, not with me, but he’s out there. I know he’s still alive [because his heart is still pumping in somebody else’s body,” he further added.

According to a GoFundMe page created for the family by the father's coworker, Princiee Norvil, King's 1-year-old brother is still in critical condition and is "bravely fighting as he continues to receive medical care."

King's sister, who is eight years old, barely survived. Police charged Skilyn Maldonado, 23, the boy's mother, with three misdemeanors of acting in a way that was harmful to a child.

Prosecutors requested bail during Maldonado's arraignment, but the judge had her enrolled in an alternative to incarceration program.

Neighbors claimed Skilyn Maldonado left children 'alone morning, day and night'

A neighbor told the Daily News that the 8-year-old girl ran out of the apartment when the fire started and knocked on a neighbor's door, begging for assistance.

“She was saying there is a fire in her apartment,” neighbor Jayden Zorilla, 14, said.

The 14-year-old went on to say, “My mom and I were trying to see if we can bring out the kids, but the couch was on fire. When I entered, the window glass broke and there was a blazing fire.”

Jayden's mother, Yokania Germosen, 40, asked her son Justin, 10, to carry her downstairs after covering Maldonado's daughter with a blanket.

The mother frequently left her three children alone, according to a second neighbor who spoke with the News. “She would just leave the kids home by themselves,” a neighbor, who wished not to be named, said, “She doesn’t have a job at all. She would leave them alone morning, day and night.”

The same neighbor claimed to have overheard Maldonado and the kids' father arguing about the mother's way of life.

“She’s young and wanted to enjoy her life,” the neighbor said about Maldonado. “[Corporan] been trying to get her out of the house for a bit. They fight all the time. You can hear him screaming, ‘Leave the house! You don’t do nothing. You been going into the street and never coming home!’”

Officials have scheduled Maldonado's next court appearance for April 25.