Man causes infant daughter to overdose on drugs after cleaning syringes in a jug of 'baby water' used to prepare her formula
A father from Milwaukee has been arrested for causing his infant daughter to overdose on drugs after he rinsed syringes in a jug of water used to prepare the baby's formula.
The father, 25-year-old Versean Anderson, was charged with felony neglect of a child after his five-week-old baby had to be rushed to the hospital when she suffered from respiratory failure. Doctors at the St. Luke's Medical Center ran tests on the baby on May 6 and found cocaine and opioids in the infant's body. The baby was given two doses of Narcan before being transferred to the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin for more treatment.
According to Fox 6 Now, a criminal complaint stated that the police were summoned to the hospital for a child neglect complaint. Authorities interviewed the girl's mother who shared that she had left the infant in the care of her boyfriend Anderson, who is also the child's biological father. When the mother returned from work at 4 pm, Anderson told her that the baby had been sleeping all day and did not take her bottle.
The mother unknowingly prepared formula for the child using water from the jug of purified, mineral-enriched 'baby water' which was kept in the kitchen, fed the baby and then put her to sleep. Around 7 pm that same day, Anderson told his girlfriend that the baby was having some difficulty breathing after which the woman immediately rushed the baby to the hospital.
Later on, when authorities went to Anderson's home on South 19th Street and West Rogers Street to interview him, they allegedly found needles, as well as other drug paraphernalia such as bent and burnt spoons with brown residue still left in them. Initially, 25-year-old Anderson denied using drugs and blamed his brother and two friends for leaving the needles in his house.
However, he eventually admitted that on May 6 a friend had come over to do some drugs with him which included a Percocet pill which Anderson had crushed up and snorted. Anderson revealed that the friend had carried the syringes with him and rinsed them out in the jug of baby water which was in the kitchen. After injecting the drugs, they had cleaned the syringes in the container of baby water.
Even though Anderson confessed, he pleaded not guilty to the child neglect charge and is due to appear in court again on June 19. Dr. Mark Kostic from the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin said, "It's certainly very sad, but it's not something we aren't used to. The smallest dose would be innocuous to an adult, but could be quite dangerous to a newborn."
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