Police say Toddler got drugs from breastmilk

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

I saw this article yesterday. Terrifies me because we give so much EBM to our sick babies and there is never any testing done on it unless it is donor milk.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/10173312.htm

Posted on Sat, Nov. 13, 2004

Corrina Annette Richardson

Police say toddler got drugs from breast milk

By Melody Mcdonald

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

FORT WORTH - When 14-month-old Jasmine Thompson was taken to the hospital with seizures, her mother initially told officials and relatives that the baby had hit her head on a dresser.

Tests soon revealed that nothing was wrong with the toddler's head.

She had cocaine in her system.

After being confronted with the evidence, Corrina Annette Richardson admitted that she breast-fed her baby after using the drug, police said.

On Wednesday, in what may be a first for Texas, the mother of six was indicted on a charge of recklessly causing serious bodily injury to a child by passing drug-tainted breast milk to her baby.

"I think a Tarrant County jury will probably be outraged by this and will be glad to have a chance to litigate it," prosecutor Mitch Poe said. Poe, chief of the district attorney's Crimes Against Children Unit, will handle the case.

"Hopefully, this will send a strong message to nursing mothers to stop doing drugs."

Richardson's court-appointed lawyer, Gregory Gray, could not be reached for comment Friday.

Diane Beckham, senior staff counsel for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, said she knows of no similar prosecution in Texas.

"I haven't heard of injury to a child through delivery of drugs by breast-feeding, but that seems to me to be a perfectly appropriate use of the statute," she said.

Beckham said prosecutors may not have tried such a case before because, without witnesses or a confession, it could be difficult to prove.

"There is not a lack of these cases because the law wouldn't support it," Beckham said. "You have to have the facts on your side."

He has the facts this time, Poe said. "There is strong evidence in this case."

Mother's admissions

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Robinson, 35, admitted to a detective and to a Child Protective Services investigator that she had breast-fed her baby after using crack cocaine.

The drug affected the baby so severely that, "If medical treatment had not been sought, this could have resulted in severe brain damage or even death," the affidavit says. The statement came from Dr. Jamye Coffman, medical director of the Child Advocacy Re-source and Evaluation team at Cook Children's Medical Center.

According to the affidavit, a police report and a family member, Jasmine was taken to Cook Children's by ambulance July 2 with seizures.

Richardson originally told officials and relatives that Jasmine had hit her head on a dresser while being held by an older sibling.

At the hospital, however, Richardson was told that nothing was wrong with the baby's head but that drugs were found in the infant's system, the affidavit says.

Richardson later told Detective R.J. Zomper, who investigated the case, that she used crack cocaine almost every evening and that she breast-fed the baby and sometimes gave her a bottle, the affidavit says.

"She stated that she knew the cocaine would be in the breast milk that the victim was drinking," Zomper wrote in the affidavit. "She stated that she was told this before when she was in treatment about three years previously. She stated that she tried to dilute the cocaine by drinking milk."

In an earlier interview with a CPS investigator, Richardson said that she had smoked a "primo," a cigar laced with cocaine, and that she didn't realize cocaine could enter her daughter's system through breast-feeding.

Richardson also told the CPS worker that she was supposed to be taking Risperdal, a drug used to treat disorganized or psychotic thinking, but that she had stopped because she was breast-feeding and didn't want to affect her baby.

Grandmother steps in

Jasmine, who stayed in the hospital more than a week, and four of her siblings are being cared for by 62-year-old Irma Scott, who is the paternal grandmother of Jasmine and one of Richardson's other children.

Richardson's sixth child is in prison, Scott said.

Scott said Jasmine, now 18 months old, and the other children -- ages 3, 11, 12 and 13 -- are doing fine.

"The children are in church, and our pastors and church family have thrown their arms around me and the children," Scott said.

The children know that their mother is in jail and why, and they often write to her, Scott said.

"I make sure that they write her," Scott said. "It's hard on the children. I'm the one to keep their mind in tune."

As for the allegations, Scott said, she is not sure what to believe.

"I've got a letter from her that she didn't nurse the baby," Scott said. "I just don't know. It was in the baby's system. It got there some kind of way."

Scott said that Richardson has been battling drugs for some time and that she also has mental problems.

"Some days, she is Corrina," Scott said. "The next day she is somebody else. I feel like if she could get help with her mind, that would help her with the drugs."

