Orlando waitress saw an 11-year-old boy with bruises on his body. She saved him with a secret note.

Just the idea of a child suffering from abuse is too painful to imagine, and it's a harsh reality that millions of children all over the world face the same every year, leading to lifelong physical and emotional trauma. In one such heartbreaking incident, an 11-year-old boy was rescued from his home, and his were parents arrested after an Orlando waitress noticed something off and secretly used a note to ask the child if he needed help. Flavaine Carvalho was working at Mrs. Potatohead's, a family-friendly restaurant when she noticed an unsettling situation while serving her last table of the evening.

While ordering, the parents mentioned that their 11-year-old son would be eating at home later. Carvalho, watching the boy dressed in a hoodie, glasses, and a face mask, noticed a suspicious scratch between his eyes, as reported by Upworthy. Since she was concerned, she quietly wrote a note asking the boy if he was alright, positioning herself behind the parents so they wouldn’t see. The boy shook his head saying 'NO'. “I knew it – that he is afraid or he is not comfortable saying that he needs help,” Carvalho told CNN. The waitress tried again twice before the boy finally nodded in agreement.

When the boy nodded yes, he also gestured with his hands, unsure of what to do next. Sensing the urgency, the waitress quickly contacted the restaurant owner, informing her of the situation, and said that she was about to call the police on the boy’s parents. In a recording shared by the Orlando Police Department, the woman was heard saying, “One of the kids is with a lot of bruises on his arms and on his face and the parent is not giving food for him but is giving to the other kids that are with them. I’m super concerned and I don’t know what to do. Can you give me some advice?” The police soon arrived at the restaurant and arrested the boy's father on the count of third-degree child abuse.

Kristen Swann, the boy's mother, was also arrested on two counts of child neglect. According to an Orlando Police Department press release, Swann confessed to detectives that she was aware of the abuse but did nothing to get her son medical help. Authorities also took away a four-year-old girl from the family, though she showed no signs of abuse. The boy shared with detectives that he had been struck with a wooden broom, hung upside down from a door, and was frequently denied food as punishment. He also remembered being tied to a furniture dolly as a form of restraint.

Detective Erin Lawler said, "To be honest what this child had gone through was torture. There was no justification for it in any realm of the world. I'm a mother and seeing what that 11-year-old had to go through, it shocks your soul." She added, “If Ms. Carvalho would not have said something when she saw it that little boy would probably not be with us much longer.” Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon also said, "The lesson here for all of us is to recognize when we see something that isn't right to act on it… This saved the life of a child." Rafaela Cabede, the restaurant's owner, hopes that Carvalho's courage will encourage others to recognize and respond to signs of abuse.