MOULTRIE, Ga. — A Colquitt County man was behind bars in Florida on Wednesday as a result of an investigation into his 2-month-old son’s Thanksgiving Day hospitalization with severe internal injuries.

Rafael Ramirez Hernandez Jr. was unresponsive when he arrived at Colquitt Regional Medical Center in the early morning hours of Nov. 23.

The infant was revived in Moultrie and later was transferred to UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital in Gainesville, Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Michael Cox said on Wednesday.

The boy’s parents, Rafael Ramirez Hernandez Sr. and Margarita Hernandez, also traveled to the University of Florida’s hospital.

At the time they left, there was no evidence on which to detain the father, Cox said.

“There were no signs of abusive conduct (noticeable) at the hospital,” he said. “I got there, (there were) no evident injuries to the child at the time, no swelling, no bruising.”

It was only after doctors examined the infant in Florida that the true extent of his medical issues was discovered, Cox said.

“It was all internal,” he said.

The University of Florida’s Child Protection Team was notified of the situation and, along with child protection services in the state, launched an investigation.

The parents were interviewed as part of that investigation, Cox said. The result was charging the father, Hernandez Sr., of 522 Hiers Ave. Lot 1 with two counts of cruelty to children in the first degree.

The Georgia Division of Family and Children Services also is part of the investigation, Cox said.

The various agencies’ investigation is ongoing, he said.

“A full report from the Child Protection Team is expected,” he said.

Hernandez Sr. was being held on Wednesday at the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office jail facility.

Hernandez has been arrested three times since 2011 — all traffic-related offenses — but has no previous record of violence in Colquitt County.

He was charged by the Georgia State Patrol in 2011 on charges of driving under the influence, driving without license and open container in vehicle.

He was charged in 2014 with driving while license suspended and the following year with driving without license and speeding. Both of those arrests were made by the Moultrie Police Department.

Earlier this year a 2-month-year old girl was killed in a violent episode involving a parent. Zoee Martin died at her father’s 1327 First Ave. N.W. residence on Aug. 24, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which assisted the sheriff’s office in the case.

The father, Cedric Deshawn Martin Jr., then 17, is accused of throwing the infant down in the bathtub and on the floor of the residence. Police charged him with felony murder and child abuse in the first degree.

Since his arrest Martin, 18, has been convicted in an unrelated case in which he was accused of luring an 13-year-old girl into a vacant residence to have sex with her.

He was sentenced to seven years’ probation and a $2,500 fine on a burglary charge and a concurrent 7-year sentence on probation on a statutory rape charge.

He remains in Colquitt County Jail. Martin is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 13 for a bond hearing in the murder case.

No trial date has been scheduled on the child abuse and felony murder charges. Under Georgia law an individual commits felony murder if a death occurs during the commission of another felony offense, which in this case is the alleged child abuse.