Despite her problems, Scott said, Richardson loves her children and always had them with her.

"She is a good mother, but, I guess, she just has got a problem," Scott said. "She cooks for the kids and tries to make sure they always had a little something.

"I'm trying to do the best I can. I've never been a negative person and I try to see some good in everybody, and I see good in her."

Life sentence possible

Richardson remained in the Tarrant County Jail on Friday with bail set at $10,000.

Richardson would usually face two to 20 years in prison if convicted of injury to a child, but because she has a prior conviction for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, she could face up to life in prison.

Scott said she "would hate to see her go to prison," adding that Richardson needs drug-abuse therapy and extensive mental health treatment.

"She needs help," Scott said. "I just wish everybody could pray for her and others like her."

Meantime, Scott said, she is trying to prepare the children.

"We're trying to come to grips," she said. "I'm trying to make them strong for whichever way this case goes."

IN THE KNOW

Similar cases

* No Texas cases are known in which a mother has been prosecuted on charges of injuring or killing her baby with drug-tainted breast milk, but successful prosecutions have occurred in California and Arizona.

* Last year in Riverside, Calif., Amy Leann Prien was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years in prison because her 3-month-old son died after drinking methamphetamine-tainted breast milk.

* In 1998, Cynthia Ann Pinson of Orange, Calif., who was accused of killing her 6-week-old son with methamphetamine-tainted breast milk, was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to felony child endangerment.

* In 1998 in Tucson, Ariz., Amoret Powell was sentenced to five years in prison because her infant daughter died after ingesting breast milk tainted with heroin and methadone.

* In 1992, Alicia Gillespie of Corona, Calif., pleaded guilty to three counts of child endangerment and was sentenced to six years in prison after her 24-day-old daughter drank methamphetamine-tainted breast milk.

Research compiled by Stacy Garcia, news research director for the Star-Telegram

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

It is very scary because you can't tell by looking at a mom if she is a user. We don't test every mom, some hospitals do.

The moms we do know that use meth we are not encouraging to breastfeed in the first place and most of them don't want to anyway.

Meth is such an ugly drug and so hard to stop.

steph

[smk1, LPN]

If she knew the breast milk would affect her child and tried to "dilute" it by drinking milk herself to make it less harmful, the question is why is her 18 month old still breastfeeding. She was obviously lucid enough to realize that harm could be done by her taking the drugs, why couldn't she just give the kid the milk out of the fridge? I can almost understand (in her mind) that a small baby would have to breast feed particularly if she couldn't afford formula, (never mind that WIC is readily available), but this kid is 1.5 yrs old, Cows milk or soy or whatever would be fine, and she obviously had it to give because she was drinking it herself. I don't get it...

[PMHNP10]

On Wednesday, in what may be a first for Texas, the mother of six was indicted on a charge of recklessly causing serious bodily injury to a child by passing drug-tainted breast milk to her baby.

Maybe this will mark the day when we see a movement towards sending drug using pregnant women (ncluding nicotine, alcohol, and street drugs) to prison/jail for crimes ranging from the above up to and including murder. Good thing I'm not president, huh?

[unikuelady, RN]

I come across postpartum women daily who use meth, cocaine, marijuana, etc. Most have no interest in breastfeeding their babies. Part of my discharge teaching includes the dangers of exposing the infants/children to these drugs, by using them in their presence, or exposure in the breastmilk. We talk about how to keep the drug exposure to a minimum (ie smoking the crack outside the house, keeping other drug using family members away from the children-even hiring a baby sitter to stay with the children while they party else where!) It is sad-but true that many of these parents don't have any common sense when it comes to protecting their children. I definitly do not condon any drug use what so ever....but here there are just not enough foster homes-placements to send these children. If there is just one person that lives in the home that is somewhat responsible to care for the infant....then that infant is sent home. I DOCUMENT all the teaching given....especially about the drugs being passed in the breastmilk. And yes I am from the area that the CA cases were prosecuted. I feel that the teaching we nurses do can make a huge difference in the future of our childrens health......If the parents ignore our guidance and harm comes to these little ones then they need to be held accountable. The key to holding them accountable is PROVING that they had knowledge that their action would harm their child. This is where our teaching and charting become most important.

[mitchsmom]

Sad... I'm really glad the child is ok now at least.