9 month old dies due to mother's stupidity

According to www.WCPO.com a 9 month old was burned to death after her mother took Percocet, Xanax and alcohol before going to bed. The woman slept for 12 hours and when she woke up the baby was dead. This woman has 4 kids. The first 2 were removed from her care so she went on to have 2 more and got to keep those. The system needs a serious overhaul in the Unisted States, IMO.

 

heartbreaking! and I'll try to not judge her for her choices she made.

 

what a painful death this child suffered. From the article I read

"Nine-month-old Anthia Lattimore died Tuesday after being severely burned by a baseboard heater in an apartment"

to make this worse the woman charged with the babies death had the two children that were removed from her custody sleeping over for the night when she took the Percocet, Xanax and alcohol before going to bed.

 

That is very tragic.


This is by NO MEANS a defense for the woman as it sounds like she's had serious issues before, but Percocet and Xanax are two completely different meds. Taking with Alcohol obviously a stupid idea, but did she really know what would result in taking percocet and Xanax together??

Like I said, I'm in NO WAY defending her cuz she should hav known not to take that stuff with alcohol to begin with, but ethe combination of meds doesn't in itself scream stupidity or negiligent parenting to me. The alcohol does...

 

Why would we refrain from judging her? The court system has judged her parenting & determined she is so neglectful or abusive that her children had to be removed from her care. She was abusing prescription drugs & alcohol - the pill bottles always clearly state do not mix with alcohol- & she did so while having the sacred obligation & responsibility of caring for a small infant. Her ACTIONS should & will be judged....she was negligent, a person taking reasonable care would know better, & her behavior & decisions resulted in the death of a child. Personally.....I have no problem judging her actions & her performance as a mother - she was monstrously neglectful.

 

AMEN BellaRissa. It has since come to light that neither of the meds were prescritpions for her. They were taken illegally. On a different note, the Ohio woman who videotaped her 2 year old smoking a joint got 6 months in jail but WILL regain custody of the child when she gets out.....

 

I said I would try not to because well... I figured it would get me judged. But you are 100% right. The courts had judged her unfit. The sad part is they let her keep the younger two and have the older two back for the night. Surprise surprise she chose to take unprescribed meds and drink alcohol that same night and her 9 month old baby had to suffer a most painful death. These are the time when I would like it if the person who caused the death had to suffer the same type of death. Cruel and unusual I know but if it was good enough for her 9 month old baby it is good enough for her.

unbelievable! But many in the world seems to think that no matter the reason for the bad choices people deserve to continue to get chances. When it comes to abuse and death of children I am NOT one of them.

 

Because that is the place for the court system (and some believe God) not us. It is not her that should be judged as much as the system that has deemed her unfit and despite that, allowed her to still have those children unsupervised.

She is clearly an addict and struggling in many ways in her life. It sounds as if she is incapable of parenting and since the state was actively involved, they should have realized that. It is a tragic story. Personally I try very hard to not judge others, no matter the situation.

 

I have been prescribed xanax and percocet at the same time before. One is for pain and the other for anxiety. I will admit that I did refuse to do so when I was alone taking care of the kids, since I wad scared of not being able to do what was needed for them. However, I do remember crying myself to sleep because the pain was so bad and.knowing I couldn't take the chance of taking those meds since my dh wasn't home. I remember feeling so.desperate for relief. It can be overwhelming. I don't know if that is the case here, but I can see how it can happen, to even people.we would never think could do.something.like that. I know I have been on the brink, so I try to find.some empathy for this woman who also found herself in such a state.

Please forgive my typos, I'm on my phone and these touch screens are my nemesis.

 

This could have been prevented by the baby being in a crib far away from a floor heater

 

I believe only God can judge her soul....but we fellow humans have been charged by God to watch out brothers & sisters & let them know when they are straying from a good path - how can we do this without judging the value of their actions? I realize the court system has jurisdiction over the case....but people can certainly have an opinion & make judgements about her behavior based on the facts. If no one ever judges anyone's behavior, how do we ever use that reflection to self correct our behavior?

I admire reserving judgment & when you feel compelled to judge to do it out of love.....but to never judge anyone is not helpful...I depend on the judgement of people I respect & love to help me choose the correct path for my life.

 

It's very sad! I read some of the comments posted under the article and some believe that she had killed the baby before she was burned. Either way I feel so sorry for that baby and I'm glad she's in a better place!

 

I do not know her situation but I do know she made a horrible mistake -poor baby.

 

Why even post stuff like this? Just to be all "Look at how horrible people are!" Yeah, people suck and are negligent parents. What about the idiot that left the other two kids with her? Oh here, you lost custody, but keep them overnight unsupervised. :wacko:

But then the same people that scream about this woman having custody of two of the kids will get all up in arms when it's their friend or family member being investigated by CPS.

 

So how are you going to let this woman know she is straying and help her to make better decisions? Judegement now in this particular case is futile and is judgment just to judge and gossip about a stranger, not to help.

