Mum poisoned her child with paracetamol leaving them in need of liver transplant
A sadistic mum went to "extreme lengths" to poison her own child with paracetamol so badly, they had to have a liver transplant.
The vile woman presented herself as a "loving and devoted" mum but her lies were rumbled and she has now been jailed for 12 years after her horrific actions. Birmingham Crown Court heard how the mum, who cannot be named for legal reasons, "poisoned" her child at home and two separate hospitals with paracetamol and codeine.
She then went on to try and hide it from doctors. On September 9, 2016, she took her child to a walk-in centre, claiming they had a temperature and difficulty breathing, BirminghamLive reported.
But their condition deteriorated and they had to be rushed by ambulance to hospital where they were admitted. On September 12, they were then admitted to a second hospital, where they began to lose consciousness, with signs of acute liver failure. Despite the child initially responding well to treatment, on September 16 they deteriorated significantly.
Doctors described this as "acute, unexpected and unusual" and three days later the child had an urgent liver transplant. An investigation into the shocking series of events revealed the mum had been constantly giving her child paracetamol and codeine in both hospitals, hiding it from doctors, causing them to need the urgent liver transplant.
Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him
If it hadn’t been for her actions, the child would have been expected to recover. Hospital records showed medics only gave the maximum recommended doses of paracetamol to the child and there was "no plausible reason for codeine being present in their system".
But syringes were discovered in a holdall by the child’s hospital bedside and in the mum's washbag in the hospital room. Both of these contained traces of paracetamol and codeine, showing she had administered them.
Following a police search of the family home on September 20, 2016, officers found co-codamol tablets which matched the residues found in the syringes from the holdall and wash bag. Nursing records also revealed that apart from medical staff, the mother was the only one present while the child was in hospital.
However, when the mum was confronted by doctors she lied and claimed to have not given her child codeine. But forensic analysis of her mobile phone revealed she had searched for the effects of co-codamol overdose, and a specific brand of co-codamol that she had been previously prescribed for back pain which contained codeine and paracetamol.
The result of advanced scientific testing, not available in the UK, which was carried out on the child's urine in the USA, proved that their liver failure was due to a substantial overdose of paracetamol sufficient to cause severe harm. The evidence also proved that the child had been exposed to codeine and morphine "over a significant period in the past".
Although the child was healthy with no underlying issues before September 2016, they had been seen multiple times by health professionals with exaggerated illnesses and had been hospitalised 15 times. The mother also lied to a nurse when she claimed the child was allergic to milk and nuts which led to unnecessary allergy tests.
The mum was jailed for 12 years at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday (January 12) after being found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent. A CPS spokesperson said: "The defendant presented herself as a loving and devoted mother when in fact she had been the cause of her child's illness and severe liver damage. What happened to this innocent child was a terrible betrayal by a mother."
"She went to extreme lengths to poison them and continued to administer codeine and paracetamol even as doctors tried to reverse the effect of the codeine with an antidote. She has been sentenced and will now face considerable time in prison where she can no longer be a danger to her child."
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