BOSTON (AP) – The 13-year-old girl, once a thin but healthy 115 pounds, weighed just 75 by the time she was admitted to the hospital. She couldn’t get off the couch, was wearing a diaper and had fluid oozing from her navel.

The emergency medical technicians who first arrived at her mother’s Boston apartment said the girl looked like a famine victim. Her mother, Deborah Robinson, told them she hadn’t sought medical attention for her daughter sooner because she was suspicious of doctors and thought she was doing all she could to care for her at home.

The girl was suffering from a massive infection that had spread through her abdomen after she pierced her own belly button.

Authorities say her mother allowed her to waste away and suffer in pain for weeks before finally calling 911 on Aug. 3.

Robinson, 38, pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of child endangerment and wantonly and recklessly permitting substantial bodily injury to a child under 14. Bail was set at $10,000 cash and Robinson was ordered to stay away from her daughter and a 15-year-old son.

Prosecutor David Deakin, in arguing unsuccessfully for higher bail, told Magistrate Gary Wilson the girl was close to death by the time she arrived at the hospital.

“The defendant is, frankly, quite fortunate that she doesn’t face a charge of involuntary manslaughter at this point,” Deakin said. “It was that close.”

Robinson’s court-appointed attorney, Janet Macnab, said Robinson is “borderline mentally retarded” and has other mental health issues.

“Although this is an extremely sad situation, this is not a situation where there was any animosity, there was no assault and battery,” she said.

Macnab said the girl told her grandmother she was surprised when she was told how serious her condition was because “she wasn’t really feeling any pain.”

But Deakin said a doctor who testified before the grand jury that indicted Robinson said judging by the severity of her infection and damage to her organs when she entered the hospital, the girl would have been in intense pain and would not have been able to eat anything for several weeks before that.

Deakin said the state Department of Social Services had investigated four complaints about Robinson, the first in 1995, and most recently in 2003. He would not disclose details of the earlier investigations, but Denise Monteiro, a spokeswoman for DSS, said the earlier complaints were nothing that approached the level of neglect alleged in the recent case.

DSS now has temporary custody of the girl and her brother. Macnab said the boy is in foster care and the girl is recovering at a rehabilitation hospital.

“She has expressed a great deal of concern about her children,” Macnab said of Robinson.

Deakin said the girl is recovering, but still faces a long rehabilitation and at least one more surgery to repair damage to her intestines.

Monteiro said the girl has told her friends and teachers that she can’t wait to get back to school.

The girl attended the Rogers Middle School, where her teachers said she had the highest raw score on the state’s standardized test, the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System. She was also on the school’s track team.

“If there is anyone who is a fighter, it’s this girl,” Monteiro said. “She is a walking, talking miracle.

“She still has a long road, but she is doing well.”

Robinson was ruled competent to stand trial after undergoing a mental health evaluation. But Deakin said a doctor who examined her diagnosed a personality disorder with narcissistic and obsessive features. He said a separate team of specialists treating Robinson said she had a personality disorder with paranoid and schizoid features.