For anyone else not familiar with the case, here’s a better source: https://www.courthousenews.com/emergency-room-confession-cant-be-used-against-teenager-accused-of-killing-newborn/
She didn’t know she was pregnant, the hospital gave her a bunch of drugs including morphine, she went to the bathroom and had a stillbirth, and now the state is charging her with murder.
Almost no matter what she did, she should be able to use involuntary intoxication as a defense. Someone who’s high on morphine and doesn’t understand what’s happening cannot form the necessary intent to commit murder.
The part about continuing morphine for 48 minutes after figuring out she was pregnant ought to be damning evidence against someone, but not her
Absolutely. Had a young woman knowingly taken drugs while pregnant, they could be charged with a variety of things including child abuse. The doctor suspected she was pregnant which is why he gave her a pregnancy test. Suspecting that, why would he at the same time proscribe morphine before the results were in? That aside, while the hospital staff was unaware that the patient was pregnant when they started the IV, for those 48 minutes they knew or should have known that they were giving morphine to that unborn child. They should have immediately stopped the IV when the pregnancy test result came in.
I think you meant prescribe instead of proscribe (one means “recommend” the other means “forbid”)
Morphine is not contraindicated during pregnancy, however one of the risks listed is
Neonatal respiratory depression is possible when morphine is used in labor
which fits perfectly with the facts of this case. I think it was a surprise to everyone involved that she was in labor, but it probably shouldn’t have been to medical professionals who thought about her symptoms combined with the discovery that she was pregnant.
Especially since morphine can have wildly different effects on people, some folks just end up a bit mentally cloudy with minimum imparment while others go full on loopy and think the doctors want their bodily fluids to summon the flying spaghetti monster. Regardless morphine fucks you up.
Sounds like Dr. Heather Vaskas was trying to pin her medical neglect/malpractice on this young woman.
Even in blue states, women are second class citizens,
When you go in to see a doctor and you’re being treated, we’re not going to share your whole medical record with the entire world. Keep in mind police were in the room when they were conducting a vaginal exam in this case,” Mitchell said.
What. The. 🤯
What the fuck is this headline
Jesus Christ, that’s horrible. Where are the charges against the medical personnel who fucked up and caused this tragedy?
It’s plausible to me that the baby’s death isn’t anybody’s fault. Assume everyone’s telling the truth and there’s a sequence of events where it’s just an accident.
- The mother didn’t know she was pregnant
- The doctors didn’t check for pregnancy immediately
- The doctors gave morphine
- Morphine causes confusion
- The mother gives birth in a confused state
- The mother lost a lot of blood during the birth
- Blood loss causes additional impairment
- The baby takes a breath (the autopsy found air in the lungs)
- The baby stops breathing due to morphine intoxication (the autopsy found morphine in the baby)
- The mother, with judgment significantly impaired by morphine and blood loss, puts the dead baby in the trash
Maybe that’s how it happened. Maybe it isn’t. The incoherent statement I saw in the video doesn’t convince me otherwise.A prosecution seems inappropriate here unless there’s some better evidence than what I’m seeing in news stories.
Yeah, “something bad happened” doesn’t always mean “and therefore someone must be to blame.” Sometimes life just sucks.
Maybe it is. Sometimes the only fair way to judge something for a at face value, rather than your expectations
But that 48 minutes …….
But that 48 minutes …….
That was my first thought too, but pregnancy isn’t typically treated as a critical test result, so likely was not seen within the first few minutes the result was available.
If you are a women in a red state. You are a second class citizen.
New Mexico is a blue state. Democrats have had a majority in the senate since 1989 and in the house for all but one year since 1987. It has been over 20 years since it voted for a Republican for president. Its abortion laws are very permissive.
This isn’t just a red state problem. The world is not kind to young women who get pregnant by accident.
New Mexico is purple leaning blue. It’s a nationwide problem.
a women in a read state
Is everyone using speech-to-text now? I’ve been seeing so many typos that should only happen with faulty transcriptions.
woman in most states will have poor outcomes. mothers in the usa have pretty bad post and pre natal care, and they suffer great amounts morbidity/mortality as a result. outside of white women who gets better care.
Women in red states are livestock, women are second class citizens in blue states
