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A battered 6-year-old girl clung to life on a respiratoryesterday as prosecutors disclosed that a police search of her family's apartment turned up narcotics and drug paraphernalia. The child, Elizabeth Steinberg, remained in critical condition at St. Vincent's Hospital. Assistant District Attorney John Fried said an electroencephalogram showed no brain activity, and the girl could be declared brain dead if a second test had the same result.
Meanwhile, prosecutors said the girl's adoptive mother, Hedda Nussbaum, 45, also was being treated for serious injuries and her leg might have to be amputated. Authorities said the cause of those injuries was not known.
Nussbaum and the girl's adoptive father, Joel Steinberg, a 46-year-old lawyer, were charged with assault and attempted murder in the abuse of the child, who was unconscious when they called an ambulance Monday night.
Steinberg told...