The Dr. Gustavo Fricke Hospital, where the mother left without authorization, now convicted of parricide. Carlos Figueroa (Wikimedia)
Chilean justice has sentenced a woman who, after having her daughter in a hospital in the city of Viña del Mar, in the Valparaíso region, some 120 kilometers from Santiago de Chile, left the health facility without authorization and in her household breastfed the girl despite having used cocaine.
As a consequence, the minor died of poisoning four days after life.
The Oral Criminal Trial Court of Viña del Mar established it unanimously, for which the woman, with the initials ZMAA, was sentenced to 15 years in effective prison for determining that she was the author of parricide.
The events occurred in January 2017, according to information from the Judiciary.
The court, made up of three magistrates, considered it established "beyond all reasonable doubt" that the girl was born on the morning of January 22, 2017 in the premises of the Dr. Gustavo Fricke Hospital in Viña del Mar. The little girl, with the initials KERA , was born in a normal state of health "with a result of 9.9 out of 10 points in the
Apgar
test ".
After her birth, the doctors ordered that she should remain hospitalized and that she should "postpone breastfeeding while awaiting the results of various tests" because she suspected drug addiction.
The mother was given "medication to prevent said action" of breastfeeding.
A day later, however, ZMAA left the hospital with the newborn without having received a medical discharge.
He took her to her home, in the same city of Viña del Mar, where her partner and her other children resided.
On January 26, 2017, the girl, who was in the woman's care, passed away.
Subsequent examinations indicated that her cause of death was "multiple organ failure, compatible with cocaine intoxication."
The experts found in the body of the newborn the presence of recent or acute ingestion of the drug, which, according to the Chilean Justice, "was supplied by her mother" during these hours that they remained in her home.
The toxicological analysis of the victim found "anhydroecgonine methyl ester metabolite, indicative of metabolized drug."
The Public Ministry indicated in the trial that the woman was addicted to cocaine.
"The addiction to cocaine overcame the defendant, giving breast milk to her baby and ultimately causing her death, in the case of an intent in which the result is represented and she accepts it," says the sentence.
“She withdrew from the hospital because she knew that the test was going to be positive and she imagined that they were going to take the girl away and take her to SENAME [the National Service for Minors, run by the State] and that she was not going to get her back because in her family are all delinquents”, indicates the text of the Oral Criminal Trial Court of Viña del Mar, citing the condemned woman herself.
Prosecutor Lionel González during the trial that took place this week assured that "intentional presupposes knowledge or will", since the mother was informed of her prohibition to breastfeed and knew of the lethal and harmful consequences of giving breast milk to her baby .
According to the prosecutor, the midwife who attended her told her and her warning was written on her medical record.
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