NESS CITY ? The boyfriend of a woman who apparently spent nearly two years in her bathroom has been charged with mistreatment of a dependent adult.

Kory McFarren, 36, called the Ness County Sheriff’s Office in late February to say something was wrong with his girlfriend. When authorities arrived at the home, they found Pam Babcock, 35, stuck to the toilet, upon which they think she had sat for about a month.

Ness County Attorney Craig Crosswhite said the mistreatment charge most closely fit the situation.

“I looked at the statutes and spoke to the attorney general’s office,” he said. “This was a very unusual set of circumstances and this is the law that most closely applied to the situation.”

McFarren told police that his girlfriend had been in the bathroom for about two years, and that he brought her food and water daily. He said he repeatedly asked her to come out, but her reply was usually, “maybe tomorrow.”

Authorities said Babcock sat on the toilet so long that open sores developed and caused her to become attached to the toilet seat. Sheriff Bryan Whipple has said that he used a pry bar to remove the seat from the toilet, and that the woman was transported to the hospital with the seat still attached.

“She would have to be sleeping on the toilet,” Whipple said.

Doctors at a Wichita hospital where Babcock was taken told McFarren that an infection in her legs had damaged her nerves and could leave her in a wheelchair. She was still at the hospital Wednesday night.

Crosswhite said McFarren’s first court appearance would be sometime in April.