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Woman accused of poisoning son in Pa. hospital

post #1 of 16
7/17/08 at 7:52pm
Thread Starter 
A woman poisoned her infant son by repeatedly injecting salt water into his feeding tube at hospitals in Tennessee and Pittsburgh in what she claimed were attempts to hasten the death of a suffering child, authorities said Wednesday.

http://www.kansascity.com/449/story/707712.html

I sure hope the woman gets whatever psychiatric help she needs. And I hope her son lives, and thrives, in a home with someone ELSE who loves him. I would constantly fear for him if she regained custody, honestly.
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post #2 of 16
7/17/08 at 8:49pm

Re: Woman accused of poisoning son in Pa. hospital

How sad.
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post #3 of 16
7/17/08 at 9:56pm

Re: Woman accused of poisoning son in Pa. hospital

How sick! I hope he's okay and permantly out of any contact with her. If she had postpartum, there is medication for that. She should have seen her dr and taken it.
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post #4 of 16
7/17/08 at 11:10pm

Re: Woman accused of poisoning son in Pa. hospital

What is WRONG with people anymore??!?!?!

If you really don't want your child, there are good, decent people who would LOVE to adopt. That poor little one definitely didn't deserve to be treated like that. What a HORRIFIC thing to do.

Un FREAKING believeable!!!
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post #5 of 16
7/18/08 at 11:29am

Re: Woman accused of poisoning son in Pa. hospital

Sometimes I just don't understand people anymore.
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post #6 of 16
7/18/08 at 1:49pm

Re: Woman accused of poisoning son in Pa. hospital

I think this is horrible and something I can't imagine ever doing to my child. But as a past sufferer of severe postpartum depression, I can see how this lady got to this point without getting any help. You feel so alone no matter how many loving and caring people are around you, and you don't know that you're at that point of needing help until you're coming out of it. At least that's how it was for me. Everyone thought I was okay, just overtired. Once I hit my bottom and was coming back, I realized how serious my depression had been. Thank God I never had suicidal or delusion thoughts about hurting my baby as some women do but if I had, I can see where I would have thought I was justified and doing what was "right" for my baby. So from my experience, while I hate what this baby has gone through, I really hope his mother gets some help and is one day reunited with him once she is over her depression and capable of caring for him.
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post #7 of 16
7/18/08 at 6:21pm

Re: Woman accused of poisoning son in Pa. hospital

I've had PPD and clinical depression. It's still no excuse for hurting a child!
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post #8 of 16
7/21/08 at 7:57am

Re: Woman accused of poisoning son in Pa. hospital

What's with these women!!!
We had a woman in Australia starve her twin babies to death over a 6 month period.
They were found dead a couple of weeks ago and she was a visitor to a parenting forum, mentioned she had lost interest in them and was despressed and was fobbed off.
I think society has alot to answer for
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post #9 of 16
7/21/08 at 1:23pm

Re: Woman accused of poisoning son in Pa. hospital

Quote:
Originally Posted by Spaggie View Post
I've had PPD and clinical depression. It's still no excuse for hurting a child!
No, it's not an excuse and I don't believe I said it was. I simply said I can understand, if she truly has severe PPD, how she thought her actions were justified. I don't think that she should never have contact with her child again IF she gets the help she needs for her depression.
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post #10 of 16
7/21/08 at 1:46pm

Re: Woman accused of poisoning son in Pa. hospital

That is just so sad!!!!!! That poor baby!!

That mother definintely needs some major help!!! I think the baby should go to a couple who is willing to take care of him. That woman needs to have a mandatory hystorectomy after trying to kill her child!! I think they need to do that to EVERY person who tries to kill their child(ren)...make it to where they can NOT have any more children.
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post #11 of 16
7/21/08 at 2:03pm

Re: Woman accused of poisoning son in Pa. hospital

I don't think she has depression. I think she has Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxie which is much more serious than depression. She is convinced her child is ill despite all evidence to the contrary. He is now because of her efforts, but otherwise he was okay. Also, she really plotted this out. Stringes aren't just lying around in hospitals.
Salt poisoning? Not suffication or drowning? She had to read up on that. I think most women with postpartum who kill or injure their babies, do it on a spur of the moment not a conserted plan like this. She didn't just think this up on the fly. She plotted this one out. She did it more than once, too. Her absolute belief the baby was ill even when he wasn't and her method are the clinchers for me. I saw a special on Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxie about 10 years ago and that mother did almost exactly the same things.

I am not sure time and medication will cure this. She won't be around him anyway, because the state took him and she's likely to be in jail for awhile. No matter how out of their head a person is, she doesn't get to try to kill people.
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post #12 of 16
7/21/08 at 2:12pm

Re: Woman accused of poisoning son in Pa. hospital

Here is more information about Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy:

Quote:
Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSP), a type of factitious disorder, is a mental illness in which a person acts as if an individual he or she is caring for has a physical or mental illness when the person is not really sick. People with MSP assume the role of a sick person indirectly by producing or lying about illness in another person under their care, usually a child under 6 years of age. However, cases have been reported of adult victims of MSP. (The term "by proxy" means "through a substitute.")
http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disord..._by_proxy.aspx
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post #13 of 16
7/21/08 at 7:23pm

Re: Woman accused of poisoning son in Pa. hospital

Munchausen by proxy normally happens after the 1st month. Wasn't this child a newborn?
Anyway, it's not all cut and dry with the disorder and anyone who could fathom doing that to their children is just as crazy.
I saw a movie on it the other night. There was a kid in hospital for his 70 something time and his mother was rubbing faeces in his drip site she had killed her other 2 children thru laxative abuse. She'd rush them to the ER all the time while they screamed in agony from tummy pains, which she caused.
Makes me so angry.
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post #14 of 16
7/21/08 at 9:07pm

Re: Woman accused of poisoning son in Pa. hospital

That was a movie about a real incident. She was on that documentary I saw. That's what she did, alright. Once they got the kids away from her, they were fine. Barely, ever ill. This baby is four months old. I think this was his fourth? hospitialization for injuries the mother caused.
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post #15 of 16
7/21/08 at 9:09pm

Re: Woman accused of poisoning son in Pa. hospital

Here's what was said that made me think of Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy:

Quote:
Four-month-old Noah King is in critical condition with sodium poisoning at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, and police said they believe the baby's medical problems were caused entirely by his mother.
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post #16 of 16
7/21/08 at 9:10pm

Re: Woman accused of poisoning son in Pa. hospital

Unfortunalty it's not uncommon. Women thriving for attention and using their kids to feed it.
Makes me sick.
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