And do we have all the facts? no, just a few facts. I don't think that the news always reports accurately or completely so to judge people based on partial facts just doesn't make sense to me. How is it helping this very sad situation? Maybe it makes you feel better to talk bad about her because it is hard to believe that someone who is essentially good can get so messed up that they can do really bad things.

When I say I choose not to judge others no matter the situation I am referring to situation that I am not personally involved and don 't have all the information like gossip of others and news stories. As a social worker I obviously must make value judgments on behaviors when I am trying to help someone help themselves to make better choices. That is for the purpose of helping a person and is productive in doing so. When I say I am choosing to not judge it refers to when it is not helpful or productive like in this case.

 

I think it was posted to let people know about this baby. Seriously who cares about the mother at this point, it is all about the baby who deserves recognition. On the surface it looks like she was a horrible mother but in reality she could have been just like one of us with a horrible mental illness we just don't know. As for the "idiot" that left her kids with this person, who knows what they knew? They may have known this person for years and even been family but thought she was fine? We can judge her, we can get upset for lots of reasons but in the long run a baby is gone and that is the one thing that matters. We only know bits and pieces of the story.

 

Seeing as how the title of this thread is "9 month old dies due to mother's stupidity", I doubt the reason it was posted was just to let people know about the baby. Using the word "stupidity" sounds judgey to me. You are right though, a baby is gone, and that's the important thing. We don't know the circumstances except for what was reported, however accurate that may be.

 

I too get a yucky feeling from the title. Having worked a lot with mental illness and chemical dependency, I do understand that her actions may be viewed as "stupid" but that doesn't mean the mother was stupid. Addictions and mental illness are very serious things that can make the best of us do terrible things and it can happen to ANYONE. I just hope that more people have compassion for those it happens to than jumping to conclusions before knowing all the information.

I think reading this should make us all thankful that it was not us (and don't say you would never do that, mental illmess can happen to anyone) and feel compassion and sadness for both the mother and child.

 

I get that too Kelly, I see your point.

 

It makes me so sad that this happened to a baby... obviously the mother made some poor choices here but I don't think any judgement people on the internet put on her is going to do anything. I suffer from anxiety and have the same meds this mother had, but I always make sure that another adult is around before I take any of them.. it's too bad she didn't make the same choice.

 

Did anyone notice what momof5 shared above

"It has since come to light that neither of the meds were prescritpions for her."

These were not her prescriptions.

How do these things happen!

I tried to do a quick search again on this story to find it in the article. I was SHOCKED to have this link come up

Cops: Baby burned to death after mom left it near heater

And it is NOT the same story!

"At 11:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5, Shepherd placed the baby in the swing, according to the arrest warrant. She then placed a space heater “in close proximity” to the baby which caused “second and third degree burns on the legs, feet and genital area” of the child.

It would not be until 7 a.m. the next morning before they realized the baby was dead."

When I found the article we are discussing I read a line that I did not remember reading before it said "She was supposed to be randomly drug tested. They did one drug test. One...in four years."

She, the mother is to blame in the death of this innocent little baby and I believe the social workers/case managers that were NOT overseeing the children's cases were partially responsible also. This should never have happened

 

Yep, I am being judgemental. No, I don't regret using the word stupidity.

 

Are you really asking?

It's called addiction. It's an illness (like depression, heart disease, and leukemia) and can often take over a person's ability to make good decisions and can control their behavior. She was clearly a very sick person.

How does one judge a person for having Leukemia or Arthritis? I don't get it. When My mom almost died a few years ago and finally came out of her coma, she had a major change in her behavior due to the lack of oxygen she had during her surgery. She was throwing tantrums, was non-compliant, and even throwing her meds across the room at the nurses. I am glad the people in the hospital and rehab didn't judge her for her behavior and were understanding that she was sick and was not responsible for her behavior.

I sincerely hope you never have to live through a loved one's addiction. It's devastating for all involved.

 

This story just makes me so incredibly sad, I hate that these things happen, but I know they do...every day. I wish that mother would have made better choices, I can only imagine she now wishes the same. It's unfortunate.

 

I could only get as far as the bolded line. Addiction to drugs and alcohol is NOT "like" Leukemia! Maybe I am just being over sensitive (but I think NOT) or your being insensitive because I have not been shy about sharing what my father is going through.... Goodness LORD give me strength. I don't even know how to say this coherently so all I can do is type out a few sentences.
I have several relatives including both parents who battled and continue to battle drug and alcohol addiction.
Today just a few short hours ago I almost passed out while holding my fathers hand and leg during his second bone marrow biopsy. My father stopped the things he decided to start doing smoking, drinking and doing recreational drugs years ago by choice. I know it is a harder battle to fight than others but these addictions are something one chooses to start doing and can overcome leukemia is not something anyone recreationally decides to start doing...... I cannot complete this post. I have to be done with this. My heart is hurting way to much and I can't stop crying.