A cocktail of illicit drugs was found in the system of a seven-week-old baby who died after repeated concerns for his well-being were expressed to authorities by hospital staff.
The child, known as Baby B, cannot be identified for legal reasons and was born to a substance-abusing mother who staff at Melbourne’s Royal Women’s Hospital suspected was still using drugs when she was 20 weeks pregnant.
Staff alerted child protective services about him and had recently launched an investigation when the baby died while sleeping with his mother and stepfather, who had been ordered to stay away, in December 2020.
Coroner Audrey Jamieson discovered this week that the child died from category 2 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), she said. The Herald of the Sun.
It is used when a baby has died in sleep from an unknown cause and when asphyxiation or mechanical asphyxiation cannot be confirmed or ruled out.
Coroner Jamieson said a hair sample test revealed the baby had more than half a dozen medications in his system which had been ingested through breast milk, formula or “environmental contamination”.
They were methylamphetamine, tramadol, codeine, morphine, methadone, oxycodone, diazepam, 6-monoacstilmorphine and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol.
Staff at Melbourne’s Royal Women’s Hospital suspected the baby’s mother of drug use during pregnancy and reported her to child protection authorities.
Numerous concerns about the child’s well-being had been raised with authorities since the first report of his mother’s alleged drug use during pregnancy in June 2020.
The child was born in October and the following month Child Protection, part of Victoria’s Department of Families, Equity and Housing, was informed that the child’s mother verbally threatened his older brother in a supermarket while potentially using drugs.
A few days later, Baby B was seen with a black eye that his mother said was due to an accident involving his older brother.
That same month, staff at a hospital where her stepfather was admitted after falling from a utility pole while drunk reported that she had yelled and insulted her children and neglected their needs while visiting him.
Child Protection, in consultation with the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency, Lakidjeka, carried out a risk assessment and concluded that the child was not at risk in his mother’s care pending a full investigation and no incidents. related to drugs or violence.
At the end of November another report was made to Child Protection alleging that both children were abandoned, the home environment was a disaster and the mother did not have adequate parenting skills.
The boy had more than half a dozen drugs in his system, including oxycodone, morphine and methylamphetamine, which a coroner said he had ingested through breastfeeding, formula or environmental contamination (file image).
Just over two weeks later, on December 5, Baby B was found unresponsive after sleeping between his mother and stepfather.
A full Child Protection investigation was underway at the time.
Coroner Jamieson found the baby’s sleeping position was “potentially dangerous”.
“These risks are exacerbated when parents use alcohol and/or other drugs,” Judge Jamieson said.