A mother has been accused of injecting faeces into the IV of her son who has leukaemia.
Tiffany Alberts, 41, from Indiana in the US, is facing multiple charges after injecting faecal matter into her 15-year-old cancer-stricken son’s IV bag multiple times.
Fox59 News reported that court documents show Ms Alberts said she did it hoping that her son would be moved to a different hospital unit to ensure better treatment for leukaemia.
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The teenager was being treated at Riley Hospital for Children, yet a number of unexplained infections were delaying treatment. Staff were said to have set up a video surveillance system in the teen’s room, which showed the mother injecting a suspicious substance into his IV bag using a syringe.
When confronted by police, Ms Alberts claimed the substance she injected was water to “flush the line” because the medicine that was given to her son “burned”. However, she later confessed that the substance was faecal matter.
As a result, the boy became really sick that he underwent multiple surgeries, had episodes of septic shock and stayed at the intensive care unit for 18 days. Because of this, his cancer treatments were delayed, and doctors were afraid that they may have missed the window of keeping his leukaemia in remission.
Court documents also stated that hospital staff told investigators that the teenager received his first round of chemotherapy in September before going home, but after a few days, he returned to medical aid after experiencing a high fever, vomiting and bouts of diarrhoea.
Doctors immediately performed blood tests, which detected unexplainable organisms normally found in stool. When the medical staff could not explain why the teenager had persisting blood infections, an investigation was launched on November 17.
Ms Alberts has been charged with six counts of aggravated battery and one count of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury – all of which are third-degree felonies, the records in the Marion County Sheriff’s website stated.
A judge has allegedly issued a no-contact order.
The teenager’s health is believed to be now improving.
Source: Aww.com.au
